Weird Dancing Girl

4

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The boy
✡

Oh no. She had seen him. Tanay shifted as she stared at him.

She would know. She would know. She would know.

He closed his eyes. What kind of boy stares at people through their open windows?
But her window was open? His mind defended.

Did it matter though? She would now think of him as an A-grade stalker. What could he do? Go back in to his silly parents.

But it was too late. She had seen him and would probably never ever open that window again.

He dropped his head low, going to worse thoughts. No. What if she told her mom?
Tanay's hands covered his mouth. What if-?

Before his mind could explore another what if, his mother called out to him, shaking him out of the weird dance girl's trance.
“Kya maa?” he said, carefully closing the balcony.

“Now even you’re irritated with me? No one in this house knows-“ she continues as Tanay just tunes her out for the next five minutes. She’s holding his bag in her hand as she speaks so he figures she wants him to keep it in place. So he nods and takes it.
The bag is hung behind a door as his thoughts race back to the dancing girl. The sheer excitement and enjoyment she honed. It looked so much similar to the feeling he got in the bowling alley.

“So Tanu how was it?” His father asked. He didn’t even know when he drooled back in the hall.

“Uh- it was good dad,” he lied, pasting a smile more genuine, because his mind was happy, just not because of the bowling.

He had lost today. Badly. When that wasn’t it, some of his friends did not even care to show up. Only two of them showed up, that too, restless and tired. At he sight of them, all his zest had died down. Sometimes, he didn’t understand why they were not passionate about anything. Bowling or other things otherwise.

“Good beta, come sit na. Watch the match with me,” Tanay settled in near his dad. The cricket match was the T20 test series but the TV screen seemed to be having a weird dancing girl over and over. He rubbed his eyes, but she was still there. His dad noticed his wide eyes, “What?”

He glared at him, pointing to her obviously. But then he blinked again, and it was cricket, “Nothing,” he said, nodding.
His father’s attention fused back to the television as the player hit a 6. His dad whistled, leaning ahead.

Tanay smiled at him but he couldn’t sit on the couch anymore. He had to do something. Some work to keep the her out of his mind. So he helped his mom in the kitchen. She was surprised when he asked her. Because usually Tanay was too tired, too dead to even move but today he wanted nothing but to move.

After two hours of keeping himself busy, he asked his mom for more.

She almost scratched her head,”Ah? Yes! Go get Juno from down, the dinner is almost ready and he has to set his timetable before he sleeps!”

Tanay smiled, happy to get the andreline. It was colder than usual today. Especially now, that it was past seven. He wore a sweatshirt that hung behind the door and tread down.

He searched for his brother's face amidst the many notorious boys playing in the society ground, but Juno was no where. He even asked a few of his friends, they all had different ideas.

Juno often did that, played all over the society, sometimes even outside the back gates. He was immensely scolded for it once from their parents too once.

But Tanay still decided to check near the back gate. But he wasn’t there too. Just cold air brewing around him. When he decided to search the society again, he retreated but he felt something fall out if his shirtpocket. When he turned to pick it up without direction, he dashed into a person.

A person, that looked a lot like the weird dancing girl.

As he stared a moment longer, he realized it was her.