Being Invisible (15 page)

“Oh.” It’s all I can say without
giving away that I could very well start crying at any moment.

“I miss you, Luce.”

Even though I know it’s the
alcohol making me want to say exactly what’s on my mind, I can’t seem to stop
myself. “I miss you too. I don’t want to, but I do. I don’t want to think about
you at all either, but I still do. I don’t even want to see you right now...but
I do.” I drain what’s left of my drink, hoping to dull the pain a little more.

“Then why are we doing this? We’re
both miserable.”

“Because being with you made me
feel this way too.” The words fly out of my mouth before I have a chance to
evaluate them.

“So being with me was that bad?”
He says it more like a statement, and his frustration is obvious.

“No. But it was bad. I don’t want
to go another day feeling like I’m not enough for you.”

“But you are enough for me. Can’t
you tell? I’m miserable without you.”

“You can tell me that all you
want. But when it comes down to it I am never going to be a pri-arity.”

“A what?”

“I mean a pri-ordy. Pri-rority.
Damn. That’s a hard word to say.”

Colin looks oddly at me for a
second before laughing. “Priority?” He says each syllable carefully to make
sure I get how to pronounce it.

“Yes. That. Don’t laugh at me. You
know what I mean.”

“Sorry. No more laughing. How
drunk are you?”

“I’m not drunk. I only had,” I
pause to think about it.
 
“Three
shots before we left the house, a Mojito when we first got here, then...I don’t
know. Probably like one more drink?”

“Hey, if that’s all you can
remember drinking, then I’m sure you’re fine.”

I think that might be sarcasm.

“Well if I would have known that
the drink police were going to be here I would have kept a… oh what’s that
called? A timer? No, that doesn’t make sense. You know, a thing. I would have
kept a thing that reminds you how many of something you have. Like a tally of
what you’ve drank. What’s that called?”

“A tally?” Colin asks, clearly
amused at my expense.

“Yes. A tally. I would have kept a
tally. Wait. Why was I keeping a tally?”

“Because I am the drink police?”

“Yes. You’re the alcohol patrol.”

Before Colin can respond, our
friends come back to the table.

“Everything okay?” Liz looks from
me to Colin.

“Great.” I follow up my answer
with a smile to prove that I’m telling the truth.

“Uh huh.” She sits down beside me,
and pats my leg. “I can tell.” She looks at Annie and shakes her head.

I hadn’t noticed it until now, but
the place is starting to thin out. Our group is pretty much all there is left.
Which means that nobody is doing karaoke.

“I thought we were here for some
‘oke.” I yell, only because I don’t realize how loud my voice is until I’m done
saying it.

“You gonna sing?” Colin raises his
eyebrows in question. I’m pretty sure it’s a challenge.

“Yes. I am. But not this time.
Next time. Someone else go next.”

“I could go. I have a song picked
out already.” Annie, who’s had a few drinks herself, starts to fill out her
paper.

“What song?” Liz asks while
looking over Annie’s shoulder to get a look at what she’s writing.

“Holding Out For a Hero.”

I don’t mean to do it. I really
don’t. But as soon as Annie tells us what she is going to sing, I laugh. I
can’t help it.

While everyone else looks at me in
confusion, Liz, Drew and Colin all have the same look of panic on their faces.

“What’s so funny?” Robin asks,
sharing the general bemusement of the table.

“It’s nothing.” No one turns away,
so I feel like I am forced to be more specific. “I’m just surprised that you
picked that song.”

“Why? It’s like my new motto. I’m
tired of guys like James. He was good to me while it worked for him. Next guy
is going to be the kind of man that will move mountains for me.”

“Believe me, I don’t think being
with a hero is all it’s cracked up to be.”

Damn it. Why do I keep talking?

I look to Liz for help, but she
just cocks her head to one side as if she wants to see how I get myself out of
this.

“I mean, I don’t know. My guess is
that your “hero” will be just like any other guy out there. When it comes down
to it they’re still guys. They all have thick skulls.” I glance at Colin who
just waves his hand in the air using the universal symbol for ‘go on.’

“I’m just guessing.”

“You’re probably right. But at
least he would be muscular.” Annie says. “If nothing else I’d have eye candy.”

“And it would be kinda hot being
with someone so powerful.” This time it’s Jane praising the virtues of heroes
everywhere. “Power would be good in any number of situations.” The ladies high
five each other and laugh.

“Good for lifting heavy things,
and opening jars.” Ruth adds, to which Annie nods her head.

I can see out of the corner of my
eye that Liz is shaking her head, and probably rolling her eyes. I know she’s
thinking the same thing as me.

Colin does not need this kind of attention; even of it’s not directly
about him.

Colin is, of course, smiling like
this is a personal win. I look at him and scowl, but he just raises and lowers
his eyebrows, then gives me a smirk.

“Well, I can think of plenty of
reasons why being with a hero is probably no different than being with say Drew
or Colin.” I wave my hand in the general direction of the guys, who seem to
think this whole thing is funny. Now I just want to sky write all the reasons
why women everywhere should steer clear.

“Okay, Lucy, expert on all things
superhero, name one reason why being with a heroic man is such bad news.” Robin
raises her drink in my direction, giving me the floor.

“Only one? That’s easy.” I direct
my statement at Colin, who continues to smile.

Oh, it’s on, Vapor.

“Okay. How many reasons you think
you got?” Annie asks.

“I don’t know. You tell me. I can
give you three without even thinking about it.” The truth is, I haven’t been
thinking about it, so I have no idea what I can come up with. I’m just kind of
talking for the sake of talking now.

“Then I think you should do five.”
Ruth is enjoying this just as much as everyone else.

“Fine. Five. Whatever.”

I am surprised when Colin joins
in. “I will give you a hundred bucks, if you can come up with ten reasons.”

“Easiest hundred I ever made,” I
lean back in my chair to show off how easy this is going to be.

This is so not going to be easy.

“Okay, Lucy school us. Number
one.” Annie looks at me expectantly.

I think for a second before saying
the first thing that comes to my mind. “Unfortunately, most superheroes don’t
get to pick and choose when to use their abilities. Which means they end up
being lightning quick at
everything.
”
I look at Colin and give him the same smirk he gave me earlier.

Liz high fives me while Drew looks
at Colin for confirmation. Colin subtly, yet vehemently, shakes his head no.
This makes me laugh.

“Okay. Number two.” Drew says.

“Guys love to be recognized for
their big heroic acts. So as long as it gives them a chance to show how much
testosterone they have, they will go to the end of the Earth for you. Which
means they will leap tall buildings in a single bound, but if you ask them to
take out the trash they suddenly have a headache.”

“You’re probably right.” Annie
agrees, while Jane adds, “We’ll hire a maid,” which makes everyone laugh.

“All right. Number three,” I
continue. My head is kind of treading water in alcohol, so I take a deep breath
before I continue. “Being cunning isn’t always a good thing. You think if
Batman had a girlfriend he wouldn’t use his infinite resources to trick her
into believing he’s not with Catwoman when he says he’s ‘with the guys?’” I
take a drink of water while my friends urge me to continue.

“Number five, “I say before my
friends yell, “Number four!”

“Right, number four.”

“It’s hard enough having an
argument with a guy when he’s not a superhero. How many times do you think
you’re going to hear, ‘oh yeah, well I stopped a runaway train with my bare hands
today, so what have you got?’ You’ll never hear the end of it. That guy from
X-Men said it himself. ‘Peace was never an option.’ What you don’t know is that
he was talking about arguing with his girlfriend.”
 
I look around the group and notice that Colin
seems to like that one. He should. He made me watch that movie with him.

“Okay, okay. Next one, number…” I
rack my brain trying to remember.

“Five!” Everyone yells at the same
time.

“Right, five. So, say your guy is
into teleportation. Do you think he’s gonna use it to make it to your mother’s
dinner party on time? Of course not. He’s going to use it to teleport from his
golf league to his bowling league. More time to drink and hang with the guys.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Drew acts
like he’s thinking it over, and Liz smacks him on the arm.

“Well you’re just teleporting
yourself right into the doghouse aren’t you?” Liz says.

Drew puts his arms around her, and
pulls her close to him. “Go on, Luce. No more interruptions.” Drew nods his
head toward me. “Number six.”

“Okay, number six, number six.” I
bite the inside of my mouth, trying to come up with my next one. “Oh, Got it.
Do you really want to hear the words, ‘Here I come to save the day!’ every
night before bed?”

“Seven!” Everyone yells, urging me
to continue.

Now I feel like I’m on a roll.
“Remember the famous quote, ‘with great power comes mediocre foreplay?’ It’s
famous because it’s true.” I subtly glance at Colin, who gives me a look that
says, ‘you know that’s not true.’

“Eight!”

“Let’s say for a second your
boyfriend is a shape shifter. Do you think he’s going to turn into Channing
Tatum for you? Not a chance. He’s going to turn himself into an extra video
game controller or a bottle opener. What are you going to do with that?”

“Nine!”

Two more. I can do this.

“Then when your super hero finally
invites you to his place, you know what you’re going to expect. The Bat cave,
right? Sure there are cool gadgets everywhere, but what you don’t see are all
the posters of half naked women and his underwear thrown on the floor, because
when it’s his maid’s day off, nothing gets done.”

“Ten!”

I take a deep breath before my
last one. “And we have our very own hero, right here in town. The guy who turns
invisible. Right, Ruth?” I turn to Ruth who smiles and gives me a thumbs up.

 
“I’m sure whoever gets to be his lucky
girl will find him as amazing as the rest of us. The problem is, when you get
to be invisible, you can disappear anytime you want.”

Everyone at the table cheers and
high fives me. I glance over at Colin, who is staring at his beer bottle while
pulling the wrapper off.
 
When he
notices me looking at him, he gives me a half smile then pulls out a stack of
bills and hands them to me.

“Easiest hundred you ever made,
huh?”

“Truthfully, not as easy as you
would think.”
 
It was actually
really freaking hard, but I’m not telling him that. Instead I smile at him, and
grab his hundred.

“Hey guys, drinks are on me!”

The whole table erupts into
cheers, and heads to the bar. I stay back, along with Colin.

“That was impressive. Sounds like
you have some kind of grudge against superheroes. I didn’t have anything to do with
that, right? I’m guessing it was some other superhero you dated?”

“Of course not you. Completely
different superhero. Word of advice. When one of the Wonder Twins utters the
words ‘form of threesome’ just run.”

Colin laughs, but then turns
serious. “Luce, I need to tell you…”

Before he can finish his sentence,
Ruth returns. “Okay. This drink, then I gotta go. Wait. I have to sing one more
time. This drink, one song, then I gotta go. Wait. I need to pee. I’ll do that
first.” She gets up and stumbles to the bathroom.

Drew and Liz head to the stage to
sing “I Wanna Be Sedated” together, while the rest of the girls pretend to be
their fans.

“Hey, Luce, I know I don’t have
long before your friend who never stops talking comes back, but I need to tell
you something.”

“Um, okay.” My alcohol-induced
stupor is waning, and what remains is overpowered by a feeling of exhaustion.
I’m not sure I have it in me for anything too deep.

“So I’m gonna get straight to the
point.” He waits to make sure I’m listening. “I am going to do everything in my
power to get you back. I know you feel like this is the end for us. But it’s
not.”

His confession catches me off guard.
I am speechless. This isn’t the kind of conversation you can wrap up in a
night, let alone in the span of time it takes Ruth to pee.

“But, uh...why?” Okay so not the
most eloquent of responses, but what does he expect when he throws something
out like that?

My question doesn’t seem to phase
Colin, who gives me a crooked smile and scoots his chair closer to me, getting
near enough to speak in low tones.

“Because I am in love with you.
And that’s not going to change.”

“So, since you love me we should
get back together.” I take a deep sigh and let it out. “Colin, I didn’t break
up with you because you don’t love me. I broke up with you because children on
playgrounds everywhere are going to do lines of cocaine off of the tops of
slides if you don’t spend all of your time stopping the enemy. How can I get in
the way of that?”

Colin starts to talk, but I keep
going. “You could tell me that you love me a thousand times, but at the end of
the day, I will still be waiting for you at home. Or in a restaurant. Or at a
cabin. Or wherever it is that I happen to be when you leave me to run off to do
good. And I’m sure that you know me well enough to realize that I deserve to do
more in life than wait around for you.”

Colin sits, thinking for a moment
before speaking. “Luce, I don’t know what to do. I feel like I am suppose to be
Vapor, but I know we should be together too. How can I make it work? I’ll do
anything.”

“I don’t know, Colin. I...” Great
now I’m crying again. I thought I was done with all that.

Colin reaches over and cups my
face in his hands. After wiping off my tears with his thumbs, he places a
gentle kiss on my forehead.

“Don’t worry, Lucy. I’m going to
figure it out. I’m going to make this better. I promise.”

“Colin, I don’t think-”

“No, Luce. You’re right. Nothing’s
changed...yet. But I will. And until I do, I don’t want you to give up on us.
Give me a little time.”

Damn it. How many stages of grief are there again? Because I may have
to go through all of them a couple more times before this is all over.

“I don’t know, Col. I can’t make
any promises.”

“That’s fine. No promises. I can
deal with that.
 
But just to give
you a head’s up, I’m not going away either, and I’m not going to play fair.
You’re going to see me around.”

“Fine, Colin, whatever. At this point
I am so tired, I don’t have it in me to argue.”

“I’ll take it.” Colin puts out his
hand to shake on it, and I reluctantly place my hand in his and give it a
small, but firm shake.

Now that Colin is no longer my
focus, I become acutely aware that everyone is staring at us. When I turn to
look, I see every one of our friends turn away like the pool table has suddenly
become the most interesting thing in the world. Really subtle since no one is
playing pool at the moment.

“Okay guys. I think the show is
over.” I say, getting up from the table.

Liz, Annie and Drew walk over to
the bar to make sure their tabs are settled, while the rest of my friends hug
me and tell me they will call soon for round two, since I managed not to sing
the entire night.

Drew walks Liz to her car, so she
can pick us up near the door, while Annie and I sit on the curb to wait. Colin
is leaning against the side of the bar, checking something on his phone.

When Liz pulls up, Drew jumps out,
giving me the front seat. Before I have a chance to crawl in, Colin stops me.

“Before you go, I wanted to give
you a hug goodbye. As friends.”

I glare at him in disbelief, but
allow him to pull me close anyway. After our all too brief hug, he pulls away,
only to place a soft yet quick kiss to my lips.

“I told you I’m not playing fair.”
He whispers it into my ear before turning on his heel and walking away.

I have no chance, do I?

I drop into the seat, and after
buckling my seatbelt I lean back in complete exhaustion.

“Okay, you gonna tell us what the
hell that was about, or are we gonna to have to torture it out of you?” Liz
smacks my leg to show her annoyance.

“Yeah,” Annie adds, “We need to
know if we should be high fiving you or kicking his ass.”

“Honestly?” I think about it a
moment, weighing the night, and my contradictory feelings. I can only come up
with one conclusion. “I have no idea.”