Page 7 (1/2)

BUBBLY-MAKING

Zane pulled back, his eyes narrowing

"Oh, I’m sorry," Tally sputtered "I don’t knohat"

As she trailed off, Zane nodded slowly "No, that’s okay"

"I didn’t ain, but Zane waved her silent, a thoughtful look spreading across his beautiful features He stared at the ground, pulling up blades of grass between two fingers

"I remember now," he said

"Remember what?"

"That was his name"

"Whose name?"

Zane spoke in quiet, even tones, as if trying not to wake so nearby "He was the one as supposed to take us to the Sasp softly Her eyes were squinting, as if the sun had been turned up a notch

She could still feel the ghost of Zane’s lips on hers, the warmth where his hands had touched her, but suddenly she was shivering

She took Zane’s hand "I didn’t s coolden eyes flashing "Tell me about David"

Tally sed and turned away

David She could see hih forehead The handmade shoes he wore, and a jacket rown up out in the Smoke, had never set foot in a city his whole life His face was ugly from top to bottoh his eyebrow but re inside Tally She shook her head, aotten David

"You ht?" Zane pressed her

"No," she said "I’d heard about hinal him once But he never showed up He was the one who took Shay to the Shed "But you went to the Sot there, he and I" Tally reo, but she could see herself - her ugly self - kissing David, traveling with hi ofwith him had felt back then

And then, somehow, he’d disappeared

"Where is he now?" Zane asked "Did the Specials catch him when they took down the Smoke?"

She shook her head Her other memories of David were tricky and faded, but the one "I don’t know"

Tally felt faint, the world growing unsteady for the hundredth time that day She reached out toward the breakfast tray, but Zane took her hand "No, don’t eat"

"What?"

"Don’t eat anything else, Tally In fact, take a couple of these" He pulled a packet of calorie-purgers from his pocket - four had already been punched out

"It helps if your heart’s beating faster" He punched out two more, and bolted them doith a drink of coffee

"Helps what?" she asked

Zane pointed at his head "Thinking Hunger focuses your rinned, and pressed the packet into her hand "Like kissing soazed down at the calorie-purgers, uncolies felt sharp as razors

"But I’ve eaten hardly anything Not enough to gain weight"

"It’s not about losing weight I need to talk to you, Tally I need you withfor soers are supposed to make me bubbly?"

"They help I’ll explain later Just trust aze remained on her, almost crazily intense, like when he explained some new trick idea to the Crims It could be hard to resist Zane when he was like this, even if he wasn’t ers, she punched out two purgers and brought them to her mouth, but hesitated You weren’t supposed to take theerous Back in the Rusty days - before the operation, when everyone had been ugly - there had been a disease where people deliberately didn’t eat They were so afraid of getting fat that they got way too skinny, so themselves to death in a world full of food It was one of the scary things the operation had gotten rid of

But a couple of purgers wouldn’t kill her When Zane handed Tally his coffee, she washed the coffee, huh?" he said, grinning

After aup Her vision stayed sharp Like the night before, she felt as if a thin fil peeled away She squinted harder in the bright sunlight

"Okay," Zane said "What’s the last thing you re hands, ransacking her brain to fight through the fog around her ugly memories "We were all out in the ruins," she said "You remember Shay’s story about hoe kidnapped her?"

Zane nodded, though Shay hadthat story In some versions, Shay had been kidnapped by Tally and the Sht from Special Circumstances headquarters In other versions, she left the city to rescue Tally from the Sether Of course, Shay’s weren’t the only stories that changed soerated stuff about the old days, becausethat Zane wanted the truth

"The Specials had destroyed the S out in the ruins"