oneshots

Hug

It rained heavily as I ran towards shelter.
I found relief at a bus stop, as I sat beside an old lady, who had just arrived as well, engaged in folding her wet umbrella.
My week went by like a monsoon cloud.
My memory was never this hazy.
I don't even feel like I'm alive anymore; just passing by with those calender pages.
It feels as if an important crumb is missing from my life.

My eyes which were stuck to the ground lifted up at the sight of someone's trudging footsteps nearing my ears.
Even in the crazy downpour I could hear the footsteps echoing as if they are ringing somewhere in my sixth sense.
Today, somehow I feel more numb to my surroundings than most days.

Suddenly I was moved by a voice.

"Can I.. Can you.."

"Please Can I hug you?", a voice interrupted my gloomy reverie.

"sorry?", I concernly look at the person before me.
It seemed as if they were having one of those days just like me.
It was commendable to see someone speaking up about it.

"Here, take my phone.
I'm recording our conversation, so you have evidence that it was me who asked.", she slowly offered me a mobile phone.

"No need, you can.", was all I could say.

From her voice I could interpret that she was a girl, shorter than me with partially soaked let down hair, wearing a comfortable furry coat.
She didn't seem like the less fortunate, but as devastated as she was,
life didn't seem to have cooperated with her lately.

She didn't hesitate for another moment and wrapped her arms around my torso, clenching one of her fists, while the other had a phone in her grasp.
She neither sobbed nor smiled.
Rain continued to pour unbiased of our quaint intimacy.

As for me, I did not hug her back.
Yet her presence felt warm on my rain-cold body.
As if I felt a sensation after ages.

By now the bus had arrived. Tires screeched on the wet asphalt road and the sound of doors opening echoed on the bus stop.
Some passengers boarded and many left.
It was a paused, yet moving scenery to my eyes.
The abrupt event caused me to even forget where I was heading to.
Oh yes.
School.

Breaking my monotonous though chain, the girl took a step away and bowed at me for one last time. "Thank you", she muttered, realizing she took enough of my time.

"Do you wanna...?", I pointed at the bus using my eyebrows.

She only replied with a nod.

It had been about five minutes since I hugged a stranger whose face I was not even aware of.
I had presumed that the roots to her actions,
are the consequences of some argument she faced at home this morning which is, perhaps common among us adolescents.