A MIRACLE A DAY KEEPS THE SANITY AWAY After what feels like a million years, I finally manage to float back to my apartment. Well, floating should be the right word as I walked from the caf to my place in a perfect daze, too lost and wrapped in my own little bubble of utter disbelief and shock. There very well could have been a dancing gorilla and flying pigs on my way here and I would have expertly missed them. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that I just saw Asad Ahmad Khan, here in California of all places and that too after six long years. On my defense, I can say that many people look similar to one another but that doesn't make them the same person. Asad may have changed a lot in these years and the guy from the caf just happen to have some similar features as him. This doesn't make them the same person. Right? I can feel the minions in my mind getting divided in two groups and start a heated debate in Hebrew. As the chaos inside my mind grow, I finally reach my next problem. My door.
Well there is this really lovely problem with my door. Its lock get easily jammed. Though I have told the watchman to change it but the mechanic will come tomorrow. So I have to either use inhuman strength or expert technique to open and as obvious, I lack both. There is also this option where I can call the watchman to open it for me but I decide to channel my astonishment into my stubbornness by fidgeting with the door myself. That's why when my minions are about to strangle each other and I am about to break my fingers by applying too much pressure, I doesn't even realize that the words uttered behind me are actually addressed to me. It is the second time when he repeats the words that does the magic and my blood cold.
" Excuse me miss, can I help you?" More manly? Sure. Somewhat changed? Yup. But it still proves me wrong about believing all these years that I have forgotten I voice. In fact, the case seems to be just the opposite.
I give myself a mental back-clap for not gasping or yelping or screaming like I was internally doing. I grip the handle more firmly as my stomach does a cartwheel and as cheesy as it sounds, my heart speeds its pace(God! I am pathetic!) Suddenly my lost senses come back to me and my mind tells me pushing her glasses up her nose that he is probably waiting for my reply and I should give him one. I am suddenly too tempted to bang my head on the wall and pass through it. Shit.
As much as I am itching to run away, I know I have to give an answer. It is rude to not answer and I can't be that( Damn the good girl symptoms). I have already passed what feels like an hour and need to answer soon. And turn around. And face him.
Taking a deep breath, I turn around slowly. While the insane half of my brain wishes that he recognizes me, the other part feels quite certain that he doesn't remember me. Though the thought of such brutality stings( one heck lot) but I guess it is at least better than the first scenario. Because to be honest, what do you tell your first (and very probably only) crush on meeting him after six years when all the six years you knew each other, you never even bothered with a simple hi. Hell, we didn't even knew if we should smile at each other or just ignore like strangers upon ever coming across each other anywhere. So we just stuck with frowning actually. But that's another story.
I finally look at the brown boots, then the dark jeans and travel my eyes to the black tee shirt. I work up the nerve to finally look at his face and one...two...three seconds pass. I hear a small gasp, see a wide set of eyes and jaw dropping a little and I know beyond doubt that this is him. And oh boy! If it isn't the classic shocked look. This guy definitely recognizes me. All too well. So I guess I am doomed now. Actually on a second thought, we both are doomed.
I am suddenly not sure, whether to jump off from a cliff or life in front of a bullet train.
" Zoya? Zoya Farooqui?" Okay. So here is a little note. In all those six years this guy has never called me with my name. And neither did I. We addressed, the all three times we have talked in my life for five seconds and that too about study, like we were talking to the walls. Literally. He so consciously avoided saying my name that one would doubt that probably saying it will turn him into a donkey(I wish it did). I always wondered how my name will sound on his lips. and now that I hear it, it throws me off guard so royally that I feel dizzy.
I feel myself nodding slowly to answer his question.
" I am Asad... Asad Ahmad khan... remember?" He asks, still in a state of disbelief and I almost choke on the air I just inhaled. What the hell is this guy doing? He is actually trying to make me remember him? what's wrong with him. And is he really looking at me and talking? He never before met my eyes and by never I mean never( okay, maybe except those said three times).
My flabbergasted expression may have told him of his highly abnormal behavior. So, as I nodded again, he quickly averted his eyes. His eyeballs darting everywhere except my face. well, at least this is some familiar territory. Sigh.
I don't know for how long we are planning to play this highly-weird-eye-darting game but suddenly and not-so-thankfully, something snapped into place in our brains. Our eyes dart towards my door and then immediately move to the door beside it. Uh-oh. Our eyes snap in each other's direction at the same time and the whole scene might have been really hilarious if we weren't so tragic. I swear, I saw him gulp, visibly. I can almost see all his brain cells running around with their pants on fire and screaming " This can't be happening. Please tell me this is not happening." And my brain answering it with a " Same here buddy" of its own. This is screwed up.
" You are my new neighbors I guess." He says (nervously?) after a beat of silence, confirming my assumptions. I am wanting to scream a melodramatic no and do a victory dance at the same time.
I nod again as a way of answers. I seem to have lost my vocal cords.
" So, what are you doing here?" he asks after another awkward pause, looking as comfortable as a chicken in a butcher's shop...about to be butchered.
"Work. You?" Though I badly wanted to say that I am running a circus here, I decide to play it cool.
"Work." He mumbles and I have to give him credit for actually hearing me at all because my tone was at an all time low and I can speak real quietly.
"Your door..?" he pointed vaguely at my door in what he probably hopes to be a casual tone(huh! Could have fooled me) and I nearly do a double take. I know he offered me help when didn't see me and is now probably saying it out of manners. But still the thought of Asad Ahmad Khan helping me, creeps and freaks me out. Big time.
" Sure. Um...thanks. Here" I hand him the keys with great caution to not touch his hand and he immediately turns to my door, probably dying to hide his face from me. As he fumbles with my lock, I busy myself with boring a hole in the front wall. I firmly refuse to think about the current situation I am in. yet. The silent air around us feels as lovely as a blaring rock concert( which isn't lovely at all).
He successfully finishes his job in a minute and I must say I am a little impressed. He hands me my keys with as much caution as it was handed with and leaves from there in a hurry after mumbling something which sounds suspiciously like "see you later." He disappears inside his door and I don't waste any time run inside mine.
Once inside, I slam the door shut and lean my back on it. My eyes fall close as my heart race from the recent episode. My mind is a nervous mess where every piece of information is tripping and falling on the other. I know I have gracefully (cough) landed myself in the middle of a huge crap and I can feel it in my gut that this is not going to end well. I gently bump the back of my head on the door, my breathing still heavy from my mountain scaling' experience. I am just beginning to calm my frenzied thoughts, when suddenly another thought or rather fact made a charming presence in my head. My head snapped to my left and I almost cried out loud. A groan escaped me at the lovely sight of my very transparent and very glassy wall which completely bares my life here to my neighbor' and his to me and I think may prefer a serial killer over this horrendous situation. I can almost see the wall smirking flirtingly at me with a what bout it baby?' and I glare murderously at it. I am dressed in jeans, pumps, top and a jacket but never in my whole life I felt so naked. I give another mental cry upon realizing that one step and I will be visible to him, all thanks to my love-of-life-turned-greatest-villain-of life, i.e. the glass wall. I try to plaster myself more to the door and stay like that for a few moment, painfully aware of my situation. After gaining a little courage, I finally crane my neck and saying all the holy prayers I know, turn my head to my left. His curtains are drawn. I am so happy, I can actually give him a kidney of mine. Just saying. So without wasting another moment, sprint to my bedroom and shut the door on the chaos of my world.
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I am lying on my back in my bed since the past one hour, replaying all the happenings of my incredible morning over and over again in my head and I still feel as dumbstruck as I felt sixty minutes. The whole thing just feels so surreal that it doesn't feel real at all and it ends up with me pinching myself every ten minutes and soaring my arms. My poor doesn't seem to be able to tackle the stress this conversation gave me.
I still can't believe we actually had a normal conversation for the first time. Albeit our normal was as normal as kingkong playing violin but well at least we talked. I know that keeping my mind in mind which has actually gone to coma, I am surely going to freak out once I think this whole neighbor situation through. So I kept that part for my favorite freak-out time, bedtime. Right now I need to think of a way to cover my wall and my life. I can't believe he is making me feel like a thief in my own house. Agh! How much I hate this guy! Just when I was seriously contemplating to lock myself in my bedroom and come out only after he sleeps, a distant memory comes back to me.
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"Ammi, you won't believe what happened today?" Dumping my bag on the bed, I rushed to the kitchen like always, huffing and puffing, to fill her in about another episode from my tuition.
" What? Jerk talked?" She asked while frying potatoes and I rolled my eyes. My annoyance at the guy flaring. Again.
" Yeah right. Today Mr. Jerk Ahmad Khan was having a problem with seeing the board from where he was sitting, due to light reflection. So he told sir and he told him to sit beside me. now guess what? Magic. He didn't spoke about the problem for the whole tuition. Actually no, he said again and got the same answer and closed his mouth. Again. For whole time suffered but still refused sit beside me. I mean like seriously? What the hell does he think? I will eat him alive?" By the time I finished, I actually looked quite ready to eat him. I imagined his neck in the air and almost strangled him, making my mom chuckle.
" Looks like he has some serious problem with you."
" You are not helping ammi." I groaned while burring my face in my hands.
" You know, I think even if someone kills him, he still won't talk to me." I declared somewhat dejectedly.
" You know, I think so too." My mom says with a dead-pan face and in some ironic way, we both burst out laughing.~~~~~~~~~~~
"Looks like we were wrong after all." I mumble as I flip on my stomach and groan again, burring my head in my pillow. I know it must be late in there but this is an emergency and I know just the perfect person for this. I need my best friend.
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precap: nothing like a hefty bite of awkwardness. yum😉
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Edited by IGNITE - 8 years ago
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