Beyond the Boundaries

Chapter 21

'What are you doing?' Maahi saw Raghav painting something in the corner of his living room as she entered into his apartment.

'Hey, what's up?' Paints were strewn across the floor and Raghav was painting. It was a girl standing with her face partially toward the sea. She was wearing a low cut back open to the top dress. There was an intricately designed dream catcher carved on her back. Her hair were loose and open, swaying in the breeze. Maahi couldn't resist but touch her own hair after looking at the painting. The girl looked very similar to her.

'I always wanted a dreamcatcher tattooed on my back.'

'I know, you told me that the other night.'

Maahi put her hands on her mouth and then buried her face between her hands in embarrassment.

'What else do you know about me Raghav?' she said sheepishly glancing at him.

'Haha...nothing much really, except that you love dream catchers.'

'Is that me?'

'You can say, inspired from you.' he smiled.

'Inspired?'

'Yes'

'Your inspiration has my face and my hair,' she laughed and took a seat, watching him paint.

'What kind of painting is that?'

'It's called Cubism, but I did include detailing as well, so not exactly cubism. You see, I did want her to look a lot like you,' he winked

'And what's cubism?'

'Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around you. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view basically.'

'Wow.'

Everything about that painting was beautiful. The dream catcher was painted with impeccable detailing, the web, the feather and those little beads, it looked sublime.

She took a picture of him painting the dream catcher and uploaded it on her Instagram account. Then she surfed the internet on her phone, changing songs and checking on Muffin and Yolo who were clearly enjoying each other's company.

'Are you hungry?'

Raghav was still immersed in his work and did not answer. Maahi went closer to him and shouted in his ear,

'Food?'

He jolted and then both of them started laughing.

'Yeah, order something. There are a lot of numbers jotted down on a piece of paper over in that corner.'

'McDonald's?'

'Piri Piri Fries?' They both said it together and Maahi placed the order.

It was very difficult for Maahi to sit silently in one place. She felt so giddy, touching everything around her, playing with the toys that were placed on the shelves. Then his cell phone rang.

'Raghav, your phone is ringing.', she called at him.

He went and answered it. He was speaking to some friend who wanted to come over but Raghav explained that he was doing some work and would catch up later.

'Your friend wants to come over?'

'It was just an old friend, she wanted to come over as she was getting bored.'