Chapter 1

[Sharon’s POV]

“Vaibhavi?”

“Hey Sharon, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to talk to you, about Rey and Kriya.” I said with a bit of hesitation.

I could see I had her attention then. “Kriya? How do you know her?”

“She’s my sister…” I informed.

That gave a bigger shock to her. “Sister?!” She tried making sense of it all but I guess she didn’t understand it, and neither did I have the time to go back in history and explain everything to her.

“How about we meet and talk? I’ll explain everything?” I suggested.

The next day, as planned, we met. I took Swayam along with me. We told her everything from the beginning. First, on how we are sisters and then the whole misunderstandings, fights, break up and the after effect of it. By the end of it all, Vaibhavi took a large gulp of water to digest it all.

“No wonder she cut herself from performing.” She commented, to get a glare from both me and Swayam. She decided it was a wrong statement to say, even if she was elder to them. She continued with a question, “So, how can I be of any help?”

Swayam replied, “They both still do love each other. We’ve just got to push them a bit towards each other.”

“And how exactly?” She asked back.

I put forth an idea. “You can have them rehearse together? Like there’s still a week left before the competition and as I’ve heard, both of you will be training the participants as well. Why not create a schedule that forces them to work together?”

Swayam continued, “Yea, dance brought them together before and I’m sure it’ll bring them close once again.”

Vaibhavi agreed, “That won’t be a problem at all. She’s already in his group. And I’ll have to tell Arjun to stop looking too…”

We asked, “Arjun?”

She replied a bit embarrassed, “Yes. When I first met Kriya, I felt something more to her and I asked Arjun to look into it. See, he’s a detective.”

Hearing ‘detective’ word, I blasted pushing the chair back as I stood up, “Detective?! You put a detective behind my sister?!” I didn’t care that Vaibhavi was years older than me. No one puts a detective behind my friends and family!

Swayam acted fast to calm me down. “Sharon, calm down and sit. Everyone’s looking.” I looked around and sure enough, the crowd around us was staring at us. I sat down and repeated in hush words.

“How can you put a detective behind her?!”

Vaibhavi defended herself, “Hey! I was just trying to find out why an amazing dancer like her had trapped herself in her own world, not bothering to show her talent to everyone. I meant well only!”

I did understand the reason but I was still not okay with someone following around my sister like that. And more over, my ego would not let me accept any such thing. I gritted, “Fine.” Swayam, being the silent watcher of my anger looked around and then passed a smile to Vaibhavi, indicating that it’s for the best if she left for her house now and we did the same.

***

[Kriya’s POV]

The birds chirped, announcing the sun rising. Dawn it was. New morning, new beginning, new happiness, new life! I opened my eyes with a huge smile on my face. The passion and the glitter in my eyes were slowly returning. As one could see, I was a lot happier with each passing day. No longer did I have sleepless nights.

I got out of bed and walked up to the calendar, not one sign of being tired. I picked up the marker and crossed out one more day. It had been a week since I and Rey had a talk about giving it a time; it referring to our relationship. We needed time to bring the lost trust back. One week since New Year. One week since the time we had gotten rid of our past misunderstandings and had decided to move on.

Now, the only thing that was awaited for was the competition to begin. I knew it won’t be easy. Others already said I was a marvelous dancer and I’m surely to win. But as the saying goes, ‘Never underestimate your opponent.’ I followed the rule and would take in the compliments I got but wouldn’t let that take over my pride. I let myself remain down to earth, like always.

Looking at herself in the mirror, I beamed and left to get ready. I surely was looking forward to my days now. What more can I want when I was getting to see Rey everyday now? With each passing day, we were coming close. Not that close yet to let my fear disappear. I knew he was trying and I was going to give my best shot at it as well.

***

Sharon drove as I sat in the passenger seat. It was another day of practice. A beeping sound disturbed the car’s inaudible atmosphere. I unlocked my cell to check the message I received. It was from Rey, I knew it before I forwarded to unlock it. It had become a regular routine now to text each other as the day began.

“Good morning!”

I replied to the greeting with a greeting and sent it. “Who’s texting you this early?” Sharon asked, and I looked up, caught off guard and the smile vanished from my face as I realized I wasn’t alone like other days. Today, Sharon was with me. “No one; nothing important.” I quickly said, dismissing it.

I didn’t reply to the second message I got from Rey so Sharon wouldn’t ask more questions. I kept it on vibrate so it wouldn’t buzz again. As the drive continued, Sharon looked the other side to check for cars to make the turn. I took that opportunity to quickly send a message to Rey. I didn’t have much time to type anything so I just sent him a blank message, knowing he’d understand. This between us… keeping our relationship secret, having done that before, we knew what the hints meant. Others might not understand it, but we’d made up ways to communicate secretly, and I’m glad we had. It came in handy at times like these – when you have a loving, but prying sister in your way.

As it was, we didn’t want our friends troubled seeing that we were coming around in our relationship and not ‘everything’ could be called ‘perfectly’ normal. We had agreed upon keeping our ‘meetings’ to ourselves till the things worked out.

I entered the locker room and I was pulled in the washroom. I didn’t fight back as my senses told me it was Rey. Only he would dare doing something like that. I had known that move since college times. No one else would even think about pulling me in like that. I closed my eyes and let the blush come up on my cheek. So many years of knowing each other, and it’s a wonder I still end up blushing.

“Won’t you open your eyes?”

“Mm-Hm.” I replied with a hum, lips sealed and head shaking back and forth. He blew softly on my face, making me ticklish and giggle. I struggled to keep my eyes shut. I so wanted to open them and see his face. Still, I kept them tightly shut, just to see what he would do.

I wasn’t ready to give in and he knew better than to give up. If he had learnt anything in the past years, then it was this one thing: never give up! He held my hands crisscrossed behind my waist and tickled slightly on my waist. I held back the giggle and spoke with a stern voice.

“Rey!” He was well aware of why the warning and the stern tone. He was breaking the rules. Those rules that we had made long ago during college times. He couldn’t tickle as I would always be out of breath by the end and then I’d be struggling to breathe normally again. With my asthma condition, he shouldn’t do that.

I know, years had passed, but neither of us had forgotten the rules. How could we? It was a part of us and one just doesn’t forget their own self. Do they? I also know he only did it because he knew it would irritate me. Enough that I would open my eyes and scold him playfully.

“Please?” He pleaded now. I couldn’t refuse the cute plead and thus opened my eyes slowly to set them on him. A smile automatically spread on his face, which was contagious and caused me to smile as well. We would spend the little time we got by ourselves before the rest of group started coming and before we’d have to act as just a ‘judge/choreographer’ and ‘participant.’

***

Vaibhavi clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. Everyone understood that an announcement was to come and soon fell in a neat semi-circle, with Rey and herself as the center.

Everyone listened with attention as Vaibhavi spoke. “Competition is a week from today. Till then, I’ve decided to have each one of you have lessons with both of us individually. Since there are twelve of you and just 2 of us, I’ve divided you all according to your weakness and judges on who will be best for you to help you learn. The list is posted on the board over there,” she pointed at the board and continued.

 “And well, let me just wish all of you. Each one of you is different and special in your own way. There’s a passion that we saw in each one of you. That’s the reason you all are here. It is true. At the end, there will be only one winner standing, head held high. By the end though, I want you all to stand hand in hand and say that you had the best time here doing what you love doing the most: dancing. Show the world that there’s more to dancing then just dances done for celebration in weddings, in clubs, and parties. You give your best at it and we’ll make sure you succeed in life and show everyone what dance is really about.”

Everyone cheered her for the boosting lesson she taught in just few words. “What are you waiting for? Go, check the list and get started. Lessons begin from tomorrow.” She ended and everyone scurried away.

I, however, went towards my bag to fetch some water before I went towards the board. By then, most of them had already checked the list and were moving away as well. Rey stayed behind to let everyone leave, like he always did, so that he can talk to me. Vaibhavi on the other hand stayed back today as well.

I saw my name on the list at the last shift every day with Rey next to my name. That meant I was to have Rey teach me around in case I needed help. While butterflies flew in my stomach, I kept a modest look on my face. I turned to see Rey walking around acting as if he’s just waiting for others to leave. He raised his brows in a questioning look. I saw Vaibhavi right behind him, something Rey had failed to notice. I couldn’t speak out the answer so I simply walked away towards my bag. In secrecy, while I was walking, I had my index finger pointing towards the ground.

Rey, at first, was confused why I didn’t answer and just walked away. Then I saw understanding pass over his face. One finger meant ‘yes’, and another meant ‘no’. It had been another one of our signals during college time. He looked down to see what number I was pointing at. He then simply blinked his eyes looking at opposite direction from me.

I understood that he got the answer. I stopped pointing the finger and picked up my bag. I turned, smiled at Vaibhavi, and left just like that without a look towards Rey. I was very glad to know that he remembered. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to accept that he still remembered everything. All the little things, he remembered. It was as if we were never apart. The misunderstanding had never happened. It wasn’t something to let go of that easily though.

Day after night, month after another, year after year, the past will never leave.

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Author's Note:

HAPPY 2015!! Wishing you all the best for the year *hugz*

Thank you guys for all the reads, votes, comments & follows! I'm so sorry to keep you guys waiting for long. I was tying up ends & fixing up the plot for this part. It's like 75% ready now, so I can start posting up chapters weekly (=

Kinda filler update... still, their new beginning. Wait for things to pick up (=  Sharon's POV! XD Hope you like it. There'll be more of her side. And even her & Swayam <3 

Vote, Fan & Comment!

 Love, Araina.