“Look at the time, darling. It’s still too early for you to come back home. No?”, there stood Ariel’s father standing right at the door with his hands folded in front of his chest when Ariel opened the door of her house.

Ariel laughed and hugged him while nuzzling her face in his chest, giving him a bear hug. She smelled the scent of his body and relieved in it “I’m home, dad”.

She felt two strong arm tightening around her making her lips stretch into a smile, “Welcome back, I’ve told you multiple times to come home before dawn.” Her father continued with his rambling while Ariel just laughed in between ,feeling the vibrations whenever he spoke, through her face on his chest.

“Yes, yes. I’ll be home early tomorrow. Okay? ”she reassured him while patting her hands on his back slightly.

Her father sighed, “You always say that. Have you eaten anything yet? Of course not, you and your ballerina diet”

Ariel laughed at the phrase ‘ballerina diet’ and broke their hug. “No, I didn’t. I knew that you would have made something for me. No?” she sat on their wooden porch and took her shoes off.

“I have prepared some noodles for us, we could have eaten it warm but someone decided to-” he was cut off in between when Ariel got up abruptly and dragged him to their kitchen.

I know I know, dad. We can reheat it and look it’ll be warm again”, Ariel put their noodle in the microwave and leaned against the slab of their kitchen. She was still coming in terms with what happened to her in this short period of time. Ariel didn’t wanted to go back there. Not even pass through that road. She was scared of what will happen to her if she did. And Ariel knew way to well what will happen to her if she did otherwise.

The microwave dinged, Ariel took it out and served it to both her father and her with forks while sitting on the dinning table opposite to him.

She quietly ate her noodles and was about to finish it in no minutes too without savouring the taste of it.

“Did something happened today?”, her father’s voice made her look up at him.

Ariel could’ve told the truth like nothing new but she couldn’t. Her mouth didn’t opened when even if she wanted to.

She quietly observed the wrinkles on her father’s worried face. How it went from his eyes to the mouth as if showing signs of the experience he got till now.

“you’re getting old, dad. See, there are lots of grey hair falling in front of your eyes”, she teased him to change the topic. She can’t lie to the only person she had to call a family. She could never.

“That’s called ageing like a fine wine, young lady” he puffed his chest out in boast and laughed.

“Oh, you really are.” Ariel laughed and got up after she ate all of the food in her plates and went near the basin to wash them.

Her father approached her from behind and gave her a hand in washing the dishes. The running water’s noise vibrated in the kitchen quietly.

“How was your practice today? Did it went well?”, he inquired again as he always does everyday.

“It was good, I pretty much danced better than yesterday”, Ariel said nonchalantly making her shoulders shrug a little while keeping the plates back to the drawers and wiped her hands in her jeans when she got right up.

“I’m so worried about your legs, they might even fall apart someday. Look at how thin you’ve got. You didn’t even ate half a plate of the noodles”, his worried look came in front on his face as he too wiped his hands in the towel.

Ariel knew her dad worried about her health, a lot.

She would too as it was quite difficult for her to not keep her weight in check. She has always admired people with different body types and how they are so confident in it. She wanted that. But she couldn’t. Her insecurities wouldn’t let her,ever.

She didn’t skip her meals too much but nor did she ate like how everyone normally would.

This made her dad worry about how she was not eating anything but who would tell him the monsters eating away the thoughts of his beautiful insecure daughter.

“I’m not thin, dad. It’s normal for the lifestyle I live”, she brushed his concerned eyes off and walked past him to the direction of her room.

“Ah, yes, yes. Good night, Ariel”, he didn’t pushed the topic too much after he looked at how she scratched her hands in discomfort and lightly patted her back before going to bed.

“Good night, dad.” Ariel whispered softy and entered her room while the tension leaving her body.

She closed the door of her room behind her and leaned against it. Her head moved up and a sigh left her body. She travelled her eyes to the bed wanting nothing more than to just sleep for an eternity but she couldn’t.

Ariel thoughts travelled to how she has to take a shower because she smelled like sweat, complete the assignments of her school, and prepare for the exams coming up next week.

But the bed looked too tempting for her not to sleep her night away on it. So she pulled her arms up and smelled her underarms to check whether she can pass the night away without showering or not.

She immediately scrunched her nose in disgust after smelling her sweat.

Sighing for the hundredth time she dragged herself to the light wooden colour door’s of her bathroom and turned the knob before her mind replayed something it shouldn’t.

‘I’ve been smelling like this the whole day-'

Ariel jumped while a scream scratched her throat to come out.

‘I was standing up close to that person with this smell!’ she paced around the room with her head in her hands in embarrassment. Replaying the moment when she was up close to that person in her mind again and again.

‘I admired a person and smelled like a potato in front of them. Wow-'

At last when she calm downed a little and took her bath, she jumped on her bed in her pink satin night clothes. She buried her head in her beige colour pillows and kicked her legs on the bed, still not over that she smelled like sweat stored in a broken lab for ages.

After some time, Ariel got tired of all the disturbing thoughts and her tiredness kicked in slowly making her eyes flutter close.

‘we’ll probably not meet anymore’

‘that’s a relief..’

‘she was
beautiful'

“call her winter"

........................

Author's corner:-

So,a cat ignored me today-

Don't mind me just bawling my eyes out at that....

Bye-