Staring Freaks

Two pairs of eyes hung on my every word, not blinking, not moving, just staring straight at me as I tried to explain what I did for a living. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my brow as I tripped and stuttered over the simplest of words so disconcerted was I by their attention. It was the first time I'd met Tina's parents after 3 months of dating her. We were sitting in a nice little cafe near a busy square ,on a bright blustery day; it should have been a pleasant occasion, it was turning into a nightmare.

To make matters worse, her father was licking an ice cream almost as intensely as he was staring at me - slow, long, lingering licks. Meanwhile, it felt like they were leaning in closer and closer crowding me, making me feel claustrophobic. He was so close I could have licked his ice cream too.  Quite frankly they were freaking me out. They'd looked like such a nice couple - they both had grey hair, glasses, him a greying beard and her with a slight trace of a grey moustache. His staring eyes were milky blue while hers were buglike behind her thick lenses.

It was a vicious circle now, the more they stared the more I faltered and the more I faltered the closer they got, trying to pick the very words from my mouth. My shirt was soaked with sweat, I could feel my eye twitch beneath the stress, I finally got to the end of my sentence and sat back, hoping there would be no further questions your honour. 

‘What the hell were you up to?’ Tina said as we walked home. ‘Why were you being like that?’
‘Me? What was going on with your folks?’ I said indignantly.
‘It wasn't my folks who were monkeying around, showing no respect, they were interested in you, but you were just being an idiot.’
‘But the staring, the scrutiny, the lack of personal space?’
‘What are you on about Rob?’ I looked at her trying to read her face but she really hadn't seen it; maybe she was used to it, maybe she thought it was normal or maybe I was just imagining it or over reacting. Whatever it was I was faced with the prospect of having these two staring freaks as a constant feature in my life, or lose what was potentially the love of my life.