Blind Love Ch. 01

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."

"It's all good. Besides, I got to catch up a bit with Soph before she left."

"Great. C'mon, let's go, I'm starving. I want to grab something at the food court before the movie."

"Movie?" asked Daniel, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice. Even though Sophie had said she was going to a chick-flick, a guy could always dream, right?

"Yeah, sorry, I thought I'd told you. I got tickets for Transformers."

"Sweet. Let's go, I'm hungry too."

"Bye Mom!" yelled Tom, and with that, the two boys left.

Twenty minutes later, stuffed with burgers, the two boys made their way into the movie theater, when they heard a familiar voice. "Tom! Daniel! Over here!" came Sophie's voice, rising above all the others in Daniel's ear. Daniel followed Tom as they found the girls, and then followed the sound of Sophie's voice, praying that nobody was sitting next to her.

Coming to a stop in front of her, he asked, "Is anyone sitting here?"

"Nope! Sit!" Daniel heard her patting the pleather seat next to her and duly sat down. He schooled his facial expression to remain friendly but neutral, but inside he was doing cartwheels.

"So, what happened to the chick-flick?" he inquired, as nonchalantly as he could manage given the butterflies flitting around his insides.

"Sold out, thankfully. The others aren't too happy, but I'm psyched. I've been dying to see this for ages."

"You always did love playing with them when we were kids - you used to piss the hell out of Tom by stealing his Transformers."

"You remember that?" she asked, surprised, but Daniel thought he detected happiness as well. Sophie smiled with pleasure. Daniel had a knack for remembering the most random things about her, and it never failed to touch her. It was endearing.

"Well, yeah...I mean, wouldn't you remember a girl who would rather play with her brother's Transformers than with her Barbies?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Once a tomboy, always a tomboy. I always loved to play rough, didn't make me too popular with the Barbie doll set," she laughed, a soft, musical laugh that had always warmed Daniel's heart.

Daniel groaned silently as another unbidden thought flashed through his head - what if she plays rough in bed too? He certainly wouldn't mind finding out...and then disciplining her by pinning her under him, leaving her at his mercy...he shifted in his seat as his pants grew tight again, thankful that the dim lighting probably hid his situation. He tried to focus on anything other than Sophie's presence next to him, and had almost begun to succeed when she grabbed his arm suddenly, sending a jolt of electricity through his entire body. Surely Sophie had felt it too. She had. The energy flowed between them so strongly that she drew her hand back just as quickly, shocked by what she had felt, but determined to ignore it.

"Soph, what's wrong?"

"Oh my god," she whispered. "It's Mike."

Daniel frowned. She sounded uncomfortably enthusiastic about Mike's presence. He was about to say something when the lights went down completely and the movie began. Partway through the movie, Sophie whispered in his ear, asking him if he wanted to split some popcorn with her, a proposition to which he readily agreed. The prospect of 'accidentally' brushing against her hands, the chance that he hadn't imagined the tension between them more than made up for Mike. Unfortunately for him, Sophie had been so unnerved by earlier that she took advantage of the fact that she had the one-up of vision on Daniel and took pains to avoid having her hand come anywhere near his in the popcorn bucket.

After the movie, Tom, Daniel, Sophie and her friends walked out together, and had paused in the lobby while a few of the other girls went to the bathroom when Mike approached the group.

"Hey Sophie."

"Oh, uh, hi Mike!" said Sophie, trying hard to conceal the nerves Daniel could hear in her voice. Daniel listened to them make polite small talk for a few moments, doing his best to ignore them by striking up his own conversation with Tom, and after what seemed like an eternity of torture, they left.

Though she didn't say anything, Sophie noticed the sad look on Daniel's face in the midst of the thrill of finally talking to Mike, and it wrenched her heart knowing that she was responsible for it. No matter how much it hurt though, she knew it was the best thing she could do, for both of them. She valued her friendship with Daniel far too much to risk it on an impulse just because they'd felt something when they'd touched.