ME & THE MONSTER

oblivion

The worst day of my life began with me running late for training. 

I shoved the last of my breakfast toast into my mouth and scooted down a flight of steps and into the Tube station. A blast of warm air swirled around me. I jammed my ticket into the machine, panicking about how on earth I was going to shorten a forty-minute journey into a ten-minute one, when a ringing sound jerked me out of my thoughts.

The machine whirred. Paused for a second.

And spat my ticket right out.

I goggled at it. Then I picked it up from the floor and inserted it into the machine once more, more carefully this time. A clang, and my ticket fluttered out again.

This wasn't happening.

Swearing under my breath, I walked towards the ticket seller behind the glass stall. I tapped on it. The man looked up from his phone. With a mystified frown, he glanced around, before giving a shrug and returning to the screen.

"Excuse me," I said. I tried to ignore the icy spike of fear that prodded at me. "I think there's a problem with my ticket, sir, even though I only bought it last week; the machine won't accept it for some reason."

The ticket seller's gaze finally settled on me, as if it cost him a great effort to do so.

"Oh," he said, vaguely. "Yes."

Then a woman high-heeled her way around, and planted herself in front of me. The ticket seller's attention slid off me.

"Oh, fuck it," I said, fuming.

I dashed up the steps into the street again. I was going to have to walk all the way to the station, like it or not, as I was a bit short on cash this month and didn't want to spend it on a taxi.

To make matters worse, it was pouring with rain. By the time I got to the station thirty minutes later, sweating under my coat, I was completely drenched. I hurried through the gates and into the courtyard. I could see my fellow trainees, and there he was, Coach Jenks, hunched up under the rain, wearing huge yellow boots. He'd turn around any minute now, and roar at me.

But he continued to stand where he was, hands on hips, glaring up at a figure clambering up a ladder. He barked out: "Wilson! You call that a quick climb? I've seen five-year-olds do it better!"

"It's raining, sir!" Wilson protested. "I keep slipping!"

Jenks glowered. "I don't care if a bloody hurricane comes! You carry on!"

Neither of them glanced at me as I scrambled past. I didn't know whether or not to be glad of this.

Oh, there was my squad, finally, clustered in our usual spot by the tree. I staggered to a stop beside them, panting.

"Hey, guys," I said. "You can't imagine how hard it was to get here, I swear, it was like a nightmare or something."

None of them looked at me. This made me remember something. It was the exact same situation I had to put up with every day at school, when I was a teenager. I'd walk into the classroom each morning and say hello to no-one in particular, to find no-one greeted me back. The boys would continue jostling each other, laughing, the girls rose their eyebrows and chattered on.

I was invisible. A nobody. I'd hunch down on my seat, silent then.

This was the same, only, if possible, a hundred times worse.

"Oi," yelled Janet to a blond guy beside her, completely oblivious to my presence. "I'm off to the toilet, I'll be back in a mo, okay? You lot go on."

This wasn't happening.