Can I help you?

1

Pollack was immersed in his e-book. He took little notice of his surroundings, so less that he almost didn't realise the girl staring at him. She sat a few tables away from him, facing him and staring at Pollack in an amusing way.

Pollack grunted as the ever-so-slow wifi interrupted his reading. His gaze shifted towards the cold coffee, which when he ordered was steaming hot. He called for the waitress and asked her to reheat his coffee.

Just as he was about to get back to his reading he noticed the female figure staring at him. Pollack felt a wave of self realisation hit himself in the nerves.

There it was again. He was used to being stared at, after all it wasn't so hard to miss an extremely over weight man in his 20's.

Pollack straightened his posture and adjusted his shirt. He didn't want to look disorganised at the least. His coffee arrived and he thanked the waitress, knowing that she might be mentally mocking at him.

Just as he was about to get back to his book, Pollack glanced towards the absurd girl again. She was still staring at him, now it was getting slightly uncomfortable. Pollack tried reading but his mind wandered back to his amusing neighbour.

That's it! Pollack thought. He would go over and ask the young lady for an explanation. After all, he had to stand up for himself. He gathered his belongings, stuffing them inside his jute bag.

Pollack took a deep breath and walked towards the girl, his head hung low as if he didn't have any intentions of approaching her at all. He reached her and, mustering up all his courage, questioned her,  "Excuse me?"

The girl looked up from where the noise came. Pollack took in the time to notice her features. She had absolutely no make-up on but you could make out that she had a face cream, because her face shone bright. Her eyes were a dark black and looked almost soulless. Her brunette hair were probably of a medium length, brushed with a middle partition and tucked behind her ears.

"Yes?" Her voice sounded like that of a woman of his age. Probably my age, Pollack thought.

"This uh-might sound a bit weird, but your continual staring makes me feel uncomfortable. I know how I look and you need not remind me of it." Pollack blurted out. He had absolutely no intentions of the last sentence! It just came out, unplanned!

Pollack could see the girl shifting in her chair, forcing a smile on her face. That's it, he thought, I've made her uncomfortable now! Oh no! Should I apologise? Wait, no, she should!

"Uhm, actually, I'm visually impaired and I cant see at the very least. I sincerely apologise if I have made you feel uncomfortable." The girl said in a polite, yet embarrassed manner.

"Wait, what? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I-I"

"Oh, it's okay! I get that a lot so I guess I'm kind of used to it" she giggled.

Pollack felt so embarrassed, he just wanted to disappear without leaving any traces of his existence.

Even though it was him who embarrassed her, she didn't seem to mind. In fact, she took it positively and giggled for God's sake. And that only made him feel ever so guilty about it.

"Look I'm really guilty for what I said and I really want to make it up to you. Do you mind if I pay for your bill. I mean, please don't take this the wrong way.", Pollack said, in hopes of fixing things.

"Oh my lord, you don't have to you know! I'm fine and besides, you didn't know" she said again, displaying a totally happy and positive vibe. She then indicated him to sit next to her in the chair beside her.

Pollack sat down, he was fiddling with his fingers and he was quite nervous. He didn't remember the last time he talked to girl!

"So uhm, what's your name? Mine's Pollack Graham."

"My name's Helen Yofer. And I like your name, it's unique just like mine.", she said whilst her hands reached out to grab her smoothie.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Pollack asked.

"No, Pollack. Go ahead." Helen replied with a smile.

"Why don't you wear those tinted shades? You know, like most visually impaired people do?" Pollack tried to display his curiosity without hurting the emotions of this girl he just met.

Helen took a deep breath. It looked like she was bracing herself for what she was going to say.
"I don't want to be dependent on these things. I want to be unique and stand out in this world. I know I already am but I feel like it's not mine, you know? I want to be unique because of what I do, not because of what I can't do. If I had my tinted glasses on or my walking stick in sight, we wouldn't be having this conversation too, ya know?"

Pollack was amazed. He had heard a lot of motivating messages and heard speeches. But, this was something that he had never heard before. It felt like a new perspective in life. He found it hard to use the exact words but somewhere and somehow he felt attracted.

"Can I help you?" Pollack blurted out. Without thinking about the consequences. He just wanted to do anything to be able to make an impact in this girl's life. Something, that would help her.

Little did he know, how this question would transform his life.
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A/N: Vote and lmk what you think in the comments! :)