Untaken Read Online Free PDF

real.” Zach snorted. “You read that in one of your nerd books?”
    “On the internet,” I said. I still remembered when Zach wet his pants in third grade. I wasn’t going to be shoved around by him. “And the ships appeared all around the world. How could it be just one government? And there are more of them out in space, there’s satellite data….”
    “Anyone could fake that,” said Zach.
    “Enough, guys.” Katie stubbed out her cigarette. “It’s giving me the creeps. Can’t we talk about something else?
    “If there’s anyone in those ships, how come they haven’t done anything yet?” asked Zach. “Since you know everything.”
    “Nobody knows
that
,” I said. “But we can assume they must be here for some purpose. Their technology has to be way more sophisticated than ours. Their civilization is probably more advanced in a million ways. Them talking to us would be like a housefly talking to you. Even if they could speak our language, we might still have no way of understanding what they were trying to tell us. They’ve been broadcasting messages in every dialect, in binary, in morse code. Nothing. If they’re intelligent enough to figure out intergalactic travel, there’s no way they don’t understand any of those messages. They’re
choosing
not to talk with us.”
    Zach yawned. “Sounds like bullshit to me. Do you guys want to play some more?”
    “Maybe they’re here for all the hot Earth girls,” said Aaron, ignoring him. “Watch out, Katie!” He rolled on top of her, and she screamed in a fake way.
    “Jeez, Aaron, you’re such an asshole!” But she still grinned, and didn’t make any effort to move away from him.
    “If they are, Gracie will be safe,” said Zach, sulkily. “Maybe we should come hide out at your house? If your stuck-up mom will let us in. She banned Katie from going around there, didn’t she, K?”
    “Zach!” Katie was trying to sound shocked, but she could hardly keep the smile off her face.
    “Gracie is too good to hang out with us,” Zach continued. “That’s why the only friends she has are in books with spaceships on the front.”
    “And on the internet,” Callum added. He and Zach sniggered and slapped off a high five.
    “That’s mean, guys,” said Katie, but she still laughed, just like the rest of them.
    I should have known they’d only asked me down here so they could make fun of me. I stood up, brushing the grass off my legs.
    “Where you going?” yelled Katie.
    “Aw, let her go,” Zach said.
    I wondered if Katie would call me back, but no one did.
    The sound of the basketball hitting asphalt and the laughter of the others followed me all the way down the street. It was my own dumb fault. I’d been the one who had dropped Katie when mom told me to. We’d been friends for years and I’d been too cowardly to stick up for her. I deserved to be laughed at. Me trying to talk to other kids was like the scientists trying to talk to those alien ships. It was never going to work; we were from two different planets.

Brandon
    plugged the phone back in and held my breath. Nothing. I was relieved Grammy had given up, but kind of sad too. Just as I turned away from the damn phone, there was a knock on the door.
    “Brandon? You have a minute?”
    Biedermann again. Damn neighbors.
    The Kauffmans across the road were okay. Mr. Kauffman hunted too, and he and Dad would stop and talk about rifles and whitetails, or how the Pats or the Bruins were doing. Mr. Kauffman was a Mets fan so they didn’t talk baseball, but I guess no one is perfect.
    The rest of them didn’t even pretend to be friendly. Just because our grass grew too long in summer, and the sidewalk never got shoveled in winter, and the broken down fence in front of our house stayed broken down and made the street look bad. They had no cause to be snooty like that; it’s not like we lived in a real fancy neighborhood in the first place. They were no one special either.
    Biedermann was