Chapter 5

It was the annual school fest and I had big plans. Really big plans!

I’ll be honest, I was shit scared. For one, people were for sure going to laugh me out the gates. Two, Sibal would laugh me out to space. The very thought of it made me shudder. But it was now or never. It was hard finding the stuff I required for this feat, but I did, and I just had one more thing to do.

“So, what will it be?” asked a senior girl sitting at the desk. She was entering the names for the fest in the notebook before her.

“Fancy dress,” I stated and moved out after making sure that she got it right. I literally strutted down the corridors, as if I’d just enlisted myself in the army. Well, it was as good as that.

Yup, fancy dress. That’s what I had signed up for. I had a never before unique idea up my sleeve, but I was scared.

As I strolled down the third-floor corridors, I peeked over to get a view of the ground below. It was packed with students and teachers watching a live drama that was happening before them on the stage. I really wanted to be a part of it, but I lacked what was needed the most: guts.

Okay, so here’s the dirty little secret. I suffered from intense stage fear. To be an actor was my greatest dream, and I had the most important component missing: the ability to pretend as if no one’s watching you. The case was different with me. Whenever I got on stage, (if I ever did, which never happened by the way), I felt naked and that a million eyes were checking me out, um... there...? If you’ve ever heard of a guy passing out on stage after mumbling gibberish, then, that’s me.

Towards the end of the corridor were a flight of stairs, it would lead you to the grounds. Around the corner was an empty classroom. There was a beautiful melody floating out of there. And hey, I knew that song. It was my eternal favorite. I thought it might be a stereo system. But when I passed by the window, I saw Anki instead, playing her guitar.

She stopped playing the moment I walked in through the door. It was clear that she was uncomfortable at my presence. She was bold, yes, but only when triggered. Otherwise, she was mostly shy and reserved. People, on the other hand, assumed that she was stuck up and had an unbelievable ego that went over the roof.

“Do you mind, can I hear you play?” I asked breathlessly. I was hell excited after hearing the song, and after seeing my... crush doing the privileges.

“Sure,” she answered after a moment of hesitation. That was another thing about her. Most of the time, she uttered only a handful of words. If she chose to say anything more, it meant that she was pissed.

She picked on the strings. My heart thumped so hard realizing how accurately she was playing the intro. I’d always loved that song, especially its beginning.

When it came to music and movies, I was a hopeless romantic. I loved all the cheesy stuff, the kind of things that girls enjoyed, which is um... another reason why some people think that I’m gay. That doesn’t make me gay. That’s ridiculous! Who’s to blame if I have better taste?

Anyways, I was so into the song that I didn’t realize that I’d started singing until she looked up at me with big, gooseberry eyes. She never stopped though. She went on, clearly excited. The nervousness of having me around was no longer there. We were jamming.

“You sing pretty well,” she remarked after we wrapped up the song. Though she sounded incredibly calm, I swear I could see the fire in her eyes.

“Thanks,” I blushed.

“Have you ever learnt to sing?”

“Not really,” I answered.

“You must,” she encouraged, “you’ve got a great voice. Plus, you also carry a tune pretty well. It’d be a shame if you let that go to waste.”

“Hmm...” was all that I could say.

“Say, can you sing this song on stage with me?”

I gaped at her. I couldn’t believe she asked that. “W-what?”

“Can you sing this song on stage? For the fest? I can play the guitar!”

“Whoa... Ah... Um... but...” I had started to sweat.

“What?”

“Well....” I drew circles on the floor with my shoes.

“Are you tensed?”

“No... but... Yeah,” I admitted.

“Why?” She chuckled.

“Um... I don’t know... I’m scared...”

“Why?”

“What if I mess it up?”

“You won’t. Why would you?”

“I don’t know... when I see people... you know... staring... laughing... I just lose my senses.”

“You just have to pretend that they aren’t there,” she said coolly.

“How’s that possible?”

“I’ll tell you one truth, even I’m scared.”

“What? Really?” I couldn’t believe that she could even be scared of anything.

“Yes! I do get scared. I break out into a sweat. My fingers tremble on stage. I see a thousand heads before me. But then I look up at the lights, and I see nothing. I hear only the music.”

“Whoa... that sounds like a great technique.”

“Try it,” she challenged.

***