Page 157 - The Love Hypothesis

Chapter Ten

HYPOTHESIS: If I fall in love, things will invariably end poorly.

The knockout mouse had been hanging from a wire for a length of time that
should have been impossible, considering how it had been genetically

modified. Olive frowned at it and pressed her lips together. It was missing
crucial DNA. All the hanging-from-a-wire proteins had been erased. There

was no way it could hold on for this long. It was the whole point of
knocking out its stupid genes—
Her phone lit up, and the corner of her eye darted to its screen. She was

able to read the name of the sender (Adam) but not the content of the
message. It was 8:42 on Wednesday, which immediately had her worried

that he might want to cancel their fake date. Maybe he thought that because
he’d let Olive pick out an ice cream sandwich for him yesterday after
Fluchella (which she may or may not have ended up eating herself) they

didn’t need to meet today. Maybe she shouldn’t have forced him to sit on a
bench with her and recount the marathons they had run, and possibly she

had come off as annoying when she’d stolen his phone, downloaded her
favorite running app, and then friended herself on it. He had seemed to be

enjoying himself, but maybe he hadn’t been.
Olive glanced at her gloved hands, and then back at her mouse, who was

still holding on to the wire.
“Dude, stop trying so hard.” She kneeled until she was at eye level with
the cage. The mouse kicked around with its little legs, its tail flopping back

and forth. “You’re supposed to be bad at this. And I’m supposed to write a