Opposites attract

Chapter 6(Neil)

NEXT DAY

I am waiting since half an hour for Ashu. It's not her usual self to be late to anything. And maybe she wasn't interested in spending time with me but I know she loves dancing and should be excited to do it after such a long time.

I remember back when she used to live here, she and Yakshi used dance all night long on weekends. Sometimes even I used to join them. My parents used to send us to sleep at around 12 claiming that we were disturbing the neighbours. But do you think three teenage best friends would care about the neighbours on a Saturday night. I know we didn't.

It was 1:00 pm now and Ashu was officially late. I was getting worried so decided to go out and look for because she hadn't picked up my calls or replied to my texts. I knew for sure that she would be at her flat since it was Friday, I mean a workaholic like her is definitely going to be at office on a weekday right. 

And that was the main problem, I didn't know where her office was. But I had a faint idea it was somewhere near the restaurant I went to yesterday since she mentioned they had visited the place during lunch break. I decided to go with my instincts and grabbed my keys before rushing out of the door.

The moment I stepped out of my house, I bumped with a brown-haired girl and she hit the ground with a loud thud. Shit this was Ashu but I couldn't see her face since her covered all of it I bent down to take her hand but ended pushing her hair behind her ears instead. I missed those long brown waves; she doesn't let her hair loose anymore unlike earlier when she used to flaunt her silky strands at any opportunity she got.

She looked beautiful with her hair down and as usual the scent of cocoa and honey surrounded her alarming every one of her presences. I could even see some of her freckles in the yellow lighting of the hallway instead them being hidden behind makeup.She snapped her fingers in front of my eyes and pulled me out of my dreams.

"Are you going to keep staring or will you help?" her words remind me why I have started to hate her so much.

I extended my hand and she stood up taking its support."Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes, your attempt to kill me didn't work."

"no one will die from such a fall."

"But I could have died if I slipped down the stairs, where were you even going when you knew I was going to come over."

"I was going to –" for a second, I had thought of telling her the truth but decided against it. "Never mind. Why are you late?"

"This is not a business meeting and so I don't have to be exactly on time."

"The way you sent me the chart, god forbid I wouldn't be shocked if it were a business meeting."

"If you are done with your foul comments, we can start practicing."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We practiced for an hour and hadn't even finished the first paragraph. But she had meeting so we decided to call it a day. Thank God this torture was over I couldn't focus on the step with the way her waist swayed to music and the intentional and unintentional touches.

As soon as she left, I took a deep breath and locked the main door. I returned to my room but came out the next moment as I realized my room was till filled with her scent. I was hungry so decide to eat the noodles I cooked for us, both of us.

 I don't know why I cooked her favourite dish for lunch or thought that she would have lunch with me. I don't even know if she still liked my noodles.I sat Infront of my tv and switched on my favourite show, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. eating these noodles alone while watching tv, reminded me of the days the three of us used to sit on this very couch after eating after Yakshi and Ashu returned from home and watch our favourite cartoons.

Our favourites were Thursdays since on those days I used to get home early due to less classes and cook lunch for the three of us. Correction: not lunch I used to cook noodles. They both liked my noodles, while Yakshi complained and asked me to make different dishes every week, Ashu used to sit quietly and enjoy the taste. I decided to switch to cartoon from F.R.I.E.N.D.S but they didn't telecast ours anymore so I turned the television off and ate in silence. 

After eating I went to play a few games as my room was now free of the scent that my choreographer had left behind. The rest of my evening went nice until my father showed up for dinner and insisted, we sit together and eat while talking. Ah I hated talking to him because I knew he had one and only one topic in his mind to discuss and that was my future I and all aspects including career and marriage.

We didn't talk. No, what we did couldn't classify as talking. It was him speaking and me listening until my plate was empty and he had no excuse to hold me back.I returned to my laid on my bed. 

I couldn't get married not now and not after Deepti. What we shared was different. It was great while it lasted and heart breaking after she ended it claiming that her parents weren't fine with my career choices. My mother had adjusted with the fact that I would never love anyone the way I loved her but it was my father who kept pushing me to move on in life. Not like I didn't want but I couldn't find the courage even after so long. 

That night I thought I would sleep with the thoughts of Deepti or my father fogging my brain my brain but my I knew that wasn't going to happen as soon as I saw a stand of golden-brown hair on my pillow.

 I was instantly taken aback to the sight I saw in the hallway earlier with her hair loose and heavy breathing, she looked just as mesmerising in her formal office outfit as she used to while dancing around in sleeping shorts on our weekend night dance parties. I shake my head to get the sight out of my mind.

But my mind instantly started wondering how this particular stand of hair had appeared on my pillow. My mind flashed with the memory of me falling while attempting a turn. A rush of laughter escaped Ashu's mouth and I hit her straight on face with a pillow, the pillow, this very pillow.

Thank God it was just hair and not something like a lipstick mark which would be difficult to remove. The thought of her lipstick took me back to the moment when she was laughing all carefree and with her guards down. I haven't seen her like that in a long time. She looked so perfect seated on my chair while gesturing her hands to prompt me steps and that smile on her face.

That smile was so cute and perfect, her pink lipstick was a total contrast to her light blue outfit and made her look bold and cute at the same time. I tried to sleep early since I had a long day tomorrow with my second session for dance with Ashu, cooking meals for myself and papa ad most importantly the photoshoot with flute. 

My first ever official photo shoot. Finally everything was falling in to place except for my sleep as my mind kept on drifting from to a certain brown haired grumpy lady who walked with the scent of cocoa and honey 24/7.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hey reader, I hope you are all loving everything so far.

Please inform me if something wasnt up to your expectation. The comment section is always open to all your feedbacks, be it praises or critisism.

THANK YOU.