FLORAISON

Chapter-9》

"Hey New-Girl... do us the honors", Soumodip one of Shalini's crew shouted at me from across the room.

I removed my socks and lucky me was just happy about the fact that I was wearing underdresses, which is something we learned to practice at WLEC.

I go over to the music box which was being handled by Mr pretty Eyes or Vihaan (I need to stop referring him like that).

"Which song?" he says in a low deep voice without making an eye contact with me.

"Uh..Never Let Me Go by Florence and.."

"The machine.. Got it! So contemporary huh?" He says interrupting me which is really surprising because he did make an effort in a conversation with ME (weird).

"Mmhm..Yeah" I say feebly as I walk away.

I stand facing one of the mirrors and opened my hair and threw the hair tie and my specks towards Yug who is sitting with the rest of the dancers to my right. Even though I can't see a thing without glasses I never prefer wearing contacts because a plus side to this is that I cannot see if anyone's watching (that helps with my performance anxiety).

I sit on my knees with my hands stretched over my thighs and my face facing down between my arms facing.

"Ready?" Shalini asks me from behind.

I show her thumbs up Gesture and Vihaan plays the track on my que.

"Looking up from underneath

Fractured moonlight on the sea

Reflections still look the same to me

As before I went under..."

In all these years of trying to be perfect for everyone else, I learned to be an expert at pretending. Why you ask, because I never wanted to disappoint anyone or maybe because the way My mum was always so uptight about everything. She always pushed me to be perfect and a better version of myself but I don't blame her, she learned at a pretty young age that this is a man's world and if she had to survive it, then she has to become a bit of everything.

To satisfy her, I learned to pretend, and dance felt the same for a long while but soon I started enjoying it too. It was a perfect place to express my emotions.

Once the song started, I could only imagine that feeling, that feeling of never being able to find something that 'I' really loved. There might be so many things that this song can symbolize but Love was just at the centre of it all.

I let my hairs free to feel what it feels like to not be in control, to let go of everything that I stored up in my mind. At this moment I had no stress about being selected into the dance team.

"And it's over

I'm going under

But I'm not giving up

I'm just giving in

Ah, slipping underneath

Wooh, so cold, but so sweet"

When the song stopped, I looked at myself in the mirror and then turned left to face Shalini.