Short Stories Collection

All About You

"Hi," said a deep voice, distracting Naina and Kamya from their chit-chat, in the happening disco of Mumbai city, Pulse.

They looked up in the direction of the voice.

"I am Advit. Can I have a dance with the beautiful lady?"

There stood a tall, fair and undeniably handsome man, in a black shirt and faded jeans, hands folded on his chest, a heart-stopping smile adorning his face and dark brown eyes waiting for the answer. He was intensely looking at Naina making it evident that his offer was directed at her, totally ignoring Kamya.

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Had it been some other girl, she would have jumped at the opportunity. What better than a Greek god himself approaching you while you are sitting without a partner in a disco on a Friday night. Perfect setting. But Naina had been through this just enough times earlier to understand the underlying meaning of this gentlemanly dance proposal directed towards her. She knew she is the stepping stone. The guy must be really interested in Kamya, her extraordinarily beautiful best friend, and he is either shy to approach her directly or was trying to play the ignore-to-get-attention card by asking her seemingly harmless friend for a dance instead of her. She had been burnt before by this insensitivity of male species, who literally drool over her best friend Kamya who looked no less than a supermodel and was the life of parties with her charming smiles and grooves, the center of attention at places such as these, Naina wryly thought.

She sighed when she saw a ghost of a smile on Kamya's face at this tactic, as they both knew that during the dance this guy will try and extract as much information about 'that friend sitting over there' of hers, then he'll buy drinks for them and within a week if Kamya clicks with the guy, they will be dating, while Naina will be left to nurse her bruised ego and self-respect. It hurt when she was deemed worthy only to be used as Kamya Kapoor Information Center. Enough was enough. Naina had strictly decided to dance only with known guys and not accept dance offers from strangers when it happened to her last time. And for now, she has a better idea. Ugh, only if this man was not so handsome and so genuine looking, it would have been a tad bit easier. She was so tempted right now to say yes to him. They are all the same Naina. He is here with the same purpose. Don't delude yourself and think practically, the guards around her heart stood up.

She put up a smile and said above the loud music, "Thank you. But I am seriously not into dancing. However, my friend here, Kamya, she loves to dance. Why don't you ask her? I am sure she would love to dance with you".

The man could only stare at her at such tactless brush off. He then shot an awkward smile towards Kamya and gave a short nod of acknowledgment to her. Kamya herself looked a little flustered with such directness of her friend this time. And like a lifesaver, Naina's mobile shrilled and vibrated at that very moment, giving her a perfect excuse to get away from the scene.

After listening to a fifteen minute long lecture on how she was misusing the freedom and understanding she was being provided, and how middle-class parents have to face society if their only daughter comes home after midnight and how they won't be able to sleep until she is safely back home, Naina gave up and assured her Maa that she is leaving right now and will be home in half an hour, and that her mother and father should not wait up and sleep. She went inside and found that the man and Kamya were not there in the lounge. Must have gone dancing. I anyway made things easy for him, didn't I?  Her heart constricted at the thought of being ignored in favor of her friend yet again. She texted Kamya informing her about her departure and left.