Invincible

Twisted bounds

Twisted Bonds

Chapter one

Tori Hartley had perfected the art of invisibility.

In a school like Glenwood High, that wasn't easy, but she had found a way to blend into the background, avoiding attention at all costs.

She wasn't the kind of invisible that the geeks or band kids were exactly. They had their own subcultures, their own group of friends. Tori was the kind of invisible that even the outcasts didn't notice. She was a ghost in her own life, drifting from class to class, unnoticed, unimportant.

At the start of junior year, Tori realized that being invisible was a survival skill. It helped her avoid the ridicule of girls like Alexa Thompson, the queen bee of Glenwood.

Alexa was the type who knew exactly how to spot weakness, and Tori, with her awkward posture and quiet demeanor, was like blood in the water. Still, as long as Tori kept her head down, Alexa and her crew mostly ignored her. They were too busy with their social lives to spend much time on someone like Tori.

Mostly.

Today wasn't one of those days..

Tori had made the mistake of dropping her books in the hallway between second and third period. It was a simple, stupid accident, the kind that could happen to anyone, but it caught Alexa's attention.

"Oh, look at this!" Alexa's high-pitched voice echoed down the hallway as she sauntered over, her perfectly manicured nails tapping her phone screen as she filmed the whole thing.

"Tori the fat Tornado strikes again! Can't even hold onto her fucking books."

Laughter bubbled up from Alexa's friends, but it wasn't genuine. It never was. They followed Alexa out of fear, not loyalty. Still, their mocking voices stung all the same.

Tori knelt down quickly, scooping her books back into her arms as fast as she could. She could feel the heat of embarrassment crawling up her neck, but she kept her head down, hoping it would be over soon.

"Don't worry, Tori. Maybe you'll learn how to walk one day," Alexa added with a cruel smirk before walking off, her high heels clicking loudly as she disappeared into the crowd.

Tori stood up slowly, clutching her books to her chest. The students around her continued to walk by, not sparing her a second glance. She was invisible again, just like she preferred. Still, the encounter with Alexa left her feeling hollow, a reminder that her invisibility was fragile. One wrong move and she was back under their microscope, a target for their cruel entertainment.

The bell rang, and Tori hurried to her next class, eager to disappear into the back row again. English was her least favorite subject—not because she didn't enjoy reading or writing, but because the teacher, Mr. Davis, always made a point of calling on her when he noticed she wasn't paying attention.

She slid into her seat, pulled out her notebook, and started doodling in the margins. Her eyes skimmed the classroom, watching as everyone else talked and laughed in their little cliques. She wondered what it would be like to be part of a group, to have friends. But that wasn't her life. Her life was silence.

At home, it wasn't much different. Tori's mother, Diana, was perpetually absent, either working late at the office or locked away in her room, pretending to be busy with emails. Diana was cold, detached, and dismissive, only speaking to Tori when absolutely necessary. Even then, their conversations were clipped, with Diana barely masking her irritation.

Most nights, Tori would eat dinner alone at the kitchen table, staring at the empty chair across from her. The TV would be on in the background, its cheerful noise the only sound in the otherwise silent house. Tori had grown used to it. She had long ago accepted that her mother didn't really care about her, not in any meaningful way.

Tori's father had left when she was six, and after that, her mother had slowly become a shell of a person, withdrawing from the world until only her career seemed to matter. Tori was just a reminder of what her mother had lost. It was easier for Diana to ignore her than deal with the mess their family had become.

So Tori drifted through school and life, unnoticed and unimportant.

Until the day Meur Velasco saw her.

Tori hadn't expected it. Why would a  guy like him notice someone like her? Meur was everything she wasn't—confident, charismatic, and surrounded by friends. Yet, as Tori was stuffing her books into her locker, she felt someone standing behind her. She turned slowly, and there he was, leaning casually against the lockers, watching her with an intensity that made her heart race.

"You're different," he said, his voice low and almost amused.

Tori blinked, unsure how to respond. Different? No one had ever called her that before. Most people didn't call her anything at all.

From that moment, everything started to change.

And Tori's life was about to become anything but invisible.