The Love of An Invisible

10/05/2019 – New York, Manhattan, Upper East Side.

[ Iuri Stevens’ Perspective ]

Once again, I wake up late, forgot to set the alarm clock; yesterday, I stayed up all night watching anime. When I went to bed, it was already past four in the morning, and now it’s exactly seven ten. I have only twenty minutes to get to school.

I look in the mirror; nothing has changed-my face full of pimples, slim body, average height. My eyes are filled with dark circles; I’ve been binge-watching anime for a week, but I don’t care. I grab my backpack from the chair on the computer desk, throw it over my shoulder, and rush down the stairs. With quick steps, I head to the kitchen and meet the housekeeper.

“Good morning, Iuri,” Mrs. Lueni greets me.

She is a sixty-nine-year-old woman who has worked for my parents since before I was born. I believe she has been around since my grandfather’s time, who unfortunately is no longer with us. He died of natural causes while sleeping; he was ninety-seven.

Mrs. Lueni’s expression shows fatigue; her hair is completely white, but her blue eyes and her smile still seem young. I have a lot of affection for her.

“Good morning!” I speak quickly.

“Late again?”

“Yes, I lost track of time watching anime yesterday,” I say and take a bite of the apple.

“You need to stop watching so much anime; it might end up affecting your grades!” she says, concerned.

“Don’t worry; I’m a genius,” I say and wink at her.

“Thank goodness!” She smiles at my joke.

“I’m off; otherwise, I’ll miss the first class.” I give her a kiss on her forehead and walk out of the house.

“Go with God!” I hear her shout before closing the door.

I’m already eighteen years old; I should have finished high school last year, but in middle school, I ended up repeating a year. They played a harsh prank on me; they mixed eggs and horse manure in a bucket and set a trap at the classroom door. When I opened it, the bucket fell on my head, and everyone in the room started laughing, throwing leftover food and paper at me. After that, I didn’t set foot there for the rest of the year, and my parents sued the school.

I changed schools again; this is my first year at Birch Wathen Lenox School. If nothing goes wrong, I’ll graduate this year. I hasten my steps; it’s only fifteen blocks away from my house. The school year is almost over, my grades are high, and I’m considered a nerd by my friends, or rather, just Jorge. Only he sees me in that school.

When I transferred there, I didn’t expect Aya Millenis, the girl with kind violet eyes, to be in my class. We’ve only seen each other twice; the second time was at a social event at the company where our parents worked seven years ago, but she didn’t exchange a word with me.

I watch her from afar, her hair is loose and reaches her waist, black in color. Her eyes haven’t changed; just as I remember from our childhood, they remain kind. She wears a beautiful light pink child’s dress with a large lilac bow on the back. Unfortunately, she doesn’t remember me, doesn’t recall our childhood encounter or the social event. And because I’m shy, I’ve never spoken to her in school; I just observe her from a distance.

Well, at school, I’m completely invisible; I’ve never drawn attention, and I’ve never been good at sports. I like mathematics. But I’ve never gone up to the board when the teacher asked for volunteers, and luckily, I’ve never been one of the chosen ones. In short, I’ve never had any kind of spotlight. I hate the feeling of many eyes on me; it feels like they’re holding back laughter.

I look at the watch on my wrist, and there are exactly five minutes until the doorman closes the gate. I quicken my pace; I’m almost running, still two blocks away. With exactly one minute left, I reach the building gate.

“Good morning, Mr. Mouares,” I greet the doorman.

“Good morning, Mr. Stevens, you almost stayed outside!”

“I guess I’m lucky,” I say smiling.

“Lucky all week; you live so close, I don’t understand why you’re always late.”

“I had to solve some problems,” I lie shamelessly, “See you later, Mr. Mouares!”

“Good classes, Mr. Stevens! Oops! Another one who almost missed the time.”

His words catch my attention, and I look again at the gate; I’m holding onto the stair railing with my left foot paused on the first step. I feel hypnotized as I see Aya passing through the gate.

“Good morning, Mr. Mouares,” she says friendly.

“Good morning, Miss Millenis, you better hurry.”

– I’ll do that! – She replies.

Aya turns her back to the doorman and faces me, but she doesn’t look in my direction or greet me; she rushes past me, running up the stairs. I sigh.

“If you keep this up, you won’t be able to get the girl’s attention,” the doorman chuckles.

If I were more handsome, good at sports, had more prominence among the students, maybe she would look at me. But as I am a simple invisible, all that’s left for me is to observe her from afar. In the classroom, she sits in the first chair of the last row near the window, and I sit in the last chair of the first row near the entrance door. I chose to sit there because it gives me a good view of her back.

Resigned, I lazily climb the stairs. My classroom is the last door on the left of the corridor. It’s not too long, with about six doors on each side of the corridor. I’m in the twelfth grade D. The door is already open; I enter the room, and everyone is already in their respective places, except for mine.

Leandro is also in the same class as me. I don’t know what made him repeat the year, but I have a theory that he must have been expelled from some school.

I look at Aya; she’s wearing her cat ear headphones, and they are in a blue shade. She doesn’t stand out as much as the other girls; she doesn’t wear makeup or a short uniform like the others. The covers of her notebooks are always adorned with anime characters. When I first saw it, I was happy, thinking that knowing this common interest would give me the courage to talk to her, but I couldn’t. I gave up halfway.

She got more attention because a few weeks ago she declared her feelings to Leandro, and he just turned his back and left her talking alone. That broke my heart; she likes someone else, and it hurts. Leandro is tall, muscular, good at sports, but not so bright in class. That doesn’t stop the girls from falling for him.

Fortunately, he has never spoken to me. I don’t like him, and I will never forget the mean things he and his gang did to me when I was younger.

“Earth calling Iuri,” I snap out of my daydreams when I hear George’s voice.

“Hi, what’s up?” I ask, somewhat disoriented.

“Did you do the math activity?”

“Yes, why?”

“Can you lend it to me? Please, I forgot.”

“It would be a novelty if you remembered!”

I open my backpack, and when I have the notebook in my hands…

“Good morning, class!” the teacher enters.

“Shit!” George mutters quietly for only me to hear.

“Good morning, Professor Marcus!” everyone, except George and me, greets the teacher.

“Bring your assignments; they are equivalent to two points of this unit!”

“I can already see I’m going to have to retake the test. Nobody deserves this,” George complains and lowers his head.

I wait for everyone to hand in their assignments and then take mine, returning as quickly as possible.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Before I start the correction, I want to say that the summer dance is at the end of this month. Does everyone already have a partner?”

Another dance where I won’t have any participation. Maybe I’ll show up, but only to see Aya. The teacher talks a bit more about the dance and then focuses on the notebooks on the table.

“Why don’t you invite Aya to the dance?” George turns to ask me; he’s sitting in the chair of the row next to mine.

“She would never accept,” I say sadly.

“You already have a ‘no’; ask before someone else does!”

I don’t respond; I know I’m not handsome, and the chances of her accepting me are practically nil. But I’ll try, at least once I’ll take a risk. When the class is over, I’ll gather my courage and ask her to be my partner at the summer dance.