True Identity

Chapter 37

This is an important part of the road for Coral that I could

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We left the café and walked down the street together as he pointed out certain things that had changed recently enough for me to notice. It was quite the nostalgia trip and I was more comfortable with him than I thought I would be so quickly. Not as quickly as with Eli but Eli was different and always would be.

"So...come on. You've given me nothing." He said as we walked down the street as it got darker.

"I live in Massachusetts with my mom." I stated, looking around at the old buildings.

"What about your dad?" He asked, unsure of whether he should ask it.

"Still works at the Pentagon, a little higher up now." I said, probably just enhancing the thought that my parents were divorced when they were very much still in love.

"Divorced?" Should have guessed that he would have be blunt, he'd been like that for the past half an hour.

"No, he travels home every weekend. He likes his job enough to show me around and let me work there for a week." I explained.

"So, you're here for some work experience." He nodded, like it was a revelation.

"Needed some time away from home." I expanded.

"A weekend in California not good enough for you?" He smirked, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye while I just gaped. That was creepy and I did slow down and step to the side a bit so he couldn't reach me on the wide side walk.

"I'm seriously considering that you are some kind of stalker right now. Can you take a step back?" I said, half-joking so he wouldn't kill me. He couldn't have known that I was going to come here today, I literally decided only six hours ago, and now I was here. However, he just laughed at my slightly wary face and veered closer to me again.

"I saw an article of the swimming gala you were at yesterday and it spoke very highly of you with a flattering photo to accompany it." He commented, getting his phone out to show me the bookmarked page that was talking about my success at Berkeley. It was saying very nice things but also reported the fact that I had rejected a lot of major schools; that should have stood out to Alastair. He continued. "That's how I recognised you. I also like to keep a list of contacts that I could use if needed later on. You seemed like you could go places."

"I'm not sure if that's still creepy or not." I laughed. I'd heard of people who wanted to be powerful in life doing things like this, especially when I attended Sidwell but it was a lot different in Worcester. There weren't so many rich people and it was generally just me and Eli that had the extravagant wealth even if my family didn't show it off and his did. I can imagine there are a few others but at Sidwell, everyone was on the same level of extreme wealth that mostly went above my parent's.

"Ask any of my friends and that is normal behaviour for me, I promise." He smiled as we continued to walk. I had realised it was getting a bit later but if my dad got home soon, which was unlikely, he could ring me. I was enjoying myself the more and more I spoke to my old friend and was getting to know him as an ambitious but funny person that I could get on with quite well. If everyone at Sidwell was like this, maybe I fit into this world more than I thought I ever would.