Truly Madly Deeply (24 page)

“I've my unit exams coming up, we won't be able to meet regularly or talk daily, I hope you understand,” Seema informed.

“We hardly meet even now, not once have we gone out since ages,” Rahul complained, trying to make her see his side of the coin.

“Ah, we'll go soon Rahul, you know exams are something very important for me and I need to concentrate on the task at hand. Once exams are over, ma wouldn't take me to task for whiling away time. Exams make me crazy,” Seema replied.

“And me?” Rahul asked back with a sly smile playing on his lips, forgetting the topic they were arguing on.

Seema looked into his eyes and looked away quickly, controlling her smile.

“It's ok. I will keep myself busy, Dorothy ma'am wanted me to participate in the inter-house dance competition. For a week or so, I will practice with the others,” Rahul maintained.

“Ok, good luck. By the way, when is the dance competition?” Seema asked.

“In the next week a couple of days after your exams are over,”
Rahul informed.

“No one's even informed me. That means people from my class will hardly get any time to practice,” Seema lamented.

“Oh, people from your class have you and I know what you can do with your moves. I am proof enough; see I have lost my senses after witnessing your killer moves on the annual day,” Rahul teased.

“You and your dialogues!” she laughed and he looked at the way she slowly giggled, with her hand carefully placed on her mouth, trying to stifle the laughter.

“Hey…” she said pushing his face aside, “…don't look at me
like that!”

“Why?” he asked.

“Something happens,” she replied casting her gaze down.

“What?” he asked.

“I don't know,” she answered.

Rahul smiled.

“When are you meeting the others for practice?” she asked.

“Well, I was told they meet at the auditorium every evening around four,” Rahul informed.

“And who exactly are these ‘they'?” she questioned.

“Hmmm, I'm yet to find out,” Rahul said.

“Are you still angry at me?” Seema asked suddenly.

“And why should I be?” Rahul said, with a smile.

“For that telephone incident,” Seema said apologetically.

“I'm past anger now since I have you,” Rahul said, tickling her behind the ear.

“Don't say such things, you're really a flirt,” Seema said.

“What? Can't I even say what I feel? Is that always flirting?” Rahul asked with a frown.

“Hehe, yup it is. Now, don't start questioning back. I'm getting late,” Seema said ruffling his hair playfully.

“Right princess,” Rahul said.

“Hmmm… ok, I'll move then. Tuition classes have been scheduled early so we get extra time to revise,” Seema told him, “…and hey, no visits there, ok?”

Rahul nodded.

“Can I at least accompany you halfway?” Rahul asked.

“Rahul! No, it's risky. My aunt comes to drop my cousin in the primary, for all I know she might still be waiting down,”
Seema guessed.

“Ok,” Rahul said in a dull voice.

“I will give you a call a night before my exams start, ok?” she tried to cheer him up.

He nodded.

Rahul waited for five minutes before following her footsteps.

***

That evening, when he came to the school auditorium, he could hear the music from a distance. He was surprised to see only three people on the stage.

“Hey, we've got company,” the tall spectacled boy got up to add an additional chair to the linear arrangement. Rahul was not that pleased to see him.

“Hi Jay, you and dance?” Rahul sounded amused, climbing onto the stage.

“Well, time to get out of books for the time being!” Jay, the head boy replied casually. The other two also got up from their chairs to greet him.

After blaming him for their house's loss in the quiz competition, Jay had kept his distance from Rahul post the cricket and
debate victories. Rahul was glad for that as he could not stand
his classmate, but facing him again brought bitter memories of
the past.

“Hey Rahul, how have you been? We hardly get time to interact these days,” the fair, lanky girl said as she shook hands with him.

“Hi Nazia. Yeah, it's a pity!” Rahul acknowledged.

The other girl just stood there waiting for Rahul to acknowledge her presence. Finally, when he did not do so, Nazia, the head girl stepped in.

“Hey, meet Farha. You might have seen her before!” she said.

Oh, so this was the girl the guys in his class were drooling over as they realised their chances with Seema. He remembered the reactions of some of his classmates on hearing her name. She was surely competing with Seema in terms of beauty in the brains of the school's guys and for some even in their bathrooms. People used to comment that she looked a lot like film star, Kareena Kapoor and though Rahul tried to segregate the differences between the two, in the one glimpse that he took of her, he saw truth in those words.

Farha indeed was beautiful and looked a lot like the popular Bollywood diva of whom he was a huge fan. She had a slim, wild beauty about her that could captivate the opposite sex. Her figure was arresting and regal, her hips tapered into shapely thighs and the suggestion of nubile curves under her sleeveless black velvet dress spelt heat in the growth of teenage anatomies.

“She is in Seema's class,” Jay added, breaking his thoughts.

Rahul glared at him but did not utter the words that almost came to his lips.

“Farha Siddiqui,” she shook hands with him, eyeing him with arresting black eyes.

“Rahul… Rahul will do,” he said with half a smile.

He could not help but notice how soft her skin was and how her touch sent a shock-wave down his spine. He quickly removed his hand and put it in his trousers' pocket.

“So we are done now! We have our two couples,” Jay said.

“Two couples?” Rahul asked, plainly surprised.

“Yes, others won't participate, so it would just be the four of us from the Blue house,” Jay informed.

“What do you mean? I will get the others to participate, there are some very good dancers in our house,” Rahul said.

“I had made an announcement and I got no response from anyone,” Jay broke the news.

“You announced it? You are forgetting house announcements are my job!” Rahul was about to blow off his lid.

“Yes, I know but you were busy with other things, so we thought it better not to disturb you,” Jay said, not caring to meet his eyes.

“What the…” Rahul took a step towards him.

“Rahul, chill down, relax. No one was bothered about it, everyone is like ‘It is almost the end of the year, the boards will be up soon', so it's upto us to do it for our house now. Don't forget that we almost have the house-cup in our grip. In fact, Jay was the one who told Dorothy ma'am that you dance really well and she thought of including you in the dance team, which I think is a brilliant idea. Farha here has exams in a couple of days but still she's ready to participate, though she won't be coming for practice regularly,” Nazia said.

Rahul rolled his eyes but did not say anything.

“Ok then, let's start. Rahul, you rehearse with Farha and I will do so with Nazia and before going we'll check our steps together,”
Jay suggested.

Jay and Nazia went to one corner of the stage, while Rahul accompanied Seema's classmate to the other. Jay started the system and the music blazed on.

Rahul took the chair, while Farha displayed the basic steps to the soft number playing on the music system. She looked at him, while doing the steps. Rahul concentrated on her feet movements. She appeared to be a great dancer.

“Have you learnt classical?” Rahul asked her unexpectedly.

“Well yes, I've been learning it for two years now,” she replied.

“Yeah, it shows!” Rahul complemented her moves.

“Thanks!” she said.

Rahul picked up the steps from her and she corrected him when he did it wrong. He noticed the way she held him near his hips while correcting his feet movements and how tightly she held his hands when they did a step together. When she moved to his right, through the gap between her sleeve rim and her milky skin, he could see a narrow black strap on her shoulder. He quickly shook his head and severely admonished his wandering thoughts.

“Concentrate, dear!” Farha said softly.

“Hey, we'll join you guys after grabbing a quick cup of coffee from the canteen,” Nazia shouted at them from the other end.

“Ok, carry on!” Rahul and Farha both shouted back together.

They too decided to take a break and went backstage and sat down on the marble floor.

“God, I'm tired!” Farha complained, holding her head in her hands.

“Yeah, that's what dancing continuously does to you,”
Rahul smiled.

The only sounds that came in the auditorium were the creaking noises of the revolving rusty fan. They talked for a while of things and people in school.

“Heard you and Seema are back together?” Farha asked him, when he caught her looking at him, while he was looking elsewhere.

He was taken unawares by the arrival of that statement in their peaceful conversation until now.

“Huh? Who told you?” Rahul fired back.

“Everyone says so!” Farha replied.

“Everyone is dumb!” Rahul replied, taking care of the past experiences and Seema's tacit warnings to him. She would not like it if he were to repeat the same mistakes over again.

“So, you're still single?” Farha asked him, her voice dropping a little, sounding huskier.

“Kind of!” Rahul replied after a while, looking at the ground.

“Even I'm single!” Farha exclaimed, as if both of them being single in common was paramount to her joy.

She continued to talk in that voice, maintaining the eye contact.

“What kind of a girl do you want?” she asked.

“Hmm… intelligent and beautiful, loving and caring,” Rahul replied, hoping that her questions would stop soon.

“Oh, that sounds someone like me,” she winked.

Rahul looked at her and smiled nervously.

“Just joking dear, don't be so serious. Oh God, you're sweating!” she exclaimed and got up to bring a towel from her bag.

“Here, let me wipe your head as I've made you sweat with all those stupid questions of mine,” she offered.

“It's ok, I'll do it myself,” Rahul tried to decline, reposing
his frame.

“Oh! c'mon dear, don't be such a kid, I will wipe you realllllly well,” she said, elongating the ‘really' in her salacious voice and putting the towel over his forehead, carefully wiping away his brow. She looked into his eyes while doing that making it difficult for him to avert her suggestive gaze.

“Oops!” she cried, as the towel fell down from her hands.

She picked it up again and in a slow, rhythmic circular motion wiped her own forehead while continuing to look him in the eye.

“Isn't it getting hot in here? Want some water?” she asked in a murmur and grasped the bottle of water lying nearby. She opened the lid slowly and gently took a gulp. Rahul watched in fascination as the water gurgled down her throat.

“Ah...” she moaned.

She poured the remaining water on her neck and Rahul watched the droplets disappear down the opening of her dress. The water soaked her black attire which clung even more tightly to her body.

“Don't dirty the floor,” Rahul voiced, trying hard not to stare at her chest.

“Hmm, you want some. Come get some!” she said invitingly, kissing the air around him.

Rahul's legs started trembling and he nervously shifted back. She moved towards him, biting her lower lip with her teeth and worked her fingers on his brow; her gentle touch sparked his brain. Her black eyes were pulling him though he tried to stop himself, but it was difficult to brake a speeding car; and right then, his hormones started rushing fast, very fast.

Before he knew it, she came close to him; their noses touched. Her wet body rubbed against his moist manhood. He tried to move but she held his face in her palms and he felt his heart hammer against his rib cage. Her soft skin on his unshaven cheeks tied him to her bond, as she came closer to place her lips on his. She took him in her arms, heads tilted; she left her tongue to explore in his mouth. He tried to break free but the feel of her tongue immured his movements. He tried really hard not to reciprocate, to close his open jaw but his responses were not obeying his senses. She kissed his neck, right below his ear lobe and he found himself melting in her arms, a tribute to her seducing charms. Clinging to him, she pushed him back and climbed atop on him swiftly, holding
his hands in hers, extending them up and biting him softly on his ear lobe.