you are already conscious but not awake yet. Well, from this exact moment those eyes commenced haunting me every day right up till I hit the sack, jaded, at night. Those grey, almost light-blue eyes. They were present before me at all times. Just the eyes. They were ubiquitous. Wherever I looked - there they were. The most appalling thing was that I knew they weren't just soaring about me. No. They were looking at me…through me. Those eyes, that looked so real that it made them look insentient and for that so much ghastlier – those eyes, I say, ripped into me.
This had been going on for quite some time. It was galling but also sort of gratifying in a “I-think-I’m- going-to-be-sick" kind of way. I never felt at ease ever since I had seen them first. There was affectation in my every movement, I couldn’t speak consistently. And, yet I derived a quaint sort of pleasure out of the fact that those eyes were directed at me.
Oh, coincidences. Never know how to respond when life tosses you one. It was raining cats and dogs on that day. Being circumspect I had taken my umbrella with me; well, frankly I had smelt the odour of wet soil five minutes before I left my apartment, so I figured “better safe than sorry”. I was standing in front of a cafe where my mate and I met every Friday. He had been already 15 minutes late when I got a message from him. “Sorry, something turned up.” Under this message a photo of a tarty blonde girl was attached. “David, you randy bastard,”- I muttered to myself: “ you are so going to pay for this!”
That was when I felt something rubbing against my shoulder. I didn’t start – not outwardly anyway – and slowly turned my head. I saw those same eyes that had been harrowing me for what felt like eternity. I felt my knees trembling as I saw unctuous, succulent full cherry lips make out:
- “Would you mind my standing under your umbrella with you for a little while? I don’t want to run the hazard of catching a cold.”
- “Sure thing.” – I mumbled. What a dumb thing to say! Way to go, man!
So we stood there, still and silent. I couldn’t utter a word. The umbrella wouldn’t allow us to keep the seemly distance, so I felt her bosom on my back, her left leg pressed to my right one, and her tepid slow breath on my neck. “Kill me. – I thought – Kill me now!”. What do you do in such a situation? I couldn’t pelt wherever my foot would take me because it would require some action and I couldn’t very well wriggle a finger. I heard her say something. “Please, be on the phone!”- I prayed to myself and instantly felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head once more.
“It doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon.” – she said, smiling. Watching a little mole above her upper lip was torture itself! – “Shall we step inside and warm up a bit?”
“Sure thing.”
“Oh, come on!!” – I shouted to myself.
We sat in front of each other. I had a large Americano: no milk, no sugar; she – a latte: extra milk, extra sugar. I kept my eyes bent: couldn’t make myself look at her, the pathetic git I was! “What should I ask her? What is it we could talk about? How on Earth do I get out of this?" – these were the questions I was revolving when she interrupted me by reaching out and touching my hand.
“What’s the...” – I exclaimed. I tried to stifle this outburst. God is my witness I really did! But failed to. I heard her giggle at this. However, it was apparent from the sound that she did her best to keep it down. “That’s very kind of her.”
- “I'm not that scary, am I?” – she asked cheerfully.
“No, you are something completely different!!!” – I thought, but said:
-"You know, I saw you here once, in spring. Uhm...reading a book.”
- “Oh, did you? How lame of me to read in a cafe, eh?”
- “I didn’t think so.”
- “What did you think of it then?”
- “I thought...” – for some reason I felt emboldened and raised my eyes at her. “Well frankly I thought it was cute.”
- “Cute?”
- “Not that many people choose a book over their phones, you know.”
- “A book warm, are you?”
- “Oh, yes...”
- “Sure thing?”- she put in with a smirk on her face.
I looked gravely at her and did not reply.
-"Quite a back you have for leaning on.” She broke the silence after a few moments had lapsed. “Do you work out?”
“Oh, girl, have mercy on me!”- I cried to myself.
-"I wouldn’t call it working out.” – I said awkwardly.
-"I see. You don’t want to talk about this either. What can you talk about?”
Something in the look I gave her made her blush and droop her eyes. There was no need for me to say anything: she already knew everything I had had in my mind about her for so long.
-“Coffee’s on me.” – I said as a last endeavour at being...well, a normal human!
She looked at me through her large, round eyes. And I felt something in my stomach. No, not butterflies. It was a flipping swarm of bees. And I liked the way they stung!
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