Nefarious Games

It was a usual Saturday morning, I was in a grocery store standing in a queue with some eggs and some some random monthly magazine I found to buy. I had my earphones plugged in, just enjoying the music playing and the warm weather. As I stood waiting a young girl probably in her 20s approached me. She wore a purple hoodie and seemed worried like she wanted some help, so I removed one side of my earphones to hear what she had to say. She looked at me barely spoke a word, just turned her back to me and rushed out of the store. Stood there baffled I couldn't react since it was my turn to pay. I removed a note to pay and the cashier went to grab my change. As I looked around waiting for my change I noticed the girl giving me an intense glare from outside the shop. As I made eye contact with her she panicked and looked away. At this point I was concerned about the girl and scared that I was being stalked in some manner. So I grabbed the change which the cashier gave me and quickly walked towards the exit. As I walked outside I saw the girl waiting there twiddling her thumbs. The moment she noticed me she started walking away with her hands in her hoodie. At this point I was confused with what was happening, whether she was really in need of some help or just a weird stalker. Regardless I would regret it my entire life if she really needed some help. So I sneakily followed her as she walked with her head down. From the looks of it she looked pretty upset and anxious about something. Suddenly after taking a few steps she stopped for a second, stomped the ground and continued walking. Her body language showed that she was in real distress. At that very moment my habit of overthinking struck and I was lost in my deep thoughts. I thought real hard about what could have possibly happened to her, was she being held captive? Did she escape from some human traffickers and needed some serious help but possibly refrained from asking it from me cause I am a guy? Still why would she only so focused on me, did I portray any features of someone she recognised? With so many questions in my mind I had my mind off the road and almost tripped and fell. She was quick to notice that and swiftly tried to get away. I couldn't afford to lose her but also couldn't hide from her anymore now that she caught me. So I also got hold of myself and tried walking quickly to catch up with her before I lost sight of her. She seemed to have a relatively quicker speed cause of her younger body. After walking for some time I was running out of stamina real quick so I realised that I needed to get to the root cause of this drama real quick. After a few more impatient steps I had it with what was going on so I just decided to go ahead and ask her what's up. So I quickly took a run towards her but instead of stopping I assume she got scared and ran faster. My body couldn't take any of that cardio anymore so I just shouted, "Hey you! Please can you just wait for a second I have something to ask". Hearing that she immediately slowed down and stood there staring at me. So breathless me tried asking her what was she up to but I barely could speak as I was out of breath and started coughing. She quickly came to me, gave me a few pats on the back and offered me some water from the bottle she had. I grabbed the bottle had drank some of the water from it and started to cool down. I thanked her for helping me and handed her the bottle. As she took the bottle from me I finally asked her what was she doing in the grocery store. She immediately got nervous and started stuttering. I told her to calm down, take a deep breath and not to get scared from me as I was just concerned bout what was going on and did not intend any harm to her. So she took a deep breath and spoke in her low voice, though it was low it was still loud enough that I could understand what she said.So she went ahead and narrated the entire drama what happened in the store. "Sorry to cause you trouble uncle but the reason why I was so worried at the store was because I woke up late today and missed my favourite monthly magazine, but it turned out that you had the last copy of it so I approached you asking whether I could take the magazine but I chickened out the last moment". I face palmed my self in disappointment as I just had wasted so much of my time and caused a huge drama just because of some monthly magazine. So looking at the girl's passion for the magazine and I just handed over the book to her and she paid me the respective amount. She seemed to be delighted and started jumping and thanking me repeatedly. Soon enough I realised it was getting late and I had reached too far from home. So I booked a cab cause my body was already drained with all the running.I got home and just hit the sack. It sure was a weird yet memorable day for me which I'd probably never forget till my last days.