Those darned contact lenses…

This is an old piece. I wrote it a couple of years back. Then I had thought that this is so good it might win a prize in some creative writing competition I might attend. Given that I’m almost done with my student life and it’s unlikely I’ll be taking part in any creative writing stuff, I thought I’ll put it up

My latest love affair was stillborn today. Not a word said, not a word written. It couldn?t have happened more unobtrusively. The twinkle in her eyes as she looked at me, the attempted American accent in her voice as she spoke, the lazy arrogance she put on as she tried to flirt with me – all that got consigned to the annals of history today.

She had come like a whiff of fresh air into my relatively mundane life two months ago. There was something special, I still can?t exactly point out what it was, about her that I was attracted to her. It was definitely not her looks, though I must add here that she was, by my college standards, pretty good-looking. It was not her eyes either, as I?ve learnt from my previous experiences not to trust eyes masked by lenses. It was something else. Special. I?ll be analyzing this story during the course of the next few months. When I find out the answer, I?ll make sure I?ll tell you first.

Back to my story. We would cross paths about a dozen times a day. The four seconds we used to look into each other?s eyes would seem like an eternity, ending with our lips breaking out into smiles and my eyebrows going up by two inches. Conversation in these circumstances would be generally limited to a ?hi?. We would then part ways, and wait eagerly for the next time we would meet.

The few occasions we talked, we talked philosophy. I used to come up with vague theories to explain various facets of life and she used to patiently listen. She used to then add her own insights and help refine my theories. She made amazing conversation and the amount we talked in the short time interval was flabbergasting. Five more such conversations and we would have enough material to write a bestseller.

But it was not to be as all this came to an abrupt stop a week ago. Some said that she had fallen in love with someone else. Others felt that she had become too arrogant as she was getting too much attention. Some others say that she hated me because I loved her (weird). Whatever the reason, she suddenly started avoiding me. Our glances into each other?s eyes didn?t last more than half a second, with a weak smile at the end of it. She started sitting as far from me as possible. When we had to talk to each other, she answered in monosyllables, sounding extremely curt and disinterested. Something had definitely gone wrong.

Today, I happened to cross her path while I was going for dinner. As had become a habit, we looked at each other. Maybe she was wearing a new pair of lenses, but I could see only hatred and contempt in her eyes. We stared blankly at each other for another couple of seconds. This time though, there was no smile at the end from either side. I realized at that moment that it was all over. Even before it had started.

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