Being Invisible (3 page)

“Thanks for f’ing with my music,”
Colin snapped at Drew as soon as we slid into the back seat.

“No idea what you’re talking about,
dude.” Drew deadpanned, before turning to me.

“Hi, I’m Drew.”

“Lucy.” I leaned forward to shake
his hand, then turned to the model sitting in the passenger seat.

“This is Mia,” Colin responded
when Mia failed to do more than give me a weak half handshake before returning
to her apparently riveting
Cosmo
.

“Nice to meet you.” I answered
both of them. Drew’s smile was followed by Mia’s curt nod, her eyes never
leaving the magazine.

As soon as the introductions were
out of the way Colin returned to telling off Drew. “Don’t act like you don’t
know, dipshit.”

Drew backed out of the space he created
when he picked us up. “Oh, wait, Let me guess. He pulled the whole ‘the music
on my mp3 player isn’t mine’ BS, didn’t he, Lucy?"
 
Drew looked in the rearview mirror to
make eye contact with me.

“I knew that you love Michael
Knight. I knew it.” I laughed.

“What did I tell you, dude? If the
girl likes you she will overlook your love of working out to eighties power
ballads. Don’t be ashamed of who you are.” Drew cracked me up, but Colin
reacted by throwing a half-full water bottle at Drew’s head.

Drew barely registered the hit,
and instead broke into a loud version of “The Greatest American Hero.”
 
Colin gave up, and joined Drew in an
equally appalling voice.

That’s what finally gave Mia a
reason to speak. “Would you both shut the hell up? I can’t think. I’m trying to
fill out this quiz.”

 
Drew grabbed the magazine from her hands
while sitting at a stoplight. “‘Are you a serial cheater?' Really, Mia? If you have
to ask, you already know the answer.” Drew tossed the magazine back to her.

“Don’t be mad, Drew. You know I
love you. I am taking the quiz for a friend.”

"What friend of yours asked
you to find out if she cheats too much?” Colin chimed in.

“Shut up, Colin. Why are you
always such a jerk?”

“Huh…you sure it’s me? Most people
think I’m charming. What do most people think about you?”

“Drew, do you hear how he talks to
me?”

“Hey, Lucy, did you say you live
on East Norwich or West Norwich?” Drew asked me, completely ignoring Mia.

“I live on East, not far from
where The Underground Record Shop use to be.”

“Underground closed? That sucks. I
loved that place.” Drew seemed really bummed.

“Nobody plays records anymore,
Andrew. Who the hell cares that it closed?” Mia put down her magazine just long
enough to comment.

Why is Drew with this girl? She must be amazing in…the kitchen.

I watched for Drew’s reaction, but
ignoring her seemed to be his position of choice. Colin, on the other hand,
appeared to want to push her out of the still moving car every time she opened
her mouth.
I looked at him sympathetically. He gave me a small smile, then shook his head
in defeat, no doubt feeling frustrated that his friendship with Drew was more
important than the thrill of watching Mia roll onto the sidewalk as we drove
away. I felt his pain. I had known her all of five minutes, and I kind of felt
like asking Drew to drop her off at the nearest bus stop.

“I guess it’s hard to comrob with
the age of downloading.” I figured I would ignore the five foot ten, 115-pound
elephant in the car, and continue the conversation as if Colin wasn’t mentally
throwing things at her.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Drew agreed.
“Still sucks. They had a great Ramones collection. Ramones sounds great on
vinyl.”

“I remember getting The Beatles
White album there. That’s another one that sounds good on a record player.”
Colin added.

We all agreed with Colin and
continued to think of music we loved listening to on a record player. My
contributions included The Muppet’s Christmas, and Elvis Costello. Mia’s
contribution was to roll her eyes and act like she would have rather been anywhere
but in that car.

“You guys act like you were around
during the dark ages.
 
I had my own
iPod when I was like seven. Are you really missing the ‘good ole’ days?’”

“Didn’t your mom ever listen to a
record when you were a kid?” Colin asked.

“Um no. My mom listened to Spice
Girls on her CD player. And you know why?”

“Because your mom was punishing
you for something?” Drew laughed at Colin’s comment, which earned him a glare.

“No, because my mom wasn’t eighty
when I was a kid.”

“You don’t have to be eighty to
have taste.” Colin said it mostly to himself, but I don’t think anyone in the
car missed it.

After that, we seemed to have an
unspoken agreement to ignore Mia and keep the conversation to the three of us.
Talking to the guys was really fun.

All too quickly, we were in front
of my house. “Thanks guys. I appreciate the ride.” I gave a quick wave, then
started to jump out of the car, only to pause when I felt the pain that I had
all but forgotten.

“No problem. Good to meet you.”
Drew yelled from the front seat. Mia gave me a half wave that looked more like
she was shooing me away than saying goodbye.

Colin took me by surprise by
jumping out of the car behind me.

“Hey, Drew. I’m going to make sure
that Lucy gets to her apartment ‘kay?”
 

“Sure thing, man.” Drew leaned
toward the back seat, while Colin leaned in from the back door to do the
guy-friend fist bump thing.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to
make sure you get in okay, get you something for your pain if you need it,
maybe an ice pack. It would make me feel better to at least pretend like I have
done something to help. I won’t stay long, I promise.”

“Well, if it will make you feel
better.” I motioned with my head toward my house. Even though I made it seem
like I was doing him a favor, I was sort of happy that he wanted to walk me to
my house. I liked him, and I wasn’t sure how to bring up seeing him again
without sounding like I ‘liked-him’ liked him.

What am I, twelve?

 
It was a relief to have a couple extra
minutes to think of the right way to say, ‘how about that coffee?’ without
sounding like I was trying out my new ‘World’s Worst Pick-up Lines” book.

As soon as I walked into my house
I was bombarded with the sound of Arctic Monkeys, and my roommate Liz yelling
made-up obscenities to no one in particular.

“Are you fracking kidding me?
 
I am seriously going to string him up by
his popcorn balls.”

“Morning, Liz. Nice word usage. Annie
will be proud.” Liz jumped when she heard me. Her focus had been entirely on
the computer in front of her, so it took her a second to switch focus to me,
and then the stranger standing next to me.

“Annie won't be proud, she's going
to be pis-I mean ticked off because I am going to win the bet. And when I win,
I am going to make a list like its freaking Christmas, with all the things I am
going to make her clean.”

 
I laughed at her, while Colin stood by me
completely bemused by the bundle of fire in front of him.

“Colin, this is my roommate Liz.
Liz, this is Colin. I ran into him this morning while out running. He helped me
get home after I fell.” Colin smiled at me before turning to Liz. “Nice to meet
you.”

“Oh hi.” Liz smiled at Colin then
glanced at me with a look that clearly meant ‘we will talk more about the good looking
guy you brought into our home later.’

Colin put his hand out and Liz
shook it.

“Nice to meet you too. What
happened, Lu? You OK?”

Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just a small
bruise I think. No biggie.”

Colin cringed slightly, but
recovered his smile and turned to Liz.

“So, Liz, if you don’t mind me
asking, how are you winning a bet with this Annie person? And why are you
planning on torturing her with cleaning?” Colin asked.

Before Liz had a chance to go off
on a rant, I jumped in. “My other roommate Annie made a bet that Liz couldn’t
go three months without swearing. If Liz wins, Annie has to keep the house
clean for the next three months. If Liz loses, she has to stop nagging Annie for
three months about keeping the house clean.”

“The girl’s room looks like
someone ransacked it for drug money.” Liz interjected. “If I don’t nag her, the
whole house will look like that. Do you want our home to look like ‘Hoarders:
College Edition’? I’m doing this for all of us.”

So much for avoiding the rant.

“She’s not that bad, Liz.” I tried
keeping a straight face, but Annie was kind of a slob. And, Liz was ridiculous
about cleaning. I was slightly suspicious that she liked sniffing Pine Sol when
no one was looking.

“Are you kidding, Lu? Before we
made the cleaning rule, our living room was starting to look like a tornado
flew through our house and dropped e-Bay directly on it.”

Colin laughed out loud at that,
then must have decided it would be fun to poke the bear. “So when you win, are
you going to make her put things into piles to keep, sell or trash?”

“Oh heck yeah!”

I could see the wheels in Liz’s
head turning.

I gave Colin my best ‘what have
you done?’ look, but he just smiled.

"So why were you so mad when
we walked in?” I asked Liz, hoping to change the subject.

“Oh, just some tool…wait can I say
tool?” Liz turned to me for confirmation.

I just shrugged, since Annie kept
the actual list of what she wasn’t allowed to say. Yes. There was an actual
list.

“Then, I’m gonna call that one
good. Anyway, this huge tool from my graphic design class was assigned to do a
group project with me. But he keeps giving stupid excuses not to participate.”

“Group projects suck.” Colin said.

“No kidding,” Liz nodded in
agreement. I could tell by the way Liz was talking to Colin that she approved
of him. Knowing that gave me a small sense of pride-like I was showing him off
or something.

“Is that the time?” Colin suddenly
asked noticing the clock hanging over the non-working fireplace.

“9:30? Yep. Why? Are you late for
something?”
 
I asked.

“Not yet. But I just remembered
that I need to stop by my econ prof’s office hours to check about an
independent study. His hours go to 10:00, so I’ll be good for another five
minutes or so.”

“Oh. Okay.”

What do I say to him now? Should I mention getting coffee again? He
mentioned coffee before, so it’s not like it’s a big deal. And why am I
overthinking this?

“Well, it was good to meet you.
Thanks for walking me home. I’m looking forward to that coffee.”

That was smooth. I sounded totally laid back.

“Oh yeah. That’s right. I won’t
forget.” He smiled, then turned to head to the front door. “Good to meet you
too.”

Liz followed him out to grab
something from the kitchen.

For a second I felt relieved that
he wanted to get coffee again too. But then I remembered that I never gave him
my number… or got his. So then, of course, I had to wonder if he forgot to get
it from me, or that was his way of blowing me off.

My frustration was interrupted by
Colin’s voice.

 
“Hey, Lucy.
I promised you pain relief before I left. Liz showed me where you keep it.” He
handed me the pills along with a drink of water. “Make sure you rest. It’s probably
going to hurt more in a couple hours. That’s when you really have to decide if
you forgive me.”

I laughed then swallowed my medicine.

“Okay. Feel better.” he added
before walking out.

He seemed to genuinely be
concerned about me. And the way he hung back to make sure I was okay made me think
that maybe he wanted to spend more time with me.

So why, when I had the chance, did
I not give him my phone number… again, or get his… again?

 
“Hey, Colin.” I heard Liz yell to him
from the kitchen window.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“Lucy, Annie and I are having a
party tomorrow night. You should stop by.”

What?

“Sounds good. Can I bring my
friend?” His voice sounded closer, so I assumed he walked back to our house so
that he could hear.

“A guy?”

“Yeah. Lucy met him. He’s cool.”

“Sure then.”

“Great. See you then.”

What just happened?

As if reading my thoughts, Liz
walked back into the living room and sat down beside me on the couch, her feet
tucked up underneath her. “You kinda had your head up your a- I mean your, oh
you know what I mean.”