Free SYLO (THE SYLO CHRONICLES) by D.J. MacHale

ugly night for our boy.”
    I wanted to argue and defend myself, but he was right.
    “Sorry, Tucker,” Olivia said with sympathy. “Maybe football isn’t your sport.”
    I opened my mouth to argue with her, too, but stopped. She was probably right too.
    Kent put his arm around her waist and said, “C’mon, let’s have some fun.”
    Olivia giggled coyly and nodded. “Yes. Let’s.”
    She seemed to have shaken her dark mood, though I couldn’t help but think it was an act, because she reached out and touched my face and in that brief moment I saw the sadness return to her eyes.
    “You are such a good guy, Tucker. I’m sorry.”
    “For what?” I asked, genuinely confused.
    “Take care of yourself,” she said as Kent led her off.
    It was a weird thing for her to say. “Take care of yourself”? It sounded so final, like we’d never see each other again. Who knew? Maybe we wouldn’t. Her mother might give in and take her away from Pemberwick at any time. Her school had to be starting soon. All the more reason for me not to care that she had picked Kent over me.
    I decided not to give it another thought. The day was about having some festival fun. I bought a hot dog and a soda from a cart, downed both, and was about to go for seconds when I caught sight of Tori Sleeper. She stood by herself in front of Molly’s Candy Store, leaning on a parking meter and sipping a Moxie. A band was playing an ’80s song (badly) and she was bopping her head to the beat. Her hair was down and loose for a change and she didn’t have on her baseball cap. I almost didn’t recognize her.
    I wanted to walk right up and ask her if she was having a good time. I wanted to tell her about what Quinn and I had seen on our midnight ride. I wanted to ask her why she always looked so sad. I wanted to…but I couldn’t. Quinn had said she wasn’t interested and that was good enough for me. So I put my head down and walked past.
    “Tucker!” she called out.
    I stopped dead. Had I heard what I thought I’d heard? I turned around to see that Tori was looking right at me. I pointed to myself dumbly as if to ask, “Me?”
    “Got a minute?” she asked.
    I sure did. I put my hands in my pockets and walked back to her as casually as possible, which meant I had to force myself to keep from running.
    “What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound equally casual.
    Tori didn’t smile, but kept her eyes locked on mine. Quinn was right. The girl was confident. And intimidating. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to be social or punch me in the face. The terrifying thought hit me that she was going to rip me a new one for telling Quinn I thought she was hot. Even though I hadn’t. Even though I did.
    “You guys were out on the bluffs last week,” she said with no emotion.
    I don’t know what I expected her to say, but it wasn’t that. I did my best not to register surprise.
    “We were riding by,” I said, trying not to reveal anything. “Why?”
    “Quinn said you saw something.”
    “When did he tell you that?” I asked, giving up on being coy.
    “Last Saturday. Outside of Lesser’s Fish Market.”
    Right. The knots. He hadn’t been embarrassing me in front of Tori after all, he was telling her about what we saw. It made me slightly less pissed at him.
    “I don’t know what it was. There was a big shadow floating over the water and it just…blew up.”
    Tori nodded thoughtfully. I could almost hear the wheels turning in her head. She dumped her empty soda bottle into a trash can and said, “What was it?”
    “My dad thinks it was a military exercise. Quinn thinks it was a UFO.”
    “What do
you
think?” she asked, her eyes boring right into me. Challenging me. Why did this girl make me so nervous?
    “I—I have no idea.”
    Tori thought about what I had said, then looked away from me and back to the crowd. It was like she was done with me and had retreated back into her own world. I stood there awkwardly, not sure of what to do or