A clanging noise made my eyelids open. I hadn't even heard him walk away from me. But he was gone. I had felt invisible for five years. Now that someone saw the light in me, I didn't feel so invisible anymore. I couldn't leave the city. The ironic part was that the main thing keeping me here was the person telling me to leave.
Chapter 32
Monday
"Don't you already have a computer?" Eli said.
I shrugged my shoulders as I stared at the price difference between the Dell and HP. I hadn't asked Eli to come with me. I told him I needed to do some shopping and he had insisted on coming with me. It made my stomach feel uneasy. At first, I wanted to tell him about meeting Liza from The Night Watch blog. But I hadn't actually learned much from her besides for the fact that the vigilante and someone else were watching me. I wasn't sure why, but my gut was telling me that other person was Eli. He had been one of the only people that had access to my computer.
It was Mr. Crawford. It didn't make me feel any better though. There was someone in this city that the vigilante wanted me to get away from. The vigilante had probably seen me with Eli. But he had also probably seen me with Miles. And Kins. I shook away the thought as I glanced over at Eli.
He smiled. "Seriously, what happened to it? It looked brand new."
He had studied my computer. I pressed my lips together, trying to think of a good lie. "I dropped it." Technically, it had been dropped. That much was true.
"And that broke it? It must have been a pretty crappy computer. Do you want me to take a look at it? I might be able to fix it."
"I already threw it out."
"You should've at least recycled it," he said with a laugh.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Either way, which do you think is better?" I gestured at the two computers on display.
"The processor is a lot faster on that one," Eli said and pointed to the more expensive one. "But if you're just going to be using it for writing research papers and stuff, the basic one is fine."
"So you know a lot about computers?"
"A fair amount."
Hmm. Liza had said that the vigilante wasn't the best hacker. Could it possibly be Eli?
"What are you looking at?" he said with a smile.
"Nothing." I realized I had been awkwardly staring at him. I was bordering on the edge of paranoia. Just because the vigilante knew me, it didn't mean I knew him. I stared at the computers again. The more expensive one was a different brand than the one Mr. Crawford had given me. And I did want it for more than just school papers. I wanted to help Liza. I wanted to write for her blog and spread the truth about the vigilante. I wanted to be as close to him as possible.
"Can I help you two with something?" a sales girl asked.
"Yes," I said and turned toward her. "I'll take this computer." I gestured to the more expensive one. "And I was hoping you could show me some cell phones too?"
"Something happened to your cell phone too?" Eli said.
"Um, no, but I think it's time for an upgrade."
"You have the iPhone they released less than a month ago. There is nothing better than that."
He had definitely been paying attention to my devices. "Yeah, maybe. I think I'm just more of an Android girl."
"Me too," the sales clerk said. "I have the Samsung Galaxy and I love it. It's really easy to use and..."
"Okay, I'll take that one."
"Do you have a plan that you want to switch over?"
There was probably a plan on my current phone. But I didn't want anyone to automatically have access to my new account too. "Nope."
"Did you want to keep the same number?"
Liza hadn't said anything about that. I wanted Mr. Crawford to have my number in case he needed to contact me. "Yeah, that would be great."