Listening to Katherine (girlxgirl)

1

So there she was, the girl who had been sleeping in front of our lawn for a couple of weeks now. She just woke up and looking as beautiful as she was when I first saw her.

Her name was not known. She and I had never conversed before, not once. My coyness and gawkiness would always triumph each time I thought about having a chat with her. So I would just look at her from my window and admire her imperfections.

Every day, for several weeks, she had been spending time in front of our lawn and did nothing productive. That was how I became known of her existence. At times, she would drink alcohol, and would get intoxicated, then sing the national anthem. However, most of the time, she would just lie down on that old bench and look at the stars above her. It was a fascinating view.

They say in Psychology that if your infatuation has lasted for more than three or four months, then that would mean you are already in love. Well my crush for her hadn't really been three or four months yet so that meant I was not charmed by her. Okay, perhaps, a little.

My thoughts about her would always lead to her name. It frightened me each time my dear father would ask me to request her to leave our lawn. It would have been a great opportunity to talk to her, but I was just so scared, scared about everything so I would just tell my father that I wasn't feeling well in order not to at least make an eye to eye contact with her. She was just so intimidatingly frightening. Every move she would make was formidable.

Her walks were both tomboyish and girly at the same time. Who does that? She always frowned like someone had made her day awful. She was completely unapproachable, a total recluse. Her being a loner made me think that perhaps she didn't want to talk to anybody. She could have gotten irritated if I actually attempted to converse with her. It was best to leave her alone.

And there she was just sitting on the old bench, capturing the initial rays of the sun. She was quiet as I thought she would be. She was gorgeous in her own way. She looked elegant in those items of clothing, even if they seemed like they hadn't been washed before. It was morning, as usual, my father would have shooed her away, but he was away for a trip related to his occupation. I looked outside the window from the living room and said, "She's there again." I uttered this in a very inaudible and dreamy manner, but somehow my mother seemed to notice my words.

My mother was pretty occupied with regards to cooking meals for my two younger sisters, so she commanded me in her usual irritating voice to shoo the homeless girl, as she would say, away from our property.

"What?" I said to mother in a very frightened manner. I thought my eyes were going to spurt out of my head. Never in my entire dreams to attempt to talk to that girl. I would never talk to her.

"Make her leave!" My mother shouted. "She is disgusting."

I wondered how that girl is filthy. I found her really fine.

"Your father said she smells like alcohol all the time," mother added.

"Alcohol isn't really that bad, ma," I replied in my calmest voice even if I wanted to argue with her very much.

"Why do say it's not that bad? Huh? So you've tasted alcohol now?! Huh?" My mother blurted out. "Who have you been hanging out with?"

"Relax, jeez! I haven't done any illegal crap!"

"If I found out you've been doing stupid things..." my mother said in a warning but did not continue. She knew what my reaction would be... scared, of course. I wouldn't do anything that made her angry.

"Make her leave, Shaheera!" My mother repeated once more.

Whatever, I said in my head, nonetheless, I followed her orders, opening our front door and started walking in a crisscross manner to the girl sitting on our old bench.