Invisible

AIDEN CARTER

WE ALL KNOW THE STORY. Boy meets girl in high school. Girl and boy end up falling for each other. Boy and girl get married and live happily ever after.

Classic bullshit. It never happens that way.

I walked through the front doors of my new high school, paint fumes clogging my lungs. It was pretty disgusting. The school was newly renovated, but nothing looked good or even decent. I sighed, wondered if that was the reason Mark didn’t want me to go to that school freshman year.

Then again, there was always another reason that made sense.

“Emma!” Anna called as I walked through the front doors of the gym. I smiled when I saw her, every memory resurfacing: the day we met in the first grade, the time we spent making brownies when Mark would do something idiotic…

The week after my mother died.

I walked toward her, wrapped my arms around her.

“Dude,” she said as she looked at me when she pulled away, her eyes just as bright as they always were, “you’re so old. You better have missed me.”

I laughed as I responded, sat down onto the bleachers. “You know I did.”

“Good,” she sat next to me, “because if you leave again, I’m going to have to kill you.”

I laughed again, set my bag down behind me. Then I leaned back against the seat, watched the other students act idiotic.

Freshmen.

“Liking the school so far?” she asked after a moment, the coaches telling the freshmen to stop running around the gym.

As I would have loved to say to them, it was only cute in middle school…

“Hahaha no.”

“Why not?” she gave me a fake pout, her eyes gleaming in the luminescent lights. I smirked.

“Well, most of the students here are ridiculous… especially the guys.”

“Isn’t that at every school?”

“Last school I went to, not that many people asked if you want to fuck the first time you met them… Here on the other hand…”

“I know… horrible… But the most disgusting guy is standing right at the door. Wow… First day, and he’s already staring straight at you. Classic.”

She rolled her eyes as I looked toward the door, watched the group of boys that stood near the entrance. I might have passed them earlier, tried hard not to pay attention to where the whistles were coming from. Two of them were watching me, one with blonde hair and green eyes. I’d never seen him before… But the other…

He looked so… familiar.

“Which one?” I asked as I watched the other, his blue eyes making my stomach flutter. Anna laughed.

“The one on the left… Blonde hair. His name’s Jeremy Davis, the most disgusting pig you’ll ever meet.”

“I’m guessing he’s talked to you before?”

“Yeah, more like asked me to hook up with him at least three times… and that was just today…”

“Wow…” I laughed, kept staring at the one with the blue eyes. “Who’s he?”

“Aiden Carter, his best friend…” She rolled her eyes, reached into her bag for her phone.

“Is he a pig too?”

“Nope… Pretty cool actually. Shit, I’m wondering why he’s even hanging with Jeremy in the first place.”

“Ah… Seniors?”

“Yeah.”

Aiden stood up straight, walked toward us, Jeremy following behind him.

“Uh… they’re coming over here,” I said.

“Oh, great… This’ll be just so fantastic.” She grunted as they approached us, Jeremy glaring at me, eyes trailing along my body. I shifted uncomfortably, waited for someone to speak… Luckily for me, it didn’t take long.

“Jeremy,” Anna said, “She’s not interested.”

“Who asked you?” he responded, “I wasn’t looking at her anyway.”

“You looked like you wanted to hump her leg, if you ask me.”

“Again, who asked you?”

“Doesn’t matter, Jeremy. She’s still not your type. Aren’t you into whores, anyway?”

“Nope… Not into you… Nice try, though.”

“Really… Then why is it every time we talk, you ask me to fuck? If you weren’t into me, you’d try to keep it in your pants.”

My eyes widened as I watched them argue, Aiden sitting next to me.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “they’re going to get married one day. I’d bet money on it.”

I laughed as I turned toward him. He was smiling again, his dark brown hair falling to his shoulders, bangs over his eyes.

“So,” he said as he hunched over, looked out toward the coaches. They were all huddled together toward the stage as if they had no idea what was going on. “Did you just move here?”

“Yeah,” I said, “last month… How did you know?”

“Well, I’ve never seen you here before, and you didn’t really strike me as a freshman.”

“Ah… well, I’m glad to hear that. How long have you been going here?”

“Last year. My mother moved here because her dance company moved to the city.”

“Really? She’s a dance teacher?”

“Used to be… She still teaches somewhat, but… you know… she’s old now.”

I stared at him long and hard, trying to figure out where I knew him from… It was definitely before my mother died, before everything fell apart. Otherwise, I think I would have remembered him…

Most likely.

“So what are you?” he asked, “Junior?”

“Sophomore.”

Anna stood up, grabbed her bag, and walked toward the coaches.

“I’ll see you downstairs, Emma,” she said angrily as she left. Jeremy sat next to me, muttering the word bitch under his breath. I frowned.

“So, what’s your name?” Aiden asked. I looked back at him. “I mean… your full name… I got Emma already.”

 I smiled. “Emma Dawson.”

As soon as I said it, something lit up in his eyes, and he smiled back at me, my stomach fluttering wildly, a feeling I couldn’t describe.

I can describe it now… It’s that bullshit intense feeling you get when you have a high school romance.

I know… corny.

“Oh, I’m Aiden Carter,” he said after a moment. I opened my mouth to respond, but the coaches each blew their whistles… ten minutes after the bell rang.

I found that extremely ridiculous.

“Hey, I’ll see you in class,” I said as I stood up, started making my way toward Anna. He nodded, repeated after me. Then I walked toward Anna, stood next to her as our coaches explained how we were supposed to act before class. God, I hated this school.

“Drooling, much?” she said as we walked through the girls’ locker-room door, down the staircase.

“What?”

“Don’t even try to talk your way out of it. I saw the way you looked at him.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right, right. You like him, don’t you?”

“No! Of course not! I just met him.”

Of course, the girl in the story never knows how hard she’s going to fall.