Glitch

and I’d have to be on
    my guard, but I was desperate for answers. Whether he was
    a glitcher or not, I wasn’t sure, but he defi nitely was not
    Linked. And he had access to some advanced tech. I couldn’t
    help but wonder if he’d know a way for us to live unde-
    tected or avoid the adult V-chip. It was a hope so precious
    and fragile I almost didn’t dare let myself think it.
    “You’ve been talking about him nonstop since we got here,”
    Max said at our tutoring session that night.
    I turned and looked at him. “So?”
    “So maybe I’m tired of hearing about him! And he’s gonna
    meet you in your bedroom? Is that even safe? We don’t need
    him, and it’s not worth the risk. I told you I could protect
    you.”
    I waved his words away with a swipe of my hand. “This
    isn’t about protection. It’s about fi guring out what he knows.
    He’s got to be like us. I want to know what he knows and
    get him on our side.”
    “The only people who need to be on our side,” Max stood
    up, his face fl ushed, “are us. ”
    I stopped pacing fi nally, seeing Max’s face and sensing he
    was quietly fuming.
    “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
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    G L I TC H
    “What’s wrong with me?” he echoed incredulously.
    “What’s wrong with me is that all I can think about all day
    and all night long is you , but you are obviously spending all
    your time and energy thinking about him. ”
    I threw my hands up in the air. “Of course I’m thinking
    about him! I have this feeling like he knows things that could
    be useful to us—”
    “I don’t care!” Max said suddenly, almost shouting. I was
    taken aback and fi nally stopped talking. I’d been so caught
    up in my own thoughts I hadn’t realized just how angry he
    was getting.
    “Don’t you understand?” he said, pulling me to him. “I
    want you to be thinking about me.” His eyes were burning
    intensely as he put his hand behind my neck, pulling my
    mouth to his.
    “Kissing,” he said, still embracing me tight. “It’s called
    kissing. I’ve been learning all kinds of things that people
    used to share with each other in the Old World.”
    “How have you been learning things?” I said in surprise.
    “Where?”
    “I snuck into a visiting offi
    cial’s room and looked through
    his stuff . He had data on his text tablets that was nothing
    like I’d ever seen.”
    “Max! How could you do that? It’s reckless.”
    “It’s not reckless, not with my powers. I made myself look
    like the offi
    cial and walked right into the room. Anyway,
    do you want to hear about what I found out, or not?” He
    grabbed both of my hands in his tightly.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    I pursed my lips in disapproval but nodded reluctantly.
    “This,” he leaned in immediately, lips on mine, then pulled
    back, “is called kissing. And I found out what marital part-
    ners in the Old World did, and it wasn’t just sitting around
    waiting for the Center to mix their DNA together in a test
    tube.”
    “Wait, you mean like the passions?” I said, alarmed. “Like
    the history archives talk about? The animal fl aw that brought
    down humans in the Old World?”
    “Yes, but they aren’t like that. I was trying to tell you the
    other night.”
    “But why did an offi
    cial even have any of on his tablet?”
    I asked, confused.
    “That’s the biggest lie of all,” Max said. “You won’t believe
    this, but the Uppers, the offi
    cials, all the people in charge . . .”
    He paused. “None of them are even Linked, Zoe. They’re
    all free.”
    I felt like the wind had been knocked out of my stomach.
    “That’s not possible,” I whispered. “They say being Linked
    gave us all a better life, a peaceful life. It’s in all of our his-
    tory texts. It’s in our community creed!” I paused, thoughts
    swirling. If it truly is a better life, then they’d be Linked
    themselves. And if they could feel , they wouldn’t do this to
    us. Turn us into drones. They couldn’t . . .”
    Max eyed me intently. “They could, and they do. They’ve
    done it for two hundred years or more now. Keeping all the
    rest of us as drones while they let themselves do and feel
    anything they want.”
    “But if they can feel, they know how much it is to lose!
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    G L I TC H
    It’s—” I choked out, my mind stumbling on each thought as
    it rose up. “It’s inhuman!”
    Max suddenly pulled his shirt up over his head. His chest
    was wide and muscled, with a light tufting of blond