A Fateful Encounter

What is love? If you go by the dictionary it says ‘an intense feeling of deep affection'. But everyone has different opinions about love. When I was young, I never gave it that much thought. Because you don’t have to think about love to fall in love, it just happens automatically.

But what can you expect from a 15 years old kid, they just do whatever they want without having a care in the world. I was the same. But at that time I was naive. The feeling of love caught me off guard and it also led me to some of my biggest mistakes.

As the year 2012 was coming to an end, my family was ready to move to a new place. As I slowly started to adapt my new life in a new place, there occurred a single event that proved how my life was changed during that time, and that event also defined how I was gonna live through my whole teenage years.

It was the month of January, I was on the way home from school and as usual I was running the whole way because I was late for my tennis practice. Even though it was mid-winter season i was soaking wet from sweat.

After I crossed the road I only needed 2 to 3 minutes to reach home by running.But that day something unusual happened. As I crossed the road there was a girl standing on the distance, who caught my attention. It seemed like she was a girl my age. The expressions she had on her face was telling as if she was desparately waiting for someone. Her beautiful face and those innocent looking eyes caught me off guard. It was captivating. I stopped without even noticing and kept looking at her. It was almost as if you’re meeting someone from a past life. I was transfixed, almost stuck by the confusing mixture of emotions but weirdly comforted by them �" all at the same time. She noticed me and looked at me from the distance with a confused expression.

“You’re so beautiful”

The thoughts came out of my mouth in the form of words, without me even noticing. She was shocked and blushing at the same time.

“Huuuuh, what are you saying? Are out of your mind”

She shouted at me with the same look on her face. Upon hearing those words I came to my senses.

“Oh!I’m sorry”

I apologized because I thought that it was wrong to keep looking at someone and saying something like that to a complete stranger.

“It’s ok”

The way she said, its obvious that she was angry, but her expression was somewhat difference. She calmed down after a few seconds.

I realized that I was sweating very badly and on top of it I made myself a loser in front of her. Anyone in place of her would react the same way. It was embarrassing. Even though it looked like she was not in a mood of starting a conversation, I asked her,

“What is your name”

I did not want to ask her that. The words just came out of my mouth. It’s not like I could not stop them, I just did not want to stop and leave. It was a stupid question. Obviously you would not tell your name to a complete stranger.

“Ah! Sorry, just forget what I asked, I just got a little carried away. I asked for your name because I thought we could be friends”

She looked away. I guess it was a sign for me to leave it at that and get out of her way. So I did that.

“You said we could be friends, right? If we meet again, then I will tell you my name and we will become friends”

She said with a light smile on her face.

“Bye, I’m gonna be late”

I said while blushing. I was experiencing something new but I did not wanted stop that feeling.

It was obvious that we will meet again, after all, we are living in the same area of course. But it was something else that I felt that time.

“Does she know me?”

I thought to myself. Because no matter how you look at it, it was obvious that I was trying to be friendly with her but overdid it. But she did not have any reason to tell me about telling her name when we meet again. It felt like she knew me. Oh well! What can you do, i guess I did not leave a bad impression on her.

As I reached home someone called me from a distance

“welcome home Alvin, you are late than usual, what happened”

It was my grandma who asked me that from the kitchen. But I could not tell her about that fateful meating. So I said

“It’s nothing”

“Oh really! Your face says otherwise”

She said with a grin on her face. I don’t know why but my grandma tends to be friendly with people who are close to me, and she was also very energetic and light hearted. I lived with my grandma since I was five years old. My mom and dad lived separately. I was in touch with my mom. As for my dad I don’t remember when was the last I saw him.

“I’m gonna skip practice today”

“What? Why?”

“I’m tired”

“Ok then, but you have a tournament coming, I guess you’re prepared”

“Yes, grandma”

I was an organised boy, that’s why grandma scolded me only when I did something wrong.

“I don’t want to eat anything right now”

“Why? Did you eat something on the way home”

“I don’t have an appetite right now, just a light snacks will do”

I just came home after a long day of school, but somehow after that meeting I had nothing but her in my mind. I tried to rest for a bit and lied down.

The moon came out in the sky. It was calming to see the night sky. But that day I was so restless I was not able do any work properly. I was waiting for the next day. I was wanted to see her again next day. I wanted to look at her eyes. I wanted to talk to her.

But no one knows future. I did not see her the next day. But we met in the near future, but not the way I expected.