Glitch by Heather Anastasiu Page A

my mouth full of bread. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days.
    He smiled and pulled a chair close, sitting quietly while I ate. I chewed slowly. He was so kind, so concerned about me. Someone who understood. I couldn’t keep my gaze away from him. The strong line of his jaw, his sharp aquiline nose, thick eyebrows. And then those clear crystalline eyes.
    “Zo? Something wrong?” he asked.
    “No. I just like looking at you.”
    “Oh.” A flush came into his cheeks and I wondered if I’d said something wrong. But he smiled quickly and leaned closer. “I like looking at you too.”
    I smiled, and it actually felt natural on my face. I liked the idea of him looking at me that way. And it felt so nice to be able to move my face into so many different expressions without fear of being seen, caught, and deactivated.
    “So, do you like our secret hideout?” He laughed. “Actually, it’s an old bomb shelter. So far Comm Corp hasn’t discovered it yet. Mom and I stumbled across it years ago and come back to it every now and then.”
    He sat back, stretching his arms up to lace his fingers behind his head as he looked around the room. His shirt was tight on his chest when he did that, showing his lean, sharp muscles moving underneath. He was skinny, but far from emaciated. I could see the outline of his ribs when he took a deep breath, but then my eyes followed the line of his torso up to his wider, wiry-but-still-muscled chest. His lips curled up on the edges, smirking at some thought that had crossed his mind. My breath seemed to leave me again as I watched him.
    I looked back at his face, and was startled to meet his eyes. One side of his lips quirked up further into a wide smile.
    I turned away quickly, trying to relax my face into something more casual.
    “I heard you and your mother talking. About visions of me. What did you mean?”
    He fiddled with the edges of a blanket that had fallen off me.
    “I’m sorry you had to hear that. She can be crackin’ harsh. I know she means well, but—” He hesitated, studying me, as if he were about to say something else. He shook his head, quickly changing his mind. “Yeah. I had visions of you. Sometimes my visions help us discover and track down new glitchers so we can try to get them out before the Community cracks them. You were my assignment at the Academy, and then I saw you get in trouble, so I did an emergency extraction. There’s always a risk, but I don’t regret it, not for a second.” His gaze was intense before he looked away again. “My mom is … well, she’s a mom. She worries. And she always gets more nervous than usual when we come back this way. She grew up out here.”
    “In the Resistance? I mean, the Rez?”
    “No.” Adrien shook his head. “She grew up like you—under V-chip control, in the Community.”
    I could feel my eyes widen. “Really? How did she escape?”
    “She started glitching. Hers was the first generation we know of that had some who were Gifted. Still, it was rare. My dad…” He paused. I couldn’t read the expression on his face—it looked like a mixture of pride and sadness at the same time. “They had some Rez informants in the schools. One of them noticed her. Dad got her out and then they just kinda fell in love.”
    “Fell in love?” I frowned. “Love makes you fall?”
    He laughed a little. He paused, looking up toward his brain, something I noticed he did when he was thinking. “It’s just a saying. It means that two people start loving each other. I guess because it can feel really sudden and because it’s powerful. Like gravity—an unstoppable force.”
    I was still puzzling out the concept. “It sounds violent.”
    He laughed and nodded. “But in a good way.”
    I was amazed. I’d read so many confusing things about emotions in the history archives, but love was the most confusing of all. A thrill prickled as I realized I was actually talking to someone who’d really experienced all of these