Fiction — short story
The Girl Next Door
All men set their eyes on her, but she had her eyes on me
Finally, some rest. Nothing could beat the comfort of your own house. On a tiring day, anyone would want to curl up in bed or lie on their couch, legs sprawled. Offers inner peace. Today is no different. Here I am, slowing down my day in my lazy chair in the garden, with my friends nearby, reading and chatting.
That is when I saw her.
A girl with glowing hazel eyes and long, dense midnight black hair, long enough to cover herself. I remember reading somewhere that "black hair has power, genius, and magic in it, defying gravity and limitation." She could be in her late teens, and I feel a strange connection with her. I heard this new family with a crazy hot daughter (my friends used to say) had moved into my neighborhood a few months back. This was the first time I got a glimpse of her.
The problem here is not the girl but how she stands facing our house. She is wearing a transparent skirt, and I can see her naked legs inside with the morning sun beating down. But against, again, it is the least of the problem. She is not wearing anything on her upper body except holding a piece of cloth to cover her front. She is maneuvering around occasionally, glancing at her bare back and staring at me without a blink of an eye.
Her hazel eyes looked so innocent, like a child. After that, she turned shy and looked away whenever I saw her eyes, but she never tried to hide from me. Instead, she stands there and doesn't want to move.
Suddenly, she got behind a wall and peeked at me like a child looking at the unknown visitors in the home. She gave the impression of hiding herself from me. But I could clearly see her, and she knew that too. Her half-naked skin was glinting through the sun.
I averted my eyes. That was weird.
"What is it with this girl?" I pointed the finger at her.
"Oh! That hot girl in the neighborhood," Henry snorts.
"Lot had happened when you were away on honeymoon. That girl and the outfits she used to wear set our men's hearts racing. There was always a gang of men lurking around her all the time. They followed her to the school, and the mall, wherever she goes, and even some are seen looking through her bedroom window."
"You think we were here to hang around with you?" Ben mocked.
"But she was a kind of weirdo. She never gave a damn about any of us. We were all invisible to her. Her eyes, especially, had a charm but with stubbornness. She looked at any man, like a pitied soul, like we never existed. Never at any moment, she was shy of any men," Henry continued.
She never gave a damn about any men, seriously!. She was not even blinking while staring at me a while ago. Are we talking about the same girl?
"Pity that girl" Henry looked disappointed.
"What do you mean, pity?" I stopped as my wife entered the scene.
"I hope the serious discussion is about women," she mocked.
"Yeah! That girl in the neighborhood."
"Oh! she. The sensation. The whole town speaks about her. It was unfortunate."
"What is so unfortunate about her?"
My wife gave me a weird stare. Both of my friends are too.
"I hope you know all about her," she wondered.
Until this day, I forgot about the girl next door. I had not seen her since.
A guy with a baseball cap was sneaking around that girl's house. He pretends to be searching for something in the grass but occasionally looks through her bedroom window. I stomped around and stopped a foot away from him.
"Hey!" I shouted.
The guy panicked, but I grabbed his shirt. I looked through the window. There she is. As I feared, she was standing there in her undergarments. Her eyes penetrated me. She has not tried to cover herself but was not trying to show herself. It felt like she was in a trance. Again, she tried to hide or pretended to be. But I could see her, and again she knew that, too. Her ample naked skin is visible.
"I had done nothing," the guy tried to get loose of my grip.
"What are you doing here, then?"
"I am trying to find my cigarette lighter. I thought I lost it here a few days back."
"I don't get you. How your lighter came here in the first place?"
"Hey!" It's Ben's voice.
When I turned around to see Ben, the guy pushed me off and started running.
"What are you doing holding that guy's shirt?"
"He was sneaking around that girl's bedroom, said he lost his lighter or something."
I thought of saying about the girl, but I didn't.
"Yeah! I know this guy. He smokes like a chimney and watches that girl dressing and undressing. He was frequent here."
"The girl knows that?"
"I don't think so. But, that doesn't matter to her. We were invisible to her. She was different."
Yes, she is different. So at least to me, I thought.
The girl had been bugging my mind recently. I couldn't comprehend her. Men lurk around and desire her, but she never gives a damn about anyone. However, she keeps gaping at me all the time. She is not flirtatious with any men, Henry said. But, her eyes seem to seduce me. Could my brain be malfunctioning and sending the wrong signals?
Is that a sign of attraction? Or crush or something. But how could that be possible? I saw her for the first time only a few days back.
While all these thoughts were pondering inside me, I saw David, an electrician, living opposite my house. He waved at me and went into his garage.
A few minutes later, I saw the girl leaving her house. This is the first time I am seeing her fully dressed. She gave me a side glance, her eyes locked on me for a while, but spun her head away abruptly, realizing I saw her. She went straight into David's garage.
But why? I was tempted to follow her. I had no intention of doing it. Anyway, I did. There was no good feeling about confronting an act you feared did not happen. I took a deep breath and opened the shutter.
Any man wouldn't want to be caught with his pants down by another man. David was startled to see me and dropped his phone. A video was playing, and it took me less than a few seconds to realize what he had seen. The girl was changing her clothes. It is a recording from her bedroom. David fixed the electrical work when the family moved into the neighborhood.
I felt so disgusting. Suddenly, I remembered the girl. She was standing behind the car, unclothed, her eyes looking innocent. She stared at me with excitement, which turned into disappointment, and finally turned shy.
"Listen, dude. This was not what you think,"
"You blackmailing a teen girl? I am going to call the cops," I left the garage with a look of shame and disgust.
I was cursing when I entered my house. I took out the cordless to dial the cops.
"Who are you calling?" my wife asked.
"You know what that David does? He fixed the camera in the girl's room and secretly filmed her." I pointed my fingers fiercely toward the girl's house.
"I told you he is a pervert. But what are you doing with the phone?"
"He was blackmailing her with the video. I am calling the cops."
"I don't think that is the reason for her death. She seems to be not that type. There was a rumor that she had a crush on a man way off her age. Probably in the '30s. Same age as yours. She was madly in love with him but never had told him. Then, one day, she died mysteriously. Cops ruled out murder, but couldn't confirm it was a suicide."
It took me a lot of time to comprehend what my wife had said.
"She died on the day of our marriage. Who knows? She may have had a crush on you," my wife winked at me.
"You know, there was a myth in my village that if a woman loves a man so deeply, she would be imprinted on him forever, and even after she dies, she will be around him, visible to his eyes alone. So I hope the girl is not visible to you," She gave me a peck on my cheek and left.
"I hope I could wish the same," I said, looking at the house.
The girl next door was standing there, her eyes piercing through me.
