Free Flicker & Burn: A Cold Fury Novel by T.M. Goeglein Page B

electrical crap, but all of it, every detail. You can’t be with him and not tell him. It’s not fair. I mean, Christ, you just blew the guy out of a chair!”
    “If he knew, he’d want to get involved,” I said. “Or else he might . . .”
    “Not want to be with you anymore?” He held my gaze, saying softly, “Sara Jane, did it ever occur to you that that might be the best thing for him?”
    Once Doug said it aloud, I realized that the idea of Max being safer without me had been in my mind all along. The threats posed by my Outfit connections, ice cream creatures, and now this internal lightning storm easily made me the most dangerous girlfriend at Fep Prep. I’d missed him every second he was gone, but now it was undeniable that he’d been safer in California. Something whispered of sacrifice and responsibility—that the best thing would be to drive him away so none of the collateral damage that followed me like a shadow could ever harm him.
    “Tell him!” Doug whispered.
    “Shut up!” I hissed as Max muttered a few words, blinked his eyes, and stared around with huge, disoriented pupils.
    “What . . . the hell . . . ?” he said, trying to stand up, stumbling backward and flexing his hand. “Ow! That stings.”
    We helped him into a chair as I said, “You probably don’t remember what—”
    “Yeah, I do. You shocked me. Sorry, you shocked the living shit out of me.”
    “It must have been some kind of electrical surge,” Doug said, fake-fumbling with his laptop until the movie reappeared on the screen. “Yep, that’s what it was. Crazy, huh? Max, are you okay? You need anything for your hand?”
    “It looks worse than it feels,” he said. “Maybe some water . . .”
    “Water, right, I’m on it,” Doug said, going for the door, looking back and mouthing the words “Tell him!” as he left.
    He inspected my face, searching my eyes. “Are you okay?”
    “Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got shocked a little bit but I’m fine.”
    Max was quiet a moment and then said, “I guess I don’t mean from the surge or whatever it was. I mean, is everything okay between us? You sort of explained what you did all summer, but it feels like there’s a lot more that you didn’t. Did something happen while I was gone that you’re not telling me?”
    Ferris Bueller
set off a tidal wave of loneliness and anger, which ignited cold fury, which somehow turned me into an electrical killing machine, which is not the sort of thing you tell someone you love and are terrified of scaring away. On the other hand, looking into Max’s concerned eyes, knowing how smart and cool he was, I thought maybe Doug was right; maybe it was time to tell him the truth. I sighed, bit my lip, and said, “I’m not sure how to start, but it’s basically a family issue.”
    “I knew it.” He sighed.
    “You did?”
    “Look, I shouldn’t have put them before you. I mean, going to California for the entire summer to be with my dad’s family wasn’t fair . . .”
    “Oh. Well,” I said, his misinterpretation a perfect excuse not to tell the truth. “I mean, yeah. I really missed you.”
    “So, look, you can tell me if . . .,” he said, and paused. “Did you meet someone?”
    “What? Max . . . ,” I said, but I held back as it occurred to me that loneliness while he was in L.A. combined with a phantom “other guy” could serve as the perfect reason-excuse why I’d withheld information. In fact, it could explain much of my behavior—instead of a freakish organized-crime girl, I was just neglected, conflicted, and confused! Besides, people met other people every day and were attracted to other people all the time—surely Max and I could work through it, even though
it
was a fabrication. Something possessed me then, which seemed inspired at the moment but in retrospect was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “His name is Tyler. He’s older than we are. About to