Bright Blue Skies [P. Parker] [complete]

One - Invisible

No one noticed Briar Drake.

She barely noticed herself, for that matter.

Briar was quiet, hardly ever talking unless she needed to.

She flew under the radar of the bullies, of the teachers, of the nice people.

She was invisible.

"Hey, Bri!"

Well, she wished she was invisible.

Milo Collins, Briar's irritating yet loveable step-brother, tossed a long arm around her shoulders and side-hugged her.

"Hi, Milo," she muttered, her head down.

Milo was loud and popular. It was rare to catch him without his thousands of friends around him, but there was no one trailing after him that day, to Briar's surprise.

"What do you say, sis? Bowling with the guys this weekend. I can find you a boyfriend. Or just a friend, for that matter."

She glared at him and threw his arm off her shoulder. "Shut up."

"I'm gonna take that as a no. Come on, Bri. You've gotta branch out a bit. There are some actually nice people out there." he sighed.

"You tell me this nearly every day and has it changed anything? No. It hasn't."

"Not yet." he grinned. "I'll catch you later, Bri. Library after school, right?"

She nodded. "I'll see you then."

"See you then, sis." he kissed her cheek, being the over-affectionate person he is, and ducked away. "Bye!"

She waved after him, sighing as she reached her locker.

She put the code in and pulled out her books for the next classes.

With a sigh, Briar brushed her blonde hair from her face and closed her locker, walking off.

At the end of the corridor, she stopped and turned around, raising the camera that hung around her neck.

She twisted the lens cap off and raised it to her face as people milled around in the corridor.

As she watched through the lens, Milo and his friends walked into the corridor.

Briar snapped a few candid photos of the people before lowering the camera and spinning around to walk off.

-☼-

Briar was waiting for Milo.

She stood outside Midtown School of Science and Technology, tapping her foot to the beat of the song playing from a nearby student's speaker.

When he finally appeared, his dark hair messy and his glasses crooked, she raised her brows.

"Shut up, Bri. Come on. Let's go." he muttered.

Briar tried to hide her smirk. "Which girl was it this time, huh?"

"It wasn't a girl, Bri." he sighed.

"Was it a guy then?" she teased quietly, nudging his side with her elbow.

He whined, pushing her arm away. Briar laughed. "You're so mean, Bri. That hurt."

"You're just weak." she grinned, looping her arm through his and starting to straighten his messy hair as they walked to Milo's car.

"Am not."