Eyes Like Ice - Radia Al Rashid (novels in english .TXT) 📗

to kill myself occurred several times. I contacted Doctor Gerard following the incidents and he, with his ever-calm tone said, “No worries Miss Lawrence, for some, it takes a whole month to recover from the symptoms. Not to worry about anything at all.” It did sound lame but thankfully on the sixth day, things begin to fall in places. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad at all or feel like crying my eyes out not for at least thrice, but I can gradually feel the control of mine by taking over the distress. After finishing the breakfast, I sit by my window with a cup of coffee. Who moved in the house next door after Mr. Brown’s death? Is anyone here yet? The clean lawn and perfectly arranged flower vases before the door say that someone very organized and clean-freak has moved in this house. I keep wondering until the blinds of the window right in front of mine are drawn. Being startled, I look for the person. A guy with large squarish specs catches my sight. He looks me right in my eyes for a split of a second before he turns away and leaves the room. He has dark brown hair, not so bushy nor so light but perfectly set. He does not look so hunky but rather a bit skinny. His movements seem very calm and calculative.  That icy cold stare keeps my eyes stuck to the window for a while even after he vanishes from there. He is by no means the type of guy I’d look at with interest but... but for some weird reason, I want to see him again.

“Jules, do you know who’s the new guy moved in the next door?” I ask while washing the coffee cup.

Julia rushes towards me with a Cheetah-speed and snatches the cup from me, “What exactly should I do to keep you from doing chores? Girl! You gotta take rest, alright?”

“What the hell, Jules?” I chuckle, “Am I still looking like a bed-ridden? Let me do these tiny whiny chores at least, or else I’m gonna die of boredom.” I pout.

Julia rolls her eyes and makes a face, which makes me laugh so hard for a good amount of time.

“Anyway, who is the guy, Jules?” I wipe off the tears that showed up because of the laughter.

“Who? What guy?” she seems to be totally clueless.

“Err… I just asked you, no? the guy next door?” I scratch my head.

“Woosh! I missed out your previous question somehow, um… not so sure about the new neighbors, honestly. He moved in probably around the time I and Will went to the trip and you guys...” she pulls herself together and continues, “anyway, I think some guy named Ted or something is there now. What is it, you’re so excited about? Why do you ask?” Julia furrows her brows.

“Ted? Ted Bundy the serial killer?” I giggle at my own little joke.

Julia’s eyes get expanded even more and she crosses the arms across her chest while inspecting me with caution.

“Um...what? O God! Nothing serious, it’s just, I saw some guy... kinda skinny, with perfectly combed hair and icy-cold stare behind some squarish specs. I don’t know, the very look of him just gravitated me, somehow.” I shrug.

“Wow! You actually observed all the little details about him, didn’t you?” she quirks up a brow.

“Ah noooo!! Don’t make it look like something juicy, because it’s not, for your kind information Miss Julia Lawrence.” I say with a smirk.

“Your face is saying another story, missy! You better not be attracted to some mysterious, serial killer guy.” She grins.

“Yeah, right!” I roll my eyes with a pretentious anger on my face. Yet, to my surprise, I find my heart pounding with the thought of seeing him once again. What the fuck? Is it another side-effect of brain surgery? But… he doesn’t look bad though! There is something about his calm face that can melt ice, or, ignite fire maybe! I snap myself out of the strange fanaticism of mine. What came over me? I don’t know the guy, not even a bit and am I trying to make a Greek God out of him? I shake my head and go down the corridor. 

I am not allowed to attend the classes for another month. I do not feel intensely sick in limbs but psychologically, I am riding on a roller-coaster. Tears rush toward my eyes just a moment after a good laugh. I feel like losing control over my mind. Still, I decide to get myself engrossed in psychologically calming videos, blog posts and articles to survive. I sit with my laptop to begin the YouTube marathon. The corners of my eyes are still wet. I cannot honestly recall for how many times I’ve cried, laughed, sighed, smiled and numbed since morning.  Am I being bi-polar? Who knows... maybe? A crick sound leads my glance towards my window. Holy shit! That guy again...yes, the very same guy. Should I close the window? Should I show myself or just keep watching being hid under the blanket? Who am I kidding? He’s just another guy. What’s the point of this fiasco around him?

Yet, I cannot ease with the situation. Somehow, his presence is disturbing me, malfunctioning my mind, but in a weirdly good way. Not actually good but not bad either. My mouth goes dry as I am looking at him very soothingly while he’s digging in a pile of papers on his table. The scene seems to be astoundingly calming to me. I have never been near to ordered in my life but the Ted guy is terribly organized and collected. I keep staring at him with my lips parted, as if some exquisite piece of art was presented in front of me. I stare and savor the moment completely failing to catch the time does he stare back at me. Gosh! Is he gazing back? I mean looking back at me? O God! O God! I’m going to be swallowed up by the ground now. Shoot! He’ll think me as a weirdo who has never seen any guy in her sad little life. Shit! Damn it, Evelyn. You are screwed. I quickly shift my eyes to my laptop screen and start panting shakily. I don’t know if he is still seeing me or not but I so want to check that. No! I cannot look at him again, not after gazing at him like a hungry fricking tiger drooling over its prey. How embarrassing! I keep looking at the screen not typing a single word. After about 10 minutes of visions and revisions, I gather all the courage together and look up at the window. Mr. about-to-explode-the-world-in-a-calmly-wholesome-way is doing the paper-works with a poker face. Whoosh! Thank God he did not close the window threatened by a gauche weirdo gawking at him at 9 pm. Boy! Ain’t I horrible with guys! Never been the head turner for guys and clearly, never will be one.

I click on one of Jay Shetty’s podcasts and insert the ear-pods in my ears. With a synched interval, I keep checking him out. I am utterly clueless and weirded out at how his presence gives off an overwhelming tranquility. How he seems to be so wholesome although I haven’t even heard his voice. More importantly, I do not even know whether he is just a guy or, those still and icy-cold eyes have seen a whole different history.

The next morning, I wake up with a bleeding nose and a ton weighed head which keeps spinning to exacerbate the entire scenario. I rush to the washroom to splash water on my face. I quickly take the medicines and bury my head in the pile of pillows on my bed. I don’t really want to sustain the delaying period of attending university by being sick. I have to be sound by any means. I just want to go out to breathe in the fresh air and most importantly, to hang out with the bunch of weirdos... My weirdos. Raising the head, I dial the number of Anna, my best girl. We’ve been friends since middle school. Nobody understands me like her but when it comes to any argument we are not agreeing on, well, we become the worst possible enemies and begin calling each other by all types of shitty names. The immune period stays usually for half an hour and then all those “fuck you bitch, I’m missing you” texts start to hit both the phones.

“Hey Crackpot! Done with gawking at the 1000 years old alchemist?” she chuckles.

“Seriously? Look who’s talking! the one that stores all her desires for guys over 60.” I roll my eyes.

“Yeah, right! It’s totally legal to get crush on slightly older guys with drop dead hotness. I mean, it’s far better than drooling over some mysterious, emotionally dead guy, who cannot do anything except for giving cold stares time to time apart from his awe-inspiringly organized works.” She continues laughing.

“Who’s drooling over who? Quit talking trash you Muppet!” I roll my eyes again.

“Yaha! You’re the one to talk. You’ve always been the weirdo-magnet, I can’t really complain. And, stop rolling your eyes girl! the post-surgery effects can make those beautiful brown eyes fall down from the sockets.” She teases me as usual.

“Pfft! You suck, bitch.” I laughed “anyway! How are the courses going on this semester?”

“Umm! Not bad, but I’m in LOVE with Counselling and Psychology. That banging Mike makes the class tenfold interesting.”

“Ew! Anna! He’s a freaking old divorcee. How can you call him attractive in the first place?” I huff.

“Oh, come on, grandma! I’m not you who makes a mythic creature out of some pre-historic thing living next door. Mike is a real hotty and he can do a lot of sexy moves, of course excluding that cold staring stuff.”

“Pre-historic? Yo, missy, Ted is a young guy, maybe in his late 20s. if anyone is pre-historic here, that’s your sexy old hag, Mike.”

“Keep saying whatever you want. I’m not gonna backfire as you’re not feeling good, bitch. Wait till you return to the classes.” She snickers.

“O yeah! We’ll see. So, isn’t there any core course this term? I so hate to waste time on some so-not-interesting side courses.”

“Yeah! There are Communication Arts and Creative Arts from the core courses. The faculty members are not so appealing though. Miss Hawking takes away the attention of all the guys in the class with her slutty aura. The Creative Arts could have been better only if Mr. Stone didn’t step in to ruin the entire semester.” She clicks her tongue.

“You kidding me? Mr. Stone is the Most awesome teacher I’ve come across in the entire life of mine. You have such a peculiar preference that I can’t comprehend. Sometimes, I wonder how came we be friends with such dissimilarities in the first place?”

“I know right? The worst thing ever.” Anna chuckles. “enough with studies and shits. Now tell me, how’s your health. Those strange symptoms went away, no?”

“Yes! Thank God, I probably gained back the control over my right hand. It felt too bizarre to live with, in those past few days. Boov! So, I was planning to be done with the registration for the coming semester.” I sniff.

“You sure about that? Honestly, you still don’t sound good yet. Your voice is still cranky and those sniffing every now and then tells you should be in your bed for at least two to three months. Relax Nerdy! Take it easy on you. Skipping one semester won’t throw you out of the university. You have a freaking brilliant CGPA already. Give yourself some time to heal completely. Please, Eve! Don’t do anything rash and stupid that can further deteriorate your health, alright?”

“Aye, aye Ma’am! I’ll think it through.” I grin.

“Okay! Don’t make me come over to send you to some sort of temporary coma for preventing you to rush towards the university, ha?”

“Ha-ha! That’d be iconic though. I actually love to