Free Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready Page A

freezing.”
    “Go on, then, if it’s that bad.”
    So much for clearing the air. He wouldn’t even take my bait to pick a fight.
    Would we be like this until the end of the year? All week in school, I’d bolted every time we came near each other. But sitting with him now in the dark, watching his fingertips trace precise arcs across the paper, and seeing the familiar angles of his face in the flashlight’s deep red glow, made me want to do the exact opposite of running away.
    He set the pencil in the center of the portfolio. “I’m sorry I was so harsh with you the other night.”
    I clenched my jaw to stop my teeth chattering, from the cold and from surprise. “I deserved it.”
    “You were honest with me.”
    “Lying always makes things worse.”
    “That doesn’t stop people from doing it.”
    “So you forgive me?” I asked.
    “There’s nought to forgive. You’re not my girlfriend. You can do what you want with whoever you want.”
    I want you. But to tell him that now, after admitting I’d almost had sex with my temporarily reanimated sort-of-ex-boyfriend, seemed really inappropriate.
    It was the truth, though. And if I had the guts to confess what happened with Logan, I could find the courage to ask Zachary to the prom. Even though he’d probably say no.
    “Becca said yes, by the way.”
    My insides turned as cold as the air around me. “To the prom?”
    “She says she likes Italian food, so if you could recommend a restaurant …” He glanced at me. “Besides the one we went to.”
    My mouth opened, but the only word I could think of was NO .
    He picked up the pencil. “Never mind, I’ll look it up.”
    “If you want traditional,” I rushed out, “go to Da Mimmo’s. But Becca probably likes cutting-edge fusion-y food, so maybe take her to Milan on Eastern Avenue.”
    “Thanks very much.” His voice was void of anticipation, like he was planning a business meeting. “I want it to be nice. It’s her last prom and probably my only one, if my dad and I go back to the UK in June.”
    One word cut through the sirens screeching in my head. “What do you mean, ‘if’?”
    “His assignment could get extended.” Zachary looked at me from the corner of his eye. “You and your boyfriend are making a lot of work for him.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Don’t be. Dad’s never happier than when he’s working himself to death.” Zachary massaged his wrist. “I think he’s close to something big. It must keep him up at night, because he’s knackered all day.”
    He went back to sketching lines, which I noticed were unusually shaky.
    I slapped the constellation book shut. “Logan’s not my boyfriend.”
    He stopped drawing but didn’t look up. “What is he, then?”
    “I don’t know. But since that night, he hasn’t stayed in my room. It’s not like it was between us back in the fall, before he turned shade.”
    “Except for that small bit on the equinox.”
    “Yes, except for that! I was happy to see him, okay? I thought I’d lost him forever—again—and then there he was. What would you have done in my place?”
    Zachary stared at the edge of the blanket and the dull brown grass that looked pink from the red flashlight. “I don’t know what I’d do.”
    “Right, because you don’t know what it’s like to lose someone.”
    “I’ve lost someone.”
    His sudden confession took me by surprise. “You never told me that.”
    “It’s not the same. She didn’t die, she went to Malta.”
    Because of his accent or his emphasis, I was confused, until I remembered that Malta was a place. “Is that in Africa?”
    “It’s in the Mediterranean, but it might as well be on Mars.”
    “Why?”
    He pressed his lips together before speaking. “Suzanne’s parents were both MI-X. They wanted to be stationed together, of course, so they didn’t have much choice in where to go. When their project inthe UK ended, they left for their next assignment, in Malta. And took her with them.” He