(Sara)

Sara chanced another look from the corner of her eye in Michael's direction. She could see his serious expression; he looked completely sucked into the movie.

After their pizza dinner, Kelly had invited Michael to join them in watching the movie they had rented earlier in the day.

He had glanced briefly at Sara before answering and then shrugging his shoulders, he had agreed to join them.

Thus far throughout the movie Sara had been finding it hard to concentrate; she was finding herself more interested in the side of Michael's face than the plot. In fact if someone were to ask her what the movie was about Sara would have been stumped for an answer.

Kelly nudged her with her foot and nodded towards the door.

"What"? Sara mouthed.

Kelly crawled across the sofa they were sharing and quickly glancing in Michael's direction, she whispered in Sara's ear. "Go to the bathroom or something".

Sara gave her a quizzical look, as if to say "What are you talking about"?

Kelly nodded in Michael's direction and gave Sara a look of her own.

Sara wasn't about to leave Michael alone with Kelly, but she didn't want her to be suspicious as to why she wouldn't leave either.

Sara shook he head and pointed at the screen, as if to indicate that she didn't want to miss any of the movie.

Kelly scowled at her, and crossing her arms across her chest, she sat back to pout. Sara decided to ignore her.

She was wondering what exactly Kelly had been planning to do. Had her friend finally gotten up the nerve to ask Michael to the dance?

Sara had been so relieved when Kelly chickened out. She knew that there was no way that she herself could go to the dance with Michael, but she didn't want him to go with her best friend either.

When Kelly mentioned the dance at dinner, Sara had been so sure that her friend was going to ask Michael. But Kelly had just been fishing for an invitation. Sara had been relieved when Michael hadn't taken the bait

Sara wished Michael would ask her to the dance. She sighed softly as she thought of how the two of them would look together.

Sara closed her eyes and leaning her head back for a moment, she pictured the two of them out on the dance floor. She could almost feel his hands lightly touching her hips as they moved to the music. He would look deeply into her eyes as the song came to an end, and draw her closer to him, his lips placing a soft kiss on her mouth.

Sara was jolted roughly from her daydream by Kelly's foot.

Slightly annoyed, she glanced over to meet her best friend's pissed off expression.

Sara shrugged her shoulders, and yawned.

She knew exactly what Kelly was thinking. If Sara was so interested in the movie, how come she was falling asleep?

Ignoring the daggers coming from Kelly's eyes, Sara trained her eyes back on the screen telling herself she would stop thinking about Michael that way.

Yeah, right, Sara thought as she stole another look his way.

Sara felt her breath leave her as her eyes met Michael's in the darkness. For a moment they held each others stare. Then Michael pulled his head back around, once again locking his eyes on the screen.

(Michael)

Michael heard them whispering, but kept his eyes on the screen. He didn't really understand much about girls. They seemed to giggle a lot and whisper almost everything. were they whispering about him? Michale kind of figured that Kelly was into him, She had flirted with him throughout dinner. She had seemed genuinly interested in what he had to say, asking questions about his life and his interests. Sara had just sat quietly across from them pretty much letting Kelly and him do most of the talking.

Sighing softly, Michael found himself wishing that he were into Kelly. It would be so much easier if he were sitting there thinking about her blue eyes instead of Sara's beautiful brown ones.

Even now, though the movie was one he had been looking forward to seeing, Michael couldn't seem to keep his thoughts clear enough to follow it. He had been fighting the urge to look at Sara since the opening credits.

Maybe, he told himself, if I just do it I will stop obsessing about it and be able to concentrate on the movie.

Having decided, Michael turned his head to look at her. He was only planning to glance at her for a second, but the light from the flickering television looked beautiful on her fair skin.

His eyes locked onto her. Michael found himself trapped in awe at the sight of Sara. She had her head tilted back against the sofa and her eyes were closed. She had fallen asleep watching the movie.

He let himself stare, rationalizing that she would never know.

When Sara sat forward and looked at her friend he knew he should look away, but couldn't.

When she suddenly turned in his direction and their eyes met, Michael felt his heart speed up. He held her gaze for just a moment then pulled his eyes back quickly to the screen. He couldn't believe she had just caught him staring at her!

Guys didn't look at their step sisters like that; they didn't have thoughts about them like he was having about Sara either. She probably thought he was some kind of creep.

He sat rigidly in his chair and vowed to himself that he would stop thinking about her like that. He would only think of her as a sister from here on out.

Maybe if he asked Kelly out it would help? Kelly had mentioned a dance at dinner. Michael had gotten the idea that she wanted him to ask her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to go to a country club dance.

He didn't really know how to dance, and would probably make a complete fool of himself. But still, he told himself, if he went to the dance with Kelly maybe he would start liking her, and stop having all of these thoughts about a girl he could never have.

The rest of the movie seemed to drag on, Michael just wanted out of there. He kept his eyes forward and locked to the TV, not really seeing the story that was playing out on the large screen.

When the movie finally came to an end, Michael quickly said goodnight and made a hasty retreat to his bedroom.

He had never been so happy to leave someplace in his life.