Greg Lyons--Exercise 7

Is that everything she loves, Serene thought to herself. His head; his pitch black hair dragging like water onto and down the pillow. Do the roots of his hair rest in his skull? Do they go deeper? Is hair the curtains to the soul? Everything she loves is hidden behind his curtains, his thick white skull. What does his skull look like even?

He rolled over towards Serene; his eyes opened.

Her head was resting on her hand, propped up. Her blonde hair rolled over the sides of her head, over her fingers. Some of her hair was stuck poking out between her hand and her head. He could barely see her wrist.

“It’s too early to be up,” he said.

“I know. I couldn’t sleep.”

“I told you you can wake me up so you wont be up alone.”

“I didn’t want to wake you. You were at peace.”

“You could tell that from the back of my head?” He smiled, joking.

“I could tell that by how I feel.”

He looked down from her eyes. Her breasts were still too big for her old tank tops. He felt ashamed and looked down past her stomach. Her shirt was pulled past her stomach, straining to hide the baby fat he used to once love to see. The baby fat that was no longer there.

“Do you want to talk,” he asked still looking around her waist.

“No, that’s okay. I was just noticing your hair.”

“mmmhmmm” his eyes started to drift back into sleep.

“What do you love about me?”

“mmm”

“George, I’m serious.” She paused. “Do you love my brain?”

“No,” his eyelids pushed up as if lifting weights.

She could see him fighting sleep. “So if I didn’t have a brain, you’d still love me?”

George took a heavy sigh and opened his eyes. “Serene, this will do us no good.”

“I need to know why you love me. Why people love.” She wiped an eye.

“Anyone can love anything,” he answered closing his eyes.

“That’s not good enough,” she raised her voice and rocked George with a push on his shoulder. “What’s the point of love if there’s no standards? What’s the point if love is nothing? Love can’t be like that.”

“Like what?” He opened his eyes again. He saw the sun sliding through the slit of the drapes behind Serene. I guess it must be time to get up, he thought.

“Like genetics. Like Biology and chemicals, hormones and all that other crap. I don’t love you cause of damn electricity.” Her eyes bulged.