Invisible

Can We Talk?

I start pulling him through the front door, and around to my back yard. We have a trampoline behind our shed, which you can't see from the house. It's covered in leaves, but it's better than nothing.

We both take off our shoes and climb in through the net's opening. Trees, and the wooden back of the shed surround us. The only way someone could see us is if they went through the small patch of woods, and we would hear them coming before they saw us.

I push some of the leaves out of the center, and we sit down, our legs basically on top of each other's. I take in every detail of his face in the sunlight. His slight frown is focused on a leaf he is fidgeting with.

"Ethan. I'm going to make you a promise. Right here, right now. I will never call you names; hit you, any of that shit. And I will defend you if other people do."

He looks into my eyes, and smiles. I take that opportunity to tackle him so he's lying on his back, and kiss him again. The feeling of his soft lips against mine sends chills down my spine. He runs his fingers through my hair.

I get a text, and abruptly stop the kiss. It was Sam's text sound.

I take my phone out of my pocket, and turn off my notifications. I turn back to him, and put my hand on his shoulder again.

"Wait, Connor. You're cheating on her," he doesn't shake my hand off his shoulder. "Answer the text."

I pull my phone out again and check the text.

S: Hey can we talk?

C: Yeah what's up?

"What's she saying?" Ethan asks, quietly.

"She says we need to talk."

"Oh. That doesn't sound too good," he picks up another leaf and starts fidgeting with it again.

S: Are you going to prom this year?

My face turns beet red. "She's asking if I'm going to prom."

C: I wasn't planning on going tbh.

S: Oh

S: Why not?

C: It's not my kind of thing.

S: Whatever. We'll talk about this later. Want to hang out tomorrow?

Ethan is still looking at the trampoline.

C: I'm busy tomorrow

S: You're never busy on Thursdays

C: I already made plans

S: ...

S: Whatever. Bye.

I put my phone back into my pocket.

"So," I say.

He checks his watch. "I should probably be getting home. My parents don't know I'm here." He climbs out of the net, and starts putting on his shoes. I quickly follow him out, and slip my feet into my sneakers. He picks up his bag off the ground. He starts to walk out of the woods, but I grab his hand and pull him into a quick peck before letting him go.

"I'll see you in school," I smile.

~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I see Ethan across the hallway. We make eye contact and I smile at him. He waves, and as I lift my hand to wave back, I hear Sam's voice from behind me.

"Connor! Hey!" she doesn't sound as excited to see me as she normally does.

I turn around, but try to keep my gaze on Ethan as long as possible. I walk over and hug Sam.

"What's up?"

She crosses her arms and huffs.

"Are you seriously not going to prom?"

"I don't like the whole idea of it. It's stupid," I try to wrap my arm around her as we start walking to my locker.

"It's not stupid, it's fun. Come on. Please? It's one night."

She isn't wrong. It might suck, but it's only one night.

"I'll think about it."

"Yay!" she squeals and hugs me.

Her shrill high voice forces a cringe out of me. Luckily she didn't notice.

"So, when's the next time you're free so we can hang out, and I can convince you to come to prom?" she's still hugging my arm.

"I'm not doing anything tonight, it's Thursday."

Her face dropped and I realized what I just did. My heart sinks.

"You said you already made plans."

"Yeah, they got canceled, I forgot to tell you." I'm a terrible liar, but my voice is calm and smooth, and it sounded pretty convincing.

But I should know. She's a girl. She can always tell when I'm lying.

"They didn't get canceled. You didn't have any." She lets go of my arm. "You just wanted to stop texting me."

"Sam, you're ridiculous-"

"Who were you with? The only time you don't want to text with me is when you're with your friends. I'm not mad, but Kayla was at the shopping center with Jason and the rest them. So who were you with?"

Shit.

"My brother's friend has a younger brother. I was with him." At least it wasn't a lie.

"Isn't your brother friends with Ethan's brother?"

Shit! How did she know that?

"Was it Ethan?"

"Um, yeah."

The smile returns to her face. "Oh, okay. Why didn't you just say so?"

I force a smile and a chuckle. "I don't know." I close my locker, and we go our separate ways.

Just before homeroom, I see Ethan right outside the bathrooms. I rush over to him, make eye contact, and wink. Then I push open the door, and tap his shoulder, hinting for him to follow.

The door closes, but it opens again after a few seconds.

"What? I'm going to be late for homeroom."

I place a quick kiss on his lips.

"I just needed that to get through my day."

He doesn't want to, but he can't hold back a smile.

Then he turns around and pushes the door open, making it to homeroom just in time.

I wait a few seconds, then follow him out and make a left at the end of the hall, and walk into homeroom, sitting diagonal from Aiden, and next to Kayla.

Aiden and I don't make eye contact, but Kayla starts talking to me happily.