"Psst." Your friend J.T. nudges you at lunch. "Look over there."
You look up from your cold, dissatisfying slice of pepperoni pizza. You see a line of tables stretching across the cavernous cafeteria, filled with students, but nothing that catches your fancy.
"I see nothing."
"Emily Taren-tellaaaaa!" J.T. throws out jazz hands and lowers his voice to sound like Marvin Gaye, but he's just a scrawny, fifteen-year-old white kid without a crumb of soul inside his body and he ends up sounding like Steve Buscemi. You don't know how it happens, but every impression J.T. does comes out as Buscemi. "Come on, Elliot. Check her out."
Your eyes turn to Emily, the cute redhead a table down. She's looking in your general direction, which could mean anything, and you look back to J.T. before too long. Stare any longer and you might linger on her blouse too long (elegant, blue, and with veils along the arms) and then she might see you.
"So?"
"She's eyeballing you, man." J.T. elbows your ribs and you nearly spit pepperoni in his face. "She wants it, I can tell, I got that sense. The "Girls Wanna Bang J.T." sense, it's telling me... yeah! She's into you."
You roll your eyes. "Whatever, J.T. I got to use the bathroom, so... act normal, okay? Emily's the last person who'd notice me."
Gamblin High School's hallways are empty during lunch hour, wider and lonelier than you're used to from the bustling, claustrophobic passing periods. You reach the bathroom and think about Emily. If reality were fair (and it's not) you would gladly go over, ask her out, and carry her like a princess to prom while fireworks went off behind you and the masses cheered. Pfah! You've spent two years of high school having nothing to do with Emily, you're expecting two more.
You reach the urinal and unzip your jeans. You piss away, humming under your breath, thinking of what you'll tell J.T. when you get back - there's not a lot, but you make do... He is one of your only friends. - It occurs to you the bathroom is growing strangely brighter, but that's just a trick of the light! Nothing to fret about. When white is the only thing you can see... Okay, that's weird...
Then, for a second, you see nothing.