Invisible

Chapter Three

I told Scarlett I was going for a boat ride. TRUE.

I told her I was going with friends. TRUE.

I told her she didn’t know the aforementioned friends. FALSE.

“Since when do you have friends I don’t know?” Scarlett asked, quirking her mouth.

She could have just missed off the last three words. Since when do you have friends? Yeah. Since when? Even Ryan isn’t actually my friend. He’s Scarlett’s friend. Or so he thinks.

In answer to Scarlett’s question, I shrugged. “I just do.”

“You don’t,” she said, finally. “Listen, Sabrina, we’ve been twins for seventeen years! I know you by now. And I know that look you get. You don’t have friends. You have me.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ve gotten tired of…” I broke off. “Tired of not having other friends,” I continued after a moment. We both knew I had been going to say “Tired of you.”

Scarlett nodded slowly. “I understand,” she said, but I could tell she had no idea what I meant. How could she? She had always been surrounded by friends. I had only ever had her. And only because we were twins. We were expected to get on well, expected to be all cutesy and clever and talk in unison and stuff.

Well, maybe I was tired of just being my twin’s reflection.

But I knew she would never understand that. So, I shrugged my backpack onto my shoulder and said: “See ya.”

“Sabrina!” Something in her voice made me turn round.

“What?”

“You’ve got a boyfriend, haven’t you? That’s the only thing you would keep from me.” She looked at me, almost as if she was hurt. As if I’d betrayed her.

I looked back at her, and I stared her down. “No,” I said. “I’ve not got a boyfriend.”

But I wish I did. And I wish he was Ryan.  TRUE.