Glitch

I
    wasn’t just another drone to be poked and prodded. Not to
    Max.
    I hugged him hard again. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I said
    into his chest. His arms around me were like walls— real
    protection, real connection. Friend. I’d read about the word
    in the archive texts, but now I knew what it meant.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked.
    I fi nally pulled away and looked at him. He’d climbed up
    to the loft bed and was sitting on the edge, legs dangling
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    Heather Anastasiu
    over the side. I stretched my limbs. I was drowsy, but I could
    already tell my body hurt less.
    “I’m okay. Better.”
    “What happened on the train?” Even though we weren’t
    hugging anymore, he’d taken my hand in his and was trac-
    ing patterns with his thumb. Every touch was a point of
    connection whispering: Not alone, not alone, not alone. “There’s
    been no news on the Link about it and all I can get from my
    other sources is that there was some malfunction on the
    train. The camera went out with the lights, so I couldn’t get
    my hands on any recordings.”
    I wanted to berate him for taking risks again but I knew
    it wouldn’t do any good. I told him about the young Regu-
    lator glitching.
    “It was like Adrien knew what was going to happen,” I
    said. “We have to contact him.”
    “No way. I don’t trust him,” Max said darkly, dropping
    my hand. “How could he know what was going to happen
    unless he had a hand in it? Maybe he did it to force you to
    reveal your powers.”
    “How can you say that?” I pulled back. “This was the
    second time he’s helped me!”
    “You didn’t need his help when you were called over the
    Link for the diagnostic.” He clenched his hands into fi sts. “I
    had everything taken care of already. You don’t even know
    for sure if what he did would’ve gone undetected in the
    scan.”
    “Max,” I shook my head, “I thought you’d be excited.
    This means there’s someone else out there like us. Maybe he
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    G L I TC H
    has, you know—” I leaned in. “The powers like we do. This
    was what we wanted, to fi nd more people like us.”
    “It’s what you wanted.”
    I looked at him, confused. “Don’t you, too? Now that you
    see how important it is?”
    He shook his head. “With just the two of us, we’d be safer.
    We could avoid detection more easily.”
    “But for how long? The train accident was just one
    example of a hundred ways things could go wrong. We need
    more people on our side.”
    “Why? What do you think this is going to turn into, some
    army or something?” He was upset but I didn’t understand
    why.
    “No, of course not!” I felt exasperated. “That’s not what
    I meant. . . . I just . . .” I trailed off .
    “You just want to go around recklessly involving other
    people and endangering us,” Max said.
    I sat still, breathing hard. Why was he being so diffi
    cult?
    I was suddenly tired again and wetness pricked at my eyes.
    “Oh no, Zoe, I shouldn’t have said that.” He put a hand
    gently on my arm. “I know you’ve just gone through
    something horrible. The thought that I
    wasn’t there to
    help you . . .” His brown eyes were intense as they searched
    mine. “You’re everything to me, you know that, don’t you?
    You’re all that matters, all I think about. Everything I do is
    to try to keep us safe.”
    “I would never do anything to put us in danger,” I said,
    wiping my eyes. “I just thought he might be able to help us.”
    “Us,” he said, more gently now. “There’s an us ?”
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    Heather Anastasiu
    I blinked, confused. “Yes, of course.”
    “What I mean is, I want there to be an us. I want us to be
    together. You know, together. You getting hurt again—” He
    shook his head and swallowed before looking back into my
    eyes. “It made me realize I never want to live without you.
    I can’t.” He took my hand. “When we’re old enough, I’m
    sure I can use my powers to arrange for us to be marital
    partners.”
    “Marital partners?” I asked, stunned. “You mean staying
    here and getting the adult V-chip installed? But we’d never
    glitch again!”
    “Zoe, relax.” He waved a hand. “I’ll fi nd a way around the
    hardware and the system.”
    “Even if we could uncover a way around the chip,” I said,
    slow horror gripping me at the ramifi cations of staying in
    the Community forever, “being marital partners would
    mean they’d create children for us.”
    I thought of the