When She Was Mine

Part 2- Invisible

I look up to see who my victim was and I make eye contact with the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen. The way they glistened in the light. I snap out of my trance and my voice finally forms the words, “Oh, gosh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know anyone was behind me.”

He smiles and replies, “Am I that invisible?” I almost say no, you’re perfect, but that seems to out there, we literally just met. My mind quickly generates a sentence that will just suffice. I smile widely and say, “No, not at all.” But before my mouth shuts, my voice already starts saying the words, “But we can be invisible together?”

I feel my face turning red. I have no idea why I let that slip out. I panic thinking I just ruined my first impression of this guy I’m probably never going to see again. He probably thinks I’m a freak, but surprisingly, the corners of his lips lift to form a smile and he says, “Bad first day?”

“The worst,” I say. He then asks, “Wait, are you a freshman?”

“Yeah, unfortunately. Is it that obvious,” I let out. “No, not at all,” he spits my words back at me. “So eager to graduate and leave, I see,” he continues.

My cheeks begin to ache from all the smiling, “You read my mind.” “What’s your name,” he asks a little too eagerly. I laugh and answer, “Ryland…” His left eyebrow lifts and forms an arch and before he could open his mouth, I say, “I know,” I shake my head and continue, “it sounds like a guy’s name.”

“No, it’s beautiful,” he flashes that perfect smile. “It’s a long story-” I say.

Before I could finish my sentence, he cuts me off, “I have time.” He smiles widely.  I look down at my phone to see what time it is and in the process, accidentally flashed my scar infested wrist. I look up to see if he saw, and I know he did because his smile vanished, but he doesn’t say anything. I pretend like he didn’t see my arm and reply, “And I’m kinda running out of it,” I fake a smile.

I see him try to fake a smile and he says, “What about tomorrow afternoon? A coffee date?”

I try to make a joke and say, “Date? We just met.” I see the smile coming back and continue, “But I’m more of a tea kind of girl.” “What,” he says loud and sarcastically. “But you’re in line, which is taking forever, at a Starbucks,” he retorts.

“They don’t just sell coffee. They sell tea as well,” I giggle. We accidentally catch each other’s glance and we just stare at each other for what feels like minutes until someone yells the word “next.” We both stare at the person who yelled to make sure he was talking to us, and we look back at each other and in unison say, “Finally!” We laughed.