Huh?
Help?
'Me'?
I looked at her as though she was off her rocker, and she stared right back at me, her blue eyes glowing with irrevocable light — a light which held hope and a belief. She didn't look like she was bonkers.
I had never seen such a pure, unwavering gaze. Most of the eyes I had encountered on humans were abhorrent or greedy or emotionless.
But she... Abigail was her name, wasn't it? I felt I would not be forgetting that name any time soon.
I flinched and breathed in before stepping forward. I think there was quite some distance between us, but this distance was closed in a moment. I grasped Abigail's other hand(the one which wasn't being restrained by her stepmother) and calmly gazed into the older lady's dubious gaze. Jones, from the cashier's desk, looked at me with the same lecherous eyes.
"Who are you?! I hope you are not intending to intervene in matters that are not your concern?" Abigail's stepmother said, her fury suppressed by pure confusion at my appearance. Perhaps she had barely noticed the other human in the supermarket.
I smiled, kindly, and tightened my grasp on Abigail's hand, pushing her protectively behind me. "Unfortunately, I am planning on intervening. Only, this matter is definitely of my concern, seeing that you venomous cobras are all hounding on my beloved girlfriend."
Abigail's eyes snapped to me, a query glowing in her alluring eyes, but also a speck of happiness.
"What? Girlfriend?" This time, it was Jones who spoke, his gaze riveting confusedly from me to Abigail and then to our joined hands, as though to ask whether the meaning of the word was as he thought it was.
"Yes," I responded, clearing my throat for the words I was about to say—words I had never expected to say in that context, "It's just as I said. Abigail and I are bound, heart, body, and soul, by a quaking infatuation for each other that simply goes beyond the known rules of gender and logic. Nothing can break our deep love for each other" I paused and glanced at Jones, "Not even a rat in the form of a former lover." And I think I saw his face becoming pale, only his face was half concealed by tattoos and piercings.
Abigail's stepmother, meanwhile, seemed lost for words. She was shifting from confusion to anger and then to other complicated emotions.
I took that moment of silence to quickly dash out, like a knight in shining armor — or, should I say, a knight in faded jeans and a baggy, black shirt. Abigail followed, wordless.
When we finally came to a stop some ways from the graveyard-silent supermarket, I released my grip on her hand and turned to look at her. Honestly, I was expecting a slap on the cheek or a sharp kick on the shins, if she was a footballer. But neither of these came. Instead, I got a bedazzling smile. My eyes were blinded for a moment. I stepped back in shock. "What on earth!"
Abigail stepped forward, her face lit with the most radiant smile on the planet, and she hugged me, tightly. "Thank you! Thank you so much! I don't know what else I can do to thank you!"
'Maybe you can stop smiling, otherwise, I might go blind,' I thought, air squeezed out of my body by her firm hug. Don't be deceived by her delicate-looking arms. Her hug was a true device of mass destruction. After a long moment of many 'thank you!'s and having the life squeezed out of me, Abigail finally had mercy on me as she stepped back and released her grip, but she was still smiling with the same amount of radiance.
"Though I am very grateful for your help, I still do not know your name," she said, blinking once, and still smiling.
I cleared my throat, my palms sweaty. Mind you, I had not spoken to normal humans for three months, that is, exempting Mr. Donovan who was as conversational as a rock and hence could not be considered a 'normal human'. I gazed into Abigail's shining blue eyes, feeling pressured by the sudden attention.
"My...My name is Madison. Madison Long...but you can call me Maddie, of course. But I'm not forcing you to call me Maddie! No, no! You can call me whatever you want! You can call me, er...Son? Or Dison, maybe? And, well, you don't need to say thank you. That woman back there was your step-mum, right? I must have inconvenienced you when I claimed we were in an intimate relationship. My sexual orientation is certainly not in that direction!"
Abigail intervened by suddenly clasping my hands in hers. She took a step forward, and her eyes were suddenly right in front of me, her lips close to my cheek. She smiled again. "You don't need to worry about that. I don't really care, you know. And..." Suddenly, she pressed her lips on mine, firmly. Before she released. It was just a moment. There was a deep light shining in her eyes as she whispered, "You're cute."
My brain was malfunctioning. But not a simple malfunction. No! Not at all! For Pete's sake, NOOO!!!! This was a crazy, erratic, haphazard, and sporadic malfunctioning where all my gears stopped turning. My socially awkward self froze, staring into thin air. My brain was marathoning across my body, yelling as though on steroids. Confusion was rent throughout my system by this very, extremely startling event.
MY. FIRST. KISS. HAS. JUST. BEEN. STOLEN. BY. A GIIIIIIIRRRRLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????
"Haha. You look so cute right now. Don't tell me that was your first kiss," Abigail giggled, sweetly, smiling brilliantly as though her short action had not been disquieting for her.
"Um...you...I..." I struggled to formulate a well-structured sentence. How does one even speak English anymore? What is what? What was that word? Where am I, in the first place?
Abigail chuckled and brought her finger to my lips. She winked and said softly, "Don't worry. I didn't mean anything dirty when I did that. Just take it as a thank you, 'kay?"
I stared quietly at her smiling blue eyes before nodding, stiffly.
She then retracted her finger from my mouth and turned on her heel. She waved her hand coolly as she left, tilting her head slightly to pass me one last smile — one that left my eyes hurting from its brilliance.
Still...
It had just happened, hadn't it?
The first kiss which I thought I would never get until my late forties.
But...
It had been...with a girl?
Again. My brain was malfunctioning again.
This would take a while.