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"lao ni lao menu shagnan di mehndi..."
Maaya sat among the other girls, clapping her hand to the beat of the dholki as the golden fairy lights glimmered in the dark night. In her lavender coloured frock, she brushed her deep brown hair aside and continued clapping when her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
He was here.
She knew he was here because her heart was thumping in her chest in that familiar beat it was used to whenever she thought about him. And now even at the thought the she was going to see him after so long, her thirsty eyes turned towards to the door when it opened.
Her hands became still, fell on each other as her eyes drank him in like she was looking at the moon for the first time, like it was her first breath.
Dressed in his usual grey suit, the coat hanging off one arm which were visible because of his folded cuffs. Pushing his brown hair which looked like he had run his fingers through it many times, he stepped in and smiled as he looked at everyone.
Saira got up from the wooden jhoola she was sitting on in her bright orange clothes and ran to her brother.
" Itni dair kardi, bhai?" ( Why did you come go late, bro?)
He said something to her slowly and then maybe he complimented her because Saira smiled shyly at her brother. He walked past her then, excusing to freshen up and Maaya's heart started beating normally again.
She got up to sit beside Saira, talking to her best friend of since school about how good she looked on her dholki. Saira asked her to bring the mithai for everyone and Maaya nodded before going and getting the golden and red contrasted box.
When she came back, he was sitting beside Saira, laughing as he talked to her and Maaya melted at the sight. He was dressed in a Shalwar Kameez now, a dusky shade complimented with a skin shawl around his shoulders. How could someone be so beautiful? How could he just squeeze her heart with every move of his lips, with every instant that those dimples became visible in the middle of his cheeks? It was not fair how he could melt her to bones with only one gaze and she... she was invisible to him.
With a thumping heart due to his presence again, she bent down to present the sweets to the girls sitting on the carpet in a circle and then she reached where Saira was sitting with him. Her hands trembled as she held the box in front of him.
" Aaj toh hamari Maaya bhi ayeen hain." ( O we have our Maaya here too today.)
He smiled at her and dimples became visible again, making Maaya drop the barrier of her lashes.
" Kesi hain Maaya? Ab tau aap aati hi nahi hain kabhi." ( How are you Maaya? You don't come often now.)
That was always how he talked to her, with respect because she was his sister's best friend and even the period of ten long years of knowing each other was not able to change that.
" Theek hun. Aap kesay hain?" ( I am good. How are you?)
His golden brown eyes twinkled as he smiled again. He had partial heterochromia, his left eye was a little greyish blue below the iris while the rest was the same golden brown that left all the honey of the world envious.
" Bilkul theek. Bus is larki ki shaadi ki tyaarion ney thaka diya hai. Ab aap agayi hain tau thori madad hojaye gi." ( Very good. This girl's marriage preparations have tired me though. It would be a lot easier now that you are here.)
Saira and him were the only siblings. They used to live in Karachi right next to Maaya's house with their parents. They had moved to Islamabad a few years ago due to their father's business. Now they lived there and Maaya rarely met her best friend.
She didn't remember when it happened, when she fell in love with him. She just remembered that when the thought of her first crush came to her mind, when the she grew up, the only name she heard in her heart was his. Only his. The first pair of eyes she had seen in her dreams were his, those golden orbs that made you melt with warmth.
" Aap bilkul pareshan na hon." ( You don't have to worry at all now.)
He dipped his head in thanks and then his cousins came, pulling him with them to dance. They started doing the bhangra and Maaya watched as he took the pathka they had placed around him off his neck.
" Yaar mjhey nahi aata yey sab." ( Man, I don't know how to do all this.)
He was laughing as his cousins held his hands up, trying to make his dance but he was constantly shaking his head.
" Tumhari behn ki Shaadi hai Hussain, iskay baad tumhari baari. Ab tau bhangra daal lo." ( Its your sister's. marriage Hussain, it's your turn next. At least dance in that happiness.)
Hussain laughed, finally raising his hands in the air a little, just for two seconds and then stopped immediately, shaking his head while his dimples danced in his cheek. " Mey nahi kar sakta." ( I can't do this.)
All the while Maaya's gaze was stuck to his face, that smile and that name.
