When I get out of the shower, I wrap a towel around myself without even thinking.

‘Whoa!’ Tash says, backing up against the bathroom wall.

‘What?’ I look down. No towel. I hold it away from my body with my hands and it reappears.

‘That is seriously freaky,’ Tash says. ‘So it disappears when it’s wrapped around you? Have you tried putting clothes on?’

I shake my head, but then realise she can’t see me. ‘No. Hang on.’

In the bedroom, I open the second drawer of my chest of drawers and pull out the extra-large t-shirt I usually wear in bed. It’s one of Max’s old band t-shirts. I borrowed it when we were first going out and never gave it back. I drop it over my head and it disappears.

‘So. Weird.’ Tash says. ‘But then how come I could see you through the shower curtain?’ She frowns. ‘Should I… Google “invisibility”?’

I roll my eyes. ‘I don’t know. Maybe. But it’s hardly going to tell me what to do about it, is it? I could sort of see myself through the water in the shower too. Maybe you could see me through the shower curtain ’cos it was wet.’

Tash’s eyebrows shoot up and she darts back into the bathroom. ‘Yes!’ she says. ‘Wet footprints on the floor.’

I’m suddenly very glad she’s here. I wouldn’t have thought of that. ‘So it’s water,’ I say. ‘Water makes me visible? Sort of?’

‘Not visible, but it leaves a trace maybe?’

She comes back in and sits down on the end of my bed. I sit next to her and see her look at the dent in the mattress where I’m sitting.

‘Can I touch you?’ she says, frowning.

‘Um, yeah. Let me just put some knickers on.’ I stand up again.

‘I wasn’t going to touch you THERE!’ she says and laughs. Then she flops back on the bed. ‘Bloody hell, Iz, how is this possible?’

‘I don’t know!’

I step into my knickers and watch them disappear. Quite handy really. Don’t need to be embarrassed about how greying and saggy they are. I pull a pair of tracksuit bottoms out of my drawer and pull them on too. I usually only ever wear them when I’m on – they’re so comfy I almost look forward to that time of the month – and there’s no chance of me leaving the house, but it doesn’t matter now.

I sit back down and Tash sits up.

‘This is really weird,’ she says. ‘Okay, I’m going to touch you now.’

She reaches a hand out and pokes me hard in the left boob.

‘Ow! Bloody hell, Tash!’

‘Sorry. I panicked. Tell me where you are and—’

I reach out and get hold of her hand, which is still hovering in the air. I can see her hand around where mine should be. ‘Can you feel it?’ I say.

She nods. ‘Have we both gone completely fucking mad?’

‘Possibly,’ I say and squeeze her fingers.

‘You didn’t, I don’t know, make a wish or anything?’ She frowns.

‘Oh yeah, that must be it. No, of course I didn’t make a fucking wish!’

‘Oh god, I know! But I don’t know! How can this have happened? Seriously?’

‘It can’t,’ I say. ‘But it has.’

We do the only thing we can think of to do – make a cup of tea – and sit at the kitchen table while Tash Googles ‘invisibility’ on her phone.

‘This is useless,’ Tash says, scrolling.

‘We knew it would be,’ I say, picking up the tea and feeling the steam tickle my face. ‘Because this is impossible.’

‘Oh!’ Tash says, leaning forward so quickly that she almost jolts the mug out of my hand. ‘I saw you then! A bit. Just like a…’ She frowns. ‘Like a mirage. Do I mean a mirage? It was sort of shimmery and I couldn’t really clearly see you. It was like… essence of you.’ ‘Bloody hell,’ I say. ‘That doesn’t sound completely weird at all.’

‘Oh god,’ Tash says, pointing at my mug. ‘I’m not going to be able to see the tea running through your body, am I?’

I laugh. ‘No, I thought that too, but it’s fine. Look!’ I slurp the tea and then shriek because it’s too hot.

‘I’d have left that to cool down a bit,’ Tash says. ‘Invisibility hasn’t made you any smarter, I see.’ She grins. ‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Shut your face.’ I put the mug down. ‘What do you mean what am I going to do? About getting back to normal, you mean?’

‘No. Unless you’ve got some idea about that. You haven’t, have you?’

I shake my head. ‘No. Not a clue.’

‘I meant… It’s one of those questions, isn’t it?’ Tash says. ‘“What would you do if you were invisible for a day?” So what are you going to do?’

‘I’m not going to do anything! I’m going to get back into bed and wait for it to go away.’

Tash rolls her eyes.

‘What would you do?’ I ask her.

She grins. ‘Oh, almost all of it would be illegal.’

‘Hey!’ I say, remembering. ‘How come you got here so quickly earlier? Were you not at home?’

‘Ah,’ she says, running her hands through her hair and tying it up in a knot at the back. It’s one of her signature flirt moves. ‘No. I was not.’

‘Not the waiter,’ I say.

‘Why not the waiter? He was cute!’

‘He was cute, but he was drooling!’

‘Sometimes drooling is good,’ she says, giving me one of her sharky smiles. ‘And he knew how to drool in all the right places.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ I say. ‘And where’s Rob?’

She shrugs. ‘Somewhere. I don’t know. It’s not about Rob.’

‘Right,’ I say. ‘What did he do?’

‘Nothing!’ she says. ‘Honestly! The waiter was cute and Rob is away and I was in the mood…’

‘So you’re not punishing him for anything? Rob?’

She shakes her head and wrinkles her nose, which I know means she’s lying.

‘So where is he?’

‘He’s filming. You know, at that festival?’

‘The one in America?’ I stare at her. ‘Seriously? Why didn’t you go?! You said you really wanted to go to that!’

‘He didn’t ask me.’

‘He didn’t ask you? Come on! Tash! Why didn’t you go?’

She shakes her head. ‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’ She reaches over and drinks some of my tea, even though she said she didn’t want one of her own. Her phone buzzes and she pulls it towards her with one finger and frowns at the screen.

‘Rob?’

‘Liam.’

‘Ah.’

She turns her phone over. ‘So what are you going to do?’

‘I mean it,’ I say. ‘I’m going to go back to bed and hope I wake up normal.’

‘And if you don’t?’

‘Fuck knows.’

‘And what about when Max comes home?’

I shake my head. ‘I guess I have to tell him? I mean, I’m fairly confident he wouldn’t notice even if I didn’t. But if it’s… permanent…’ I suppress a shudder. ‘Then he needs to know.’

She turns her phone over again. ‘So…’

‘So you’re okay to go,’ I say, smiling.

‘You sure?’

‘Absolutely. I’m going to bed. And I’ll call you if I need you.’

‘Promise.’

‘Promise.’

She stands up and holds her arms out and I hug her.

‘God,’ she says, her breath tickling my ear. ‘This is weird.’

‘Weirder for me than for you,’ I say.

‘It’ll be okay,’ she says, squeezing me. ‘I mean, this is impossible. So how long can it possibly last?’