- So what kind of man is your type Kate?

- Again with that question Zoey? You know I don’t have time for that kind of stuff. With the football team and tests. Besides, man are all the same.

- You talk as if you actually studied.

- I do study… a lot!

- Correction, Jake makes you study and you oblige. Ah! God knows what I would do if I had a handsome big brother to teach me!

Kate could almost see her best friend Zoey imagination running wild with a beefed version of her step brother carrying her over to the sunset. Always the romantic that one since they’ve matt in the kindergarten. Kate shakes her head fiercely trying to clear her head from Zoey’s perverted fantasies.

- First: gross. Secondly: he is not all good, you know?

- Oh really? And why is that?

- For starters, he snores like a lot. Also, he is bossy and treats me like a child all the time, telling me to eat all the food, to take a shower, do my homework…

- So what? He carries and watches out for you. Many girls in our class and beyond would kill for that kind of attention from someone so beautiful, so smart… OOOHHHH!

- G.R.O.S.S. You don’t know him like I do. This morning, he got all sensitive because I called the whore a whore. What is so wrong with saying the truth?

- You got into a fight with Maggie again?

- I was just joking around. She got all worked up and then Jake got all worked up too and blamed me. And I was defending him! Can you believe it?

- Actually, Kate, I can.

Kate raised her eyebrows in surprise by Zoey’s blunt response – Why? Are you going to defend them now?

Zoey sights as if she had to explain the most basic things to a child – Do you remember the first time I met your brother? How cold and distant he was?

- Yeah – Kate responds averting her eyes.

- It didn’t matter how many times me, the other girls or even the guys called, he just wouldn’t come into the pool. All that changed when YOU started crying. He came running with that serious expression of his and…

Kate remembered that day very vividly. It was Kate’s ten years old birthday party. Jake had just moved in and didn’t blend in with her friends. She didn’t like him one bit. He often looked at her in a strange way almost as if he was angry.

Some stupid boy decided to play a prank by snucking in a cockroach on her back. Obviously she got angry and tried to hit the boy, receiving a hard push back in response. Kate fell and blacked out. The next memory she has from that day is…

- And carried you in his arms straight to the couch like a prince carrying a princess!! AAHH! Just remembering it makes me want to hug him!

-          Could you stop making me fell gross about it? – She said that, but Kate was quite fond of this particular experience. Jake treated her with extreme gentleness and care that day and many other days in the last four years. Taking her to the school games, cheering for her, tutoring her in practically all subjects… Suddenly she felt a twinge of guilty.

-  I am going to the bathroom – Kate blurts out before running out of the classroom – Yeah, right. – Zoey smirks, but Kate is already gone, too far away to hear the sarcasm in her voice.

-----

While Kate searches for Jake, Jake searches for Maggie. Their conversation on the car left the boy really worried. When he was living in the streets, not having access to regular baths and clean clothes, people would wrinkle their noses at him. He hated his body, feeling dirt and unworthy. “She must fell something similar” He decided he shouldn’t let things end as they did.

Jake found Maggie inside an empty room talking to her boyfriend. Talking is an euphemism to having her tits fondled by Nate.

- Excuse me. – He called in a very composed but very firmly tone – I need to speak with MY SISTER.

- JAKE?! – Both answered startled at the same time.

- Uh… sure thing dude! See you later baby! – Nate backed away almost instantly, eager to get out of the awkward situation.

- Nate – He stops on his tracks upon hearing Maggie’s call – Don’t forget what we talked.

- Yeah, sure thing. Don’t worry baby.

“This guy is the basketball team captain and the principal’s son. What is he so afraid of Jake for? He is more of a wimpy than I thought… well that works in my favor so I guess it’s all right”

To be fair, Jake was 1 m and 89 cm, 2 cm taller than Nate. He also was a black belt in judo and the MMA club president, having fairly more built up body muscles… While Maggie analyzes these aspects of her brother in comparison to her boyfriend, Jake closed the distance between her chair and the door.

- I am not a pervert.

- What??

- And you are not dirty.

She blinks twice before understanding what’s it he is talking about and laughing lightly at Jake’s ingenuity.

- Thank you Jake, but we both know my feet are…

- Beautiful, with a prominent big toe, light pinkish soles and a delicate arch.

“Wow”

- Y…yeah, that’s an accurate description… as expected of my pervert older brother. Do you like my stinky foot that much? Hahahahahaha – She chuckles louder, but Jake doesn’t show signs of intimidation this time. In fact he gets even near. Maggie starts to feel uncomfortable. Both can only stare at each other’s face now. 

- W-What? What is it?

- Take off your boots. – He commands in a very calm demeanor, as if he was asking for the simplest thing on earth – I will prove to you.

“Prove?! Prove what exactly??!! That you are the biggest perv in the whole world???!!!!”

Maggie starts to breath heavily, trying to think how things got to this point – Take off your boots – He repeats softly. She gets up the chair but doesn’t move towards the door, instead sitting on the table. She unties the laces as Jake peels the boot out together with her white sock.

Her exposed foot drips sweat across the wooden floor. She stretches her toes inadvertently flipping a few droplets on Jake’s face, a pungent acrid odor filling the air.

“How… how can my so delicate soles produce such odor?!” Maggie thinks with dread. But what really surprises her is Jake. Instead of backing away he gets on his knees like a knight before his princess. She realizes she can feel his breathing in and out hit her damp sole.

Maggie’s eyes widen unable to believe the scene unfolding right in front of them. When Jake smiles up at her and says:

- See? They don’t smell that bad. So, don’t ever say you hate your feet again.