Spiral (Spiral Series) Read Online Free

work. And yeah, after a while he started eating again, started talking again. But he’s a shell. Jar and I live with him. We take care of the place. He can’t manage on his own, so I stay there. It looks like I still live with my surviving parent, but really Dad lives with me. For a while he tried to find out what had happened, but there was no point. No one would tell us anything, and we couldn’t find out.”
    Maxie wiped tears from her eyes as Jill sat soberly next to me. My gut wrenched for the pain of the little boy whose world had been burned to the ground. I had expected to come to a romance slam and hear all about chocolates and roses, but that wasn’t what love was about in real life.
    “But you’re still trying to find Natalie?” a woman slurring her words yelled from my left.
    Pierce smiled again. It wasn’t a big smile, but just enough. It warmed his face and brought a heat to his eyes. I wasn’t sure he could help it when he heard her name. “Yeah,” he said. “Always.”
    And with that he bounded off the stage.
    “That’s going to be a hard act to follow,” Jill muttered. “Good thing I’m allergic to romance.”
    I wasn’t listening to her. I found myself following Pierce with my eyes as he made his way over to Mrs. Tiger. She grinned and nodded as if she knew him, but I was pretty sure she had just met him tonight. He stood next to her, staring out at the crowd with his arms across his chest and his face inscrutable.
    I told myself he was just looking over the crowd, but when I looked at him he looked back. When our eyes met I blushed and looked away. It had been hard to listen to a story about a girl with the same name as mine. But I was sure it was just a weird coincidence.
    “That was a crazy story,” Maxie breathed. It might have been my imagination, but I thought she looked worried.
    “Yeah, crazy,” Jill drawled. “I’d like to know where guys like that hide. Why don’t any go to our high school?”
    “You mean the romantic types or the hot types?” Maxie asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
    “I mean the knock your socks off I’m-not-a-hand-holder-but-I would-do-anything-for-you types,” Jill said.
    Maxie grinned. “Pity he showed up right before graduation.”
    We were on spring break and we had only about a month of school left before graduation. I couldn’t wait to be done and out of there, and my friends felt the same way. There were some cute guys at Blueberry, but none who looked like Pierce, none who took your breath away and none who were fine with getting up in front of a bunch of drunk strangers and talking about losing the love of your life.
    I glanced over at the other table of kids from my high school, curious to see what they thought of Pierce. I was surprised to see Evil Haley giving Pierce a look that could only have been described as hatred. When she caught my eyes on her I quickly looked away.
    There were more stories, but I didn’t listen to them. My mind was caught by Pierce, and it wouldn’t let go. My eyes kept darting to where he stood, so casual and relaxed. The tattoo on his arm was peeking through again, giving him a dangerous vibe. For rest of the night women would get up from tables, some obviously on a dare, others stumbling, to go chat him up. He ignored all of them. He might smile politely, or crack a joke - lots of women laughed really hard when he said something - but he never moved. He never seemed to care. I thought it was romantic. He had gotten up there to talk about Natalie, and that’s all he was going to do tonight.
    “A lot of women like damaged guys,” said a voice in my ear. Lavender scented the air wherever Mrs. Tiger went, so I knew who it was before I turned to see her looking right into my face. “But that particular damaged guy already knows there’s only one girl to fix him.” She drifted away as quietly as she had come, leaving me to gape after her.
     
    “Ready to go?” Maxie asked at the end of the night. “If