Our Story

Chapter 2

I still remember the day three years ago, from when my uncommon memories began.

I generally preferred to disappear in the crowds, as well as in the Software Developer Company where I still work. But in those days, usually people didn't let me do what I liked, especially my boss. It seemed like he loved to make me the center of everyone's attention by bashing me in the office. And that day, he again got one more opportunity. When I reached the office late again.

I sneakingly was stepping towards my cubicle, without making myself noticeable to anyone but a throaty voice came from behind, freezing me in my place, "Caught you.... ." I slowly turned to look at him and he added, "...again."

His actual voice wasn’t that scary but he used to speak that way to maintain his bossy image.

All my colleagues turned and started staring at both of us, to have some expected entertainment of the day.

Before I could explain to him my reason, he again quipped, "It's ok! Be comfortable. Come whenever you want because this place is for workers. And you aren't a worker here as you never work.” The taunt in his sentence was obvious.

My colleague giggled at his cow-slaver joke.

Then he felicitated me saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting to you the most sluggish employee ever."

Well that scene doesn't matter to me at all because this was a routine. But one question struck my mind, "Why didn't he or why don't we use the term 'gentle' before ladies ?"

Anyways, back to my past situation.

There was no better vacation for me than my boss being on vacation but he hardly takes.

That was another usual day in my life at the office. It wasn't an uncommon one, nothing to be remembered but I remember that day because that day was the reason that compelled me to come early 'Next Day'.

On the same day, in the morning while using social media, I came out to go to the office. The moment I came out, a lot of mud spilled on my jeans.

"Oh Goodness!" I used to call him Ridiculous Pug, from my neighbourhood. Who often throws mud at me with his hock.

It was not a new thing, Pug was doing his job very well for a few months. But I usually forget about it while surfing on the internet.

I don't like to be distracted on the way to the subway. As those were some minutes from my busy routine when I used to use social media. I was very much interested in using it because it was the only place where I could speak my thoughts freely and others would hear me and reply.

Correction- I write and they read ,from my fake account. Fred Simpson. (A name, arranged from two cartoon characters.)

Somehow by throwing a small stone on that pug, I got rid of it but,

Ahh !.. I had to change once again.

That was the usual reason why I got late to the office.

Then after the office I went to work in Max's shop, another thing of my interest. I loved doing repairs while listening to music there. He was the only one to whom I could share my things but he too sometimes seemed not interested.

Besides that, I hardly used to leave my house and used to buy groceries and clothes from online stores.

Then after returning from the shop, I only enjoyed watching ‘The Late Night Show’ with Stephen Colbert, which I couldn't miss. And then I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up at the same time but skipped my meditation

and got ready for the office by 7:58 AM. Thankfully, that pug wasn't there, so I reached the metro station even sooner.

Being engaged on f*******: and having earphones on my head with loud music, I got on the metro. Keeping my eyes on the phone, I had a side glance on an empty seat. I replied to a comment and while checking other comments, slowly sat down on that seat and felt someone's soft lap beneath my hips.

I Immediately asked myself "What is it?", spurted and looked back.

I saw a girl in peach colour dress, who was looking at me in complete shock and a middle-aged man beside her, who was staring at me in complete rage. Before that girl or man could shout at me, I ran from there to the end of the coach.

After reaching on the other side, I nervously looked back to them, both of their eyes were still on me and before I tried to steal my eyes at her, she collapsed into laughter......

A beautiful laugh of hers. Nothing more beautiful than that happened in my boring routined life.

For me, for that moment the world became a better place when she laughed. I could hear her laugh even at the loud music in my ear. And even knowing, the person sitting next to her was passing a death glare at me, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Then all those who must have seen me trying to sit on her laps, started to laugh.

An outstanding moment full of awkwardness. I am so creative that I create my own problems everyday.

I was literally very nervous because not only those two but half the coach was looking at me.

I behaved like nothing happened and tried to act like I was fully engaged in my phone but I slowed down my volume, so I could hear her laugh clearly.

I was always nervous about girls, it was only my mom whom I wasn't nervous of. Often I saw girls insulting Max. But she wasn't like other girls, she gave me some other feeling.

Few minutes later, I darted a stealing glance again at her and...I was like, "s**t ! He is still staring at me." And engaged back into my mobile.

I thought, "He Must be her father."

After a while I heard her chuckling and saying something but couldn't hear her voice clearly, and sensed she was trying to cheer up that man, he too laughed a little.

I thought of looking back at her and so I did. But what’s with that man? His smile disappeared and he started glaring at me again.

Before he could come to me and break my nose, I decided to control myself no matter how distracted I was by that girl.

Nearly ten minutes later, they stood up to get down at their station. I thought that maybe I am seeing her for the last time and we won’t meet again. Then I should see her appositely. And without thinking anything, my gaze hit her face and I was staring at her.

The more she was getting closer to me, the more beautiful she became. My favorite color, what she was wearing was making her skin look more radiant. After taking some steps to my side she turned left to the door. I wished that the door would exist next to me.

After getting down from the metro, she glanced back at me and smiled, displaying her pearly teeth. I gave her a terrible look as the butterflies started to fly in my stomach. She twitched her brows and continued on her way. And very soon those butterflies died because the man beside her was now looking at me even more angrily.

While leaving, he pointed his two fingers to his own eyes and then to me, as he was warning me that his both eyes will be on me.

I was a little tense but he made me happy too. He had inadvertently given me the hope that I would be able to see her again. They will be coming again the next day.

I was like, “Oh Jesus ! How could you give me two different feelings at once."

The people got down and the metro ran again to my usual life.

I reached the office at 8:45 AM. And surprisingly fifteen minutes before the office started. That day, Boss didn't have the reason to bash me again, I thought. But no, he found an opportunity to taunt me.

I was sitting on my system and doing my work peacefully. A shadow appeared on my desk, destroying all my peace and blocking the light. I slowly craned up my neck to look at the face. It was him, the big torture of my life towering in front of me.

He smiled followed by a taunt for me, "The screw nut must be kept tight for the machine to function properly."

My co-worker leaped into laughter again. I couldn’t understand what these guys found funny in my boss’s lame jokes. Laughing at me was the work they always did without any delay.

"Sometimes the reason for people's problems is that no one understands their problems. And then they themselve don't understand that they are also not understanding others' problems and becoming the cause of their own problems."

After he left my cubicle, I immediately posted these lines on my f*******: account, so that I could get rid of that frustration. I know this sentence looked like a tongue twister, people would need to read it three times at least. But the meaning behind it was a harsh reality.

As soon as I shared that post, the comments started pouring in. I cut off and began to work again.

At 5:00 PM, after the office I headed off to the station and, being engaged on social media again, I got on the metro train.

In my post, I got a comment from my boss too, an hour before, "Truly buddy, everybody should understand other's problems to get out of all the problems."

I remember there is a notice outside my office which says, "Using social media during office hours is prohibited."

There should have been another line added on it, "Only for employees."

He is THE BOSS, nothing can be prohibited for him.

Then I replied to his comment, " Thanks Dude. Hope it starts with you."

A lot of my co-workers were also connected with my account, they didn't know anything about me but I knew a lot about them.

Beside them, I had 2.34 M followers on insta, 3567 friends on f*******: with 1.24 M followers , around 23k followers on Twitter and 1 friend in my real life with no followers.

When the metro stopped at the same station where she got down earlier that morning, my eyes shifted from my mobile to the door and I kept looking at the same for 30 seconds. Some people got down, some came in but she wasn't there. The door closed and I again got engaged with my mobile.

Walking to my house, I glanced at the old tower of my city, just in the middle of the way to my house and the subway.

I heard one can enjoy the whole city view from it’s top. Every Time I saw that tower, I thought of going up there but the place was too deserted as usual. So, I dropped the idea and thought that maybe I shouldn't go either and continued on my way home.

When I used to come back home after office hours, that pug was never there. Maybe it was Pug's evening walk time or anything else. Or whatever, I wasn't interested to know.

After returning home, I exercised for an hour, cooked dinner for both of us, Max and me. And packed it in hot case..

I don't like cooking much, but I don't like eating outside even more.

When I was 4 year old, my parents took us to a restaurant. In between the supper, while chewing food I felt something weird in my mouth. I took out a long hair from my mouth with my pinch. That day, I saw my mom transforming from Betty Boop into Raven in a moment. She was angry at them as if she was about to throw a grenade on them.

That was hilarious, I mean now I laugh when I think about that but at that moment I was hiding under the table out of fear.

And after that Mom never allowed us to eat outside. She used to cook for us, she everytime protected us from everything just like Dexter's Mom but mostly me. I was so used to her. After my mom, dad did the same. So, it was part of my habits.

My only option was to cook food using recipes from YouTube, obviously. I always tried to cook better but gahh... let's not talk about my food.

Maybe, I would have liked my own food if I had not eaten the food prepared by mom and dad. I had been cooking for about 7 years and understood only one thing, engineering was easier for me than cooking.

With the hot case, I went to the repair shop. Max always used to wait for my food already at the shop and used to leave after eating.

He always says that I was the better cook than his wife.

If I had to say something to him, I would have said it while he eats his food, otherwise he would have left without having any conversation.

While Max was having dinner, the image of that metro girl came out of my heart and I opened my mouth to tell him about her, but often he used to make fun of me. And as soon as that came to my mouth it took a u-turn buried in my heart again. He too left after eating .

After he left, I played the music and began to work.

I used to go to the shop at 7 o'clock and came back after 10 o'clock. In the meantime, only one or two customers came but I used to have a lot of repairing work. As if I was the only worker there.

And he used to give me 5% of the profit, he should have given me only that much for my prepared food but...

I knew he was using me, still I never felt bad because he was someone who was using me in a better way than me.

After closing the shop with duplicate keys, I went back home, watched my favorite show and fell asleep. Normally I had trouble sleeping, but that day as soon as I fell on bed, I drowned into deep slumber.