Run (The Tesla Effect #2) Read Online Free PDF

his warm brown eyes, the arms hanging loosely at his side—they hadn’t changed, not really, but his focus on her now seemed hard and bright, no longer lazy. She didn’t really see the shift, she just… felt it.
    “That’s kind of cute,” he said, his tone pitch-perfect, making Tesla think she’d imagined some change in him. “Some nice boy at school taking you to homecoming?”
    “It’s got nothing to do with school. I’m going out with Sam.” She said it with a shrug, even contemplated interrupting herself with a yawn to indicate the depth of her complete boredom, but she just wasn’t as good at this as Finn.
    “Really?” The sharp edges of the word cut through the cold, still air, surprising them both. Finn cleared his throat and moved his weight from his left foot to his right, and it was enough to allow him to regain his composure. “I thought you two had agreed to just be friends. You’re dating now?” His voice was careful and held no trace of emotion.
    Tesla shrugged, looking down at the ground as she tacitly admitted that he was right. She wished she could deny it, claim that she was actually in love with Sam, but she knew she was a terrible liar. Glum and averting her gaze from his, she waited for Finn’s ridicule—or, worse, his pity.
    What Finn saw, however, was a shy, pale girl with mismatched eyes hiding her happiness behind wildly tangled red hair, happiness she had found in a new intimacy with Sam, and he felt such a surge of jealousy and—that tightening in his chest, that weird pulling sensation he’d felt last summer during the chaos of Dr. Abbot’s kidnapping—that he scared himself. He hadn’t felt it for months, yet here it was again, suddenly, and stronger than ever. His adrenaline surged, he felt his fists balling up at his sides and he had to exert some serious effort to uncurl them, to maintain his easy posture in front of her.
    She looked up at him then, her brilliant blue and green eyes hooded, and he read nothing there, despite how well he thought he knew her. He trembled with the effort of breathing normally when his heart was racing and his body screamed for some sort of action. It was an astonishing and frightening experience and he knew without a doubt that there was something wrong with him.
    He needed to figure it out.
    This new direction in his thoughts, away from Tesla and toward a problem to be solved, was an immense relief. “Tesla,” he said briskly. “Remember last summer when we were both knocked out in the hidden rooms just outside the Bat Cave?”
    “What?” Tesla was thrown by the sudden change in subject. “What about it?”
    “Did you feel any odd physical symptoms around that time?”
    “No—what do you mean? Like what?”
    “Wasn’t there something when we both came to, when we were untying each other? Something about my headache from getting knocked out—and you had one too?”
    “God, Finn, I don’t know. I’d been chloroformed, you got hit in the head with the butt of a gun. Of course we both had headaches. What are you talking about?” Tesla had begun to worry that Sam would arrive and it would be just too weird and embarrassing. Finn would be amused, Sam would get all stiff and formal. Oh my god, what if Finn mentions that he kissed me today ?? she thought in sudden panic.
    “Look, Finn—not to be rude, but Sam’s gonna be here any sec—“
    “Yeah, yeah, no problem. Have fun. I’ve got to go anyway.”
    Tesla was left standing with her mouth open, and she quickly snapped it shut. Finn was the most confusing person she’d ever met, that was for sure. Acting like he liked her one moment, kissing her, with every bit of warmth and passion one might hope for, and absolutely dismissive of her the next, not to mention taking every opportunity to laugh at her. Whatever it was they had begun last summer was clearly gone. Finnegan Ford had moved on.
    Whatever , she thought. Maybe it’s time I moved on, too