Character Shorts

2

He walked over to where Sasha was laying belly down on the carpet, her legs in the air and her chin in her hands, looking up steeply at the family television. He sat beside her, throwing his school bag aside and knocking her shoulder with his own playfully. Looking up, he saw characters he recognised from when he was about nine. That would have made Sasha around twelve when she'd watched whatever this was, making her almost too old for it back then, let alone now.

"What's up, sis?" He asked softly, not wanting to push it if she didn't wish to talk, but not wanting to ignore her fairly obvious mood either. She didn't answer, so he watched until the end of the episode beside her on the floor and then stood to walk away, stopping as a hand grabbed his ankle and he turned his head to see Sasha's puffy eyes looking up at him.

"Dan," she muttered, getting to her feet and taking the one step it took to close the distance Daniel's ill-fated escape had caused. "Thank you." The words were almost whispered as she spoke through a tight throat, tears welling in her eyes despite her best efforts, and she cursed inwardly as Daniel wrapped his arms around her and drew her close into his chest.

"Oh, Sash." She could feel his voice vibrate through his chest from where her head now rested in the crook of his neck, causing the sound to become distorted in her ears and goosebumps to tingle her arms. Daniel saw this and smiled, and made use of his extra height to tuck her head under his chin.

When she broke their embrace, Daniel took time to look over her get-up. She had smudged mascara running down her cheeks, and she was wearing a short, somewhat out of character dress that despite a high neck line, failed to hide much. There were marks on her feet where straps had obviously been pressed against her skin, and she had even bothered to paint her nails. Daniel sighed. Another failed date, then.

He looked at Sasha sadly, and she shook her head as though he had asked her out loud if he was right about his assumption.

"What's wrong with me?" she choked out, and Daniel gave her a knowing look. He thought better than to fight her on this, and so rather than disagree, he waited until she finally let her eyes meet his and smiled.

"You're too perfect, Sash." He squeezed her arm as she let a weak smile escape her lips, and reached behind him to grab the phone propped up on the end table beside the couch. He extended his arm towards Sasha, passing her the phone, but not before opening up the folder with the contacts in it. "Call Cate." He said, letting go of her arm, slinging his bag back over his shoulder and heading up towards his room. He'd love to stay with her all afternoon, but unfortunately the world didn't stop turning just as Sasha needed his help, and his teacher's would probably not accept 'distraught sister' as an appropriate excuse for missed homework. Cate would help though, as much as he'd prefer it be him. She was at least a close second best.