Hiding from Her

Prologue | Her

There was a reason I left my hair undone for school today. Founder’s Day calls for it.

Well, that’s not the complete truth. I love letting my hair hang loose sometimes, even though it does not go very well with my resting bitch face. Or does it? But the more important reason is the weather. Dim and breezy... I guess it’s a pluviophile thing.

Securing the last of locks behind my ear, I notice myself in the mirror. You look different today... Why? I smile while whispering to myself in the mirror; my mind manifesting a prince charming to appear and answer that question.

I guess being delusional is more fun when its gloomy outside.

I keep the hairbrush aside and run to put on my school shoes. Crossing the room in fast steps I almost collide with Mahika.

“Careful...” She speaks, startled.

“I’m sorry –” I mutter under my breath.

But then her face lights up as soon as she sees me. “Wow... your hair looks amazing. You know I’m jealous, D. You are so confident about leaving it loose. By the way, is it for the celebration today or is it something else, hmm...” She teases playfully while packing her bag. A cheerful laughter follows as we head out.

“Have you seen the weather? It calls for an open hair day sweetie...”

“Really, how?” She grins at me.

“Imagine... When the wind blows through your hair, it feels like I’ve gotten a pair of wings. Like flying through the clouds... Feels so weightless. Don’t you feel it’s worth it just for that?” My mind playing the picture as I speak.

“Really? I thought you’d say it was for the photographs.”

“Photographs are never a reason. You know I don’t like getting clicked.” I clarify.

“But that should have been a reason... or a boyfriend... either of those –” She follows me downstairs as we speak. I roll my eyes and just as I am about to argue back, I notice the time. Shit!

Grabbing a piece of sandwich each, we head outside and rush for the bus stop; realizing our absentmindedness only when we’re already halfway. No time to go back and get the umbrellas. Another reason to run.

A light drizzle begins suddenly and my head involuntarily turns up to the sky. But the sight drives all the oxygen out of my lungs. Its insanely gorgeous. Although the drizzle is slowly dampening the white shirt translucent, but there’s something in the air today.

It’s mysteriously comforting. This should have been a moment of panic, yet I’m oddly calm.

Something about today feels just right. Like this might be the most important day of my life. Perhaps I’m losing my mind to the weather.

Just as we reach our stop, the bus rushes in and both of us take a momentary breath of relief getting inside taking Apeksha’s hand as the downpour begins.

“You guys barely escaped a soaked shirt and some groping eyes,” Apeksha chuckles, directing us to the window seat.

“Wet hair would destroy her fantasy bubble,” Mahika grins amusingly.

“Thank God! We have a corner to cower in... I need some time out before we start socializing again.” I sigh taking a seat next to her.

As we pass by the last stoppage, she hurries up to the window on the other side to do that eye thing with her boyfriend. “I have something important to discuss... you stay put; I’ll just be back.” She says before heading to the other side of the windows.

I turn to Mahika to say something, but then her friends call her out to the front seats too. Some class gossip that cannot be missed.

So that leaves me alone... good thing. My day is just as entertaining engrossed in sky watching than getting a daily dose of high school drama.

Just as the laughter recedes and I turn my vision back to my side of the road, I lock eyes with someone; gooseflesh running all across my skin the moment I do. Because his eyes are intense and his gaze is fixated on me.

The stare is just for a few seconds, twenty at the max; but it is ensnaring. It’s like I’m suddenly on a hot plate, the way sears me on the inside. Heat crawls its way from my cheeks to somewhere deep inside me. Every single cell in my body is awake under the scrutiny of these eyes. His ensnaring eyes.

A swarm of butterflies escape from the depths I never knew even existed inside me; tickling and burning their way up to my throat which bobs to keep them where they belong. Safely locked inside the cage with my heart.

But then his eyes are not only captivating, they’re crazy too. He is looking at me like we know each other, like he’s known me forever. I must have lost it, because it can’t possibly be anything like that. I’ve never seen this guy before.

I take a look behind me to see if there’s someone; because it has to be. Possibly a girlfriend. What else can it be? That look is unmistakably the kind you only see in the eyes of people who are in love. But to add to my confusion, I find no one behind me. Nobody on his line of sight except... What the fuck? So, he’s actually looking at me.

I wonder for a brief moment and look again only to find him staring just the same, I guess, at me. At this point our bus and this guy’s car are parallelly stuck in the traffic and I can’t help but return the stare, hoping that might be enough to make him back down.

But with every passing second, his crazy is going crazier and an inexplicable excitement lurking behind it which he is precisely not in control of at the moment. It suddenly strikes to me that he’s dressed casually and I am sitting here in my school uniform. Not a student... then who are you?

His chiseled face and boyish masculinity topped with that clean shaven face looks like straight out of some teenage rom-com and I can’t deny the shivers I feel behind my knees and the way my toes are curling to silence them.

Also, why are his lips so pretty? Are boys supposed to have such perfectly supple lips?

Before I can complete my share of the reading stare, it starts pouring heavily and suddenly the traffic is clearing so fast I hardly notice when I lose sight of him. Am I disappointed at not being able to watch them leave? Because that’s just stupid. Don’t let a creep corrupt your mind!

I turn my head to face Apeksha as she towers over me grinning widely, “Why are you flushed? Who was outside?” she teases all the while peeking outside the window, “Am I missing something here?”

My cold hands find my cheeks desperately trying to silence the roaring temperatures behind my reddened skin. “Do I look like the type to not keep my best friend updated?” I lie without thinking twice.

“So, what was keeping you busy? You were looking outside the whole time. Don’t tell me it was the skies, or the rain.”

The sheepish grin on my face earns me an exasperated sigh from her before she mutters something about me being out of my mind, which in a way I agree. I am out of my mind. And I don’t usually lie to her; but today something about what just happened is so uneasy for me to express that even when it is on the tip of my tongue, I bite down the urge to tell her for the sake of my sanity.

The evil curiosity that leaked its way out on his crude boyish face, so freaking handsome, made me uneasy in a way I’ve never felt before. It was unlike anything I had ever encountered. Not like I haven’t interacted with people who were interested in me in the past; there have been a few. I know the way flirtatious energy flows between two people attracted to each other.

But this was something else... and we only shared one glance.

I don’t remember reaching school or how things went all day. My mind kept tracing its path back to a certain enticing yet frightening creature. Apeksha kept ranting the whole time how lagged out I looked, and that I did not look well. The truth is I wasn’t, but not in the physical sense.

I had been unwell in the mind since morning and creepily, it had to do with the butterflies that I wish to have sedated before they tried escaping my chest.

THE NEXT MORNING ISa mess.

Too many home assignments had burned me out last night and I couldn’t wake up on time. Now, I’m late for the school bus again.

Thank God for the public bus that showed up just in time. Although we still had to walk from the last stoppage all the way down to our school, which was about a seven-minute walk.

The sky is dark, threatening of a thunderstorm. The last thing I’d want is a soaked shirt to school. “Two more minutes... two more minutes,” I keep chanting under my breath, speeding hastily when a sudden chill runs down my spine. Something suddenly feels uneasy.

Something is at the periphery... or is it someone.

When I turn to look, everything around me seems to fade into the black aura that I find myself absorbing into. The handsome devil I find myself staring at. “Oh God!” I suck a sharp startled breath.

The wierdo from yesterday is leaning casually on his motorbike, folding back the sleeves of his white button down, exposing the veiny forearms I should not waste my time admiring. Get the fuck out of here before he notices you.

Every muscle in my body is revolting against the stupid, stupid organ inside my head which is tantalized. Paralyzed by the way he adjusts his shirt before finally noticing me.

Just as his gaze falls on me, his taut expression softens; those pink lips parting as if to call me out. It is in that moment that the war inside my body between logic and hormones ceases and I sprint behind my sister. Almost jolting into her while looking behind to see if the jerk is still following me.

“Hey, you okay?” Mahika turns back briefly, still pacing while I am slowing down.

The creep for real had the audacity to come back for a random girl he saw in the traffic yesterday. Just as I am questioning myself, he gets up from his motorcycle and starts casually strolling towards me.

And the way he’s doing it is so scary... its almost psychotic.

You don’t approach people you don’t know, without a reason. And what reason could it be, I mean I don’t know him, nor does it look like we can have anything in common to talk. I am a highschooler and he certainly looks like a college goer, clearly senior by more than a few years. Creep!

I am almost certain that he is blind or if there’s any other explanation that he cannot see the expression I walk around with; all day, everywhere. It says – ‘stay the fuck away’ in bold.

“I’m fine... don’t worry.” Although my tone is a different story.

I’m nervous and I have a feeling... A very bad feeling from this.

I take a look back to see if he is still following. But to my surprise, he isn’t.

He is standing right there where I last saw him. Staring quietly, with a smile on his face, and a strange amuse in his crazy eyes. Chillingly calm. The lunacy lurking on his face is making me nervous... very – very nervous.

The smile scrunches into a smoldering smirk. His eyes are extremely expressive. Like they’re communicating something bizarre, setting off all the alarms in my head. A lot like saying without actually speaking a single word.

What’s with the eerie confidence?

It’s like he knows I won’t be able to run away next time. Like he is going to catch me some day... If not today.

I hope I’m reading that wrong!