Glimpse (The Tesla Effect Book 1) Read Free Page A

mouth framed by dimples.
    He forced his attention back to Keisha, anxious to get the girls out of the house.
    Joley was leaning in, foolishly, like a fly buzzing around one of those carnivorous plants. “So, Keisha, love, you still haven’t told me—what year are you? I most certainly haven’t seen you around before, and it’s a rather small campus.”
    “I haven’t seen you either, we must not have had any classes together,” Keisha said. “I love your British accent, I feel like I’m on Downton Abbey . Tell me how you pronounce your name again?” She looked up at him from under her lashes—not something she was able to do often, given her five-foot ten-inch frame.
    “Ah, yes—the BBC has been a brilliant wingman for me these past two years. My name is Zhou Li. It’s Chinese, and it’s pronounced Joe-Lee .”
    “Joley,” said Keisha slowly. She turned the radiance of her most seductive smile on him—which was hard to resist, as Keisha herself was well aware. “I like it.”
    A silvery-blonde, lightly tanned boy approached Tesla and tugged gently on her sleeve, so gently that she missed it at first. Relief washed over her expressive face as she looked at the boy and smiled.
    “About time you got here,” Tesla said. “I’ve had to bear witness to Keisha’s charms for, like, two hours. I’m exhausted. And a little skeeved.”
    “It’s been five minutes, tops,” said Keisha. “And you’re just jealous.”
    Joley stared expectantly at the three of them and Keisha, who had no choice now, made the introductions with a vague wave at Tesla and the blonde boy. “Friends, Joley. Joley, friends.”
    “Yeah, nice to meet you,” said Joley, peering closely at them in the bright kitchen lights. Then he looked at Keisha, clearly puzzled, and Finn, still eavesdropping, almost laughed out loud. He knew exactly where this was headed.
    “You’re all students here, right?” asked Joley. “I mean, you are in college?”
    Tesla looked at Mal, Mal looked at Keisha, and Keisha looked at Joley. There was an awkward pause, and then Keisha mumbled, “Not in the technical sense.”
    Joley looked amused now, too, but far less flirtatious than he had only seconds before. “What other sense is there, love?”
    “Look,” said Keisha, the shy pretense gone. “We’re almost finished with high school, Tesla’s dad is a professor here, and we’ve spent so much time on campus we probably know it better than you do.”
    “Perhaps,” said Joley. “But I’m far too good looking to go to jail, even for something as crucially important as serving you alcohol.”
    “Liability? Seriously? Look, Joley, no one has a drink, see?” Keisha indicated the absence of beer cups within their small group.
    The blonde boy flicked his straight, silvery hair out of his eyes and tentatively raised his hand. “I was actually just about to…”
    Tesla put her hand on his arm. “No, we were just about to leave. We promised Finn.”
    Joley looked startled. “You know Finn, do you?”
    “He’s my cousin,” said Keisha with a shrug. “He lives here.”
    “I know,” said Joley. “What did you say your friends’ names were?”
    “Malcolm and Tesla,” Keisha said, and Joley’s eyes snapped to Tesla’s face.
    “I can’t believe—why would he bring you here?”
    “Well, he didn’t exactly invite us,” admitted Keisha reluctantly. “I heard there was a party tonight. One of the girls mentioned it today after practice, and I wanted to check it out.”
    Joley was clearly agitated. He looked around the crowded room for something or someone, the worried look on his face reminiscent of Finn’s reaction when he’d first seen the girls tonight. It was a look that acknowledged the potential for catastrophe.
    “You should really go now,” Joley said, his tone urgent. He moved his hands as if to herd them toward the back door that opened up off the kitchen.
    “Hey man, what’s up?” said a deep voice just behind Tesla’s