Diffidence

Shyness (n.)

I had a friend in high school who, one day, saw me reading a book on cognitive therapy. My mother had given me the book to deal with some of the stresses I was feeling, and my friend pointed to it and said, quietly,
"I've got a book like that."
"Oh," I said, "the same one?"
"No, mine's about shyness," he said.
Since he mumbled this, I didn't hear his words clearly.
"About what?" I asked him.
"Shyness," he said again, a bit louder.
The word still sounded like the word 'highness' with an S in front of it to me. So I asked again.
"What? I'm still not getting it."
"Shyness! It's about shyness!" my friend yelled, blinking hard and looking around him, surprised at the volume of his voice.