Page 19 of Made of Steel (Made of Steel 1)

Chapter 14

Monday

I should have been excited that a handsome boy wanted to buy me lunch. But I wasn't. For some reason I wanted to run in the opposite direction. I was about to protest him paying for my lunch, but he interrupted my train of thought.

"So, what's your story, Sadie?"

"My story?" I tried to focus on the buildings we were walking by while trying not to run into anyone. "I'm not that interesting."

"I highly doubt that."

I swallowed hard and glanced back over at him. "Well, what do you want to know specifically?"

He smiled. "For starters, why did you choose to come to Eastern University? I get that you wanted to get out of your small town. But this is a really big change."

"Maybe I needed a big change." I dodged someone who was walking straight at me.

Eli laughed. "Did you ever even visit the campus before choosing this school? You seriously have this deer in headlights thing going on right now. It doesn't even seem like you like it here."

"Of course I visited ahead of time," I lied. "I'm not one to make rash decisions. And I do like it here. It has a great...energy." I had heard someone say that about New York on TV before. I internally rolled my eyes at myself. Honestly, I hated the energy. There were way too many people everywhere.

"Right," he said. He clearly didn't believe me at all.

I couldn't even defend myself. He was probably pretty accurate with the deer in headlights comment.

"Really, though. Was it an ex-boyfriend thing or something?" he asked. "Trying to move as far away from him as possible?"

I laughed. "No, not at all."

"Not at all? Hmm. I have no idea what you mean by that, but I accept that answer." He smiled. He really was handsome.

"What about you?" I asked. I didn't want to answer any more questions. Thinking about appropriate responses was exhausting. "Why did you choose here?"

"Because I was sick of seeing the same people every day of my life, you know? I think I was starting to feel claustrophobic. I guess I needed a big change too. My mom is not pleased that I chose a school so far away, though."

"What's she like?"

"My mom?" He shrugged. "She drives me crazy and I love her in spite of that."

"And your dad?"

"He drives me a little less crazy. They've been happily married for 20 years. They just had this huge anniversary party a few weeks before I came out here."

"That must be nice." I started studying the buildings again. Dingy skyscraper after dingy skyscraper. How long would my parents have been married? They had gotten married really young. I did the math in my head. They would have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year.

"Well, what about your parents?"

They were the best. "Um, my parents are great but we're not really that close. And I'm an only child." I basically repeated verbatim what was in my new identity notebook. I wasn't close to my fake parents so that no one would wonder why they never called.

"Did you have a fight or something?"

"No, nothing like that. They both work fulltime and are way more into that than they are into me. I was much closer to my nanny than I was to either of them." I wasn't sure why I was supposed to say that. This part of my identity seemed flimsy at best. I couldn't even afford to buy all the books for my classes. No one would ever believe my parents had hired a nanny for me when I was growing up. But I repeated what the notebook said anyway.

"Sorry, that sucks."

Not as much as the truth. "Actually, I loved my childhood. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way." I just wish my real childhood had lasted longer.

"This looks like the kind of place that would have good burgers." He stopped outside of a diner on the corner. "Shall we try it?"

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