Even before she said hello, Daniel knew that Sophie had entered the room. Inhaling deeply, he breathed in the fruity scent of her shampoo, heard the soft tread of her footsteps on the kitchen floor.
Clearing his throat, he said "Hey Soph."
He didn't see it, but the sound of his voice made her jump, but he could hear that she had been startled when she replied, "Oh! Daniel! Hi!"
He chuckled softly. "I scared you, didn't I?"
"No you didn't!" she protested.
"Of course I did, I can hear it in your voice Soph."
She made a face at him, sticking her tongue out.
"Ok, fine, I admit it. You scared me."
Even after all these years, it still unnerved her that he could intuit her emotions with such uneering accuracy. She knew that blind people had stronger senses to compensate for their lack of sight, but it always got to her. All her life, she had always felt that Daniel was the one person she could be completely honest with - not only because she'd known him forever, but because he could do what he had just done. No matter how she was feeling, he knew it just by the sound of her voice. More importantly, she knew that amongst all the guys she knew, he was the only one she could be certain was friends with her because of who she was, not because of how she looked. She knew she attracted plenty of male attention because of her grey eyes, her long, brown hair and her curvy, hourglass figure, and though she enjoyed the attention, it made her skeptical of any guy who tried to get too close to her.
Except Mike, of course, the guy whom she had been secretly lusting after for months now.
"So, what's up?" Daniel asked, hoping to keep the conversation going.
"Not too much, I'm going to see a movie with some friends," she replied.
"Fun. Which movie?"
"Uh...not sure. Some sort of chick-flick, I think. Anna's picking."
Daniel laughed, hearing the disdain in her voice.
"What, chick-flicks aren't your thing? I thought every girl over the age of 10 loved them?" he teased, knowing full well that she didn't like them. He'd made a mental list of all the things he knew about her, and this fact had been one of his earliest discoveries. The solid punch to his upper-arm caught him off-guard.
"Ow! No fair! You know I can't dodge that!" he exclaimed, rubbing the surprisingly sore spot.
"I know. That's why I did it," she cheekily replied.
Daniel had to fight down the mental image of tackling her and tickling her senseless, giving him ample opportunity to run his hands all over her luscious curves. Though he'd never felt them to confirm, the graphic descriptions of her shapely figure that went around the boy's locker room gave him a decent working mental image...an image that maybe, one day, would be made more complete by what he felt under his hands...He became uncomfortably aware of how constricted his pants felt, which did nothing to help the situation. Just then, Sophie's phone rang.
"Ok, well the girls are here, so I'll see you later!" she said, as she gave him a quick hug before gathering her purse and running down the hall, slamming the door behind her as she left.
He sighed softly. Much as he would have loved it if there were something more to the hug, he knew that it was the kind of hug you gave your brother. Or your brother's best friend, as it were. He knew it was useless to hope for anything with Sophie, but that didn't seem to make a difference. No matter how much he tried to rationalize away his feelings - you didn't fall for your best friend's little sister, you didn't fall for a friend, no girl as beautiful as Sophie would ever fall for someone who was blind - he failed.
His thoughts were broken by the sound of Tom, his oldest friend and Sophie's brother, coming down the stairs.
"Hey man, sorry to keep you waiting. Had to shower, Mom made me mow the lawn this morning."
