"So, have you talked to him yet?" Her younger sister Lauren asked her, as Dani flipped through the latest issue of Cosmo out on the back lawn.

    "No." Dani muttered.  "Not yet."

    "You've been home for almost a week Dan.  Call him."  Dani looked up at her little sister, although she really couldn't say that literally.  Lauren was a good 4 or 5 inches taller than she was, and only a few years younger.  The same age as AJ, Dani thought of her friend back in Florida.  Lauren and Dani were similar in attitude and opinion, but slightly dissimilar in appearance, Dani had light brown hair, and chameleon eyes, sometimes looking green or blue, but mainly staying an intriguing shade of gray, where as Lauren took after her father and her older brother; tall with  blond hair and dark brown eyes.   They hadn't always been close, especially when they were younger, but now they were pretty good friends.   Lauren was the only person who had known about Dani's unrequited affection for Brian all throughout high school, and that the reason she chose to go to school in Florida had less to do with getting away from this town, than it had getting away from her feelings for Brian.  Dani knew that if she spent college longing for Brian the way she had spent high school, she'd end up resenting him for it. Although a lot of good that did me, Dani thought, we aren't even talking.

    "Are you listening to me?" Lauren shouted.

    "Yes I'm listening, you just said something about calling Brian." She mumbled.

    "Actually I was talking about Grampa, and that was five minutes ago." Lauren huffed,  "But speaking of Brian."

    "I don't want to speak about Brian."

    "You're still in love with him aren't you?" She said like an over zealous teenager hearing the latest tidbit of gossip.

    "Actually I'm not.  I've been over Brian Littrell for a long time."

    "So call him then.  What do you have to lose?"

My heart, my feelings, my mind.  I have a lot to lose little sister.  She thought.

    'Well?" Lauren asked.  "Call him.  Mom has him number." she pressed.

    "Laur, go away.  I'll call him when I feel like it." Lauren smirked at her with a knowing grin.

    "Sure you will." She said, as she walked away.   "And I know you are still in love with him." She yelled a little too loudly across the yard.  Dani sighed again, flipping to the next page, and making a mental note to go find a tank top like the one the model was wearing.  I don't have the boobs, she thought.  Why is Lauren making such a big deal of this?  Sure once I was undeniably in love with the guy, but he never noticed or cared.  I was just his friend and now I'm over him, I just wanna go back to being his friend.  I have all summer to call him, hell I have forever to call him I'm not going back to Orlando in  the fall, and I'm over him.  She assured herself  as her mother came sauntering out in the hot summer sun.

    "Hey ma." Dani said, not looking up from her magazine.

    "Hey hun.  Here." She said thrusting out a glass of cold iced tea to her daughter.

    "Thanks."

    "So Lauren tells me you haven't talked to Brian yet."

    "That little witch." Dani growled, plotting the demise of her tattling sister.  Knowing her mother probably knew about the feelings she used to have for Brian.

    "Leave your sister alone,  here's the phone, here's his number.  Call him." Her mother said tossing the phone and a slip of paper onto her lap.

    "Mom, I haven't talked to him in almost five years.  I don't have a clue what to say to him."

    "Start with hello!" She smiled, walking back into the house with her sister.

    "Yeah yeah." She said, setting  the phone on the grass next to her legs.

    "Dani.  I mean it, call him NOW or you're kicked out of the house."

    "MOM." She whined, but her mother had already gone inside.  Dani stared at the number she held in her hand.  Brian had been living with a few friends in a  rented house for a few years now, from what Brian's mom, Jackie, had told Dani's mom, it was a gorgeous house, not something you'd expect a bunch of college students to be living in.  The seven numbers beckoned her to dial them, and she wanted to, but she still didn't know what to say.   She picked up the phone and finally dialed them, pressing the numbers quickly before she chickened out.  The phone barely got off a ring before someone answered.

    "Hello?" She heard a voice say.  That's not Brian, she was sure of it.

    "Is, uh, um. Brian there?"

    "Sofie is that you?" The stranger asked.

    "No, I'm not Sofie." Who's Sofie? A jealous streak flashed through her body.

    "Oh sorry.  No, Bri's not here, he's at the school coaching today, he'll be back after five or six, something like that.  Did you want me to take a message?"

    "No that's okay, I'll call back." She replied and hastily hung up the phone, and setting it back down on the lawn and turning her head in time to see her mother and sister dart from the window that looked out on their backyard.  Dani shook her head and returned to her magazine.

        After a little more time in the sun she had told her mother she was going shopping, but she had decided to go somewhere else.  She was going to see Brian.  Lauren hadn't believed her when she said Brian wasn't home, and she would have told her that she was really going to find him at the school, but if she chickened out she knew Lauren and her mother would never let her hear the end of it.  Dani checked the clock in the car as she headed down the familiar street to her old school, the one she had attended with Brian and the one she knew he was now teaching at.

    "Brian, a teacher.  I still can't get over that." She said out loud, really impressed about his career choice, the one he had just barely begun, but the one she knew he'd be great at.   When Dani had left for Florida, Brian hadn't been sure of what he wanted to do, he had so many options open to him, but teaching suited him.  "He's great with kids."

    Dani pulled into the school yard, not much had changed since the last time she had been here.  She parked the car and walked into the school, stopping for a moment to check her reflection in one of the large windows on the outside of the building.    The heat was still in full force, even in late afternoon, so Dani had simply chosen to wear shorts and a tank top, but as she walked into the highly air-conditioned building she wished she was wearing jeans, it was freezing.   Everything in the building even smelled the same, and brought her mind to a place that remembered all the fun she had had when she went to school here.  Games of red rover and tag  out on the playground,  this was where she fell in love with basketball, and Brian, she quickly injected.  Her smile of memories quickly vanished as she came upon the gym, she peered in the small rectangular window and strained to see someone, but they were on the other end of the room, although she could hear the familiar sound of sneakers squeeking on the pristine wooden floor.  Dani pulled open the heavy doors and quickly stepped in trying to as inconspicuous as possible, she found a seat  near the door, a few people sitting around her.  She looked at the boys playing on the court, Brian wasn't there, so she hunted amongst the faces in the crowd but she couldn't see him there either.  Her hunting was abruptly stopped by a whistle and Dani's head darted in it's direction.  Brian emerged from a small room on the side of the gym, the equipment room, if she remembered correctly wearing shorts and a t-shirt and holding a ball under his arm.  Just the way I remember him, she smiled, trying not to get emotional about seeing him after all this time.

    Then it hit her.  Every old feeling, every innocent touch that set her heart pounding madly and every emotion she'd ever felt for him all came back in one swift kick.  Dani had told herself she was over him, she told everyone she was over him, but she was wrong, and seeing him again only made it painfully clear.  Nothing had changed.

    She watched him show the twenty or so boys he was coaching the art of free throws, helping them relax their arms more, bend their knees, position the ball for a good spin and how to arc it so it would go in with a nice 'swish' of the net.  She watched one boy, the smallest of the bunch, try it a few times to no avail, but Brian kept helping him as the other boys watched and waited patiently for their turn.  Finally he sunk it,  elation spread through his face as Brian gave him a high five.  The same look of elation and pride on Brian's face.  Seeing him smile only made Dani smile more as she sat quietly on the bleachers watching the practice.  Finally 'Coach'  told them practice was over for today, and the boys scurried off to find their parents in the stands, asking their mom's, dad's and whoever else was here if they had seen this shot, or that shot.

Slowly all the kids and parents left the gym as Brian picked up the basketballs and packed up his things on the other side of the room.  He slung a bag over his shoulder and started walking towards the door, and Dani.  He looked at her with a passing glance, as you would a stranger in the streets, but he slowed his step as her came closer, recognition dawning on him.  Dani hadn't changed much since she left, as far as appearances go, her brown hair had gotten longer than the shoulder length she used to sport, but that was about it.

Dani gave a small wave when she was positive he recognized her.

    "Hey coach." she said with a nervous smile, afraid of how he would react to her, not moving for her seat on the bleachers

    "Hey yourself."  He looked at her with a stone face, on that accentuated the deep cheekbones and strong  jaw line he had.  "When did you get back."

    "A few days ago."

    "When do you go back?" He asked quickly, like he wanted her to leave right away.

    "Well, never really.  At least for school ... I moved back here."

    "Oh.  Well I have to go, and the janitor is gonna be locking up soon, so..." he trailed off.

    "Yeah I guess I have to go too." Dani stifled her urge to cry, she hadn't expected this.

    "Well I'll see you around." he said, walking away from her.  Dani waited until the the hard wooden doors slammed shut, an echoing bang resonated throughout the gymnasium.  I screwed up the one friendship I have always trusted, she thought to herself as she got up from the seat on the bleachers and left the gym.  She folded her arms protectively across her chest and shuffled down the familiar halls of a stuffy old school.

What did you expect Dani?  That he'd give you a big hug and kiss after we basically ignored each other for five years?  That's he'd realize I used to love him and love me back? her mind yelled. I have to fix this!  I don't want to lose my beast friend for good.  Dani emerged from the building into the bright sun, still sad and dejected over what had just happened, but the ever familiar soaring heart of the past came back to her when she saw who was standing next to her car.

    "Still driving this piece of crap I see." He said, giving a nudge to the beat up old chevy she drove in high school.

    "Actually it's Lauren's now, I just borrowed it." She muttered.  "I thought you had to go."

    "I'm sorry I was like that...just now...in there."

    "Are you really?"

    "Look Dan.  I'm pissed at you.  I've been pissed for a long time, I won't get over it in a minute."

    "You've had five years to get over it Brian."

    "I don't want to get into this right now.  How are you?" He quickly changed the subject, and Dani let him, afraid to be confronted with why she left.

    "I'm good."  She nodded, feeling nervous around him.  "I was watching you in there.  You're really great with those kids."  A smile immediately developed on his face, she'd obviously touched a good spot.

    "I love it.  These kids are so great."  They both stood uncomfortably next to her car, so much that needed to be said, bit neither of them wanting to begin the conversation.

    "Dan I have to go, but I wanna talk. I'll call you."

    "I was sure you'd lost my number years ago." She said with an embittered tone, he averted his eyes.

    "I'll call.  I promise." She nodded and watched him go to his car.  He turned one time just before he got in, looking at her for a moment. "Oh, and Dani."

    "Yeah?" She wondered.

    "Happy belated birthday," He smiled.  Getting in his car a zooming out of the parking lot.  Dani watched him leave, hoping the promise was one he'd keep, as she got into her own car and drove aimlessly around town, unsure of her own feelings.  She hadn't felt this way in a long, long time.