A car pulled up in the parking lot, blocking my view of dad.

"Chad?" Mom called from the supermarket.

I couldn't see dad again and I ran into the supermarket.

Mom was smiling at a Staff and picking a trolley.

"Mom," I say breathing hard."I just saw dad!"

She stares at me, her eyes shot up. "What?"

"Dad, he's here." I say, a little bit excited.

Mom presses her lips together. "Well, whatever he's doing here, I hope it doesn't involve us."

She turns and heads into the frozen food section.

I make my way past a man with his little daughter.

"Look mom,"

"Chad, please. I don't want to see your father ever again. I don't want to have anything to do with him again." She pulls off three packs of frozen sausages off the rack.

She dropped them into the trolley but stared at them for a moment, as if she was contemplating something.

She then removed two and put them back on the rack.

"Oh come on!" I protest. "How can we use just one pack of sausages?"

Mom continued to push the trolley. "We don't have a lot of money, remember?"

"Yeah," I say.

I ran into some of our neighbors. Some waved to me and I waved back.

"So. . . mom, have you thought about Dad ever since you divorced him?"

"Chad, I'd had enough of you always talking about your father," mom said sounding irritated. "Your father and I are never ever getting back together ever!"

I nod slowly.

She sighs and tosses a bunch of asparagus into the trolley. "I'm sorry for lashing out on you Chad."

"It's just that I'm already married to Derek. And he's now your father."

I didn't say anything but quickly wiped away a tear that threatened to embarrass me in front of my mom.

She sighs again and continues throwing stuff into the trolley.

My life would never be what it used to be four years ago, I thought mournfully.

When we got to the frozen food section to buy some meat, I ran into a familiar face.

By now you're all guessing that it's Jason.

Well it's not him.

And some of you are thinking that it's Frederick or his goons.

No.

Madison stood a few feet from me smiling at her mom.

I froze.

Madison Pines, the girl of my dreams was standing less than ten feet away from me.

I used two seconds to gape at her beauty.

Her shoulder length black hair shined like a star and she wore a red shirt with a bum short.

Her white teeth flashed when she opened her mouth to say something.

She then looked at me. "Chad?! Chad!" She cried.

"Chad?" Mom's voice snapped me out of my foolish hallucination.

Turns out it was actually mom who was shouting my name, not Madison.

Her back was still turned to me and her mom laughed at something she said.

I sighed. I guess I'm still the invisible man to her.

Although I don't know why I would be invisible to her, following what had happened in class today.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Mom asks me.

"Nothing,"

She looked at me somehow concerned and then turned to get some meat.

Right beside Madison.

On a scale of one to ten, my nervousness should be at twenty billion.

I don't think anyone's ever been nervous as I am now.

My heart wasn't in my throat.

It was in my shoes.

I took a brave couple of steps forward and walked to mom.

"Hello!" Mom gushed, turning to face Mrs Pines. "Mrs Pines, how are you doing?"

Mrs Pines replied mom, but I was too busy freaking out to hear her. Madison had some crazy perfume on her.

And it was awesome.

She turned to look at me.

"Hi," I tried to say but the word got stuck in my throat.

Madison looked at me and chuckled nervously. "You're Chad, right?"

I nod. Yes, I'm the asshole from school.

Her mom and mine were busy talking about meat and laughing at old women jokes.

Madison removed a strand of hair from her face.

God, she's beautiful. I used to think that she was an angel in disguise.

"So," I muster up the courage to speak. "Do you wanna go to. . ."

"The football finals?" She asks, smiling. "Yeah, my friend and I are going on Saturday."

I was about to say Dinner, but I scolded myself for even thinking of that. Madison would never go on a date with me.

It's just a fantasy.

"Are you coming to the finals?" Madison asks.

I shook my head, I even forgot about the football finals. I wasn't into sport so I didn't give a damn about it.

"Come on Madison." Mrs Pines comes over and they walk away.

I stood there and sighed.

"Hey what's wrong?" Mom asks me.

"Nothing." I lie.

She gave me one of her looks. "Now don't tell me you're in love with Madison."

"No!"

"Chad, she's been open ever since we moved to Stanley Falls." Mom said.

"Yeah, but she doesn't want to date anyone." I say. "And I'm really stupid for thinking that she'll go out with me,"

"Tons of guys are dreaming of Madison being their girlfriend, why am I one of them?"

Mom didn't say anything.

I sighed. "Let's go to the checkout."

I helped mom push the trolley to the checkout.

There were five different checkouts in the supermarket and one was empty with a dark skinned man sitting down and eating Chinese food.

I pushed the trolley towards his checkout.

"Hi," He said, his mouth was half full of Chinese food.

"Hello," mom said.

The man dropped the Chinese food on the floor and I removed the stuff mom had bought from the trolley.

"Oh God," Mom groaned.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"I forgot to buy some eggs," she said. "I'll be back, okay. Just keep on scanning the others!"

She dashed away and into the supermarket.

After all the contents had been removed from the trolley, I pushed it aside.

The man bent down to take a spoon from the Chinese food pack.

He chewed in delight.

"Bye Chad!" A familiar voice cried.

I turned around to see Madison walking away with her mom, her hands filled with groceries.

"B--bye," I say nervously.

I watched her until she had gone from the glass doors.

I sighed.

I heard laughter. It came from the man.

He smiled and laughed at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Oh, it's nothing." He says. He grabs a milk carton and passes it through the scanner which makes a buzz.

I stare at the man's name tag.

Lil vegas, it read.