Hope <resteem>

He was a young man who lived alone in a small friendly town. He never knew his parents. All twenty years of his life he wondered how different would it be to have a family, to be raised in an atmosphere filled with that majestic, almost mythical thing called unconditional love.
Salim was raised in an overcrowded, neglected orphanage where he learned how to defend himself against all the predators in his way, bullies, evil nurses, teachers, but there was one thing he never learned to overcome, his fear of abandonment. Wherever he went he never made any friends, he never knew the delight of going through a teenage relationship, even when he hit puberty and it was confusing, he didn’t seek any adult advice. Salim went through everything alone, he could never allow himself to be tricked into letting anyone in his life, and that’s the way he wanted it. At least, he thought, no one gets to leave him again naked, vulnerable, crying and confused just the way he was found as an infant near a dumpster ( He was constantly reminded of that at the orphanage). Despite all of this, there was something about him, something mysterious and beautiful that attracted people to him. He had a sort of magnetic presence that electrified anyone who looked at him or touched him.
Salim left the orphanage--the hellhole as he saw it--at 16. As an insecure teenager facing the world for the very first time, he was afraid, but it was a fear that sparked a kind of enthusiasm in him, he was finally leaving the crowded nest which was the only known place to him, and embarking upon a journey into the unknown. Those first 4 years were harsh, unendurable, but Salim strived and fought. He got an education, a high school degree, and later he managed to get into the university. He needed financial support because he was moving to another city big and far, so he got a part time job (washing dishes in a restaurant).
In the university, Salim faced his fear, his true fear, his phobia for the very first time. He let his guards down and fell in love. The kind of love we hear about only in Shakespeare’s most tragic and haunting love stories. It’s rare for a man like Salim to go through such an almost fatal experience, yet against all odds the universe allowed it to happen.
She was a classmate of his, coveted by all. She had that rare form of beauty only angels, nymphs and mermaids can be described of having. Green eyes that one look at them elicits a feeling of awe, and an irrepressible desire which makes one a puppet in her angelic hands to play with, if she wishes to. She wasn’t tall nor short, but she dwarfed all her entourage, wherever she went, she was the prettiest. She had fair brown almost red hair that smelled like a green meadow in the spring.
Despite her magnetic beauty, she was a woman and Salim was extra careful with those, because they could easily seduce him into their diabolical trap, devour him and leave the broken carcass behind. She wasn’t interested in anyone from her surroundings, she believed that she was above them all, that no one deserved her, but she secretly enjoyed the constant attention, even the female envy was food to her narcissistic pride, until she laid eyes on him. It looked like he was immune to her. He treated her as if she didn’t exist. She held enormous contempt for him, pure hatred. But deep down inside, she liked him, there was this unconscious, voluptuous attraction towards him, and that terrified her. It was her first time encountering such mixed feelings. She found his intentional isolation aesthetic and appealing.
Salim was always attracted to women, but he suppressed it. He didn’t want anything to do with those devious creatures. In a way, they all represented his heartless biological carrier who didn’t hesitate for a second to rid herself of him.
‘Hi!’ she sang with an inviting voice, ‘Is this seat taken?’
She startled him into nodding in approval.
Salim was always seen alone, no one spoke to him, even if they wanted to they couldn’t, given his defensive nature that gave him an air of a menacing outlandishness, but not to her. In her eyes, he was a lone wolf, a real man who enjoyed and appreciated his solitude, although she wouldn’t appreciate it.
She scooted over close to him until their knees touched, which made him feel something odd but nice. The class was in session and Salim had always been an attentive student, but she wouldn’t let him be.
Weeks went by, after many attempts and many schemes to attract the seemingly uninterested Salim, she had had enough and decided to put an end to her agonizing longing to the lone wolf. One day as she was strolling down the university corridors, she spotted her prey, she saw Salim and started towards him like a cheetah getting ready to tackle a gazelle; she was determined to face him with the truth, the truth that she could not even admit to herself, the truth that she was hopelessly and irretrievably in love with him.
‘Hey there’ she said in an obviously inviting tone which startled Salim, ‘where are you going?’
‘Home, why do you ask?’ he said already regretting asking her, but feeling surprised that he actually liked standing there with her.
‘Oh no reason, I was just wondering if you have some time to hang out and chat’
‘Sure, why not?’ he retorted trying to sound casual. They went to a relatively crowded cafeteria in which they sat, he ordered a coffee and she her usual diet soda. Salim was glancing curiously at the corners, tables, ceiling, staff and people at that place, for he had never set foot in there before this time. He all of a sudden felt himself waking up from the effect of some spell she had lain upon him, and noticed her blabbering before him. She was talking, talking, talking, it felt like she would never shut up. Suddenly, his gaze caught a female sitting alone in a corner, he saw the resemblance between him and this strange creature at the far end of the wall, the girl in front of him did not matter anymore, did not exist. He saw his past, present and future in the lonely girl’s eyes, they said that this overwhelmingly innocent entity did not belong there just like Salim.
Confused and confounded, Salim got up, not paying attention to the broken radio before him, nor to the people in that horrid space, and ran out of there without looking behind him; it was love at first sight, but he could not handle it at the time.
A week after the weird incident, Salim went to the university trying to resume his life as if nothing ever happened, but his life has changed; he has changed. Ever since he saw those eyes, he never stopped thinking about the familiarity in them. In those eyes, he saw the same heavy weight he carried. As he got in, the first thing his absent mind let him recognize was HER. She was standing there under a tree like an angel without wings. Tremors of fear, excitement and longing went through his body as he mustered the courage to go in her direction. He was doing something that’s against his system of beliefs and principles, he was going to talk to a girl. Yet, this was no ordinary girl, she was the thing that made his heart blossom like a flower in the spring. These feelings were unfathomable to him, but he felt he did not need an explanation.
‘Hi!’ he barely uttered through a shaking voice.
She looked at him with an expression on her face as if she knew and was expecting him.
‘Hello!’ her voice was sweet and inviting, and this gave Salim a wee bit more confidence and reassured him that it was not a bad idea. He introduced himself and asked for her name. Layla, a magical name for a beautiful girl, he thought. They started a conversation and gradually Salim began to feel comfortable in his skin which was unusual.
From that day Salim and Layla transformed into something of an item. They were inseparable. He found out that Layla also grew up in an orphanage. She was the only person in the world who understands him and makes him feel that thing he has always been curious about, unconditional love.

image source:https://tinybuddha.com/blog/trying-to-change-your-life-6-reminders-to-help-you-keep-going/
@OriginalWorks