I'm engaged.

I was sitting alone in the common area of St Brigid's Mental Health Hospital, minding my own business when this psych patient came up to me.

She asked questions about my headscarf and my religion - common enough questions that even normal people are intrigued on asking. I answered her as best as i could, trying hard not to agitate or offend her in any way. I thought i was handling the situation fairly well, at first.

What i failed to grasp was that talking to a psych patient is like walking slowly through a minefield. Every step is a gamble. There's no assurance that all the precautions you've taken will be of any use once you've made that one, single innocent yet devastatingly catastrophic step forward. And before you know it.. kebaboom!!

I learned this particular piece of wisdom the hard way when the psych patient suddenly grabbed my hand without warning.

"Are you married?" she asked, eyeing the ring i was wearing.

"No. I'm not." I answered instinctively.

"Then why are you wearing a ring???" Her voice was raised, her eyes were wild and her hands gripped mine in a tight knot, very obviously angry about something. I would be kidding if I said I wasn't scared. This was my first real encounter with a psych patient and no one took the time to tell me how aggressive they could be.

"Why Are you wearing a ring?" She was yelling now.

"I'm engaged!" I blurted out without thinking.

"Oh, really?.. how nice!" Her mood took a complete 180 degrees turn from the crazed person she was just a few seconds ago.

"So who's the lucky man? Is he from around here?" She gushed as she gripped my hand firmly in hers. I felt like a trapped rabbit in a small cage.

"No, he's back in Malaysia." The words rolled so smoothly off my tongue, i kind of surprised myself a bit. I guess I'm a better liar than i usually take credit for. Or perhaps, in desperate times, a person's survival instincts will kick start and go straight into auto-pilot mode.

"Awww, you must miss him a lot, don't you?"

I just smiled - partly as an attempt to dampen the conversation down a notch and partly because i find it extremely hard to say i miss someone who doesn't actually exist. Besides, what's the point of making her any more manic than she already is? Fortunately for me tho, after a few more short exchanges, she got distracted by something on the TV and left me sitting there, still a bit shaken up from the experience.

But before i could even begin thinking of regaining my composure, Ian came strolling towards me in that i'm-a-cool-guy kind of stroll.

"I didn't know you were engaged." he whispered, sounding a little bit apologetic for some odd reason, probably for eavesdropping.

"I'm. Not. Really. Engaged." I mouthed the words slowly, afraid the lady could still hear me from where she was standing in front of her object of interest.

I guess Ian was too busy absorbing the 'fact' that i was engaged and didn't really pay much attention to what i was trying to tell him because he continued without missing a beat, "Anyway, congratulations to you and your fiancée. When do you guys plan on getting married - after you graduate or earlier?"

Oh man, this is wrong. All wrong!

To try and explain the situation to him at this point was, well... awkward?? (and a little bit embarrassing). And i knew if i tried to fabricate a story there and then, I'd stumble miserably because - let's face it - everyone knows I'm horrible at lying. Short, seemingly harmless lies to crazy strangers are okay i guess, but to lie to a friend makes my insides churn with guilt and this will show all over my face.

So instead of trying to top a lie over another lie, I decided to opt for plan B - change the topic.

"I dunno yet." I shrugged dismissively. "Anyway, I'm not really comfortable talking about this, sorry." i punctuated the last word with a nervous laugh for theatrics sake, while trying to feign shyness.

"Oh, no no. That's alright. I understand." He smiled.

As far as Ian's concerned, I'm engaged. I'm not too worried about this slight misunderstanding, because our social lives don't really clash much. I do hope Ian's not a too much of a gossip-monger though, as my chances with a certain someone in class will be forever ruined if word ever got out that....

....I'm engaged!

(hehe. just kidding! =P )