At the College

**third day of the student arts fair

Student fair participants were scattered all over the place when I spot my team gathered by the assigned table. I enter the room with my head held high since I was the only privileged student selected from first year. It was the last day of the presentation and I look around, everyone looked presentable, I on the other hand was consumed by how appealing I looked in my effervescent saree; at the same time was preoccupied by deliberately focusing on everyone who may notice my peeping navel from underneath my pallu.

I notice my team member, Arjeet, who was also one of the coordinator of the fair. Arjeet and I had gotten well acquainted during the process of helping the group members with the preparation for the fair.

**quick background from the second day of the fair

It was raining heavily and very few people had shown up that day. I was reading my fair related material and I carelessly dropped my handbag, Arjeet walked over to help me gather my things and we continued to have a small chat. He invited me to go outside the hall and join him by sitting on the steps of the entrance hall. While we were chatting he tried to take something out of his pocket and his elbow brazenly rubbed against the side of my waist. I startled a little, which he found amusing, so he attempted to do that a couple of more times just to get my reaction. I quickly became engrossed in his playful gesture as he continued to ignore my plea to stop, each time his elbow was brushing my bare waist it was a tingling feeling which caused ripples in my belly, which were shimming over my navel sitting few inches away.

**back to third day of the fair

When Arjeet called my name from across the room, he jokingly made the same elbow movement from the day before. As playful as I can be, I tuck my saree’s pallu securing my waist and turn towards him; I gesture that my waist is now protected from his nudging elbow. We both showed each other this mischievous grin on our faces. A few moments passed and I try to gauge his attention by stepping away from my spot and consciously fixing my saree’s pallu exposing my belly for a few quick seconds till my navel fully captivated him. He acknowledged with a huge smile and held his heart pretending to fall on the ground. Other than him, couple of other people noticed me as well and mischievously tried to question my motives. I had no answer for that and with a mild hint of embarrassment and covering my face, I found myself walking away.

I return to my spot and Arjeet continued to make hand gestures, signaling me to move my saree’s pallu to grant him the wish of seeing my belly. As eager as I would be in doing that on most days, I wanted to be playful and continued to cruelly deny his wish by shaking my head and smiling mildly. To pour salt on it wound, I request my other team member to lend me his belt who was standing next to me. I tie that belt over my saree’s pallu to further secure it in a way to be more humorous. But, it backfired and the belt pulled off one or two threads of my saree, I immediately took it off. Arjeet saw what happened and he could not stop laughing. Feeling battered in that moment I just grinded my teeth and took a deep breath. I waited for a few minutes and when we made eye contact again, I conspicuously moved my saree’s pallu enough for my navel to be visible and made him jealous for laughing at me earlier.

I start walking over to Arjeet’s table with my belly relishing its view to anyone who noticed. While his eyes widen, I purposely turn over to his partner instead of him, making sure his partner can view my belly which I knew would make smoke come out of Arjeet’s ears. I deviously look towards him and in a very low tone joked about him laughing at me a few minutes ago. Probably my joke did not sit well with him; he stormed out of the hall without responding. Before I could explain that it was all for his benefit and I was just loosely trying to flirt with his partner, he disappeared out of my sight.