Hypnotized by you

9

Vishwa

"Anna! (Elder brother) she's admitted to the hospital...! I agree she did commit a mistake by not believing in you but she is our mother Anna..." It aches, my chest hurts, I want to hold her hands and be by her side...

But when I rewind about those painful words she threw onto me, her detesting gaze, her ignorance, the wound she deepened within me, I could care less about her even when she's the woman who birthed me, who cared for me unconditionally. Perhaps, that's the reason why her mistrust over me stung the worst.

I'm aware that possessing a grudge against my mother and letting her suffer for her actions is not right yet at the same time, I don't have the mental strength to face her.

Hence, I disconnect the call without responding to my younger brother and carried on to prepare myself to attend the office. I feel so bothered inside as I slip the office bag over my shoulder and unlock the door to my apartment.

Mother has to be okay sooner. She shouldn't grip onto the hope that I would come to meet her. Cause that won't happen. She should accept the reality and overcome her health issues herself. I cannot act as a cure to her ailment If that's what she was aiming for...

"Mister," I snap my eyes up when the enthusiastic voice of my neighbor enters my ears. Though I don't want to be attached to any woman henceforth, I realized that it was meaningless to be rude to Kuyili when she was of no harm to me. And quite frankly, having a neighbor who is still young, naive, yet to experience life and enjoy every little thing is a sight to behold. Sometimes, I become jealous of her energetic self when she sways her body to random songs with no care to this world. It renders me want to relish life as she does but I'm fine watching someone being happy from a distance.

She puts a smile on my face and it's a nice feeling to be able to smile genuinely at times.

"Yes?" I ask, my eyes zeroing in on the lunch box clasped in her hands. "I cooked chicken biriyani today," she forwards the meal to me with an innocuous smile and I couldn't deny her. Also, the canteen food barely excites my tastebuds so this home-cooked chicken biriyani is a blessing.

"But why suddenly?" I query her further as I stuff the box inside my bag. "It's my mom's birthday," she says with a vibrant smile and something clicked in my head...

Where is her mother? So far, even her father hadn't uttered a word about his wife whenever we chatted. Could it be that her mother is no more? God, how dumb of me to not understand this quickly!? I've seriously been so out of touch and non-observant these days.

Staring at Kuyili, my tongue itched to question her about her mother but I curbed my eagerness and nodded my head instead.

"Bye," she says softly and waves her hands, sending me off.

'...'

"Chicken biriyani!? You had enough time to cook this in the morning but you could not take some time to shave the bush on your face?" Vinay amuses as we begin to have our meals.

My left hand instinctively flies towards my beard and I stroke it, measuring its length mentally. It's high time I give it a cut. I've become the center of attraction due to this dense facial hair.

"My neighbor prepared it," I say but regret immediately upon discerning the teasing looks and whistlings of my friends. "...it's not what you think. Today's her mother's birthday and so she prepared this special meal and shared it with me," My explanation seemed to not get through my friends' ears as they still maintained their smug gaze.

"So how does this neighbor of yours look so? How old is she? What's her personality like?" Kiran questions excitedly and I squint my eyes at him, digging through his intention with ease. "Dai, that's Vishwa's girl. Don't try to wag your tail to her," Ashok reprimands Kiran with a frown while I shrink visibly at his wordings.

My girl ah? These guys are nuts.

"I'm just curious," Kiran deadpans and glances my way with a mischievous smile. "How about we crash at your place today and you introduce us to your neighbor?" He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively whereas I offer him a blank look, fed up with this conversation.

"I don't like her that way but she's a sweet one," I reply in a conclusive tone and begin to have the chicken biriyani cooked by Kuyili. The dead tastebuds of mine came alive at the deliciousness of the food and I stifled the urge to voice out my compliment, not wanting to give even more grounds to my friends to tease me.

Ashok chuckles all of a sudden and I lift one of my eyebrows at him, questioningly. "Nothing..." He trails off, a knowing smile etched on his lips. What's up with this one?

Anyway, I didn't have the patience to find out what his smile meant when this precious and drool-worthy food was waiting for me to devour it.

After the break, the day flowed as usual, boring, yet so peaceful.

When office time came to an end and I attained the apartment, I directly knocked on my neighbor's door instead of going into mine as I always do. My tongue would be disappointed with me If I didn't appreciate my neighbor who had me taste such delicious food after a long while.

"...hi," she says as she opens the door and looks at me in naive surprise. "The chicken biriyani was tasty, I liked it," A wide smile appears on her lips causing her to speak excitedly, "I'm happy!" I nod my head and get back to my apartment as there's nothing more for me to talk to her.

"Mister...what about the lunch box?" Oh right, I should give it back. "Wait," I pull the box out after unzipping my bag but along with the object I desired to pull out, my cigarette packet falls unexpectedly.

Well, fuck.

"You smoke?" Kuyili was swift to grab the cigarette packet from the ground and sees me with an expression assorted of concern and mild disgust.

The embarrassment causes my nerves to act up and I snatch the packet off her hands, harshly. "Yes I do smoke, you got any problem with that Kuyili?" I place the lunch box in her hands and rapidly enter my apartment, quite bashed to meet her eyes.

Well, fuck. Who cares what the hell she thinks of me? She is a nobody to me. Why should I be ashamed that she gets to know about my smoking habit?

The answer is obvious. Because it's a bad habit that destroys one's health and shortens their lifespan. But do I really care If that happens?

No.

And that is why, I will continue to smoke even If it makes me a bad guy and invokes people to avoid me. However, it would be nice If there's a turn of events in my life. Deep down, I don't want to die sooner. I do want to quit smoking but it's hard now that I've been doing it for a while.

Gosh, why am I contradicting myself! I've seriously gone insane.

Releasing a heavy sigh, I slam the door close and hurriedly get into the restroom after dropping my bag and clothes off. With a towel hanging from my hip, I regard myself in the mirror situated within the restroom.

I look like a caveman. Staring at myself distastefully, I quickly began cleaning the bush off my face. After a good 20 minutes or so, my face felt less burdening as I shaved away all my facial hair. With the mustache and beard gone, my thin lips stand out more prominently, rendering me appear young and different.

What was I thinking when trimming the mustache!! Argh!! I've never given a glimpse of myself to the world without a mustache. Everyone's going to make fun of me now...

Damn it, I will be laughed at by my colleagues tomorrow. Should I stay back until the mustache grows back? But it will take at least a week and I don't have permission to take such a lengthy break.

What am I supposed to do now?

A few minutes later,

Fuck, I don't care.

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Chapter 10 has also been updated❤️