The Mortal Knife Read Online Free PDF Page A

some counselling too.’
    Adam almost snorted but managed not to. He tried to imagine sitting down and telling his whole sorry tale to some unsuspecting therapist. The
counsellor
would need counselling by the time Adam had finished  …  ‘It’s just mad someone doing that. And seeing the photo.’
    Spike shrugged. ‘You’ll be able to see even more by the time I’m finished with it. I’ve got some software at home I can run the photo through. See if I can get the faces.’
    Adam stared at him in horror but before he could speak someone cleared their throat behind him. ‘Hi Adam.’
    He turned around and froze. Melissa was standing there, the faintest hint of a smile on her face. He stared at her for what felt like a full minute until someone kicked him under the table, bringing him back to his senses. ‘Ummmm  …  hey. Hi. How are you?’
    â€˜Yeah, good thanks. How was your holiday?’
    Adam couldn’t stop looking at her mouth. He remembered exactly what it felt like. It had haunted a couple of his dreams over the last week. His cheeks began to slow burn even thinking about those dreams  …  ‘Yeah, it was good. Brilliant.’
    She looked confused for a second. ‘Oh right. I thought it would have been rubbish. You know with being grounded.’
    Adam frantically backtracked. ‘Yeah, it was crap, really rubbish. But good too. You know, because it was a holiday. Even though I was grounded. But yeah, it was good. And crap.’
    She blinked but thankfully decided not to press him on the issue. ‘So I have to go to the art room today but maybe we could hang out at lunchtime tomorrow?’
    â€˜That would be great,’ Adam said, somehow managing to sound cooler than he actually felt.
    â€˜OK, great,’ she said and smiled. She looked around Adam’s friends and her smile faltered a little in the face of three pairs of shocked eyes staring at her. ‘Erm  …  sorry to interrupt. See you tomorrow.’
    â€˜See you,’ Adam said, beaming after her. He watched her walk away and turned back to his friends, who were still gaping. ‘
What
?’
    â€˜She came to find you! The fish came to find you!’ Dan’s eyes were like saucers.
    Adam groaned. ‘Stop calling her a fish!’
    Dan ignored him. ‘But she still likes you! Even after everything, she
still
likes you!’
    Archie held out his fist and waited for Adam to bump it. ‘Mate, you are totally in there. You’re a legend. You threw up on her and she
still
wants to see you.’
    â€˜I mostly missed her  … ’ Adam muttered, shame-faced at the memory of his not-so-romantic Valentine’s night with Melissa. It had ended in him showering her feet with vomit, courtesy of Michael Bulber. With hindsight he should never have taken a
crisp
off the Beast, never mind a whole drink spiked with illicit internet substances. No wonder it had tasted so horrible.
    â€˜Yeah, I wonder what the Beast will make of you hanging out with Melissa in school,’ Dan mused. ‘I mean, you may have emptied the net beneath his nose but swimming about dangling bait in front of the great white is just asking for trouble.’
    â€˜Enough with the shark metaphors already,’ Spike muttered. He was staring intently at the laptop once again. Adam eyed him cautiously. According to Dan, Spike had harboured a secret crush on Melissa but had never acted on it – at least not beyond lurking in the corridor outside the art room and stalking her online. That was the thing about Spike – no matter how smart he was, he always had to approach things from sideways on, sneaking in, finding access points. The problem was that approach didn’t work for everything. You couldn’t hack your way into someone’s affections. Sometimes you just had to tackle things head on.
    Like now for example. Adam tried to