Page 69 of Forged in Flames (Made of Steel 2)

Not a chance.

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"Seriously, Eli? A double date with Kins and Patrick?"

He smiled at me as he sat down in the desk next to mine. "Good morning to you too. You look really nice today."

I sighed. "We don't have time for a date tonight."

"There's always time to make sure we're keeping up appearances. We all agreed that in public you and I would be dating."

"Eli." My voice sounded desperate. "Kins wants me to go shopping with her for new shoes. I can't handle going shopping and going on a date and any other freaking thing right now. I'm having a hard enough time sitting here like everything's fine."

"Hey." He put his hand on my knee. "If anything, tonight will take your mind off of your troubles. I think we could both use that."

"What, like that party we went to where you completely abandoned me? Because last time I remember us putting pressing matters aside I ended up drunk and alone." But really it hadn't been so bad. I had run into Miles after all.

"I told you that was because of work. I'm sorry..."

"I don't care about your apology." I moved my knee away from his hand. "Tell them we have to cancel."

"Give me one chance."

"I've given you plenty of chances."

"The real me. Summer," he said, lowering is voice. "Please. Just one chance." He put his hand back on my knee.

I looked down at his hand and then back up at his face. "We can't be ourselves on a double date anyway."

"Then we'll cut out early."

I bit the inside of my lip as I stared at him. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"It's just one night."

I shook my head. Possibly one of my last nights. "You promise not to ditch me?"

He smiled. "If something comes up, this time I can just take you with me."

I folded my arms across my chest and stared at the front of the room. I hadn't even realized the professor had already started talking. I stared blankly at the board. Class. A date. None of it mattered. I just wanted Julie to be okay. "Okay, fine. But only if V is willing to push back the meeting tonight. And we have to be back for it. On time."

"Deal."

I pulled out my phone to text V. Before I pressed on his name, I realized I had one unread message. It was from Miles. I clicked on it.

"I promise that whatever it is you're not telling me isn't going to scare me away. Please stop running."

Running. That's all I knew. The thought of standing still terrified me. I started bouncing my knee nervously. I coul

d barely even sit here, knowing what was going on in my life, or more accurately, not knowing what was going on. The only thing I was sure of was that I wasn't going to drag anyone down with me. And if that meant pretending for one night that I had a boyfriend so Kins wouldn't get suspicious, or avoiding Miles, that's how it had to be.

Besides, Miles was dead wrong. If he knew what I was planning, it would scare him away. The only thing I was looking forward to was the thought of seeing death in Don's eyes. And not his usual dead stare. I wanted to know what he looked like when he could no longer hurt anyone. When all the life was sucked out of him just like he had sucked out mine. The thought made my veins feel cold.

I deleted Miles' message and typed out one to V requesting that our meeting be pushed back a few hours.

His response came almost immediately. "Whatever you need."

My knee kept bouncing. Whatever I need? What is that supposed to mean? He was probably hoping that I'd come home in a better mood than when I left. I almost laughed out loud at the fact that I had called his apartment home. I hadn't had a home since I was nine years old.

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