[ WP ] One day you come upon a pair of headphones . You soon realise that you 're able to the hear the world through someone else 's ears by looking at them with the headphones on , including their thoughts . What do you do ?

Tom sat against a tree on the expansive green lawn of his university's campus going through his old iPod. He spun his thumb on the wheel of the device looking for the album he had downloaded the night before. After a third look through his lists, the songs were nowhere to be found. He sighed and lazily tugged the earbuds out of his ears and rested his head against the cool bark of the tree. 
 
 The day was warm and breezy, the gusts of wind swaying the leaves above him making the soft rustling one heard on quiet mid days like these.'The music of mother nature.' He chuckled to himself at how cheesy that sounded. 
 
 The iPod in his hand was an old one, a still working first generation. He used to be one of the cool kids with the awesome new music player that just came out. But when the thinner, smaller and clearly much better models were advertised, people had told him to get one so it did n't look like he had a brick in his pocket. 
 
 Nowadays when people see him with that old block of an iPod, it's the coolest thing ever again.'Retro' or'hipster' were the usual words used to describe it. Some even offered to buy it for more than it was worth. But he always turned them down. It held a lot of music since he was a kid and it was always nice to go back and listen to some of the stuff he used to listen to and remember the old days. Like a little picture album but with music. 
 
 As Tom reminisced the old days, there was a peculiar rustling sound above him. Before he could realize what was happening, there was a loud THWACK! As something hit him against the head. He rolled out of the way grabbing the side of his head and stood back up a few feet from where he had sat. 
 
 There was no blood but it hurt like hell and he rubbed at it waiting for the pain to subside. He opened his eyes to see the size of the branch that probably fell on him but his eyes were met with something completely different. 
 
 Dangling from the lowest branch was a pair of headphones. Black and orange, hanging onto the branch by its chord. It swayed from side to side slowly coming to rest from the impact to Tom's head. 
 
 `` What the hell?'' He walked over to take a closer look at it. He picked them up and tugged at the chord which was a tangled mess around the branch above him. Tom's reach was just high enough to get it sorted out and the rest of the unusually long and thick wire fell to the ground at his feet. 
 
 Looking the headphones over, it was quite clean and probably still in working condition. He sniffed at it. Smelled like it was straight out of the box even. They were a little larger than what most people used. Studio headphones maybe? Tom looked back up through the leaves of the old oak tree, all the way through to the light blue breakage of the sky on the other side. Nothing was up there. 
 
 Shrugging, he put them on his head to see how they fit. As he slipped the cushions over his ears, his ears were filled with the sounds of low almost muffled voices. He quickly took them off and stared at them. He looked down at his feet again, the chord lay on the grass and at the end of it the metallic plug sat disconnected. 
 
 Tom's brows furrowed in confusion. Slowly he put the headphones back over his ears. The muffled sounds of people were back as well as other non distinct sounds which he could n't make out. He could n't make out much of it at all until he looked around. 
 
 Two girls were walking by him and saw his stupefied expression. They gave him glances and giggled as they walked away. 
 
 `` What a weirdo.'' One of them said. Or he was sure that's what she said but either were n't actually talking when he watched them. 
 
 ``... Cute.'' When he looked to the other girl. Tom could n't help but smile and he 
 awkwardly waved at them. They held back more laughs as they sped up their stride. He could n't hear anything else once they were far away. Did he just read their thoughts? 
 
 Tom turned his attention to someone else, another test. A student sat at a table, alone on his laptop working intently on something. He focused on the student and instead of words he heard something else. It was a beat and a melody. Tom could n't help but bob his head to it until the bass dropped. And he was moving this way and that to the music. 
 
 The student looked up from his work and gave Tom an awkward look and the music came to an abrupt stop. Unsure of what to do, Tom gave him a thumbs up. The student slowly closed his laptop and got up to leave. 
 
 `` Just ca n't seem to find the right sound for the melody...'' He said. Or thought. 
 
 `` I think it's great!'' Tom suddenly said to the student. 
 
 There was another exchange of awkward looks. 
 
 `` Weirdo.'' And student grabbed the last of his things and left. 
 
 Tom took off his headphones and sat back on his spot against the tree to look them over again. There was no brand on them. It was made with a combination of smooth leather and had metallic finishes. They were undoubtedly comfortable and did not weigh too much on his head. But its one feature that Tom could n't still grasp was what he had just witnessed. Was he really reading the minds of those people? 
 
 Then he had another thought. He took the earbuds out of his iPod and plugged in the headphones. He played one of the songs. Nothing out of the ordinary, it was just playing music. But the muffled voices were completely gone as the music played. He played several more songs before turning off the music. He was n't sure what he expected. 
 
 The muffled sounds came back again and there was one that was louder than the others that he could just barely make out. 
 
 `` Should I?...'' It was a female voice. 
 
 Tom turned to look in the direction of where it was coming from. His eyes were met with a pair of legs and looked up to see the girl from before, the one who he caught'cute' from her. She was n't with her friend and she was leaned against the tree just next to him. He quickly got up headphone still in his ears. 
 
 She smiled when she saw him. `` He really is cuter up close. I do n't know what Krista is talking about.'' 
 
 The girl then looked off to the side shuffling a little and fiddling with her hair. `` Okay this is awkward, what do I say?'' 
 
 Tom suddenly realizing how long he had been standing there staring at her, blurted out a `` Hello.'' 
 
 He took off his headphones and placed them around his neck. `` My names Tom.'' He returned a smile and held out a hand. 
 
 `` Kylie.'' She took his hand, the air of awkwardness fading. She saw the bulky headphones around his neck and the iPod that sat on the grass. `` Listening to music?''
