Invisible ||~Sillie~||

Chapter 3

"I had fun" stated Sadie as they exited the coffee shop, "thanks for the drink" she added.

Millie just looked awkward, social interaction not being her forte, "um...you're welcome" she replied hopefully. Sadie smiled reassuringly, letting her know that was a good response, and received a relieved smile in return.

They both stood there in awkward silence for a moment, neither really sure what they were doing. "Well" said Sadie eventually, "I'd better let you go, your mom must be wondering where you are, right?"

She watched as Millie's expression immediately fell, "yeah...ok" she said, and with that she turned and started walking away.

Sadie was completely taken aback and had no clue what to do or say. Shall I go after her? What would I say? This is so weird...She watched as Millie walked out of sight, head down, not once looking back, before turning herself and walking home in the opposite direction.

"Hey mom" she called out as she got home.

"Oh hey, how was your day? You're a little late today" said her mom.

"Yeah, I went for a coffee with a friend" she replied.

"Oh, that's nice, how was it?"

"Uh...weird" she said, not able to describe it any other way.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Next day at school, Sadie was trying to find her math book in amongst the disaster that was her locker when Caleb came up to her.

"Hey, Sadie, look I wanted to apologi..."

"Save it Caleb, I'm not interested, ok?" she said with a sigh. Seeing that he looked genuinely hurt she knew that he meant what he said. "Look, Caleb, it's fine, honestly, but I don't think we're working...right now, I'm not really wanting a relationship, and it's not fair for me to lead you on."

He looked sad, but appreciating her honesty said "ok, that makes sense, I can't say I'm not upset though. I know I can be a jerk sometimes, but I really do like you...a lot. If you change your mind, you know where to find me."

Sadie smiled, "thanks Caleb, you're a star."

As they went their separate ways he turned, "Sadie, even if you just need a friend, you know where to find me" he said with a genuine smile.

She gave him a heartfelt smile in return then made her way to class.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

She suffered through the first class of the day, English lit. "This term we will be studying King Lear" informed their fusty teacher. If I have to read any more Shakespeare I'm going to scream she thought whilst banging her head on the desk, earning her a few giggles from her friends.

Next was biology which she normally enjoyed, but today they were looking at plants, xylem and phloem. When will I ever fucking need to know how plants eat and drink, jeez this is the dullest thing known to mankind...wait, that was last lesson...ugh.

She couldn't engage with anything that day, everything was boring and tedious, every teacher got on her nerves. Her friends couldn't help but notice her mood and tackled her at lunch, "Sadie, what the hell is wrong with you today?" asked Noah, "you've been walking around with a scowl all day, is it Caleb? Did you and lover boy have an argument?" he said, pulling a mocking pouty face.

"Shut it smol bean" she said, giving him a whack across the stomach, making everyone laugh.

"Hey! I'm like 5 inches taller than you, you can't call me that anymore" he replied laughing.

"You'll always be smol bean to me" she smirked in a baby voice, "and if you gossip whores must know I broke up with Caleb."

"Wait, what happened?" asked Gaten, finally zoning in to the chat.

"I broke up with him, he was an ass...but then so was I, it's for the best, we're still friends" she explained.

"Shit, I'd better go find my bro" said Gaten, jumping up and leaving.

"So, is it really ok?" asked Natalia.

"Yes, honestly, it wasn't serious anyway" Sadie said, shrugging her shoulders.

"So why the mood today then? Seriously, every lesson, it's not like you" said Noah. When he got no reply, "what have you got last period?"

Sadie sighed and looked at her timetable, "Math." As she said it she felt noticeably brighter, like she had something to look forward to. Noah and Natalia looked at each other with eyebrows raised, her lift in mood hadn't gone unnoticed by them either. "In fact I'd better go, lunch is almost over and I wouldn't want to be late" she said, hurrying away from the table.

"Uh, bye then..." Noah called after her weakly.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"Hey neighbour" Sadie said brightly, not surprised to find Millie already sat in the empty classroom before everyone else arrived. She was sat with her notebook as always. Sadie couldn't help but be intrigued by her, Millie was a mystery that, for some reason unknown to herself, Sadie was desperate to unravel.

"Hi" she said plainly.

"How are you today? I didn't see you at lunch" she stated.

"I'm ok, and I never go to the cafeteria" she answered.

Yep, she's going to make me do all the work again...and I don't care, weird. "Um, so did you go straight home after our coffee, I mean my coffee?" she probed, "I'll have to buy you one next time."

"Yes and no, you don't have to do that" said Millie, who hadn't looked at her once since they started talking.

"Millie?"

"Yes?"

"Millie..."

"Yes...?"

"Millie!"

"What!?" she replied loudly, looking at Sadie for the first time.

"Wha...what happened to you eye?" asked Sadie, her original plan of making eye contact in order to have a proper conversation instantly derailed by the dark bruise and swelling that surrounded Millie's left eye. It was mostly hidden by her hood but exposed by her turning her head to face Sadie. She could see why no one would have noticed it until now, nobody ever looked that closely as Millie, she was invisible, and even if they did her head was always down and covered.

Millie's eyes were expressionless, "I had a fight" she stated.

"A fight...with who? Who the hell would hit a girl like that?" asked Sadie horrified, but also feeling angry that someone would hurt her. "Was it someone at this school?" she asked, almost scared of the answer, worried that she might actually know Millie's attacker, might even be friends with them.

"No, no one here."

"Then who?"

"I can't say" said Millie, turning back to her book and resuming her writing, resolutely shutting down the conversation.

"Millie..."

"Shhhh..." said Millie quietly, nodding her head towards the door as the teacher entered the room, followed by the rest of their class.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*