Luciana was aware that she was invisible, and yet her best friend was the transparent one. He was sitting at his computer, typing a short paper in his dorm room as she stood concealed in the corner of the room. She watched Kendrick intently, taking in his every move and mentally recording it. This would be the one time that she would see Kendrick in privacy, his mind convinced that he was truly alone.

Luciana and Kendrick had known each other for several years now, meeting their freshman year of college and quickly becoming friends. Kendrick had initially asked Luciana out on a date, but that first date proved to both of them that they were never meant to be more than friends. And yet, the beauty of their relationship was that they didn’t need to date to love each other. For the first time in her life, Luciana had found a boy that she truly felt would never take advantage of her. He valued her, with no ulterior motives than the fact that he deeply cared for her. He was kind, caring, made good jokes, and mature. He had his small quirks and obscurities, but no huge condemning faults.

Kendrick got up from his desk chair and Luciana watched excitedly, like a child at a zoo. Was he going to the bathroom? Putting a sweatshirt on? Grabbing a snack? None of these. Kendrick walked towards his door and turned the lock. Nobody could come in. He was by himself. Protected.

Luciana shuddered, unsure if she wanted to see that which came next. Kendrick believed himself in secret, and he walked back and sat in his desk chair, gently reaching for the mouse. He clicked some buttons, brought up an Internet tab, and began typing. Luciana was too far away to see what he was searching, and so she moved closer.

He had finished typing in the URL before Luciana could read it, but the refreshed screen clearly revealed what his heart was looking for. Standing so close to the laptop herself, Luciana had a clear view of the image that Kendrick was so convinced only he would be seeing. There on the screen, was an image of a naked woman, posing next to a small tree.

Luciana gasped. Her legs shook and she backed away from her once best-friend. Kendrick heard the gasp and turned around quickly, surveying the room in case he had mistaken himself for being alone. Seeing no one, he did what horrified Luciana even more: He turned back. He sat there for the next several minutes, switching between image and image, his face showing no emotion as his imagination rumbled in his head.

Luciana, trapped in the room, could not make herself look away. And so, she was watching just as fully when Kendrick changed frames and brought up an image of Luciana he had on his computer. They were both in bathing suits, posing in front of a waterfall they had visited with a group of friends. Their smiles were so wide. That day was one of the best memories of Luciana’s time with Kendrick.

He stayed on this image for several minutes, Luciana holding back against the pressure to cry. She could not process what she was watching, her best friend so violently abusing her. Kendrick closed the image and unlocked the door, leaving his room and giving Luciana the escape route she wished she had had ten minutes earlier.

She was weeping in her dorm room when she lost her invisibility. What was she to say when she saw Kendrick again?