Invisible

Chapter Four

Tuesday, August 13th

As I stood at the entrance of my doorway, staring open-mouthed at the woman of my dreams, Charlotte's smile disappeared and a confused expression took its place.

"Uh, Jackson?" she asked puzzled, "if you're busy I can come back later or something. I just figured I'd ask." The poor girl looked down at her shoes, her hand rubbing the back of her neck. Of course, I would love to hang out with you Charlotte! I'd follow you to the ends of the earth!

"Uh yeah." Was the only reply I could muster, if only she knew how much I actually had to say to her. Looking up quickly, the smile once again returned to her face.

"Yeah?" she bit her lip and I nearly choked on the saliva in my mouth. The things I would do to that lip.

Clearing my throat I replied, "Yeah. You can come in if you'd like? Or we can go outside?" she only shrugged in response so I stepped outside and closed the door behind me, making sure I hadn't locked it. When I turned back to face her, Charlotte looked at me funny. "What? What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing, I just thought it was odd that you didn't lock your door."

"Oh, yeah. Um, I guess I never really do. It's a small town and we don't have a lot of neighbors anyways. We just leave it unlocked unless we are gone all day." Charlotte nodded and I shrugged my shoulders, "so, do wanna go down to the river? It's right behind my house about a mile out."

Charlotte smiled before gesturing for me to lead the way. "In California, we always had to lock our doors, if we didn't there would be nothing left in our house when we came back." We started walking around my house, entering the back fields.

"That blows. I bet you miss it, though?" I wanted to know more about her but speaking to girls, well technically speaking to just anybody, wasn't really my forte. I wasn't really sure what to say so small talk would have to do for now.

She chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I mean, the move wasn't really that bad. I know I probably shouldn't be mentioning this or whatever, but my parents had been fighting a lot before we moved," that caught my attention, "so I guess this is what you would count as a new start for them. They're going to try and make it work." I wasn't really sure how to respond so I just kept walking, looking behind my shoulder every now and again to make sure she was still following me. We lived outside the city limits about twenty minutes so we were housed on roughly 6 and a half acres. Part of that land was in the woods behind my house. Charlotte's house, however, was fairly close to mine, almost 20 yards away. I could see her yard from my window of course. The nearest neighbors from us was a half mile down the road and a kid named Bruiser lived there. Obviously his name wasn't actually Bruiser, it was Gregory but everyone just called him Bruiser because he got into a lot of fights at the beginning of freshman year. I personally thought it was a dumb nickname but he was a macho kid, super buff like so whenever he hit you, he would be sure to leave a mark. To me he was just Greg though, we had been best friends since diapers.

I turned back around once more to make sure she was right behind me and sure enough, she was. "So how much further is this river you're talking about?"

I smirked, "not too far, just behind that clearing up ahead. Why? Can't keep up?" Of course, I was only teasing her, she was actually keeping right on my toes for being significantly shorter than I was. As time went on, speaking to her became more and more comfortable. Confidence Jack, confidence is key.

Instead of getting offended like most girls I knew, she gave me a devious grin and out of nowhere, started sprinting in the direction I told her. I was confused momentarily, wondering why she would randomly run away. Charlotte looked over her shoulder and yelled, "Catch me if you can!" Oh really? I laughed and took off after her. My long legs carried me over the debris that covered the ground, swiftly dodging the hanging branches in front of me. She was fast, but I was faster.