The next morning Rahul was away at the wedding ceremony and none of us saw him. The activities at our camp started as usual. From where we all were, we could hear the faint sound of the mantras being chanted.

Zoya looked like she hadn't slept well. There were dark circles under her eyes. But I noticed she was extra friendly with Josh. Was she using the poor guy? But Josh, seemed oblivious to everything and was deliriously working with the kids.

In the afternoon, I almost collided with Rahul in the restaurant when I went in for lunch.

"Where is Zoya?", he asked.

I suddenly felt very defensive about my best friend. It was obvious that Zoya was still in love with this guy but he had really messed her up not a few months ago. I wasn't going to be that forgiving to him. By now, a girl in the restaurant had recognised him and had come up for a selfie, but he ignored her and stared at me expectantly.

I couldn't forget the longing with which he had looked at Zoya the last night. Maybe the two would indeed patch up, I thought wryly. But before that, let me punish this adorable rascal for all the trouble he gave to my Zoya, I thought.

"I don't know..probably with Josh", I said hitting where I knew it would hurt. It worked.

"Who's Josh?", he asked. I could hear the despair in his voice and I had to fight back my laughter. What have you become Mishti, I chided myself. How many times have I rebuked Riya for doing things like this? Its okay, I tried to pacify myself. This bastard deserves some heartache for all the shit he did.

"Is she seeing someone else now?", Josh asked when I didn't reply.

"Maybe", I shrugged.

"Maybe? Maybe?!"

"Yeah bro, that's what I said. Are you deaf?", I asked "Anyway when are you leaving Ooty? Since your sister's wedding is over, you must be leaving soon right?"

Rahul glared at me, clearly annoyed that I had diverted the topic, "My family's leaving tonight", he said curtly "But I'm staying back with the band. We have put up a show here in the weekend. Thought we might as well promote ourselves, while we're here".

"Looks like you guys have become real stars now?", I said "Congratulations. But Zoya told me you never went to college".

Rahul pursed his lips and looked at me, the way one looks at a very naughty toddler, "Look, why can't you just let me talk to Zoya?".

"I'm here Rahul".

I turned around. "Zoya?"

"Mish, could you leave us alone for a minute?", Zoya asked wearily "I need to talk to this guy".

When I entered the restaurant again, a hoard of giggling girls including Sanam and Ameesha were hovering around Rahul begging for selfies and autographs.

I had to admit it was an intriguing sight to watch in person. So far, I had only come across this celebrity-being-mobbed-by-fans scene on social media.

But somehow, I couldn't tell how Rahul was worthy of all that hype. To me, Rahul was just a regular guy who had dumped my best friend. I decided they were just flooding around him because he was kind of famous. Even Revathi was hovering around him being sickeningly sweet.

At the far end of the restaurant, I saw Reyansh quietly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, not worried about the Rahul or the buzz around him. A pillar of sanity in a sea of wackos. To me, he was the real celebrity in the room.

•••

"Will I become a dance master?", one of the little boys asked Laksh.

"Of course you will", Laksh said kissing the boy's forehead.

Laksh would make an affectionate father. Not like his own father who never said one kind sentence to him. But then, brats like Laksh, needed fathers like Neel.

Zoya had come into the activity room and gone straight to the kids. She wouldn't tell me or Riya what was going on with Rahul. We decided to wait till she came up with it on her own.

Today we were doing aerobics.

Zoya being the dancer that she was, started doing a complicated dance routine with all sorts of hip thrusts and bends and twists. The kids tried to follow her, but they couldn't. But they looked cute trying to imitate her.

Seeing the kids struggling, Zoya dropped her pro act and started doing a silly dance shaking her hands and hopping and moving around and around.

By the end of the class, Zoya had become a heroine to all the children. When the kids left the hall, they were all doing the steps that Zoya had taught them.

It was always good to see dance giving so much happiness to Zoya. If only the same could be said about Mr Saxena.