When the trio finally exited "Shan-Tea" it was already evening, the sun was already behind buildings leaving streets covered in long shadows. In the end, Silva had barely spoken, but luckily it did not seem like Steven and Mika minded that.

They said their goodbyes and went separate ways. On the way back home Silva habitually slipped in her zone. While it was still not very late the earlier experience showed that caution was necessary even when it was the middle of the day. Not that she, when alone, ever not used her very convenient ability that allowed her to become unnoticeable to other people.

While walking she thought back to the time spent with Steven and Mika. She had spoken a lot today and could not help but to feel proud of her achievement. It was after all rare for her to take interest in people, but those two were a rare exception. She found them funny, endearing and easy to get along with.

They had not said anything about meeting again when they had said their farewells beside a little hint Mika had given. And now this hind was weighing on her mind. Even more so because of what Mika had seen. While Silva did not look forward to that particular conversation it did not seem like Mika had any nefarious thoughts and just wanted to talk.

Silva also had to consider a way of her meeting them again that would feel natural.

As for chances of Steven or Mika finding her? She doubted there was any chance at all. Not even if they came straight to her school. Silva doubted that anyone in her class could recall her name from the top of the head. They mostly ignored her, or when they spoke about her they called her 'that quiet girl', which Silva supposed, she was.

She attended her class, sure, but she never felt the need to interact with the rest of it. Don't speak, don't make eye contact, get average grades and vanish when the bell rings. Her patented way of being left to her own devices.

While waiting for the green light at the crossing she thought back to the fight, she had hurt someone badly, and so did Steven. But both he and Mika seemed to be sure that they were fine, or at least hurt in a way that would cause a blood feud between them.

It was not like Silva had no ideas why they had been so sure."Maybe Mika could tell? It would not be a far stretch to think that someone who can heal can also feel if that is necessary. Should I ask? But that could be bad... While Steven was there she seemed to be content to speak about something else, but she clearly had more to say when we were alone.”

Truly, Silva did not want to have that conversation, but her wandering mind always returned at the same place.

"I don't know her that well. Is she a person who would try to take advantage of me? Why did she stop me when I tried to tell them about everything?" Silva did not know and it bothered her immensely.

While agonizing she noticed that she had been standing at the crossing for who knew how long. The light was red again but turned green just as she glanced at it. She crossed the street and began to march at a swifter pace.

In the end, there was no clear solution to her problem. Silva was as sure as she could reasonably be, that Mika was not a bad person. All the times she had trailed after them not once did she see any malicious action done by them. She would not have tried to speak with them otherwise.

And there was something else.“Trust is important between friends, right? We are not friends yet, but I still should trust them. Wait, are we friends now? Huh, when does a person becomes your friend?”

Silva stopped at doorsteps of her apartment building. She tilted her head pondering about inscrutable ways of bonding between individuals. Then she shrugged her shoulders and went in. It was not something that a person like her could solve.

She lived on the second floor with her father. She was quite content with the flat they had. There were three living rooms, a bathroom, toilet and kitchen and a hall connecting all of the rooms. Still, all of the rooms were small and no matter how she had tried to arrange the furniture it still was cramped. Even if Silva had people she could invite over she would still not do so just because of the simple fact that they would not have a place to sit down at.

This suited both of the tenants just fine, as neither Silva nor her father, ever invited someone over and not just because of lack of space. They simply were solitary creatures by nature.

As Silva scaled the stairs up she wondered if her father is already at home. It would not be strange if he wasn't as he often worked overtime. He had to support them both. But if he was at home she could only hope that he won’t lecture her.

It was not rare for her to arrive home a little bit late, but she still got scolded by it frequently. Her father automatically assumed that she would go and get into trouble. He worried that she would mix with the wrong crowd, get hurt or start using drugs and what not else. Of course, none of his worries had any basis... If she did not count today. Silva silently decided to not count it.

As Silva entered the flat she grimaced because her father was at home. She closed doors behind her and started to undress. It was a bit late for dinner, but unfortunately, there was nothing she wanted to risk eating at the suspect tea shop she had visited earlier. “Scavenging what was left in the fridge it is.”

When Silva opened the fridge to her surprise she found yesterdays dinner still there. It meant that her dad had eaten outdoors. As Silva grabbed the plate she was startled by a cough behind her. She turned around to see her dad standing and scanning her with a scrutinizing frown.

He was taller than her by about ten centimetres, had brown eyes, short cut brown hair and very bushy eyebrows. His face was round and a little bit of pot-belly was showing under his t-shirt. There was little left of his youths glamour. Silva had seen the pictures of him in high-school and he had been a quite dashing back in the days.

She took a deep breath and meekly greeted her old man.

“Hi, dad!”

Jonathan scrunched his brows. “You are late, again. What is the reason?”

Silva for a moment almost went with the usual excuses, but then settled on mostly truth. After all, if she were to let more people in her life it would be better for her father to be informed about them.

"I was with friends, we were at a tea shop and kind of forgot about the time,” Silva explained.

Jonathan raised one of his bushy eyebrows at Silva's claim.

“Friends?”

“I too have friends you know!” Silva sulked, but it was mostly acting. Mostly.

"I know, I know! But I did not know you had friends beside me.” Silva cringed, which was ignored. “Come, sit and eat while we talk." Jonathan placated as he gestured at the table and promptly sat down himself. Silva microwaved her soon to be a meal and shortly fantasized about proper food, and not reheated potatoes with sausages, which was the most frequent meal they had when they cooked at home.

Silva and her father were not good cooks. Anna – her mother, she was the one that cooked their meals... It was already long ago, she could barely remember how her mothers cooking had tasted. All that had remained from that time was how she had enjoyed it.

Loud beep notified Silva that her food was ready, and when she went to sit down across her dad the clunk her plate made when it made contact with table seemed to wake up her dad from his complementation. Or maybe he was about to fell asleep, he did look tired, more than usual anyway. With dark circles under his eyes and pale skin. long days of work were wearing him out. In addition, Silva knew that he had troubles sleeping.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She had never told him that she could hear him cry at nights when he thought she was sleeping. Her dad loathed himself and truly missed her mother. A longing she did not share with him. Her mother may have been a wonderful person once, but for Silva, she was the person she hated the most.

Jonathan looked over at Silva seemingly mulling over a question before asking it.

“Was your friend a boy?” He probed.

“Friends! A Girl and a boy. No boy-girl stuff involved." Silva felt the need to correct him before the conversation derailed to a place she did not want to visit ever again. Talking about relationships with dad was too draining.

"I had to ask!” Her father surrendered. “It's just that you never mentioned anyone... Anyway, you have to be more careful, it gets dark quickly around here, you cant..." Jonathan, as expected, went on a tirade while Silva was finishing her meal. "... And when will you introduce them to me?" He finished.

“Huh?” Silva gave her dad a dazed look.

“Your friends, I want to know what kind of people can get you to call them your friends.”

“Dad, please, when would you even meet them? You are always working and it is not like I can invite them over. They would not fit in here!” Silva argued.

“Ah... Sorry about that, I...” Jonathan visibly wilted looking guilty.

"No, sorry Dad, I did not mean to... I like it here! It is cosy! And I won't hide them from you, its just that... You know." She waved her hand aimlessly not knowing what to say.

To her surprise, her Dad gave her a gentle smile. It seemed that seeing her daughter panicking had improved his mood.

“Do you need an increase in your allowance for outings?”

"It is fine, thank you..." Silva gave him a small smile back deciding to ignore the strange emphasis her dad had given to the word 'outings'.

**

Silva was lying down in her bed. Her mostly green room was almost with no decorations and only most necessary furniture was stuffed in it. There was a bookshelf with her favourite books. A computer table with chair, bed with a small night-stand next to it and a small blue wardrobe where she kept her meagre clothing selection.

Even if she wanted to add something there simply was no space, but it suited her just fine. She was not trying to impress anyone and preferred to be comfortable in her own adobe.

Silva wanted to just fall asleep and empty her mind, but there was one thing left.

Before leaving that horrible tea shop all three of them had exchanged numbers and Mika had hinted to her that they should talk as soon as possible.

Looking at her phone screen Silva procrastinated while dismissing notifications she had gotten along the day. "Just do it, no point in dragging this for longer than necessary. Ah, but its already late, should I call her tomorrow? It's not like I will stumble on her on my way to school. And waking up dad would be bad, yes, tomorrow..."

It was already a little bit after midnight. Silva put down her phone and was about to prepare to go to sleep, but before she could start to undress she received an unexpected message.

Startled she grabbed her phone and hoped that the message was not from what she thought it was. When she opened the message it read "I will call you in ten minutes."

Cursing to herself Silva quietly exited her room and put on a jacket, if they were to talk then she would rather do it outside. She checked on her father and to her relief he was sleeping. Silently leaving the apartment she went downstairs and upon exiting building the cold night air momentary took her breath away, but it also helped Silva with clearing her head.

Silva started to aimlessly walk down the street noting that there were no people around. She shook her head before checking the time. Those ten minutes that was given to her had almost passed and in the next moment, she received the dreaded call which she promptly answered.

“Hello?” Silva wondered about how the conversation would go down.

“Hey, sorry to bother you this late, but we had to talk without Steven being nosy. He can be very sharp about stuff you want to hide.” Mika`s voice sounded calm and unhurried. “Anyway, what I wanted to clarify was something about you and your ability...” Silva audibly gulped before Mika continued. “Did you spy on us?”

Silva took a deep breath as he gathered her courage and checked her surroundings once more making sure there is no one around. "Yes, I saw you healing Steven. I also overheard you two talking. Not much, but enough. I... I don't usually do that, but... It was the first time I had found someone else like me! People who also had ability! People with whom I could talk! I.. But I had to be sure... Sure that you... You know, are trustworthy...”

Silva looked down at her feet. She hated herself for her inability to expressing herself better. She could only hope that Mika would understand. The silence from the other side of the call encouraged her to continue.

"You see, my ability, it allows me to hide. If I want to I can make myself impossible to be noticed. Not invisible, but people will ignore me. So I can walk where I want and do what I want. Sometimes I would follow people, not with anything bad in mind..." Silva trailed off. “It's just that, I don't have any friends and... I don't know... I want to see how people are. What makes them tick. I can't explain it well...”

“In the end what did you want?” Mika`s voice did not have any changes, so Silva could not tell how she was taking her explanation.

“That is... I wanted to be friends with you.” Silva could only hang her head in shame. Silence lingered for a time until Mika spoke again.

"Do you know how shocking it is to discover someone who could have seen any and all your secrets? That your biggest secret is already known by that someone." These words penetrated Silva's heart like sharp knives as she muttered a quiet 'sorry', just loud enough for Mika to hear. After a moment she heard a sight and Mika continued. "But I don't think you are a bad person. And I would not mind for you to become my friend, that is if you are truly sorry and apologize. I am sure Steven would say the same."

Silva felt like a big weight had been taken off of her shoulders.

"Thank you. Sorry, I did not mean to scare you. I am truly sorry it happened this way." Silva thought a bit more before speaking. "Should I give a call to Steven and speak with him as well?"

Mika went silent again and a while later Silva was jumping from one leg to other to try and keep herself warm.

"Yes, you should definitely tell him if you want to be our friend, but you should do it face to face. It is hard to gauge other parties reactions trough phone and it would be more sincere. These kind of things are not really meant for a phone conversation.”

Something occurred to Silva.

“Then why did you interrupt me when I tried to tell Steven about myself? And aren't we talking about on a phone now?”

“That... Well, as to why I interrupted you... I did not want to pressure you into revealing your ability. To reveal such a secret... It is better to do it willingly.” Silva could feel the not so hidden barbs in Mika's words. “And I did not want to leave this matter rest for any longer than necessary, better to settle it quickly. So I decided to call you.”

“Ah! Okay, then, should we meet tomorrow?” Silva asked still feeling guilty.

"We have a bit of a shorter day tomorrow, just give us a place and we will wait for you at it," Mika suggested.

“Then would Pigeon park work?” Silva thought about a place where there would not be a lot of people. She knew a lot of such places, but most of them very only known to her or were not suited as a meeting place.

There was another moment of silence then she could hear another voice in the background. Silva wondered was happening until Mika spoke again.

"Then let’s meet there, give us a message when you are free... Dad, please leave, I am talking with a friend... Yes! OK!" Silva couldn't quite make out what was happening, but it seemed that Mika`s father had interrupted her. "No, it's not Steven! No, it is a girl! Silva are you still there?"

"Yes, is everything alright?" Silva could easily imagine her father doing the same thing.

"Sure, but we will have to talk more tomorrow. Father is being a nuisance. Hold on!" Mika stopped for a moment. "... Yes, I know you could hear me, that's why I said it!" Silva could hear Mika`s shouting. Before she could ask what was going on Mika spoke. "I have to go, goodnight Silva... Have a good sleep."

“Night...” Silva replied awkwardly before the call was ended.

Silva spent a moment looking at the moon and then turned to head back home. Nights winds were chilly and when she finally sneaked back she gladly slipped under an extra blanket to warm herself up. Despite the stormy day, the outcome was not bad. Mika had turned out to be even a better person than she had expected and tomorrow she would help her to talk with Steven.

Her tired mind finally started to slip into a dream world as she thought about the coming day and what it would bring.