Chapter 11

Rie wakes up the next morning with absolutly no memory of Seth's last words before she fell asleep last night. She throws her blankets back at the sound of her alarm, absolutly awake because she went to bed so early. For a few moments she keep laying there, staring at the ceiling, enjoying the temperature in the room. A fresh smell creeps into her nose. It's gonna be a great and sunny day today.
Too bad she isn't an outside-person. She rolls around on her bed to face Seth, but Seth isn't in the room. She checks the other side, but he is nowhere to be seen. Wondering if she imagined him coming back last night, she pulls her pj's out over her head, sitting chestnaked on her bed. She stares down, feeling so weird. It has been a long time she has been able to do that. Since Seth was around she always had to watch she was fully dressed and not walking around in her underwear.
And now she is sitting here, like she used to do more often. People can't look in her room from out the streets, so she isn't making a big deal out of it. Walking to her closet on her easiest, she pulls open the drawers to get clothes.
Then a loud and shiny ,Gooooooodmmmooo…." sounds unfinished through the room.
Rie turns around. Seth is hanging through the window halfways, staring at Rie with large eyes. Then he thumbles over and falls on the floor with a loud thunk.
Screaming on the top of her lungs, Rie covers herself up with a tshirt she pulled out of the closet, hurrying to Seth to knock him over the head with her fullest power. ,Get out! Get out! You stupid perverted asshole! How you dare to dash into the room when I'm not wearing anything! Creep!"
Seth tries to dodge her, but he is really bad at it. That or Rie is just a good aimer.
Finally he manages to crawl up and get out of Rie's reaching area. ,Hey! I didn't know!" he cries out. ,How could I know you would be naked! You usually dress in the bathroom!"
Raining her fists down on him once again, she clings the tshirt close to her body. ,You can't just enter a room! You can't! Learn some rules, pervert!"
,Stop the hitting! Stop! It's hurts!" Seth tries to stay out of reach, backing towards the bed, preparing to crawl under it. But Rie is very angry. ,First you wake me up in the middle of the night. At least I think you did. Then you dissapear in the morning! And then you see me naked! You – stupid – perverted – pingpongball!"
With her last hit and her anger, she loses her balance and bumps into Seth. They both crash down on the bed, making the bed shriek loudly. The bottom of the bed shivers from the big crash and then it falls out. Rie and Seth both fall along with it, Rie's legs clinging on the side of the bed, which hurts her really bed. Seth's legs just fall right through it.
,Ouch… ouch…" Rie squeeks, rubbing her head. ,Stupid bed… I told mom ages ago this one wouldn't last much longer. The bottom is too fragile."
The is laying on top of Seth, who is eyeing her quietly, his cheeks colored bright red. His nervous eyes are flashing down her chest continuesly.
Rie cracks her knuckles. ,You better not look down there anymore, buddy."
,I can't help it." Squeeks Seth. ,You're naked! You practically ask for it to be looked at!"
Snapping her fingers around her chin with the speed of light, she forces Seth to look up. Her eyes are flaming. ,Let me tell you something you better not forget, Seth! No matter how I look, buttnaked or dressed to up my chin, nothing, absolutly NOTHING, gives you the right to look at any privet parts of my body. Did I make myself clear?"
,Ehm…" Trying to talk with Rie's fingers pressed in his skin, he looks at her with very nervous and upset eyes. ,I… I will twy… sowwy…"
,Now close your eyes so I can put my clothes on." Rie commands, not letting his chin go.
Seth does as he is told and closes his eyes.
And while Rie is getting up and pulling on her clothes, Seth remains on the same place, his eyes closed tightly. ,Rie?" He asks.
,What?"
,Ehm… If I would… would be something… like your boyfriend. Ehm, then… uh… then I could look at you naked, right?"
Rie freezes in her movements. ,Boyfriend?"
,Yeah, something like that." Seth mumbles, his whole face shining in a bright red color.
Rie turns around to look at him. He is sitting there, his eyes shut tight, wriggling his fingers. His blond hair is hanging almost in front of his eyes. He says it never grows bigger, while the rest of his body does. And the clothes her wears are the right size too. It's weird. It's unexplainable.
,In your dreams, Seth." Rie mumbles, stepping in her shoes. ,Like that will happen."
She walks to the door, ready to go upstairs.
,Rie? Can I open my eyes yet? …Rie?" Seth asks, but Rie doesn't hear him, since she already left the room.

If he were her boyfriend? What gave him that idea? What a stupid thing to think of! He is invisible! How could she fall for him! That's ridiculous! He doesn't even have a real identity! He only knows his first name and he guesses his age! For crying out loud, why did he ask her that? Why did he?
She eyes him from her chair in the classroom, he is sitting on the floor next to the teacher's desk, staring back at her. And he is mumbling softly. Rie can't hear him, since the class is too noisy. Rie breathes in and out, ticking with her pen on her book.
Being lonely must really inflict your well being. Never having somebody to love you back, because nobody notices you. Then one person does notice him and he wants to check out the options. But he is crazy! She can't love him!
Staring down on her paper she realizes she hasn't wrote down anything yet.
Why is she so bad on schoolwork lately? It's so hard to concentrate properly. Angerly she shakes her head and bows over her desk. Her hair is swooping over her paper.
Solve some mathproblems, that's not hard!
Her eyes fly over the page These are easy. She lifts up her hand to write.
But no ink passes onto the paper. The pen is hanging in the air, hold by her fingers.
Nothing comes out, absolutly nothing.
Why did Seth ask her that stupid question? She closes her eyes in frustration.
,Hey, you know what I found out?" Seth calls out to her. ,Marten is going to ask you out to the schoolparty this weekend."
What! She stares at Seth in shock. ,How… how do you know?" she whispers, so noone will hear.
,I heard him talking to himself." Seth mumbles in a voice like he doesn't care at all. But his eyes swoop swiftly in Rie's direction, like he waits for her response.
Rie holds the pen tight in her hand. He wants to ask her?
What has gotten into these people? Why is she so interesting lately? She just wants to be left alone! Why aren't things like they used to be! She doesn't like changes at all!
,What!" Seth interpretates her silence in his own way. ,You mean you are going?"
He has jumped up and is now standing in front ofher desk. His blue eyes are staring at her in asthonisment.
Rie stares up at him and chews on her lip. No matter what's all going wrong, it can't get worse then Seth. She narrows her eyes.
,Maybe I will." She hisses. ,Nothing you can do about it, your invisible."
Turning her eyes to her book to ignore Seth, she can hear him breathe in deeply in and out. His feet move over the floor and she can hear his restless moves. And then without expecting it, he suddenly backs away and dissapears through the wall.
Ow, let him be, she thinks, shaking her head.
The mathproblem lay unsolved in front of her.

Seth was right, when Rie walks out of the school to go home, Marten appears from behind a tree and approaches her. ,Rie! I want to ask you something!"
Rie stops in her tracks and looks up at him, waiting.
Uncomfortably Marten puts his hand on the back of his head and eyes the sky. ,Well, I was wondering…if… if it would be okay if I would take you… to the schoolparty this weekend.?"
His eyes finally meet hers, make her feel really uncomfortable.
,Ehm… okay." She chokes. ,But only under one condition."
His eyebrows frown in suprisement. ,And that is?"
,I don't trust you at all, so you better not have anything up your sleeve! I have read that book Carry and I am not intending to end up like her! So if you try anything at all, I will launch my foot so hard up your best buddy over that, you won't be able to spread your genes anymore! Got it!"
The look on her face is exactly the same as she gives her little brother: extremely violent.
To her surprise his face cracks up in a smile. ,You can't kill people with your eyes like Carry did. But, hey, don't worry. I won't do anything to you, okay!"
Judging him, Rie stares at him for a while.
,Pick me up at 8."
,Party starts at 9."
,Sheesh, 9 then!" And she turns around and walks away.
It's like there is a whirlpool inside her stomach, not only causing her feel weird, but also make her loose the controle over her legs. Why is she feeling so hyped up about this?
She feels so different. In some way she feels like she let herself down. It's nothing like her to accept somebody's offer like that, it's not like her to make human contact at all.
But deep inside, very deep, she did it to hurt Seth.

And Seth is obviously hurt, though he shows it on his own way: by not showing up.
He hasn't been around her all day since she told him off at Maths.
Rie quietly moves through the house, passing every room but not going inside. But Seth is really nowhere. Then she heads towards the kitchen and starts to prepare dinner, though it's not her day to take care of that.
Absentmindly she washes the beans and removes the jackets from the patatoes. Where could Seth be? Is he hanging around outside? All alone?
Is he really so upset about her going to the schoolparty with Marten? Why would he be so upset? Like he ever could go to the schoolparty with her! He is only real to her. To everybody else he is just air! She can't show up with just air!
Yeah, another voice in her head whispers, but normally you wouldn't even show up at a schoolparty.
''Ouch!"
Blood is dripping in the sink, her knife drops on the floor.
Cursing, she puts her finger in her mouth and pulls a cabin open to look for the first aid kid. Right on that moment her father walks inside and when he notices her, he quickly helps her. He pushes her down on a chair and takes care of her cut finger.
,Honey, how did you manage to cut yourself? You never cut yourself before! Not even as a kid, when you were making your first sidedishes!"
She sends her father a growl and inspects her finger, now nicely wrapped with a bandage.
,I kinda got invited for the schoolparty."
,Schoolparty?" Her father repeats, staring at his daughter. ,By who?"
Rie stands up to pick up the knife she dropped and she ansers his question, trying to sound as cooly as she can,,Mr. Popularity."
,Mr…who?"
,Marten."
,Marten!"
Rie washes the knife and nods. ,Yeah, Marten. And I told him I would go. So I am going."
,Yeah, but… what about Seth?" Her father asks, putting away the first aid kid. ,I figure he isn't too happy about it, is he?"
,Can you smell his temper or something?" Rie snatches. ,Yeah, he doesn't like it! I did it on purpose, okay? I only said yes, cuz Seth is being an pain in the ass!"
,Why is he?"
,I don't know! He is!" Her cheeks go red. She won't tell him what happened this morning. That's too emberassing. ,He thinks that with me his world expands a whole big deal, but that's not true. He still is invisible!"
She listens to her own words echoeing in the kitchen.
Judging to his soft sighs and rocking his shoulders, her father is thinking. Rie patiently waits for his words to come.
,Seth is a human. I am convinced of that." He finally says. ,And he has feelings and emotions just like you and me. Yes he is invisble, and yes he can't do everything we can do. But that doesn't mean you can hurt him, Rie."
Surprised her father is not agreeing on her, she turns her head to him to hear him out.
,Seth's only communicationsource is you, ofcourse he does get attached to you, Rie. You have to understand he might get possesive over you, because he is afraid that only source of communication will leave him."
,So, he's selfish." Rie says. Why is it so hard to be positive?
,In some way, yes. But can you blame him?" He asks.
Turning back on the cooking, Rie thinks.
Can she blame him?
The truth is, she can't handle being liked or being special to somebody like that.
It makes her feel like she is losing controle over her body. She doesn't want to loose controle.
But she can't blame Seth, not totally.