Read Online Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane - Free Book Online Page A

It makes it easy for her to cop to any mistakes. “You’re totally right, Alex. I’m sorry. I had this idea and I wanted to tell you about it. You know, see what you thought. And I couldn’t explain it while I was driving.”
    “Let me guess. Another hypothesis?”
    Izzy can’t see Alex’s face very well but it sounds like he’s smiling. “Yeah. Busted.” She jumps onto the hood of the car and slides back toward the windshield. Izzy pats the hood, offering a seat to Alex, but trying not to order him around.
    Alex climbs up next to her. “Okay, so what is it this time?”
    At least he doesn’t sound mad anymore. Still, she wishes she hadn’t jumped on the hood of the car so quickly. The way she’d pictured the experiment, they’d be sitting in the field on the other side of the pull-out where it was more private. If anyone stops here, which was a huge possibility since Tommy has only been missing two and a half weeks, they could be seen. But if she suggests moving, however unbossy, Alex might get annoyed all over again. She stares up at the twisted branches of the mesquite trees and into the black space beyond them. The sky is clear, with only a sliver of a moon hanging above the tree line. She reaches into her skirt pocket to make sure the small square packet is there. So the experiment won’t be perfect. That’s okay. She can still test her theory. Scientists are nothing if not adaptable.
    “You know I went to the prom with Tim, right?”
    “Yeah … how’d that work out for you?”
    “Umm, well, it was interesting.”
    “Really? I thought you’d have to talk sports all night long.”
    “We did. I mean, he did.” Izzy sighs. She’d always stayed outside the whole dating drama, but ever since she started tutoring in Darrow’s regular physics class, she got to know all the squealy girls and jocky guys, people she never would never have talked to before. When Tim asked her to the prom, it felt kinda cool and she thought maybe, as a junior, she should give it a try. So she did. Only Alex was right. Once they were outside of physics, where Izzy was the queen of ease and helpful answers, she didn’t have much to say to this jock. And he didn’t have a whole lot to say to her.
    “Let me guess,” said Alex. “You talked about the Spurs all night?
    “How did you know?”
    “Rockets, Mavericks, Spurs. That’s all those ballers talk about. I picked one team is all.”
    “Yeah, I learned a lot about the Spurs, all right.”
    She also learned a lot about what makes boys tick. All during the prom, Tim looked pretty awkward, like he didn’t know whether to ask Izzy to dance or what to talk about. But if one of his teammates said hello, he smiled. If one of them said anything about the NBA conference play offs, he looked excited. That’s when Izzy figured out to ask him about basketball. As soon as she did, he relaxed. When Izzy didn’t say much back and the conversation died, he started to look uncomfortable. It dawned on Izzy that maybe she was in charge of how the date was going to go. Sure enough, every time she asked a question about basketball, he got all talkative and happy. Izzy checked out her theory three times and every time it was true. As long as Izzy was willing to talk about basketball all night, even while they were dancing, they had a reasonably good time. Or at least they looked like a couple who were conversing and not staring in opposite directions.
    Then Tim hung his arm around her neck and went silent. This new development happened as soon as they left the prom and were walking back to his truck. It puzzled Izzy. Somehow he felt comfortable enough to put his arm, which felt like a dead lab animal, on her shoulders, but he couldn’t talk at the same time. Izzy dug up a stats-related question to see what would happen. Tim lifted his arm off her shoulder and started talking about free throws and percentages. Izzy nodded and listened until he stopped and then, plop. Arm on shoulder.