Swaron FF: Living the dream - Page 55

Um, so guys. This chapter is kinda longer than the previous one. I'm sorry, but I was totally in the mood to write and plus this could either have been two short updates or one huge update. Clearly, I chose the latter. This update had to be big because I needed to stop at a particular point and the only way to do that was to make it huge because I had to put in a lot of things. So enjoy, I guess.🤔

Chapter 20

"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
- Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

He looked into the mirror and saw his confused state of mind reflected in his reflection. He checked his watch once again. Once again because he had checked it just a few minutes ago. The dial glowed with green fluorescence illuminating the time that flashed on the small screen. It was 6:26 a.m.

He couldn't sleep last night. After tossing and turning for the better part of it, he had finally gotten up, slipped into his shoes and made his way here.

He stood in the dark, empty rehearsal hall facing the huge mirror that occupied one entire wall. Dark, because he hadn't bothered to switch on the lights. And empty, given the time of the day.

He inserted the CD lying on the CD player and pressed the play button. Soft, rhythmic music wafted from it, gradually increasing in tempo. His body automatically responded to the music, dance being second natural to him.

But for the first time he had no idea what he was doing. His thoughts had firmly decided to avoid the conscious aspect of his mind. Instead they mulled over in his sub-conscious.

Since last night, she had been dominating his mind, consuming all other thoughts. He couldn't stop thinking about her anymore than he could shake of the feeling that had been lingering since he last saw her.

What was that? That feeling? He thought. He had never experienced it before and all of this felt surreal. His thoughts kept oscillating between denial and confusion. But try as he might he couldn't deny it. It was there and he had to accept it.

Once he had accepted it, he tried to analyze how he felt about it. He felt happy and confused and a little scared. All these undeniable feelings were unnerving in their intensity. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt such strong emotions. These emotions made him feel much more alive. And he loved that feeling.

Then came the inevitable question- had he fallen for her? Maybe it was too soon to tell. Or was it? The confusion had begun to irritate him now. He realized what the problem was.

He was thinking too much.

He should let his heart decide. It had been doing weird somersaults since last night and was feeling more bouncy than usual. Clearly, it had opinions of its own. Whenever he thought of her, which was pretty much all the time, his heart beat quickened its pace as if urging him to run towards something.

He stopped thinking and cleared all his thoughts from his head. He listened intently, for a heartbeat, because that's how long it took for his heart to respond.

You're in love with her.

The response shocked him so much that he stopped dancing immediately and staggered to a stop. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and all he saw was more shock and confusion.

And then all at once his thoughts started flowing again trying to drown that singular piece of fact that his heart had so casually thrown at him.

That's not possible!

You can't be in love with her.

She is just a friend, nothing more.

You are turning this into something more than what it actually is.

Just because she understands you, doesn't mean that you love her.

But all of it sounded so feeble. No matter how many excuses his mind came up with. His heart never once faltered. It vehemently stuck to its decision as if it were some sort of a universal truth.

Was he really in love with her? His mind asked him, resignedly.

His heart smiled in triumph.

____________________________

She watched him dance in the rehearsal hall and thought that it was the perfect opportunity to put her plan in action. She sneakily tiptoed into the hall and put her arms around him from behind, completely taking him by surprise.

He did a double take and was shocked beyond comprehension when he saw who it was.

"Chantel?" he asked, surprised, his voice echoing off the walls.

He immediately pushed her away and put a safe distance between them.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, mildly repulsed.

"I saw you dancing and I thought you could help me since I'm new to the team and all." She said, in a sugary sweet voice.

"Um...ok. Fine." He said, looking at her suspiciously.

"Just show me what you can do and I'll tell you how you can improve." he said, going and leaning against the room sized mirror.

Chantel smirked. Oh, she's gonna show him what she's got alright!

She changed the track on the CD and put a fast, sensuous number.

And then she began dancing seductively.

If Swayam was mildly repulsed earlier, he was completely horrified now. He appeared to be more mortified than she was, as she slowly lost any respect he may have had for her earlier. He averted his eyes, as he felt sickened by her dance. Not only was she degrading the purity of dance as she performed one unfinished step after another, but was also losing her self-respect, if she had any that is.

Before he could ask her to stop, she came towards him and started grinding herself against him. She clutched him tightly as she rubbed herself against him.

But he had had enough. He pushed her roughly and giving her the most aversive look that he could muster, he stalked out of the room.

____________________________

She looked at the digital clock lying on the kitchen counter and almost choked on her milk.

8:20 a.m.

She was going to be late. Very late.

She grabbed her backpack from the couch and picked up her blue scarf, which she had bought as a replacement for her favorite but lost black scarf, and wrapping it around her neck, she opened the door.

Only to find a bemused Swayam with his one hand raised as if he was going to ring the bell, standing there.

"Hey!" she said, turning around and locking the door behind her.

She pocketed the keys to her house and faced him.

"How come you're here?"

"I thought I would give you a ride today." He said, smiling.

"Sure. Let's go."

They sat in the car and headed towards the college.

Swayam found himself staring at her more often than necessary. Once or twice she even caught him ogling at her, which caused her to throw a confused, questioning glance towards him.

"So, how's Charlatan?" she asked.

"Who?" he asked, clueless.

"You know, the chick who claimed to be the mystery dancer?" she said, casually.

"Her name's Chantel." He said his face visibly hardening.

"Sure, sure." She said, indulgently.

"Yeah, she is on the team." He said, repulsion strewn all over his face.

"What?!?" she shouted.

He looked at her amusedly, surprised at her reaction.

"What happened?"

She took a deep breath calming her agitated nerves.

"Nothing...I just...I didn't know you guys had selected her."

"She's not that good, is she?" she asked, tentatively.

He replied in the negative.

"No, she can most definitely improve!" he said, pointedly.

Her relief was immense. Somehow, knowing the fact that he didn't find her that good, greatly pleased her.

"How come you guys let her on the team, then?" she asked.

"Long story." He said, simply, before giving a huge yawn. He suddenly looked very tired.

"You didn't sleep last night." She said, more like a statement than a question.

He sighed. "Do I look that horrible?"

"Not more than usual." She said, smirking a little.

He made a face at her and stuck his tongue out.

"What happened? Dreaming about someone, huh?" she said, jokingly.

He looked quite suddenly at her and almost hit a car in his surprise.

She looked at him in confusion.

"What...I...No. Um I just wasn't feeling sleepy." He said, lamely.

"Dude! Stop acting so weird! What's up with you?" she asked.

What's up with him?!? What's up with him!!! Bloody hell, he was going crazy, that's what's up with him!! He was constantly thinking about her even when she was right in front of him. That didn't even make sense!! Each second he found himself falling for her more deeply than was possible! All he wanted to do was stare into those beautiful, deep green eyes till the end of time. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and never let her go. All he wanted to do was kiss her senseless. All he wanted was to tell her how much his heart yearned for her.

But he couldn't do that. Not when he wasn't sure himself. His mind still kept coming up with lame, outright stupid excuses to make a feeble, ineffective attempt to shake the firm foundation that his heart had built out of his love for her. But after his sister's death he had tried not to get attached to anyone too much.

Of course, the fact that he had already gotten too attached to her completely escaped his head.

"Nothing." He said, as he pulled into the college parking lot.

____________________________

"Oh, c'mon! He was totally gay!" He said.

They were sitting in the pavilion overlooking the basketball court, after a hectic day at the college. With their pending homework, spread out on their laps, they were in the middle of a crucial argument.

"Dumbledore wasn't gay!" She said firmly, but with amusement flashing in her eyes.

"He was gay!" He said, with equal conviction. "Did you ever see him with any chick?"

"No," she said, "but that does not mean that he was gay!"

"J.K. Rowling herself claimed that he was gay!" He said, smugly.

"What rubbish! How do you even know that?" She asked.

"Not the point!" He said. "Point is that he was gay!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not and you know it!"

But he found that he had lost his ability to speak. The reason for that being the fact that their faces were now inches away from each other; their noses almost touching. His breathing accelerated and so did his heartbeat, as if there was some cause for celebration.

He lost himself in the clear, pools of green that had most of its innocence brutally robbed from it. But some innocence was still intact as if even after all this, there was still some hope in this world. With a jolt of thrill, he realized that she was staring into his eyes just as intensely. He felt the sudden urge to touch her. His hand was half way up, when she broke their eye lock.

Awkwardness established herself firmly in between them and their eyes found themselves looking at anything and everything except at each other.

She found herself smiling. She was enjoying this. Albeit, she had no idea what THIS was.

Had she known that she had started falling in love with him, she wouldn't have enjoyed it at all.

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They were in her house, sitting on the couch, watching T.V.

Like it happens most of the time, there was nothing worth watching on the T.V.

After flicking through all the channels for the third time, Swayam put on some random channel, put the remote down on the coffee table and leaned back further into the couch.

Sharon equally bored, leaned her head on the arm of the couch and thrust her legs on his lap and made herself comfortable.

Ten minutes later, Swayam could be seen sleeping peacefully, a smile playing on his lips, as if he was having the most amusing dream ever, whereas Sharon, on the other hand was still agitated with excess of boredom. She looked at Swayam for a few minutes before smiling wickedly.

Well, like they say, an idle mind is the devil's workshop.

She raised one of her foot and slowly tickled his hair with her toes. For a few seconds she was shocked at how smooth it was.

When he didn't stir, she once again tickled his hair, for a longer period this time.

He finally did open his eyes and with the most adorable expression on his face he cried-

"What the hell?"

All he received in answer was tinkling laughter.

He looked at her and a smile automatically plastered itself on his face. Grinning, he said-

"You know what this means right? PAYBACK TIME!" He yelled, before diving in on her and tickling her to death.

For a few minutes he went on tickling her and she went on howling with laughter, both of them unaware of the position they were in. When they finally did, he stopped tickling and she stopped laughing as they realized that he was practically on top of her, his hands still on her waist and hers on his chest.

He was about to say something when the phone rang bringing them back to the harsh world of reality. How harsh, they would very soon come to know.

He got off of her and she left the couch to pick up the phone.

He looked at her as she talked to the person on the phone.

"Yeah"

"Yeah"

Suddenly her expression changed. Her face went deathly pale and all emotion was quickly draining out of her eyes. She couldn't utter another word as the phone slipped through her hands and landed with a dull thud on the floor. A second later she collapsed after it and the next second he was on his knees, sitting beside her, holding her by the shoulders and looking straight into the now emotionless eyes.

"Sharon, what happened?" he asked, worry and pain strewn all over his face.

She didn't answer.

He gently shook her by her shoulders and repeated the question, more firmly this time.

She looked up at him, as her lip quivered a little and said in a small voice-

"My father. He is dead."

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P.S. The whole Dumbledore being gay conversation was the one which I've actually had with my aforementioned, best friend, Ron. He vehemently supports the theory and I vehemently deny it. It wasn't meant to hurt anybody's feelings or insult anyone. It was purely meant for some harmless fun.

Originally posted by: marauder

Well the last part of the of the update was like a sucker punch which just knocked the smile on my face. But keeping that aside this was a fabulous chapter. All the decription of Swayam's feeling was awesome. And all the reaction of him appears so natural that it was like we were actually in his mind and feeling the same emotions. Sharon has started to feel the same but i think she is yet not at the same place where Swayam is. I don't know what turn story will take now and seriously i am getting irritated with this Chantel trick because i am seriously negative vibe about her part in the story. Looking for the update.

P.S - Loved the quote in the begining and yeah Dumbledore was not gay even thogh J.K Rowling says so.😆

Originally posted by: Sudha-SK

Thanks for choosing the bigger update. 😉

Now let me get back to an awesome read.

*edited*

Beautifully written, again...😊

There were so many things about the update which i loved. The whole Swayam mind vs heart was very apt to what he was feeling and shown nicely. Hate this Chantel gal, but glad that Swayam's view on her are quite same. Loved the Swaron convo on Dumbledore and Sharon sure is naughty..troubling poor sleeping Swayam. Looks like Sharon is falling for Swayam too.

As all good things come to end the happy atmosphere changed with the dreadful phone call poor Sharon, am sure Swayam will be by her side.

Looking forward to the next update.