10 Why??????

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Glossary:-

(1) Venustrophobia:- fear of women.

(2)Dha-dak:- Indian equivalent of Doki-doki or ba-thump.