Love Story (Oh my, my, my)

Invisible

 When Jesse pulled up in front of my house, I was relieved to see Julie wasn't in the car too. 

 "Hurry, Abz." He said, swinging the door open. "We shouldn't be late."

 "Got it." I said, hopping in and tossing my extremely heavy backpack into the back seat. For a moment there was a comfortable silence, with only the sounds of the car and our breathing.

 "I think I'm going to do it today..." Jesse said. 

 "Do what?"

 "Ask her to homecoming."

 "Oh." I said, pausing for a moment. I couldn't let my voice shake. "Good luck. I'm sure she'll say...yes."

 "I hope so." He smiled. 

 Not a moment too soon, we pulled into the school parking lot. Jesse parked the car and after grabbing my bag I got out. "See you later, Jess."

 "Bye, Abz."

 I hurried to my first class. I focused on my work and didn't think of Jesse or Julie all through the rest of my classes. That is, until lunch. I was walking out of my class, when some girl bumped into me and my books and papers spilled all over the ground. I looked up at the face of the girl who had run into me. It was none other than Julie.

 "Watch where you're going." She smiled sweetly at me, completely contradicting her rude words. 

 "Yeah." I muttered. "Right." 

 When I bent over to pick my books up, someone pushed me from behind. Whether it was on purpose of accident I didn't know, but I fell face first onto the ground. 

 "Ow..." I groaned. 

 "Do you need help?" I heard a voice ask above me.

 I looked up and saw a girl standing over me, her hand stretched down to me. She had wild red hair and freckles all over her face. I smiled. "Sure, thanks."

 "No prob." She answered as she lifted up off the ground. "Julie's just like that sometimes."

 "You know her?" I asked. We started to pick up the papers I had dropped, students swarmed around us on their way to lunch. 

 "Yeah." The girl sighed. "She was my best friend a long time ago. But...like I said, it was a long time ago." She handed me my stuff. "Oh, I'm Maddy by the way. Well, Madeline, but everyone calls me Maddy."

 "Hi, Maddy." I said. "I'm Abigail."

 "Wanna have lunch with me?"

 "Sure." I said. "I don't think my other friend is planning on sitting with me today."

 "Who's your other friend?"

 "His name's Jesse." I explained as we walked down the hall. "He's a junior."

 She raise her eyebrows at me.

 I laughed. "No, I've known him since we were little and he's really my best friend. But right now...well, let's just say he's...preoccupied."

 As if on cue, I saw Julie and Jesse walking toward the courtyard, talking and laughing on their way to lunch.

 "Julie?" Maddy asked. "He's into Julie?"

 "Guess so." I sighed. "He's going to ask her to homecoming."

 "Wow, ouch."

 "Why ouch?"

 "Well, I think you wanted him to ask you."

 "Why in the world would you say that?" 

 "It's all in the way you look at him, girly." She said. "Trust me, I know about such things."

 I laughed. "Okay, almight master. Now where are we sitting?"

 "I have a good spot by the library. Follow me."

 ~*~*~*~*~*~

 "Hey, Abz!"

 I was sitting under the tree in my backyard, doing my geometry homework, when Jesse came through the back door and started walking toward me.

 "Oh, hey Jess." I said, glancing up from my homework. "What's up?"

 "She said yes." He said excitedly as he sat down next to me. "I asked her if she'd go to homcoming with me and she said yes."

 "Oh, really?" I said, keeping my eyes on my paper. "Cool. Told you she would."

 I looked up and saw Jesse staring at me, smiling. 

 "What?" 

 "You look funny when you're focusing." He laughed. 

 "Well, you look funny on a normal basis, so it's okay." I replied nonchalantly. 

 "Ouch."

 "You deserved it." I smiled. "Got any homework."

 "Nah, I finished it all."

 "Cool."

 "You?"

 "Just geometry."

 "So...." Jesse began, pausing for a while. "You going to homecoming?"

 I shrugged. "I don't know if I'll have someone to go with."

 "Oh."

 "So, how long have you known Julie?"

 "Uh...two days?"

 "Seriously?" I said, looking up from my homework. "That's it? And you're asking her out?"

 "Just to a dance!"

 I raised my eyebrows. "You can't possibly know her."

 "Well..."

 "Jesse!" My mom called. "It's your mother on the phone! She wants you home right away. Somethinga about a chore you forgot?"

 "Got it, thanks Mom!" Jesse yelled back. "See you later, Short Stuff."

 "Bye Bigfoot." I called as he disappeared inside.

 I sighed. She couldn't already love him like I did. She couldn't have already begun to notice the way his eyes would light up when he smiled. Like in third grade, when he had won first place in the science fair. Or in eighth, when we had danced for the first time at his older sister's wedding. But I saw him stopping and staring when she passed him in the halls. Maybe she'd noticed too. 

 He obviously lacked great powers of observation. He couldn't see the way I loved him, like nothing else. He couldn't see that our friendship meant so much to me, that he meant everything to me. 

 "I wish I could show you..." I said. "I'm the one who really knows you. I could really love you, if you let me. But it's...like I'm invisible. You can see right through me. If you only knew...we could be beautiful...a miracle!" I sighed. "But I'm just invisible."

 I decided not to go to homecoming unless someone asked me to go. I didn't feel in the mood for watching Jesse and Julie sit by each other, hold hands, or flirt. She had already proven herself unkind and I had a feeling if she knew how I felt for Jesse, she wouldn't be happy.

 So I determined to keep my distance. Later, maybe, I'd pour a bucket of paint over my invisible head and make me visible to him again. But for now, I was going to fade into the shadows.  I would wait. Love just had to wait for one thing: the right moment.