Glitch

morning hours.
    Without Max there to help me, would Adrien’s solution
    have fooled the equipment all on its own? Or was he actu-
    ally a Monitor after all? But if so, wouldn’t he have turned
    me in, not tried to help me?
    It hadn’t mattered so much in the end. Max was there.
    Maybe Adrien had known that, and he just wanted to give
    the appearance of help to gain my trust. I shivered, remem-
    bering the feeling of being immobilized after Adrien put
    the port in my neck. That was reason enough for me to avoid
    him.
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    I tried to put it all out of my head and lose myself in the
    back- and- forth motion of walking, the cadence of all the
    morning commuters’ footsteps ringing like a dull roar around
    me. Too many questions and no answers was enough to
    drive a person crazy. I needed to start focusing on solutions.
    Problem solving. First one thing, then another, then another.
    Logical. Orderly.
    I stepped onto the train and held on to a pole near the dark
    window. The doors closed with a hiss as the air- fi ltration
    system in the subway car kicked in. I looked around me at
    the dull gray subway car and the clean orderly people all
    standing at attention with perfect posture, most of them
    zoned out to the morning Link News.
    A few Regulators got on at the next stop, their blue suits
    jumping out at me from among the clusters of gray. I breathed
    in and out slowly to make sure my heart monitor didn’t go
    off at the sight of them. I’d gotten lucky before, but that
    didn’t mean I would today. My eyes fl ickered up at the Reg-
    ulators one more time before I fi xed them on the ground,
    turning slightly away so they couldn’t see my face.
    They looked too young to be full Regulators. They were
    probably just Regulators- in- training heading to the Acad-
    emy like I was.
    After I felt my heart rate normalize, I looked around at
    every face, trying to make only my eyes move while my face
    remained blank. Did any of them glitch? Were any of them
    hiding the same secret Max and I were?
    I worked methodically through every face in the car, back
    to front, pausing occasionally to make sure I appeared to be
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    Heather Anastasiu
    just as blank as the rest of them. I used the black of the win-
    dow like a mirror, so I could watch people indirectly. I con-
    tinued my gaze down the train, not noticing anything
    unusual about anyone.
    I wasn’t discouraged— look how long it had taken for Max
    and me to fi nd each other. It would have to be by chance that
    we discovered anyone else. Though, if other people were
    glitching as often as I was, then maybe there was more hope.
    Just when I’d given up on the possibility of fi nding any
    glitchers, I caught a glimpe of someone who felt anomalous.
    I could only see the back of his head and I couldn’t exactly
    put into words why I thought he was a glitcher. His posture
    looked straight but there was something about it. Some-
    thing in his body language didn’t look quite as blank as the
    rest of them. There was an alertness to the set of his shoul-
    ders. I wondered if, when we got off the train, I could get a
    better look at his face. Then, as if he could feel my eyes on
    him, he turned around. My breath caught in my throat.
    Adrien. It was as if my body itself reacted to him. My face
    fl ushed and I felt hot all over. I swallowed. I didn’t under-
    stand why I felt this way, or what it was even that I was feel-
    ing. His blue- green eyes met mine in the mirrored glass.
    The instant our eyes met, he stiff ened and I could see his
    grip tighten on the pole he was holding for balance. His eyes
    suddenly became vacant, staring beyond me. I glanced be-
    hind me in confusion, trying to fi gure out what he was look-
    ing at, but there was nothing there. I turned to look back
    at him.
    After another few tense seconds, he blinked and looked
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    G L I TC H
    around him like he was trying to re orient himself, his head
    swaying slightly. I breathed out and forced my eyes down to
    the fl oor, wondering if that was what I looked like when I
    glitched in and out of the Link.
    I dared to look back again but his carefully composed
    posture was diff erent now. His eyes fl icked back and forth
    between me and the group of Regulators- in- training. He
    took a step toward me, weaving through the crowd of un-
    moving bodies on the train car. People barely glanced at him
    as he brushed past, grabbing a pole close to my left for balance
    just as the train curved around an