Binay stepped beside Mareea.... a happy smile on his face. He was "da one wid da gal!!!!" hehe! The ?compliments-man?, the residential homeless, was there as always. " yo lady wid million dolla smile!" He hollard at me and "ooooh Lady, I love those heels!" at Mareea. "Ya riie, he always lookeein at my buuuth!". Mareea rolled her eyes at him. Aatish piped up, " oooooooh reeally? whats wrong with yur buuth?... let's have a look see!". I elbowed Aatish..... "Pitla tyahi heel le!" Aatish winked at me and said, "la la!". I whispered, "shhhhhhhhhh!!!!....Binay is trying to make conversation with Mareea!". All the guys pretended not to listen! ya! "Ahem! so you are from Bolivia.... dey sell drugs dere, right? hahaha!.....just kidding hahaha!!!!!" I winced! "Druuuuug? Boleevia, no same aas Colombia... and Mexico ees no same aas Colombia!!!", she glared at him! Aatish coughed, actually choked! The other guys laughed, " udhayo udhayo!" But Binay was brave, " He he! just wanna say you look beautiful! Came out wrong!!". 10 points for Binay, he got a smile from Mareea. As we were walking, prom-wallas and wallis were hanging around the restaurants. Limousines were lined up and 18th street was packed with celebrating young people. We, Mareea and I had graduated! ...finally! I had applied for jobs but had not heard from them, yet; so, I was resigned to going back to Nepal. Unfortunately, my academic training was such that it would be difficult to find a job there. It had been the same for Mareea . She was leaving for Bolivia the next day too. I would miss her as she had become my friend and almost a sister. We arrived at "Cities" Club and entered the festive place. There were seven of us; the other three guys were the shy ones; shyness did not stop them from looking though! But they were not very adventurous; all three needed company and a little bit of a buzz to go to the floor . As for approaching any girls, forget it! They were not wild, just jovial after a few drinks. Everyone got a drink, a Heiniken each and stood around the dance floor * checking out* the *scene*. The *scene* was a group of gals in itsy bitsy teeny weenies, tittering around doing the "oops I did it again" thang, eyeballing at guys and giggling. I looked at our guys and encouraged, "hey go ask them to dance!" They would not budge! "Pakhana!!!". "Yo Mareea, wanna dance?" asked Macho Binay. "Surr babeeeee, lea me on!" said Mareea with a glint in her eyes. I tried to warn her with my eyes. Too late! she had been He-Manly swung off her feet onto the dance floor. Binay had firmly put his arms around Mareea and was trying to do some fancy steps. Now, the thing with Binay's dancing is that his muscular frame was not very flexible nor too graceful. He needed a certain circumference- space around him....arms and legs at horizontal position circumference. That always cleared the floor around him. His flailing arms and legs were Rambo-esquely lethal when in action. He was better off dancing "Everybody wants Kumfu Fighting!...." Above his arms Mareea's eyes peered at me begging me to save her. Aatish was beside himself laughing at Binay's attempts at close-dancing. Just then, the "Macarena" started.... Everyone's cue to jump in!!!!!!! Safe stepping even for the shyiest one of us! *********** To be continued***************