The Moon to my night

11

∞Step by step∞

Rudransh Singh Chauhan

She was looking serene, gazing at the setting sun. The dress she wore looked like a combination of Indian and Western styles, and her open hair complemented it beautifully. She was like a goddess who had walked down the stairs of heaven to free me from the world of my despair. It did sting my heart when she called me a stranger to Aahana, and I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt-it was bleeding. I wished I could go and hug her, wrap my arms around her, and ask her to just forgive me for whatever sins I had committed or punish me with anything but her silence and hatred. I cleared my throat to sound confident and not nervous in her presence.

"So you might know that this stranger doesn't know how to dance?"

She turned, and her hair followed her movement as if they knew perfectly how to align and move on her command. "Very well known, that's why we are not keeping anything difficult. Just follow my lead." She walked toward me, and the light sunlight falling on her skin made her glow, causing my heart to skip a beat. My body forgets about everything except her in her presence. My heart throbbed louder as her steps grew louder. She walked to stand in front of me and started speaking something I completely couldn't understand because my eyes were glued to the movement of her lips and her eyes that shone in their perfect shade of grey. She had captivated me like a lifelong prisoner, and trust me, I don't have a way out; I don't want to be out.

"Mr. Chauhan!" She jerked me, holding my arms, and my eyes came into contact with her wide eyes while irritation stretched on her perfect face.

"Yes, Dhaya." She blinked her eyes and walked to switch on the music, starting to scold me for my lack of attention.

"I had kept the performance for just two minutes. Let's get done with it as fast as possible." She played the music, and as the waves of music filled the air, I thought she could not look more serene, but she appeared more divine now. She held my hand, and strings of electricity went through my body. She touched me, Mahadev! My Dhaya touched me.

"Match my steps." I just bobbed my head senselessly and started following her lead, and I had no idea what I was doing at all.

"Not like this, Mr. Chauhan." She scrunched her nose and stepped back, heaving a sigh while I stood there looking at her like a lost puppy.

"See, one step back, one to the side, then make me twirl, and another step to the side turning me again to step back once again." She moved her body flawlessly, teaching me, and I tried to register everything that I could in my head.

"Okay, let's do this: 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1." She turned to twirl in my arms, and her hair brushed against my face. I inhaled her scent, and it felt like the feeling of getting back home after long days of hustle. I stilled in my position as the feeling was so foreign to me, as if I had never returned home in these last seven years. She stumbled in her step and gave me a glare for freezing in my position.

"What happened, Mr. Chauhan?" What should I tell her? Without her, I was not only miserable but homeless.

"Your hair." I blurted out, and I could see her growing conscious as she stretched her arms to collect those dense waves in her hands to tie them into a bun. "I am sorry; it might have hurt your eyes." She tried to make them into a bun, but before she could, I stepped close and caressed them, making them slip from her hands. "They are beautiful; don't tie them." She looked at me with eyes filled with millions of questions, but all I wanted was her at this moment, nothing else. No sour feelings, no past, no hatred-just us, in the most raw form of love, as possible. I snaked my hands across her waist and pulled her. Her eyes never left mine, and mine had no other place to rest than on her face. I recalled the steps she taught me and followed them while her body flawlessly moved to the rhythm of the music, making the moment tattoo itself in my mind.