Read Online Refraction by Hayden Scott - Free Book Online Page B

“The public can’t decide whether they want to knight us or burn us at the stake. I never thought about what you had to deal with.”
    Max snorted. “Well, they pretty much just want to burn us at the stake, so it’s much more straightforward.”
    “But you fight for them anyway.” Crush turned toward Max, swinging a leg over to straddle the ledge. He scooted forward until his knees brushed Max’s hip. “Even though they don’t understand.”
    Max looked down at his hands and did not move his legs at all. “Somebody’s got to do it, and I have an awesome robot lab in my basement.” He shrugged. “And now you can help.”
    Crush nodded, then looked out over the city. “Dad won’t sign on with the Injustice League. And I don’t think I want him to.”
    “No,” Max agreed. “I see you as more freelance.”
    “Vigilantes?”
    “Less paperwork,” Max offered.
    “Decay is still in the containment center in Antarctica, right?”
    Max nodded. Even the Injustice League had to manage its bad press somehow, and, really, they had standards to uphold. “He’s stuck there until he finds a way to mobilize the penguins and escape.”
    Crush laughed. “So, forever, then.”
    “At least a year and a half,” Max conceded. Birds were notoriously hard to unite, especially in the southern hemisphere.
    “Um.” Crush was looking at him oddly. “Are you ser—never mind.” He laughed again, shaking his head. “We should probably get home. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of homework for me to catch up on, even though I’m not a student anymore.”
    “A supervill— vigilante is always a student,” Max insisted, “forever bettering your m—no hey wait, um, wait.” He grabbed Crush’s arm, pulling him back down on the ledge when he tried to get up. “I just, um, I wanted to say thank you. For believing me. You didn’t have to. Most people wouldn’t have.”
    Max reached out and, totally failing to work up the courage to grab Crush’s hand, wrapped his fingers in his sleeve instead. “I just think—no, no, shh!” he insisted when Crush opened his mouth. “Just—shush. At first I thought you were a boring, blond automaton, and then I thought maybe you were smart enough to be friends with—ssh!—and then I thought you were an automaton again, and I was really upset about it, but I was wrong. You might be blond and a little too sun-kissed for me to believe it’s natural, but I’ve never had someone overturn their entire socio-political worldview for me, and I just wanted to say I really appreciate it. So… thank you.”
    Crush was smiling at him and it was embarrassing, and frankly Max had just worked too hard on that to get derailed by stupid feelings , so Max tugged Crush’s sleeve and pressed their lips together— softly , because Max was nervous, but he wasn’t a total wreck.
    Stupid Crush was still smiling, but Max kissed him again, and a third time, and then he was in the game, smiles gone and his hand coming up to rest on Max’s jaw.
    He brushed their lips together over and over, and Max boggled at how he could feel everything everywhere even though they were only actually touching in three places. He caught his breath when Crush pulled back slowly.
    Crush blinked at him, a smile spreading across his face. “Thank you.”
    Max felt a grin burst out on his face. “This was great. We should go home, though!”
    “Okay, just let me grab my— Max !” screamed Crush as Max pushed him off the building.
    “Don’t worry,” Max shouted, “I’ll catch you!” and dived off the roof after him.

HAYDEN SCOTT grew up, very reluctantly, on a farm in the middle of nowhere. She spent her time climbing trees and playing in the dirt until the day she discovered books, at which point she holed up inside her imagination and never came out again. She prefers to believe the whole phrase is “Jack of all trades, master of none, certainly better than master of one,” because it makes her feel better about