Bookmark

 Reading through another of her many books Maaya sat huddled in her blanket fort. It was a midweek night and Maaya had had a rather intense few days and she wanted to give her eyes some much needed break. 
*Tidling Tidling* Another snapchat notification from Mridul.

Maaya snapped a picture of the book she was reading with a bookmark resting on the corner, as was her habit while reading.

*Nice bookmark, pretty vibrant for the plain words in the background* Mridul replies.

Maaya is amused, for the choice of color on the article in question was of Mridul only. 

*I agree, it is pretty. Someone picked it up for me,  so I won't be taking all the credit for choice*

Maaya went back to her reading session putting the phone away when another of her coveted bookmarks fell out of the book she was reading. The Gene by Siddharth Mukherjee was a title Maaya had found immensely intriguing as she ended up getting sidelined by all the impeccable citations and case references of medical history and research that for over 2 years since she borrowed it from her best friend, she was yet to finish reading it.

The bookmark that fell out, invoked another mix of strange feelings in her, she had made it using scraps from a chocolate box that someone had gifted her. It was supposed to be a keep sake, and yet, at the time of making it, she had marked a beautiful pattern resembling the letter M, using gold rims of the chocolate wrappers inspite of the fact that the person who gifted the article had their name starting from another different letter. She liked it anyhow, and had kept it with her all this while. But, in this moment a rather absurd idea hit Maaya, picking inspiration from one of her favorite stories of Paulo Coelho she picked up pieces to an unreal puzzle. Much like the protagonist in the Alchemist, who's destiny was to see the world only to return back richer in experience, what if it was destined for Maaya and Mridul to fail in their previous relationships so they can find they're way back to each other as mature individuals who are ready for long term commitment.   

Maaya realized she had been gazing at her book for almost half an hour, while mentally she was journeying through the mountains of Andalusia, merging the Alchemist with her own life story. Another reading session lost to story mixing and projecting on favourite author works. It was a fun exercise that helped Maaya tranform her overthinking into a worth while activity, taking her on hypothetical's adventures of life that followed her in her dream trail.

That is what writers do, they spin stories so elaborate that the reader wants to read it, be it and live it. Keeping a bookmark is always good, so you know where you left.

 Maaya recollected her thoughts, she knew she needed more time to figure out if she wanted to be more than friends with Mridul or not. What she also realized was, that the idea was pretty nice to consider given they already had trust, care and respect for one another. The cardinal pre-requisites to lasting association in their respective dictionaries, and the reason why they had survived a decade of friendship with one another, which only strengthened with time. Keeping her bookmark at the very spot, she closed her book gently and went to sleep.