The night Sophie was bitten was in late October -- it was an unusually cold night, in an unusually cold year.
The young girl shivered as she stood outside in the yard of the Black family estates. Sophie should have brought a coat. Emmeline should have been there, she said she would be ; yet here it was 10 o'clock and she was alone.
It shouldn't have surprised her. Emma didn't have the guts now, and Sophie thought she never would. Bold proclamations of true love be damned thought Sophie -- she threw the rose she'd picked earlier that day to the ground and turned to walk off, tears welling in her eyes.
That's when she was grabbed from behind. An icy slender hand gripped her delicate neck, it was the kind of grip that could hold you there without being too firm, just the presence itself could keep you still, unmoving. Sophie's first thought was that it was Emmaline, her love come after all, come to make good on their promise meet tonight, and finally do what they'd secretly been wanting for several semesters.
Alas, this was not the case. She knew it as soon as she heard the voice whisper in her ear " Still now child, be still " The voice was smokey and feminine, it obviously belonged to a woman.
Lips brushed her neck and Sophie heard the mystery woman exhale warm breath -- suddenly Sophie was sleepy and couldn't stand another minute, she collapsed right there on the grass, crushing a perfect purple rose underneath her.
The next day was a Monday and Sophie slept in late. She bolted upright sweating. She'd had the most vivid sex dream of her life. It seemed so real she could almost smell the sex and sweat.
She glanced over at the clock and saw that she was late again. Yet she thought if she didn't shower and just left right then, she could make it in time -- so tying a bow in her long dark brown hair still wild from bed and incessant turning in the night, she rushed out the door.
Sophie was in the second year of Sixth form at a prestigious school in south London. She was a fantastic student when she applied herself but lately her thoughts had been consumed with other things. Most frequently that other thing was Emmaline Black, Sophie best friend for the past 11 years, the better part of either girl's lives being only eighteen.
Emma and Sophie had been inseparable all throughout their friendship. People said things about them, that they were secretly gay together. Lesbian lovers. At first when the girls themselves had gotten wind of these rumors they were in shock and were ashamed to think what others seemed to assume.
Well, over a period of time Sophie began to really wonder about this -- she freely admitted to herself that she loved Emmaline more than anyone she knew. She couldn't say if that made her a lesbian or not, having never been in love. After all didn't all best friends love each other?