The Girl Who Dreams

The second Encounter

DANIEL

I stopped in the tracks when I saw someone sitting on our living room couch. It took a minute literally to comprehend what the girl was wearing. It was colourful, actually a lot colorful. I slowly made my way towards her, unsure of myself. Nobody seemed to be in the living room except her.

I noticed that she was staring at the carpet as if it was the center of the world. When I tried introducing myself she stared at me like I was an alien. Her brown eyes looked at me baffled. She looked south Asian. Her olive skin was supple with perfectly placed straight nose. But the best feature I observed was her warm pink or maybe peach coloured lips. She was, again and again, biting it. I wondered how and just how she landed here in our living room. Yes, she looked so out of place.

When I tired asking her question, she was downright ignoring me. I felt angry and amused at the same time. She was probably an awkward social kind of person. Though I wanted to find out more about her, she was eager to get out. When her father whom she called 'Baba' came, she mutely followed him out of front door. 

I stared at her form until the time she disappeared from the front gate.

I asked my dad about them. They had come from India, as my father had offered a job to her dad as an accountant along with few others whom he had brought from Milton Industries Indian division. He had provided them with a house near West London, Southall. Somehow I felt uneasy, because it was very far away from his dad's office and here too!  

Few days passed as blankness clouded in my mind. . Evie complained that I didn't give any attention to her. But she failed to understand the pressures I was going through. I had been going nowhere in my career. I hadn't thought of what I wanted to do with my life. I was not able to comprehend and deal with the uncertainties that questioned my very existent. By brother was a successful lawyer, had now set up his own firm in partnership with his friend. And I was nowhere. It was always been hard fitting in with a perfect family like mine. My father, owner of Milton Industries and mom being the anthropologist, with a PhD always made me feel insignificant.

"Dan, Dan!" Evie's annoyed voice pounded my head. "Where the bloody hell are you? I am trying to tell you something important here."

"Hmm, what?" I replied warily looking out the window of a small pickup place near my school. Even with the bright and sunny morning, I felt gloomy.

"Jess is getting on my nerves. She is acting bitchy since I ditched her in Oscar's party. I don't think I will—" she stopped in the midsentence. Reluctantly I looked at her. "You don't care. Do you?"

"Don't start that again!" I countered her in a bored tone. Hell, I didn't care. I had my issues, then to listen to her petty little things.

"Just unbelievable!" She pushed the table towards me, stood up, flipped her red hair which were hardly reaching her shoulders and stomped out of the glass door. As I warily glanced at her disappearing figure, somebody intriguing passed my vision. It was hard not to notice colorful clothes. In a flash of second, I put money on the table, cutting through angry horde of teenage girls who were eyeing pizza from a long queue, I was out in the pavement. My gaze searching and scanning the mass of school goers crowding the street. She vanished into thin air, was I imagining it? Bloody hell! A chuckle left my throat as I laughed at the idea. Why on earth I would be thinking of the same girl? I shook my head and made way towards the school.

--**--**--

Another wastage of a particularly good day chatting with the jerks, meaning my close friends. I swung my bag on my shoulders and started walking off another round of unproductive chat.

Evie was waiting by the passenger side of the door of my SUV with a scowl on her face. I wondered how I once loved the scowl, her laugh, maybe everything about her.

"You didn't call." It was a statement more than a question. It has been only a day since I avoided to call her. My stance softened as I saw the old Evie looking through her azure blue eyes. Was I too harsh on her? It has been over a year since we were together. She was not just a pretty girl but a lot of caring also! But now the caring part was becoming her obsession. I sighed and took her into a short hug.

"I am sorry. I know I am an arse sometimes. It won't happen again."

"I knew you would come around." With that, she planted a wet kiss on my mouth. "Dan, could you drop me to the dance studio," She cooed running her hands on the back of my head. Somehow I hated that.

I nodded and opened the door for her. She was taking dance lessons with a renowned dance Academy for almost a year now. And she was good from what I had seen a few months back in her annual show of our school. I envied her; she knew what she wanted to become. She had found her passion and was striving hard. Her lively chatting about some girl her Aunt introduced, was going on in the background until we reached the destination. It was an old academy, a red brick building with few students hovering around the entrance.

"Dan," she called looking puzzled. "Are you not coming up? To meet my aunt?"

Shit. I must have phased out during the conversation. Again!

"Yes. I am. I will have to park properly, don't I?" I countered her teasing.

"Hmm." She murmured suspiciously, getting out of the car. She entwined her hand in mine as we reached the first floor, where he aunt whom I met few times before stood waving her hands at us.

"Daniel Milton! It's been quite a time since we met." She hugged me heartily.

"Is this the girl you were talking about?" Evie asked her Aunt pointing her finger to a slender form standing awkwardly behind her. I bent my head to follow her finger, and when I saw her, my hear skipped a beat. Shashi stood there mirroring my reaction wearing her typical colourful top.

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