Shoebite

She trudged alone along the long road. She was already late. The sun shone mercilessly bright in the sky. The air was hot. There was no humidity in the atmosphere; her skin was burning as if she stood in a furnace. As though this wasn't terrible enough, her new shoes bit her toes.

She lifted each foot with difficulty. The pain was so intense that she could barely walk. For a moment she considered walking barefoot holding the shoes in her hand. However the road under her feet was heated like a hot pan.

She hated her new shoes so much she felt like throwing them away.

She reached her destination finally. She entered in an air-conditioned classroom and settled. She heaved a sigh of relief. The cool air was soothing on her head heated up in the scorching sun outside. She sat on the last bench, lonely as she always had been. Her feet ached a lot. She flinched with the pain as she slowly removed her shoes from her smarting feet.

Her toes were red. The smallest toe had bled. She winced at the plight of her toes.
She sat at the lunch alone and chewed the tasteless rice slowly looking around at the people sitting in a group, chatting and giggling together. It wasn't that she hated people. But she didn't feel like talking to anyone these days. She knew no one could understand her, let alone help. The pain was so much that her eyes welled with tears. No one saw her tears though. Like always.

She walked like a zombie, ignoring the lively conversations going around. She had lost interest in gossip and chatting long back. She felt a strange emptiness inside her.

When the class ended, she tried to wear her shoes. The pain worsened. She tried to ignore it. After a while, she thrust her feet forcefully inside the shoes, totally annoyed due to pain. She didn't look back nor did she wait for anyone. She walked back to her bus-stand alone. As always.

That wasn't really the shoe bite that troubled her. There were so many nights when she lied awake staring at the blades of the fan revolving above. Mostly she sobbed in her pillow, muffling all the noise. She would go to sleep at the wee hours of morning and snap out of her nap at some nightmare. She always woke up with bloodshot and swollen eyes. Fortunately no one noticed, or probably they did but dared not initiate a talk to her. She sat in the corners evading from people, sipped her tea alone looking far away. She was tired, broken. Suddenly her eyes would fill with tears remembering something in the past and she would gulp large amounts of air to calm herself down. A few times when she didn't walk with her gaze fixed on the ground, some people gave her smiles of recognition and she tried to return a smile. Her jaw muscles were so stiff that her face barely split into a smile.

She heard someone giggle. 'Hey! What are thinking? You are standing here like a statue! Aren't you getting late?' her roommate shook her.
She did not know for how long she had been standing there daydreaming.
Two years later, she was standing at her door in a pair of brand new shoes.
Well she had stopped using shoes since they hurt last time. This time she really liked the shoes and couldn't resist buying them. Well he had liked them too.

'Wow! These are awesome! Looking really cute on your feet!' he had smiled at her as she tried them on, pulling her by her waist towards himself.

She approached him in her new shoes the next day. She limped a little. As always her new shoes hurt her toes a lot.
'Oh my God! Why are you limping? Is it hurting a lot?' His eyebrows furrowed with worry.
'Yeah. I always have a terrible shoe bite.'
'Oh sit down here!' He supported her with his arms around her shoulders and made her sit on a seat at the deserted bus-stand.
'Wait!' he held her wrist as she was trying to remove her shoes. He removed her shoes as slowly as he could. He grimaced with pain seeing her wincing. She forgot her pain and giggled.

She stopped giggling when she saw her little toe smeared with blood. He looked shocked.
'Oh your toe has bled so much!' he said grimly.
'Yeah I didn't think it would be so bad!'

He promptly removed his socks and before she could ask what he was doing, he put them in her feet with the utmost care.
'It would hurt less now. I'd get some cotton and then we'll make sure it doesn't hurt anymore.' He planted a swift kiss on her cheeks leaving her cheeks burning hot.

She realized her eyes filled with tears. She kept looking down.
He lifted her chin up and stared into her eyes.
'Does it hurt a lot?' he asked worriedly.
'Nope it doesn't!' she looked into his eyes, a tearful smile spreading on her face like sunshine in a drizzle.
'Then why are you…' the rest of his words trailed off as she suddenly rested her head on his chest.

He ploughed his fingers through her hair and she remembered they were at a bus-stand even though it was deserted.
'I won't let any kind of shoe hurt you from now!' he said smiling at her.