Being Invisible (12 page)

“Then I will thank her for being
the most amazing person of all time. My win wouldn’t mean as much if I didn’t
have to work so freaking hard to be as good as she is.” To finish his “speech”,
he pretended to throw the mic on the ground and added
 
‘peace,’ before turning to me and
winking.

I ran up to him, jumped into his
arms and kissed him. All of our leftover adrenaline seeped into the kiss, and
by the time we pulled away, all of our friends were whooping and hollering.

 
I finished the kiss by whispering in his
ear, “I love you, Colin. And I am so proud of you. So enjoy your moment, cuz
that’s never happening again.” He laughed and kissed me again before pouring
his water bottle over my head.

The sound of “It’s only Life”
shakes me out of my thoughts.
 
I put
it on the playlist because he played it for me when I started freaking out
about going into Journalism. I told him that I never wanted to be
on
TV, so why was I going into broadcast
journalism? He assured me that it was because I knew deep down I would be great
at it, but my nerves just hadn’t caught up with me yet. So until then, I was
going to be the greatest researcher there was out there.

I pull myself out of the hot tub
before I pass out and Colin finds me floating amid the bubbles. After quickly
drying myself off and throwing on some yoga pants and my favorite OSU sweatshirt,
I take my glass of wine along with my phone out to the living room, where I can
continue to listen to music and think.

I can’t help but believe that
there has to be some way to make this work. I have no idea how, though.

I wish I could just see him. If we
hadn’t made that stupid compromise, where I can’t be within a hundred foot
radius of him while he’s doing invisible things, I could have gone with him.
Then I could have dropped him off and gone to a coffee shop or something. Then
at least I would have a little more time with him.

It’s somewhere between the songs
“Into the Ocean” and “Madness” that it comes to me. A possible answer to our
prayers. Okay, so it could also be one of the worst ideas I have ever had. But
who knows? I think there is only way to find out.

I’m strong. I’m fast. I know how
to defend myself. The only thing I have going against me is that I can’t become
invisible. Why
can’t
I be where he
is?
 
Not that I would be where the
danger is or anything. I’m not stupid. But why couldn’t I be, like, across the
street? I could watch from afar, and see what he does… well, see the result of
what he does, since I can’t see him.

Really, is it a fair assumption on
his part that he needs to worry about me the whole time? Yes, there was the one
time at Insomnia where I stood frozen in place by fear while he took down a
gun-toting criminal, but that was over a year ago, and I was caught off guard.

Maybe if he could see that having
me nearby isn’t going to ruin his plans, he will be happy to have me close
.

 
That sounds logical,
right?

Okay, maybe it sounds
 
more crazy than logical, but I’m sick of
sitting in this cabin all day. And I am sick of thinking. And if I want to get
dinner at the pub in town, I see nothing wrong with that. I can’t help it if it
happens to be across the street from Lee’s Diner.

And yes, I know that I am treading
into Bruce Banner territory with Colin, but he’s not willing to save less of
the world, so he can’t really get upset that I want to see just a little more
of it tonight.

By the time my playlist ends, I am
convinced that there’s no harm in checking out the situation from a safe
distance, while enjoying some hot wings.

It doesn’t take long before I’m good
to go. Casual outfit for dining out. Boots that go great with my corduroy
jacket, but are also good for running...just in case. A baseball cap, to show
my love for the Buckeyes, and also to maybe hide myself, to make sure Colin doesn’t
notice me before I have a chance to tell him how this is actually a great idea.
And last, but certainly not least, a cab to take me to my night out.

As I open the door to wait for the
cab to arrive, I am startled to see someone on the porch. It takes me a second
to realize that it’s Liz standing in front of me.

I grab her and pull her into a
hug. “Liz, what are you doing here?”

“Well, you said to go see my
people, so here I am.”

“You have no idea how happy I am
to see you." I hug her again, wanting her to know how much I appreciate
her being here.

"I just couldn't sit around
while you were in this place by yourself, questioning the end of your
relationship." Before I have a chance to respond, the cab pulls up.

"Oh, shoot. Cab's here. If I
tell him I don't need him any longer, can you drive me somewhere?"

"Uh, sure. Why? Where are we
going?"

“Into town. I’m really in the mood
for some wings.”

"Are you crazy? Do you
understand how bad this idea is?”

I gave Liz the story on the way to
the pub, and based on her looks of horror, coupled with the fact that she has
interjected every few of my sentences with words that would make a sailor
cringe, I don’t think she’s entirely on board with it.

“Well what other choice do I
have?” I take a sip of my water, before continuing. “You know what? I don’t
think we are going to make it. I don’t. And before this trip, I was ready to
marry the guy. Being a superhero is his life. If I can’t be part of that life,
even from afar, I don’t know how else to be part of his life at all. I know it’s
crazy...but it’s all I have left.”

Liz let’s out a breath before
shaking her head. “I still think Colin is going to completely freak, but... I
understand where you’re coming from. Just promise me you won’t try to do this
shit by yourself ever again. Use the damn buddy system. Got it?”

“Got it.”

For being a Saturday night, the
pub is pretty empty. A few regulars are at the bar talking about baseball, but
other than that there are only a few of us here. According to our waiter, the
bar picks up around 11:00, because that’s when karaoke starts.

We are sitting at a table near the
front where the windows span the length of the bar, and there is a perfect view
for watching the restaurant across the street. Lee’s looks quiet. It’s a small
restaurant with a few windows covered by drapes.
 

We’ve seen a handful of guys go
through the front door, including a couple guys who Liz says look like a “couple
thugs.”

I start to get a little nervous
when I see two kids exit a car, followed by their parents. The kids look to be
around six or seven. My gasp causes Liz to turn toward the window.

“Oh, that can’t be good.” Liz
voices my thoughts.

One of the kids, a boy with sandy
blonde hair and glasses reaches for the door, but it doesn’t open.

His dad tries the door also. When he
can’t open the door, he retreats back to the car. I breathe a sigh of relief. I
can’t help but think that Colin had something to do with that.

“This is stressful.” Liz takes a
long drink of her root beer, then goes back to her basket of fish and fries.

“No kidding. After this we’re
gonna need to pick up another bottle of wine.”

“That, my friend sounds like an
excellent idea. I think we should…”

“Liz, no way. I know that guy.”

“Huh?” Liz squints her eyes,
trying to see who I am talking about.

Standing outside of Lee’s is a man
in suit pants and a long sleeve button down, the sleeves rolled up to his
elbows. His dark sunglasses conceal the color of his eyes, while his goatee
barely covers his chin.

“I mean, I don’t know him, but I
saw a picture of him. Colin was looking through a bunch of profiles, and I saw
his picture. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I remember him because Colin
said they call him The Exterminator because when he’s around, people drop like
flies. He also said that if they could get these guys tonight, they might get
some information out of them that might lead them to The Exterminator. I’m
pretty sure he’s the last person they’re expecting to see.”

“Seriously, Lucy. You brought me a
place fifty yards away from a guy called The Exterminator? You think you could
have given yourself like, a second to think this through?”

I ignore her comment, and
concentrate on the guy across the street. “Why do you think he’s here? Do you
think he knows something is going on?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think of
that. You think it’s a setup?”

“I have no idea. I wish there was
a way I could give Colin a heads up.” I’m getting a bad feeling about this
whole thing, and it makes me wonder if this is what it’s like to witness this
part of Colin’s life- constant worry and stress.

“Can’t you just text him?” Liz
asks, her eyes still glued to the man across the street, watching while he
smokes a cigarette.

“I never text him while he’s
invisible. He’s afraid that even on silent someone might hear the vibration. He
keeps it with him in case he needs to make a call, but he leaves it off until
he’s somewhere where he can become visible.”

“Makes sense.”

“I guess for now, we’ll just have
to wait.”

“Hey ladies, can I get you
anything else?” The sound of the waiter causes us both to jump.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak
up on you.”

“Oh, you didn’t. We were just in a
deep conversation and didn’t see you.” Liz says.

“Yeah, You’re fine.” I add. “I
don’t think we need anything right now.”

 
As soon as the waiter leaves, we both let
out a breath.

“We need to get better at recon.”
I say while grabbing a handful of Liz’s fries.

“In my defense, I usually do my
stalking in an unmarked car. This is my first time staking out at a pub.” Liz
adds an eye roll, and I throw one of the fries at her.

At first I think that she’s taking
a personal offense to being hit with a fry, until I realize her confused look
is directed behind me. When I turn around to see what has caught her eye, I
notice that a second guy has joined Exterminator. The new guy looks like he
could be around our age. He is wearing designer jeans and a Knicks t-shirt.
With that and his backward baseball cap, he looks like he could be heading to a
game after he's done selling drugs.

By their gestures, they appear to
know each other. Knicks looks like he's explaining something serious, while Ex-as
Liz’s name for him, is stone faced, occasionally giving a single nod.

"What do you think is going
on?" Liz asks in hushed tones.

"No idea. Maybe we should
record it. Give Colin a visual of the new guy."

Liz pulls out her camera and
starts to record the interaction.

They talk that way for a few
minutes before Ex shakes the guy’s hand. Just as Ex takes his free hand and
pats it on the other guy's shoulder, Knicks doubles over like he's in pain. Ex
says something to the guy then throws down his cigarette and walks toward the
back of the diner.

"What the hell just happened?"
I ask.

"That was weird." Liz
agrees.

"Ex didn't have anything to
do with what happened to that guy right?" My brain is trying to catch up
with my eyes.

"I don't think… I mean he
just put his hand on him. He couldn't have." Liz is just as confused as
me.

"But the guy was fine before,
and now he's..." I look at the guy who is still on the ground, doubled
over in pain. His eyes dart around the lot as if he's afraid someone will see
him. Then he takes a few deep breaths before pulling himself up.

After a few seconds, he stumbles
to a car. A few minutes later the car roars to life, and he pulls away, tires
squealing.

"He just stole that car
didn't he?" Liz asks.

"I think that would be a fair
assumption." I say, still baffled by the whole thing. "That thing,
with Ex, with the hand on the shoulder? Was that some kind of ninja
trick?"

Liz thinks for a moment before
responding. "I'm thinking Vulcan death grip."

"Okay, I need to see that
again. I move my chair closer to Liz so we can watch together. We play the
video twice, trying to find some kind of clue.

"I don't know," Liz
shakes her head." He just pats the guy on his shoulder. Maybe it was a
coincidence."

"But Ex doesn't look
surprised by it. He looks like he knew it was going to happen."

"True." Liz looks
perplexed. "Hell, I don't know. Let's watch it again."

Part way through reviewing the
video, I see something.

"Holy shit!" I
practically yell it, which causes everyone at the bar to look at me. "Sorry,
I spilled my dipping sauce."

Liz stops the video then looks at
my full container of ranch. She raises her eyebrows in question before adding,
"Yeah, she loves to dip her chicken."

The crowd returns to their
conversation, and Liz gives me a pointed look. "What was that?"

"Rewind it. Watch the part
where Knicks first gets hurt."

She does as I ask, and right
before that part comes up, I reach over and pause it.

"Now watch, behind him
there's a flower bed, keep your eyes on it."

"Oh-kay." She seems
unsure, but continues to play along.

"Holy shit! You weren't
kidding." Luckily, Liz learns from my mistake and says it under her
breath.

"So, at the same time Ex puts
his hand on Knicks' shoulder, Knicks doubles over, and the flowers immediately
die?" Liz pauses the video and looks at me for some kind of explanation.

I cover my mouth with my hand, and
simply shake my head slowly. I don't want to believe it, but I think I know.

"Liz," I pause trying
make sense of my own thoughts. "I think, maybe Ex might have superpowers
too.”