Blindfold Read Online Free PDF

room. The expression on her face was similar to James Keith's, and a few of the words she directed at Maggie as she stomped from the gym were from the same vocabulary.
    As Maggie stuffed the gavel into her backpack, Whit said, "Looks like you've got a few people ready to hang you in the town square. Maybe I should walk you to your first class. That Keith guy could be hanging around out in the hall, waiting for you."
    "Hey, man, don't sweat it!" Scout interrupted, coming up behind them and reaching down to lift the backpack. "She's okay, man. Vll see that she's
    okay." To an embarrassed Maggie, he said, "Come on, let's go. Well be late." And before she could protest, his hand was firmly on her left elbow and he was propelling her from the room.
    "What's the matter with you?" she hissed. "Stop it! That was really rude, Scout."
    When she managed to swivel her head to look over her shoulder, she saw Helen and Lane approaching a bewildered-looking Thomas Whittier, and heard Lane say, "Hi. I'm Lane Bridgewater and this is my friend, Helen Morgan. Anything you need to know about Bransom High? We'd be happy to give you the grand tour."
    Scout was moving so rapidly across the gym floor, Maggie couldn't hear what the new boy said in return. Probably something like, "Hey, why not? You are totally gorgeous and you don't have a pushy boy attached to your elbow. Lead the way."
    James was not waiting outside in the hall. There was no sign of him. Alice Ann, too, was nowhere to be seen.
    But like Whit, Maggie was convinced she hadn't seen the last of either one.
    it would make him. I didn't want him mad at me, even though I hardly ever saw him anymore. Three's a crowd, that was the message the two of them sent me repeatedly. I didn't fight it. What good would it have done?
    Mrs. Guardino warned Dante, over and over again. She told him to stay away from Christy. 'That girl will bring you down, you mark my words," she said. "Might as well stick a knife in your own heart, save her the trouble."
    I knew Dante wasn't listening.
    He wasn't. He finally stopped talking about Christy at home, but I knew he was still seeing her. Everyone in the county knew. When Dante's parents did find out, there was constant fighting in their house, his mother pleading with him to, "Leave that girl alone!" Dante shouting back that his parents should butt out and let him live his own life.
    I hated all of it. They'd been such a nice, ordinary, happy family until then. That was one of the reasons I spent so much time at their place. It felt like being around one of those families on television, where everybody talks things out calmly. Not like at my house.
    As for Dante and Christy, at first it was all really rosy. They were nuts about each other and even I had to admit, although I hated to, that they looked really good together. Mr. and Ms. Teenage America.
    But then they started fighting, which I could have predicted. I knew her so well. She was just beginning to realize how much power she had when
    it came to boys, and she wasn't ready to tie herself down to any one boy, not even one as cute and smart and popular as Dante.
    The trouble was, he didn't want anyone else, only her. Her constant flirting with other guys made him nuts. They started fighting all the time, and everywhere. A lot of the arguments were public, and they never seemed to notice that there were tons of people around.
    So, when Christy's body was found, lying underneath an old pickup truck on the Guardino property, her head smashed like a pumpkin, Dante was arrested.
    I couldn't believe it at first. Dante hadn't done anything wrong. He could never have raised a hand to Christy. He loved her too much.
    But no one knew that.
    Except for the person who had done something wrong. Something really wrong. Something horrible.
    Something they could never, ever take back.
    Maggie stared at him. "Sharing? Fm not a box of cookies, Scout. People don't share other people. And you are not my social secretary."