The Stranger That Sat Beside Me

The Stranger That Sat Beside Me

“I hope you find happiness you’ve been pretending to have.”

It was the summer of 2011 when I was attending a writing seminar hundreds of miles away from my hometown and for the first time in so many years, I had no one to accompany me, no friends, not even someone from the family.

Everything seemed so lonely despite of the voices of the hundreds of people in that hall.

And if someone would have asked me to go back to that exact same moment, I would've simply denied. But what was going to happen 34 minutes later made me wish to live that exact same moment over and over again, for all the days of my life.

As the hall grew chaotic and the people started to fill up the empty seats, I took out “The Alchemist” from my bag and started reading it. Not because of the fact that I was obsessed with that book but to tackle and avoid any awkward human interaction that may freak out an introverted guy like me.

It was 10:03 AM and the chief guest’s arrival was scheduled at 10:30 AM.

My fingers were turning the pages of the book and my eyes were stuck at the entranceway, hoping to see someone familiar. And then 34 minutes later, I saw this girl, the girl who blurred every other person present in that hall, the girl who made every little beautiful thing fade to dust. And the way she smiled while walking down the hallway, it was the kind of smile which the actresses have while introducing themselves in the beginning of a romantic movie. The black sundress, the red lipstick was adding to her beauty and the way she curled up the ends of her hair behind her ear made it impossible for me to take my eyes of her. Trying not to be a creep, I took my eyes of her and engaged myself again in the pages of the book.

“Is someone sitting here?” said a female voice.

“No. Unoccupied!” I said without looking up from the book.

“Hey!” She said while sitting right next to me.

I closed the book and looked at her. And damn, she was that beautiful girl in the sundress. I forgot she said Hello. I was just making sense of everything that was happening so fast and I wasn’t able to speak anything.

“Do you like, talk or something?” She smiled and asked.

“Yeah, Umm..Sorry. I do talk..I mean, Hey.” I said nervously.

“Woah! What’s making you so nervous? Don’t you like it here?” She asked.

“No. It’s good to be here. Actually, I’m bad at conversations.” I said.

“Haha, I don’t think so. I believe there’s something interesting in you.” She smiled.

“Thanks! What brought you here?” I asked her.

“My love for poetries.”

“Great, Do you write?” I asked again.

“I’m not that talented. I tried and I failed.” She said.

“Do you write?” She asked. “Yes” I said.

“See, I told you there was something interesting in you.” She laughed and made me laugh too.

The chief guest arrived and the program started. And to be honest, now I had almost no interest in whatever was going on in that hall except the girl sitting right next to me.

Sometimes you search the world for one thing and you stumble upon the other, better than you ever imagined, much more beautiful and heartwarming than the one you always dreamt of finding. And this girl was my other one.

Every stupid thing she said made total sense. Every little smile that leaped across her cheeks was worth remembering. The hall was loud, but not loud enough to block out the sweet sound of her laughter. As she talked and talked, I gazed at her and realized how beautiful she really was, both inside and out.

“Would you teach me how to write?” She asked me.

“I’d love to.” I said.

“Well, show me your writings.” She said.

“You will see. Pretty soon.” I said.

We began to talking about our favorite things. And somehow, we switched the conversation to love.

“Did you find love?” I asked her.

“Not actually. What about you?” She said.

“I found someone years ago and then I lost her. It was miserable. Life wasn’t the same after that. But I’m Happy” I said.

“I hope you find happiness you’ve been pretending to have.” She said.

“I’m not pretending. I’m really happy.” I said again.

“That’s the thing about me. I can read faces. And It’s okay to accept that you’re not happy.” She smiled softly.

She stood up and told me she’d be back in a while. I opened my diary and started writing something until she was gone. After I finished writing, I tore the page and left it over the chair she was sitting on. On that page, I wrote a poetry for her describing everything I felt when she walked through that door. And under that poetry, I wrote my number in case she loved what I wrote and wanted to learn it.