Ever since that day when Imran teased me, I had been avoiding staying in the same place as her. When I saw her, I would quickly turn around and hurry in the opposite direction. I even tried to avoid all the routes that she took and all the places that I knew she frequented.
I would even plan all my routes and timings. It had turned into a phobia of sorts. It wasn't venustrophobia(1). It was a Zeeshaan's-little-sister-o-phobia.
It has been six years since that day I began avoiding her. For some reason, it has become a habit that still persisted till now.
One day, I suddenly got to thinking after sneaking past the grocery as I usually did.
I was already a grown man. I have a beard and all. Why was I still behaving in such a weird way? I'm acting downright creepy.
It was time to put an end to this. I wanted to get rid of this stupid phobia.
So the next day, I was all dressed up in my manliest clothes and manliest shoes and styled my hair the manliest way possible. A man's gotta put on his armour when going into battle, no?
Plastering on a very heroic and solemn expression, I decided to go to that place where she may be. No, I will not admit or be accused of stalking her. Okay, I do not know how I know she'll be at that place I know she will, okay? There's no way I'm that crazy to pay sooo much attention to such a stupid thing. She's not some cat and I'm not a rat who has to hide everytime!
I wasn't planning on talking to her. I just wanted to be able to not act overly weird when she was around in my vicinity.
.....
She wasn't there at her usual places that day fir some reason. So all my preparations were for naught. I didn't give up. I came with the same enthusiasm the day after that too. It wasn't until the third day that I came across her.
.....
.
.
.
A failure. A complete and utter failure.
That's what I thought as I, Huzair Abdul Jabbar Sayed, laid on my bed with my face buried in piles of pillows. Me, a twenty five years old male, was totally defeated.
The whole scenario went like this:
I was loitering around with my manly get-up and hands in my pockets (The manliest pose ever). There was no way I was feeling nervous. It was simply because I ate something bad from the fridge as a snack. Yeah. That definitely was it. I kept a lookout for that woman whom I hadn't laid my eyes on in years.
"Excuse me, your purse," Said someone as a wallet was handed over to me from behind, "You dropped it."
When I turned and saw who it was, I froze. It was her! She!
I was pretty sure that I stared at her creepily, even though her face was fully covered behind a black veil. It wasn't until she repeated herself that I broke out of my trance.
I took the wallet from her, made a complete 180° and dashed away at the speed of sound even without thanking her leaving her confused.
.....
My head hurt even thinking about it.
Why did my thinking process go all haywire back then?
It took me a lot of time to calm down after that and put my thoughts in order.
Was I sick? A psychological disorder that made my heart go all "dha-dak" "dha-dak"?(1) Do I have heart problems??? Why am I so scared of that girl?
It seems like I need to ask Maa and Imran. This has been bothering me for far too long. It was time to get to the bottom of things.
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.
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Glossary:-
(1) Venustrophobia:- fear of women.
(2)Dha-dak:- Indian equivalent of Doki-doki or ba-thump.