Invisible

Invisible Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Invisible

(Olivia)

My best friend is not imaginary. He’s not a ghost, either. And I’m pretty sure he isn’t a hallucination. He’s just Mason.

He is, however, invisible.

Zipping up my jeans as I stumble into my tennis shoes, I shuffle out of my room. By the time I reach the bathroom, I have both feet solidly in my shoes, even if the laces remain untied. One jiggle of the doorknob sets me to growling. Locked. My eyes dash to my sister, Evie’s, door, only to find her making her way down the hall herself. Her hair is sticking up in all sorts of wild ways, so it’s pretty safe to assume she hasn’t seen the inside of the bathroom yet, either.

“Mason?” she asks, stifling a yawn.

“Who else?” I grouch.

Evie giggles. “You know, for someone who’s invisible, he sure does worry a lot about how he looks.”

My little sister was the first person in my family to admit Mason was real. My mom and dad passed off my new friend as typical five-year-old stuff. Mom thought it was cute when I asked for extra snacks to share with Mason. Dad didn’t even hesitate when I asked if Mason could sleep in my room with me. Evie was only three when Mason first showed up, but she took to him right away. She thought it was great fun to watch him move things and make the cat fly. Really, he was just carrying the cat around in his arms, but since Evie can’t see Mason, to her it looked like everything he touched could float.

I’ve always wondered why Mason’s clothes disappear when he puts them on, but the cat never did. He can put something in his pocket and it vanishes, but if he just holds it, it floats. Mason doesn’t know either. I think it must be something he’s doing without realizing, but Mason disagrees. As far as he knows, that’s just how it’s meant to work. Since he’s the invisible one and I’m not, it’s hard to argue with him.

“Mason!” I yell as I pound on the door. “Hurry up!”

I hear a muffled response, that I’m sure was not an apology for hogging the bathroom. I sigh and reach for the key. My fingers brush along the door frame for the simple metal shaft that acts as a rather low-tech key. Finally finding it, I shove the key into the lock and poke around until the door finally opens. Evie stalks in dutifully.

Five seconds later, Mason howls as the shower water turns ice cold. Evie pops her head back out. “Did I get him?” she asks.

Evie can’t hear Mason, either. Nobody but me can, not unless he’s touching them. And even then, they have to have accepted his presence as reality in order to hear him. I don’t know why that works, but it does. I learned a while ago to just accept the bizarreness that comes with Mason.

Laughing, I nod. “Yeah, you got him.”

Evie jumps out of the doorway, and just in time. Mason stalks out soon after with a towel slung around his waist. His eyes fasten onto me. The snarly expression on his face doesn’t faze me. “That was low, Olivia Lynn Mallory.”

Ooh, he used my full name. I’m so not scared. “Quit hogging the bathroom.”

“I was in the shower!” Mason snaps. “Naked!”

I try not to laugh. I fail. “It’s not like she saw anything!”

Mason bristles. “So! It’s the principle of the thing. I deserve some privacy!”