A Flight of Love

Chapter 33 - One Last Shot

"Akshu, come, stand here!" Shefali pulled Akshara into the room and placed her front and center for the practice dance performance.

"Yes, Di. Just like we practiced." Saanj added, tapping her one foot on the ground, arms behind her, leaning in forward and turning her shoulders, left first then right.

Akshara nodded her head and followed Saanj's lead, slowly getting into the groove of dancing as she put Abhimanyu's thoughts behind her and focused on the task at hand.

Slowly, she began to remember all the steps they were supposed to follow. Akshara began twirling around, letting herself lose, free to the sound of music.

~*~

Abhimanyu crisscrossed his legs, uncrossed them whilst jumping up in the air and doing a 360 turn before landing back on his feet, and flinging his arms out for the final touch of their dance performance.

It had been 2 hours since they'd be practicing and yet only completed 2 songs out of the 5 they'd prepared. At this snail's pace; it was going to take forever for them to complete learning all their dance steps before the Sangeet.

"Bhai! We should go and check how the enemy camp is fairing, don't you think?" Nishtha suggested, leaning in on Neil, who was gasping for air from all the practice.

"That's cheating Nish. We can't do that." Neil responded, trying to catch his breath.

Abhimanyu wiped the sweat off his forehead and tossed the towel onto an empty chair before casually joining in on his younger siblings shenanigans.

He leaned his elbow on Neil's fragile shoulders for support.

"Yeah Nish, Birlas don't cheat." He added, checking his watch to see the time.

"Fine. But then don't complain when they destroy us all in the dance off." Reem taunted.

"Come on bhai! Just a little sneak peak to see hum kitne paani mein hai. Please?" Nishtha folded her arms and begged Abhimanyu while Parth just shook his head from behind her.

Abhimanyu rolled his eyes at his siblings request. "Okay, fine."

"Yes!" Nishtha hugged Abhimanyu and high-fived Reem. "Let's go!"

She began dragging Reem and Neil out of the practice hall before turning back to face Parth.

"Don't you dare say a word of this to Shefali bhabhi! She may be your wife but you are our brother first!" Nishtha warned Parth who just rolled his eyes in response.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I won't."

Abhimanyu bit his lip thinking about Akshara. Should he go too? To spy on Akshara? To see her dancing? He wanted to. He really, really did.

"Nishtha, should I come too? Just to see the competition?" Abhimanyu mentioned slyly, walking up to the sibling trio.

Neil folded his arms around his chest and leaned back, whispering something in Reem and Nishtha's ears, before turning back to Abhimanyu, who by then was glaring at Neil, shooting daggers at his younger brother through his eyes.

"We have decided no. Because Akshara..."

Abhimanyu pressed his lips together and glared at Neil.

"...bhabhi will be there too." He corrected, afraid of his brother's glare. "And we trust you even less than we trust Parth bhai. No offense." He added.

"You know what Neil, I am offended. How dare you all think that I —your brother —will betray you?! I mean Parth bhai —I can understand..."

"Hey!" Parth intervened, offended.