Invisible

Dinner is defined in one word: awkward.

Were all seated around the table, Corrie between Mom and me, and Corrie goes out of her way to avoid Mom's eyes, while also managing to keep her hair out of her plate. She eats very little and I wonder at the fact that only a few hours previous she was dancing around the gym with me.

Oh, Corrie.

No one says anything, which is just scaring Corrie more, I bet, and she's done first having barely eaten anything. She squeaks out something none of us understand and runs away.

"Damn, is she bipolar?" Ashton asks. I lean forward, grab his chair with my foot, and yank so he ends up flat on his back.

"Aaron!" Mom squeals.

I don't even answer, just get up to go and see if Corrie is still alive.

She's in my closet.

"Why are you in my closet?" I ask as she stares up at me, sitting between her new pair of Converse and my old as hell ones. She's got the biggest eyes.

She looks down with a shamed expression. "I have reverse claustrophobia. I feel safer in small places."

I sit across from her. "I'll make you a new hidey-hole if you like."

She finds this remarkably funny for whatever reason and laughs. I laugh along with her. Maybe she is bipolar.

"I don't know," she says once she's sobered up. "I just... It felt like your parents, and your sister, were judging me, and I panicked. I'm so different from all of you."

"Thats what makes you wonderful."

"You are such a kiss up. there has to be something, other than my shyness, that you don't like about me."

I look like I'm contemplating it, then I do figure something. I lift up her arm to where the word useless is etched into her skin just under the fading sharpie. "Your opinion of yourself."

She bit her lip. "I'm taking you up on that new hidey-hole offer."

I stand up and bend over, kissing her on the forehead, then pull her to her feet. "Kiss up," she mutters. "As if my opinion of you matters."

"It does," I assure her, taking one of her tiny hands. Mine seem huge in comparison. "Wanna go watch another movie? I bought every single one ever involved with that Shyamalan guy."

She brightens. "Well, Signs is the best, but the next best is the Village. Can we?"

"Of course. Happily. Do you want p-"

My phone rang, cutting me off. I answered it. Jake.

"HEY!" He shouts into my ear and I wince, pulling away.

"Yes, Jake?"

"You busy?"

"Well I was going to go watch a movie with Corrie-"

"I'm bored out of my mind, can I come?"

Corrie nodds, but I wish Jake had never called. "Fine. But I will gag you if you don't sit through this silently. And were watching it here."

"Cool! Give me-" I hang up on him. "I kind of wish you hadn't said yes."

"I like Jake, though, and we were all alone shopping."

"But not alone alone."

"See, I'm terrified that you might take certain advantages over me, me being as vulnerable as I am right now."

I look at her in shock. "You know I would never, ever, ever, take advantage of you!"

She smiles. "I know." she stands up on tip-toe, but she still has to pull me down so she can kiss me ever so gently. Then she skips off. "And I do want popcorn."
~
I didn't gag Jake, but I came close to punching the living daylights out of him. Chatter chatter chatter, I could tell Corrie was getting annoyed, and the twins who had joined, thought it was funny.

"JAKE I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GOING TO CUT OFF YOU'RE COFFEE SUPPLY IF YOU DONT SHUT UP!" I roar.

"Shhh! This is the good part!" Corrie says, bouncing in her seat.

Jake, looking like a wounded puppy, shrinks back into his seat and I instantly feel awful. Why is Jake so wierd?

Corrie is perched on the edge of her seat in anticipation, her eyes lit up, and I can't help it. I lean over an bite her ear gently. she lets out a squeak and jumps. "Woops," I whisper, tucking my face against her neck. She smells amazing. No wonder guys are all over Lorrie, this must be her shampoo.

"Get off," Corrie mutters, pushing my head back and blushing. "You made me miss the best part."

'Woops," I repeat, settling back into my seat. Jake has taken refuge and is sitting with the twins now, all of them snickering. I don't care, but Corrie does, and I half-way regret my actions.

She doesn't run away, though.

When the movie dies I flip it off with the remote and turn the lights on. The twins skip off with Jake in tow. "Sorry, but I really couldn't help myself. And you know the twins are just teasing us. They're my cousins, and regretfully I have to live with them. For a while now, we both do."

She was smiling into her lap, then she stood up. "We have homework."
~
The rest of the week was a blissful blur to me. Corrie was still shy, rarely spoke around anyone other than Jake, the twins, and me, but she smiled more often. Kaylee kept her distance. I accidentally hit Ashton with a door in retaliation for smacking Corrie's ass. Corrie sat in the corner of the bleachers and watched my foot ball practices, even though the twins would offer to drive her home (they'd rented a car, but I didn't know whose money it was supplied from). Coach yelled at me because I would become distracted by watching Corrie, who would laugh when that happened. Other times I was at my stellar best trying to impress Corrie.

Friday night rolled around and I was in the locker room getting a pep-talk from Coach just before the game was going to start. Routine. It was our second to last game, though. We hadn't made it to State. Next week would be the game against the rival high school, Hickory Ridge. They were the badgers. We were the eagles.

We left and jogged onto the football field. The crowd erupted in cheers. I scan the crowd, but I don't see Corrie or the twins. Corrie and Ashton, they could hide easily, especially Corrie, but not Alec. Not with his hair. Are they even here? Could Corrie not handle the crowd? Shit, is she okay? What if-

Jake cuts off my almost panicky thinking. "They're right there, man," he says. I see them as he points, right in the center of the bleachers, Corrie in between the twins. Our eyes lock, even from this far away, and I smile, making a heart shape with my hands. Corrie does it back. Then the national anthem starts and I'm jerked back to attention.

All throughout the game I'm on cloud nine, nothing can stand in my way. I do everything right, I am the reason we win like we did. The usual crowd crashes on us after the game, but I'm just looking for Corrie.

"Hey, stranger."

I turn around and pick her up, spinning her in a circle and kiss her on the nose.

"You are so sweaty," she laughs, but she doesn't brake her hug. "I know absolutely nothing about football, but something tells me you were doing really good."

"You don't know anything about football?" I scoff. "I'll just have to fix that." But really I'm bursting on the inside because I've got Corrie in my arms.

"Oi! Don't hog the hug!" Yelled Alec as the twins crashed into me from either side, bouncing Corrie off. Damn them, but I'm to happy to care. We've had an awful season, and I just kicked ass, and I've got Corrie.

"Dude, you dominated!" Matt yelled, pushing up. "What got into you?!"

I try to look at Corrie, but she's vanished.

My smile falters.

"Wait, where'd the fuck she go?" Alec asked, thinking along the same lines as me.

"We'll go look for her," Ashton sighs. "Go get changed."

"Did I scare her off?" Matt asked, confused. The entire team had an inkling now of how shy Corrie was.

"I don't know," I answer. "It might have been just the crowd."

Jake shares my worried look.

I'm bombarded by every single person that goes to the damn school, I think, plus half the parents, and Coach completely rhapsodizes about the game to me, even when I'm half naked. Can't they see I just want to get out and find Corrie? Even Jake manages to get out and go join the hunt before I do.

Then my phone rings, just as I get mobbed outside the locker room, and I use that as an excuse to escape. Its Alec. Oh shit, he's calling, not txting.

"Did you find her?" I ask.

"Yeah... We found her," Alec says, his voice sounding way off key.

She's dead, holy fuck she just committed suicide and I wasn't there to stop her. Oh holy fuck. Corrie. Corrie...

"You better get over here, we're at your truck."