Free Eden by Gregory Hoffman Page B

“What kind of girl?”
    “An Asian girl,” he stated flatly.
    My biggest fear seemed to be coming true and I didn’t know what to do or say. How did they find her so quickly and who was this guy? Where was he from?
    “No,” Drake answered for me, “there’s no new girl that we know of.”
    I was relieved to find that my friends weren’t going to sell Eden out.
    “This isn’t a big town,” Kyle offered, “if there was a new girl here our age, we would have met her already in school.”
    “Well, aren’t you just a wellspring of information,” the driver smiled sarcastically, “Thanks for the tip.”
    With that the car pulled away and continued through the parking lot.
    “Do you think he was talking about Eden?” Matt asked when the car was out of sight.
    “Who else could it be?” Drake replied, “I wonder who that guy was. Maybe we should have told him the truth; he could have been a relative of hers or something.”
    “No way,” I assured him instantly, “Eden never mentioned anyone like that. That guy seemed slimy like a crook or something. Please don’t tell anyone about Eden, I don’t want her to get in trouble or hurt.”
    I didn’t know what else to say. That guy could have been from the government looking to retrieve Eden. If he knew that we knew her, who knows what could happen to us.
    Luckily all of my friends agreed that guy hadn’t looked nice and it had been a good idea not to say anything to him; but I couldn’t tell them my real fear that there could be more people looking for Eden because that would mean telling them the whole truth about her. There was no way that they wouldn’t think I was insane if I told them about Eden’s super human strength and my theories. It wasn’t like I could walk up to her and ask her to show off in front of my friends; and short of that there was no way to prove to them what I had seen.
    Entering the restaurant, we all proceeded to a booth in the back of the restaurant. Matt made his way to the counter to order our dinner. He was well known in this establishment due to the fact that his mother hated to cook and as a result, often ordered out for dinner.
    “Hey, Matt,” the middle aged man behind the counter greeted with a smile, “What can I get you guys?”
    “Hi Al, we’d like one large Meat Lover’s,” Matt replied.
    “One?” Al asked in surprise, “is that going to be enough for all of you?”
    “It will have to be,” Matt said in defeat, “we only have enough for one pie and drinks.”
    “Tell you what,” Al offered, “I’ll give you two for the price of one.”
    “Wow! Thanks!” Matt beamed in surprise.
    “What can I say?” Al shrugged, “I hate to see young men go hungry.”
    “Me too,” Matt agreed with an innocent smile of pure joy.
    He made his way back to our table with the good news.
    “That’s why we let you order,” Drake stated with confidence, “your mother is like a freaking V.I.P. here.”
    We all laughed at Drake’s observation; it was true without a doubt. She ordered from Pizza Heaven at least twice a week, sometimes more. It was a wonder that Matt had wanted to eat pizza yet another night this week.  As we waited for our pizzas the conversation quickly turned back to the subject from a few minutes earlier.
    “So what do you guys think that guy wanted with Eden?” Kyle asked in a conspiratorial whisper.
    All eyes immediately turned to me. As her boyfriend, I guess it was only logical that I would be the most likely to know the answer, but I wasn’t about to explain about Eden’s abnormalities, so I feigned ignorance.
    “I have no idea why some creep would be looking for her,” I replied, “she never spoke about where she came from. Maybe he is some acquaintance of her parents or something.”
    “That can’t be it,” Drake spoke up, “If he knew her or her parents, he would have asked if we knew Eden Sinclair. He didn’t, which means that he didn’t know her name.”
    It was a brilliant