Hard Wired Trilogy by DeAnna Pearce (smart books to read .TXT) 📕

He nodded slightly, unease obvious on his face. Ari leaned in and kissed him, ignoring Garrett’s offhanded comment. Reed responded to her kiss with enthusiasm.

Ari reluctantly pulled back. “I’ll be back soon.”

Reed kissed her lightly on the lips. “Get in there and work your magic.”

Her insides melted, and she didn’t want to leave reality. Knowing Reed was here for her meant the world. The fact that they were in a relationship made it even better.

Ari hadn’t had the chance to talk to Marco or her mother about her problems yet. Marco was off busy doing whatever it was he did—which Ari worried would give her an ulcer. They texted back and forth several times, but their school schedules didn’t offer a lot of free time, and messaging over the school’s service made Ari nervous. But her mom? Well, Ari didn’t want to have that conversation until she had a plan.

She hooked herself up. As the cold wire slipped into her port, the world around melted away.

She opened her eyes to a familiar ocean. It was the first VR that she took with Garrett. Although the moon was bright in the sky, unlike the last time she’d been here. She gritted her teeth, annoyed at him for picking this place.

Ari appeared in the same bikini and white sun dress as before. As she looked around, she noticed something new: a cabana and dance floor lit with tiki-torches. Other students were already ordering drinks and starting to fill the dance floor. She closed her eyes again and dressed herself in shorts and a shirt but kept her feet bare.

“I like the other outfit better,” Garrett spoke close behind her, too close. “Let’s go for a walk.” Garrett headed towards the island away from the loud dance floor.

“Why this way?” Ari asked.

“So, no one catches you. They’ll think we’re looking for privacy for other reasons.” He winked at Ari.

She gave him a dirty look. “I don’t want them to think we’re together.”

“Don’t worry. After that little exhibition kissing Reed, I’m sure they won’t know what to think.”

Ari kicked sand in his direction with her bare feet. “Very funny.”

The vegetation thickened as the darkness settled in around them. The temperature dropped drastically, the cold seeping through her light shirt. Even the sand under their feet morphed into something new. Heavy palm branches littered the ground, cutting into her feet.

“Isn’t this far enough? I can barely walk, let alone see where I’m going.” Ari stopped, placing a hand on a nearby tree.

“Then why don’t you do something about it?” he asked, his voice full of an arrogance that grated on Ari.

She had to remind herself he was doing her a favor. As she searched for code in the VR, the darkness covered anything she might see. “Why is this virtual so dark?”

“It was designed to keep you near the shore with the party. If we don’t head back, we’ll keep wandering and end up at the same spot.” That made sense to Ari. These were called comeback loops in class. Every program had to have its limits.

She focused her attention on searching for the characters and numbers that lay beneath the surface of the VR. There they were, dark characters running all around her. As she focused on the code, it became clearer. The numbers and letters created the cold breeze blowing by, the shadows falling on the sand, and she could even read the branches under her feet.

The next task proved more difficult, since she wasn’t sure how she’d done it before. A branch snapped nearby and broke her concentration. It was Garrett drawing near.

He lightly touched her arm. “Do you need help?”

Ari brushed his hand away. “Back off, Garrett.”

“I remember last time we were in a slightly heated position when it happened.”

Ari didn’t need his help. “I remember you trying to kill me.”

The warmth from his body radiated off him. His breath was a light breeze on her neck. “Only in a game, Ari. Not in real life. I think that’s what you forget. Things you do here—they aren’t real. They aren’t the same. It’s like a dream. There’s no trouble with things that happen in a dream.”

She closed her eyes, trying to ignore Garrett. The code still floated there in her mind, the sequence running faster than she ever thought possible to read. As her mind searched the code for the branches underfoot, it seemed to zoom in on what she needed. There it was. She mentally tore at the code, and it scattered. She found the code for the beach sand, and she copied and replaced it as if she had a computer screen in front of her.

Looking down, she wiggled her feet in the soft sand.

Garrett’s feet appeared in front of her. “Nice.”

“Stay put for a moment. I want to see what else I can do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said in mock salute.

Ari closed her eyes again, Garrett’s presence still warm in front of her. The code for his warmth skittered across her vision, and then she remembered Garrett was plugged into a machine and really not that close to her. She started tearing down more code. It was as easy as deleting numbers on a screen. The hard part was putting something in its place. She brushed away some clouds, dismissed bush, and even took off Garrett’s shoes.

“Hey, if that’s how it’s going to be, it’s only fair if you undress yourself too,” he said.

Ari ignored Garrett and kept searching the code. She had to know it well enough in her brain to add it into the sequence. The most she could do was put grass under their feet. She had completed that task countless times in school, so it was easy enough to recall.

When she opened her eyes, she found Garrett reclining shirtless.

“I didn’t take off your shirt,” Ari said.

He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a guilty smile.

“Whatever. We can leave. I think I have my answers.”

Garrett stood up, shirt in hand, and they headed towards the party.