Dancing In Love

Part 1 - He's Trouble

I looked at the mirror, at my reflection. I was wearing a black bikini with my hair in a tight bun over my head. A year ago, I would have felt insecure to even try a bikini but a lot has changed since then. What I was wearing didn't shock me anymore but it did make me think about how much everything had changed since I came to LA.

1 YEAR AGO

When I was a kid, I was one of those people, who was so outgoing but only had one actual hobby that I was good at, reading. My parents spent so much time in my childhood to encourage me towards different activities so that I found something I had a passion for. But that never happened. I spent all my days, just studying or reading or listening to music or talking to friends.

But all that changed after I came to LA. I am Aranya, a typical Indian student, studying to get a post-graduate degree in psychology in Los Angeles. I met Alex in college when I entered the wrong class, bumped into him and he was the only one kind enough to actually point me in the right direction. Soon I became great friends with Alex & his friends. Alex became my best friend and one of the first few things that I got to know about him was his love for dancing. So when I told him how much I loved watching videos of people's dance choreographies to famous songs on Youtube, he invited me to visit the Millenium Dance complex with him saying, and I quote, "You haven't felt real dance if you haven't seen it with your own eyes." And once I saw their dance and felt their enthusiasm for it, I understood what Alex was talking about. I fell in love with dance. I mean, how could you not?

And in the next 2 months, I became a dancer. I had always wanted to try dancing but never had the confidence, so I started training through videos, going to Millenium, dancing with Alex and soon it became my new hobby. I wasn't even close to the best in the game, but I was a dancer & I was better than before, which for now was good enough. I figured out pretty easily that my forte was couple dancing. Something about dancing with someone else was just more comforting and confident.

Today, I was going to Millenium for a special reason. Today I am supposed to dance with Alex in front of everyone on a choreo we'd been practicing for weeks now. I was excited because it was my first time dancing being the focus of everyone. And it didn't help that I was nervous because I'd never danced in front of so many people freely. I was used to keeping that carefree confident persona on, only when I danced alone; but today, I had no such choice. I escaped my thoughts when I heard my phone ringing.

"Ara, I'm waiting down here." Alex said on the other side.

"I'm coming, just a sec."  I said before I hung up. I grabbed my black zip-up hoodie and put it on over my white tank top and black jeggings that I'd been wearing while I put my hair in a tight ponytail and walked down the stairs and out of my apartment  building.

Both of us drove together in Alex's car to Millenium. On reaching the studio, I could see a lot of familiar faces waiting for us, and a few new ones as well. The sound system was set-up and everyone was busy doing their own thing. People were talking, dancing, singing and what not. I smiled on seeing that. This is what I love about millennium, it made you feel like home.

After a few dances, it was our turn to perform so we walk towards the center of the crowd.

"Ara, don't worry; we're going to kill it!" Alex encourages me, looking at me sideways.

"I'm scared. This is really new to me." I exhaled.

"Look" he turned towards me, held both my arms at my sides, looked straight at me, and continued, "I know that this is new and hard for you but I know you can do it. I've seen you dance and I know you have fun when you do it. So don't think about anything else in the world. Today, just enjoy yourself ". He hugged me tight and whispered smiling, "This is gonna go good."