Memoirs of an Invisible Boy

Chapter 4

Hello again, my mystery reader! I’m sorry for freaking you out with my last chapter. Yes, I confess, I was watching you again as you read it. No, I’m not stalking you or anything like that. I just think it’s so cool that I’m actually reaching out and touching someone. I watched as you read, and when you got to the end, you suddenly jumped up and started looking around you. You looked pretty scared. I’m sorry. Before you wonder, no, this is not a prank. Yes, I really am invisible, and no, I mean you no harm. See, before I acquired my current condition, I never would’ve had the guts to talk to a girl, let alone someone as pretty as you. There, I said it. I think you’re pretty. See, even now, it’s really hard for me to say. I’ve never had to guts to just approach a girl. Only after I turned invisible, did I have the courage to get close to one. I know pretty pathetic right?

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I did manage to talk to a girl. Two of them in fact. The first one, you already know about. Jenna Jones. After that fiasco in the cafeteria, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Was she intentionally showing off her body to me? Well, I know the answer to that now. Yes, she was. But to her, it was just some other game. Back then, I didn’t know this tidbit of information. I think I actually half convinced myself that maybe she had an interest in me. So about two weeks after the episode in the cafeteria, I managed to screw up my courage and approached her.

Why didn’t I remember this before now? That’s strange. Ever since I turned invisible, I don’t think I’ve thought about that episode once at all. Maybe if I did, I may not have let Jenna Jones off so easily. To say that I crashed and burned would’ve been the understatement of the century. I waited around Jenna’s locker until her cheerleader practice was finished. I had watched her for a few days, so I knew her routine. She usually visited her locker one last time before heading for home after her practice. Usually, she was alone. I watched from afar as she opened her locker. There was no one else is sight. Hesitantly, and with shaking knees, I slowly approached her. My voice was shaking too as I opened my mouth. “Ummm. Hi, Jenna?”

She turned to look at me, and the look her face instantly turned into one of disgust. Similar to the look she would have if she’d just discovered that she stepped on some gum. “Yah, what do you want pervert!” Not quite the response I was hoping for!

I gathered up the last shreds of my courage and my dignity. “Ummm, I was just, uhhh, wondering, ahhh, that is…” I stopped, took a deep breath and said, “Would you go out with me this Friday?”

The look on her face underwent several transformations. It went from disgust, to incredulous, to horrified, to predatory. Her eyes narrowed to mere slits as she raised her voice and cried, “What? Are you serious? You’re asking me out? Ewww, that’s the grossest thing I’ve ever heard! Get away from my you creep!”

She lashed out and gave me a hard push. I landed on my butt, several feet away. At that precise moment, several of her teammates as well as several large football players appeared on the scene. It was like a badly scripted nightmare! They reached her side and were all over themselves, asking her what was wrong. She proceeded to tell them in fine detail with colourful language about the crime I had committed. She used words like pervert, creep, freak, and a few others that I won’t relate here. By now, I was sputtering like a fool, and was slowly trying to back away from her accusations and the stares, and the pointing fingers. A couple of guys quickly cut off my avenue of escape. They grabbed me by the arms and lifted me bodily up. I think I was begging for mercy at this point. The details from here on are pretty hazy. I remember a lot of laughing, and I remember praying that my ordeal would end quickly. I think during my torture session, at some point, I must have passed out. The next thing I remember, I was waking up on a cold hard floor. My clothes were wet from lying in a puddle of urine. It wasn’t mine. My face felt stiff, and when I reached up to touch it, my fingers came away with some brown, foul smelling substance stuck to them. When I staggered out of the school, the sky was dark. When I got home, I raced to my room. I couldn’t face my parents! I ripped off my clothes and jumped into the shower. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, but I couldn’t get the god-awful smell off me. It was the stink of my shame. At the dinner table, my father made an offhand comment about a strange smell. I couldn’t help it. I started bawling my eyes out at the dinner table. I ran to my bedroom and locked myself in. I wouldn’t answer the door for anyone who knocked. I couldn’t face them! I just couldn’t!

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Well, for once, the night janitor’s interruption was a welcome one. It stopped me from delving too deeply into painful memories. No wonder I forgot all about that episode! Who’d want to have that on their minds all the time?

Well, I have to apologize. Not once during this entry have I talked about my experiences as an invisible boy. Ok, let me rectify that right now.

The rest of the school year was pretty much the same. I continued with my pranks until the end of the year. Oh, did I ever mention that I made our football team lose the championship? No? Well, let’s see. I remember feeling a lot of animosity against football players in general, and about a few players in specific. At the time, I didn’t know why I harbored such feelings towards them, but now, after reliving my forgotten experiences, now I know. There were three players for whom I had extremely strong feelings. There was Josh Atkins, the quarterback, and now that I think about it, he was the jock I saw coming out of Nurse Nancy’s office. Then there were Ben Armstrong and Derek MacInnes. Two hulking brutes who probably qualify as the missing link. After reliving my memory of my attempt at asking Jenna out, I now realize that these three jocks were the instigators of the attack. Josh was the leader, and the worse of the three. Of course, at the time of the championship game, I did not know this, but now I understand why I did what I did. Did I go overboard? Was it too much? Either way, you be the judge.

I’m not too keen on football, so I won’t go into the details of the game here. Besides, you can probably look up the records in school. Let’s see…I started out in the dressing room. I got there early and waited, patiently biding my time. I didn’t really have a plan. I guess I was just looking for opportunities as they presented themselves. And present themselves they did! Josh had carelessly left his jock cup lying around as he was getting dressed. He was joking around with his buddies and walked away from his gear. I saw my chance. There was no one in sight. I had maybe only a few seconds. I picked up his helmet and smashed it down on his cup several times. When I put the helmet down, there were several cracks in the jock cup. The stupid idiot didn’t even notice them when he put it on! Next, I moved on to Ben. This time, I couldn’t find any time alone with this gear, so I waited. When no one was looking my way, I slipped over to where his helmet was sitting on the bench and quickly worked the hinge on the face cage loose. Derek was chewing some gum, which he then spit carelessly onto the floor. Again, when no one was looking, I picked it up, ripped off a piece and jammed it into the latch on his helmet so that the straps wouldn’t lock fully. Neither of them checked over their equipment before grabbing their stuff and heading out.

Josh got clobbered early on in the game. His jock strap mysteriously shattered upon impact, sending shards into his groin. He was carried away on a stretcher. Next to go was Derek. He went for a tackle, when suddenly, his helmet flew off in midair. I think his head ended up making contact with someone’s knee. He too was carried away on a stretcher. I think he woke up a day later in the hospital with a concussion. Ben was the last to be carried away on a stretcher. He too was trying to tackle someone, but his face cage inexplicably flew off in the middle, and he ended up doing a face plant into the ground. His nose broke. That may seem like nothing to a football player, but later on, x-rays showed that bone fragments were within an inch of entering his brain. He was one inch away from dying. My little pranks landed three people in the hospital. One who may never father children, another who risked brain damage, and the third almost died. None of them ever played football again. Was it worth it? At the time, I felt really bad and vowed never to play pranks again.

Whew, I’m drained, physically and emotionally. I’m gonna call it a night. You know something? My mystery reader, you seem a little familiar to me. Do you have a sister? You look like someone; I just can’t put my finger on it right now. Hmmm…oh well. As you probably have guessed already, my memory is pretty bad. I mean, it’s downright spotty in places. I’m sure the name will come back to me one day. See you in the morning!