Brown Girl

Gotta Be Somebody's Blues.

"How was your weekend, Alisha?" Colin asked on Monday, leaning against her locker.

"It was very...eventful." She summed it up with a smile. "How was yours?"

"Eh." He shrugged. "Taking care of grandma."

"That's sweet." She smiled at him.

"What'd you do this weekend?" He asked, genuinely interested. He knew she went to that Josh's party.

"I went to Josh's party on Friday, actually. It was fun. Especially, when Alex got drunk, okay? He started blabbering all kind of nonsense and I had to handle him an-"

"Wait, you were with Alex?" He cut her off, growing angry.

"Yeah....he and I went together." She shrugged looking at him weirdly.

"As in like a date!?" He growled.

"No...as in friends, as in 'hey you're my neighbour so it would be easier to hitch a ride'." Alisha said sarcastically.

"What do you mean by you handled him?" His eyes narrowed, frustration clearly visible in them.

"I mean, I took him home when he was drunk, Colin." Her tone was stern.

"Whose home? Yours or his?" He demanded.

She just stared at him curiously, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.

He punched the locker beside her, not making her flinch at all. "Yours or his!?"

"I think it's none of your business, Colin." She said coldly.

He grabbed her by her arm, his grip surprisingly strong. "It is. It is my goddamn business."

"It really isn't. What the hell is wrong with you, Colin?" She growled, trying to get away from his grip.

"You. You are what's wrong. You have made me crazy, Alisha." There was fire in his eyes as his hands shook. He almost looked like he was on crack.

She placed a hand on his chest and shoved him backwards, making him release his grip on her. "No, you already were, Colin."

With anger in his eyes mixed with hurt, he stomped away from there. Alisha sighed, leaning against the lockers. What had happened to him? Where was the sweet, innocent Colin she knew?

"Hey." Alex came towards her jogging with a smile.

"Hi." She murmured, distracted.

His smile faltered and his eyes wandered towards where Colin's fingerprints had left a mark.

He took hold of her arm gently while his tone wasn't so. "Who the hell did this!?"

She released her arm from his hold. "It's nothing....I just had a misunderstanding with Colin."

"Colin did that to you?" He snarled.

"Yeah, it wasn't intentional, okay? I'll just talk to him later." She nodded. He looked at her, not believing what she was saying, but decided to drop it for now.

"You're fine, right?" He asked softly, bringing a hand to her cheek, stroking it.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She nodded. "I am totally fine."

~

"Where are the guys?" Christina wondered out loud at the lunch table.

"Who cares?" Mira shrugged, a bit annoyed.

"What's up, Mira? Why so tense?" Alisha smirked.

"Have we got lover boy problems?" Christina smirked.

"No..." Mira sighed. "It's just that Colt's been avoiding me. Like every time I go to talk to him about Friday night, he vanishes, or makes an excuse."

"He must be nervous." Alisha shrugged earning a death glare from Christina. Alisha obviously told Christina what Colt was planning to do.

Hey! When you promise someone you wouldn't tell anyone about it, your best friends don't count.

"Nervous?" Mira narrowed her eyes.

She sat up straight. "A-about talking to you about it."

"Yeah, maybe." Christina perked up.

"I don't know, really." Mira shrugged, oblivious to the eye conversation going on between Christina and Alisha.

As Christina ranted about how she was given unfair detention by her Psychology teacher, loud music started playing from outside. Everyone in the cafeteria shut their chatter and went out, following the sound.

The three girls went to the football ground to see Colt standing in the middle of the ground holding a boombox above his head while Alex and Joey were beside him handling the huge speakers and music, from which the music was really playing. It was in reference to one of Mira's favourite movies, 'Say Anything', playing 'In Your Eyes' by Peter Gabriel from the boombox.

Alisha and Christina dragged Mira to the middle of the ground, around which the whole school had crowded, as she was too shocked to move.

"What the hell is all this?" Mira whispered as they reached the guys.

Colt smiled and spoke loudly, keeping the boombox down. "Mira Strangford, you're one of my best friends and the most crazy, unimaginably childish and beautiful person I have known. I just want you to know that I like you. A hell lot. And so, would you do me the honour and go out with me?"

Mira was speechless. The music had lowered. The whole school was waiting for her response.

Slowly, Christina pinched her in the arm, bringing her back.

"Ow!" She screamed, making the five of them laugh.

"Say yes." Alisha whispered from beside her.

"Oh yeah. I have to reply." She look at Colt who was amused. "Yeah, um. Yeah, I would love to...go out with you."

The whole school cheered and Colt stepped towards Mira.

"Good." He whispered before crashing down his lips on to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he lift her off the ground.

"How'd you like it?" Alex asked, coming beside Alisha.

"Your idea, I suppose?" She raised an eyebrow.

"The one and only." He smirked cockily.

"Why is it so cheesy, again?" She smirked, teasing him, leaving him shell-shocked. He thought girls like cheesy crap! But he should've known, if it was Alisha instead of Mira, Alisha wouldn't of gone for it. She would probably laugh at his face and walk away after ruffling his hair like a kid. Oh, man, it's gonna be tough to ask her out.

"That's because...cheese is nice?" He finished off lamely making her laugh.

~

Alisha was back in her own world. With her music on, she danced to the rhythm naturally, letting the steps consume her. Here she needn't think about Colin and what happened between them.

She tried talking to him the entire day but he just ignored her. There was something wrong with him. He was acting pretty strange for the past couple of days.

The music suddenly stopped, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She turned to look at her mother, standing in there with a glare on her face.

"What, ma?" Alisha panted, a bit out of breath.

"Alisha, what are you doing?" She demanded.

"Chasing zebras." Alisha muttered. "What do you think, ma?"

"Alisha, you have to stop with this nonsense. You need to concentrate on your studies. You can't be a dancer all your life! You have to get serious now." Aisha scolded. She was constantly on Alisha's case these days. Aisha was never home, but she made sure to give Alisha a good earful each day about her studies, at which Alisha did excel.

"Ma, I finished all my homework." Alisha shrugged, chugging down a bottle of water.

"Only homework is not enough. Homework karne se koi engineer nahi ban jata (No one becomes an engineer just by doing homework). You want to become an engineer, don't you? Then you have to focus."

Anger boiled up inside of Alisha. "No, ma. I don't want to become an engineer, you want me to become one."

"Alisha. Not this again. We decided that you're going to do engineering and then handle your father's company. That's the end of it." Her mother said sternly.

"But, ma! What about what I want!? I don't want to become an engineer. I don't want to handle papa's company! I have other interests and aspirations." Alisha screamed.

Her mother screamed right back. "What will you do then!? Become a dancer!? Jaa banja! Banke phir tu sadak pe tamashe karte phir (Go become one but you will land up only doing performances on the street)."

"Ma, meri ek baar baat sun toh lo! (Just hear me out for once!) There's nothing wrong with being a dancer, ma! And I'm not saying I'll become one. All I'm saying is that I don't want to be an engineer."

"Then what do you want to do!?"

"I don't know, okay! I don't know!" Alisha screamed, frustrated. 

~

Alex had just entered his room and stopped to look at Alisha's studio where she was dancing. Man, she was good! But too soon, her mother came in and she stopped. Alex knew Alisha's mother wasn't too comfortable with this whole passion that Alisha had towards dancing.

Alex couldn't hear anything, seeing as that studio was soundproof, but he sure could make out that the both of them had gotten into a pretty heated argument. With hands waving in the air and their facial expressions changing into anger, he knew it was serious.

It went on for quite a bit, before her mother said something to which Alisha didn't reply, and stomped out of the room. Alisha looked up at the ceiling and screamed and then in her frustration, punched the mirror wall in front of her, breaking it into pieces and letting her hand bleed.

She slouched down beside the broken pieces of glass and let out her tears, bringing her knees to her chest and curling up into a ball, oblivious to his stare on her.

He couldn't take it. He couldn't see her cry and all he could think about was going over there and screaming some sense into her mother even if it might be Alisha's fault. He needed to do something.

He saw her get up, wipe her tears and head out of the room. He had a pretty good idea where she would be heading up next.~

"How's the hand?" Alex asked as he climbed up his roof and went and sat beside Alisha on the ledge.

"I thought you weren't a stalker?" She asked taking a sip from the bottle that said 'Grey Goose'.

"I thought you weren't much of a drinker?" He teased, ignoring her question.

"It's not alcohol." She stated, earning a confused look from him. "It's water, in a vodka bottle, so that I can pretend like I'm drinking vodka. It eases the pain."

He chuckled. "You would think so. Now give me that hand."

She gave him the still bleeding hand, turning to face him as he did the same. He had a first aid box from which he removed the necessary items and started bandaging her hand.

"You're not going to ask what happened?" She whispered, looking at him as he bandaged her up.

"It's your wish if you want to tell me." He shrugged, wiping the blood away.

She sighed. "I just got into a huge fight with my mother. The same old thing. She wants me to become an engineer and I don't want to be one."

"What do you want to be?" He asked, curious.

"I don't know." She said. "And when I told that to her, she started on how unfocused I am and it was pointless arguing with her when I don't even know what I wanted."

He knew there was more, so he let her continue, focusing on bandaging her hand.

"It's just that...my whole life has been planned out for me since I was a kid. They always talk about how I'm going to grow up, become an engineer, go into business and then they'll get me married when I turn 22-23. They just never stop for a moment and think about what I want or what I imagined my life would be like." She chuckled bitterly. "I guess, I just described almost every Indian kids' life."

He still didn't say anything.

"Maybe she's right, you know? Maybe I shouldn't even try to make them see my point because I don't even have one. I guess I should just become an engineer and get married."

Now, he said something. "You're wrong. You should say something and you should make them see your point because you do have a point."

"And what exactly is my point?"

"Your point is that you want to live your life like the way you want. You're going to talk to your folks, tell them you don't want to become an engineer and they should give you a chance to become whatever the hell you want."

"And how I will I know what I want?" She sighed.

"You'll find out, Alisha. You will. Not everyone knows what they want but at some point they do find out. You just have to be patient." He explained softly.

She looked at him with amusement. "When did you get so mature, boy?"

"Ah, brown girl, it's wisdom." He said nonchalantly.

She smacked him with her free hand. "Yeah, right. Wisdom based on what? The education of pornography?"

"Shut up." He scoffed, releasing her hand and putting back everything in the box. "A boy's life is not porn, you know?"

She snorted. "Tell that to your search history."

He chuckled making her smile.

"Thank you." She said after a couple moments of silence.

"For what?" He asked.

"For everything. Consoling me, bandaging me up and giving me sucky pep talk." She chuckled.

He smiled. "You're most welcome."

She surprised him by hugging him. He hugged her back, bringing her closer. She fit in his arms perfectly. She buried her head under the crook of his neck while he stroked her hair softly. They just stayed like that for a long time, letting their minds focus on nothing but that moment.

"Just one more thing," He said pulling back a bit. "If you ever want to remove your anger or frustration, punch a teddy or scream into a pillow but never, ever again punch the mirror."

She looked at him with amusement. "Stalker."

He chuckled, shaking his head.

~

No one noticed the odd, beaten up black car parked opposite of Alisha's house in which Colin sat, slugging from a bottle of Jack Daniels, as he watched Alisha and Alex. He watched as Alex bandaged her hand, spoke to her, hugged her, held her.

His knuckles turned white from gripping the wheel in anger. First she fights with him, back answers him in the morning and then runs into that Alex's arms at night. He didn't blame her. What was in him to like? He was just a low-life. A pathetic loser that no one ever saw, no one ever cared for, no one ever liked.

Alex was smart, good looking and popular. He was nothing compared to him. But he thought Alisha saw something in him. She was the first to treat him like an equal, like a friend. She was amazing but she also betrayed him.

He had to do something. He couldn't lose Alisha. He saw the bottle of pills beside him and in anger chucked them hard against the window, making them spill out on the floor. He's not going to be taking his medication anymore. He was normal. And he was not going to lose her.

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