Finding Him and Me

Chapter 18 - Getting There

"Arjun, you do realise we have to dance right?" I smile slyly.

He sits quietly, with his eyebrows pinched abnormally close and a grim scowl plastered across his features. His rage is pretty obvious. Oops. Then he nods and says , "Yeah, just don't jab me in the arm while waltzing on stage" with a huff and eye roll.

You did not just say that! "You never know, I might even stamp your toe with my wooden shoes, or better still, trip you. It all depends on how much you tease, annoy and infuriate me." I retaliate, with my head cocked to the right. This isn't funny.

"Oh really?" He scoffs.

"Oh yes indeed!" I shout.

"Arjun- uh... Um,...." We both turn in fury to look at his sister who has a dumbfounded look on her curious face. Bloody hell. I just fucking fought with my Prince. Curse me!

"Can I speak to you." She says as Arjun gets up. With one last long lingering look at me he walks off with Aisha. I sink my head into my palms with a loud sign.

Fuck.ing.hell.

Alia! You will never ever do that again. You will not raise your voice with him and be disrespectful. You will not be over friendly, physical and stupid with him. My conscious angrily knocks some sense into my mind.

I will not. I will not. Please don't let him run away. Please don't let me be such a fool. I repeat to myself again and again.

But why did I get so hyper. It's not like me, not like Alia to behave so impulsively with strangers. Was it because we were talking about books, and it's a touchy subject to me? Or was it his teasing me? Or did I want it. Did I want to get friendly with him. Why does a teenagers mind resemble a cluster fuck? You can frankly just picture it like that. Sweaty, fatigued, disgusting (a little bit), messed, either super active and high or just dead and drunk. Like no one has a clue as to why it's happening or even what's happening for that matter. What the hell. Ughhhh. Kackajhcjabkcajdbcjxaljcb. I groan loudly into my palms and run my fingers through my hair. Focus on the positive. Focus on dance. Breathe.

As if on queue, I hear footsteps approaching and this time I don't make the error of not looking up. It's Miss Shona and Shruthi. With Arjun a few feet behind them. Where's Aisha? I stand immediately, shutting off my kindle and placing my bag neatly. There's 15 minutes left for class to start.

"Hi Alia, Arjun. Good thing you're early, we'll start the ballroom dance right away." She says quickly, setting up the music system. Oh. Okay. Not freaking okay, I'm scared.

I look at Arjun, who shifts his gaze at me long enough for a single blink and then looks away. I'm in deep shit.

"Come here." Miss Shona gestures us to come further in front with a wave. "Did you guys talk to one another the other day and discuss the dance?" She asks with big eyes. We both just nod. "Okay, let's hear the music and understand the counts, I'll explain the story in detail after class.....Lots to do!"

This is happening so fast. It's like I want to catch this moment in a little jar and put it in my head, but at the same time, I don't want it to happen at all.

"Shruthi, play scene six track two." Shona directs Shruthi looking into her diary. "Have both of you warmed up?" She asks us.

"I stretched half an hour ago here." I mutter.

She looks at Arjun expectingly.

"I played basketball and ran couple kilometres in the morning. Is that okay?" He answers with one hand swaying back and forth in the air. Oh. He's the sports type of guy. But then he's the reading type too. And then I realise.

He's the dancing type.
Sister type.
Reading type.
Sports and workout type too.
Woah. Wow!

Unlike Abby Witcher from the Ugly Truth, I'm not an obsessive control freak, but I do have a little checklist in my head too, when it comes to men. So far Arjun has been hitting the excellent column in all the requisites. But why I'm a thinking about that. Bad Alia! This is gross. Horrible. It's really cheap of me to have such thoughts. Sucks for me to not know how to behave normally around the masculine gender race.

"Alia! Alia..." Miss Shona pulls me out of my irrational idiotic thoughts.

"Yeah. Um. Sorry. I was , um, distracted?...." I mutter staring down at the red flooring.

"Fine. Come here." She hits play on the music system and the speakers come to life. No sooner does the Prokofiev's Waltz Coda in G minor start than my body relaxes in the comforting sound of the tune. And I'm back to being perfectly serious. This is my happy place after all. Ballet.

The music for mine and Arjun's dance at the ball is pretty much the best song in the album. It's originally two and half minutes but for our concert it's been extended to five minutes, since the junior troop will have lesser scenes.

"During this music, you do the regular ballroom step with a turn. Five of them around the entire stage." Shona explains with the counts. "Now after this, you reach the centre stage and do the chasse' chasse' arabesque jump step four times. After which is the full turn on pointe." Arjun nods, concentrating hard. She pauses the music. "Now. There are five more bars of music. Why don't both of you choreograph that together? You can take help from the seniors if you please, or YouTube. There will be trained male dancers coming in next week for the retro dance, you can plan something with them too. Anything. But these five bars, you need to work on." Shona explains quickly.

Yeah. My heart stopped. Everything is going shitty today. I am really not ready for any of this. I almost cry.

Relax. Breathe. You can do it. "Yes Miss Shona."

"Great. Put on your shoes Alia, socks Arjun. We're ready to finally do the couple dance." She exclaims excitedly, clapping her hands and grinning broadly.

**********

Well, well. We're finally there!!!!! Are you guys excited? Comment and Let me know if you want there to be an additional chapter from Arjun's point of view at any point.

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