Read Online Through Dead Eyes by Chris Priestley - Free Book Online

caller, laughing loudly as she walked away.
    ‘I just don’t like to see you upset, you know,’ said Angelien.
    ‘Yeah?’ said Alex with a half smile.
    ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I like you.’
    Alex looked back towards the canal. A small boat went past, creating a wake that slapped the side of a houseboat moored nearby.
    ‘Look,’ she said. ‘When I was a bit younger than you, I had a fight with my dad. It was about something so stupid. He had promised to take me on a trip to France with him and then he backed out. I was so angry with him that I did not speak to him for over two weeks. Not one word.’
    She shook her head at the memory of it.
    ‘I was so stubborn,’ she said. ‘And now – what I wouldn’t give for those two weeks with him.’
    Alex stared up at the clouds for a moment. A small flock of pigeons scattered across the sky. He looked back at Angelien.
    ‘I got into trouble at school,’ he said.
    ‘You don’t have to –’ began Angelien.
    ‘I want to,’ said Alex, looking back towards the water. ‘There was this girl. After Mum left. Molly Ryman. I went a bit crazy about her.’
    Alex closed his eyes and hung his head.
    ‘So?’ said Angelien. ‘That doesn’t sound such a crime.’
    ‘No, you don’t understand. I used to follow her everywhere. When she said she wouldn’t go out with me, I was . . . I was . . . I can’t really describe it. I sent her all these emails and left loads of messages for her on Facebook until she de-friended me and changed her email, but by then her parents had got involved and told the school . . .’
    Alex closed his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek.
    ‘That’s why I’m here,’ said Alex. ‘My dad thought it might be a good idea to take some time off school. If it hadn’t been for the divorce, they might have excluded me for cyber-bullying or harassment or something. I think if my dad wasn’t so well known they’d have done it anyway.’
    Angelien took him by the shoulders and turned him round to face her, but he could not make eye contact, staring instead at the cobbles between them.
    ‘Thank you for telling me,’ she whispered. ‘You must not beat yourself up about it, Alex. What you did was wrong, but you are hurting. Anyone can see that.’
    She put her arm round him and pulled him close. She felt soft and warm against him and her hair stroked his cheek. The moment seemed to last an hour.
    ‘We cannot always help who we love,’ said Angelien. ‘Or how we love. But we are in Amsterdam, a city that has known more than its fair share of pain and sadness, and yet here we are. Your sins are very small here. Let’s forget about them, huh? What do you say?’
    Alex smiled, wiping his face dry with the back of his hand and nodding. As he did so, it began to rain.
    ‘OK then,’ she said. ‘Back to the hotel, huh?’
    Alex nodded as raindrops began to dot the pavement.

Chapter 8
     
    When he got back to his room, Alex couldn’t stop thinking about Angelien. He seemed to feel her hair against his cheek again. Alex wondered what a girl like Angelien saw in someone like Dirk. But girls were weird like that. They said they liked boys who were kind and treated them with respect, and then the next minute they were snogging some creep – like Molly with Carl Patterson.
    Alex smiled, imagining the look on Carl Patterson’s face if he had seen Alex with Angelien. Or the look on Molly Ryman’s face for that matter. But Alex’s smile disappeared at the memory of Molly.
    The Alex that had pestered Molly Ryman seemed like a different person. He had become hypnotised, obsessed. He felt genuinely sorry for the hurt he had caused but in truth he could barely remember doing anything. It was as though he had been in a kind of trance. He had tried to explain this to his father, but he had said that Alex was just trying to avoid taking responsibility.
    Alex pulled out the postcards from the Rijksmuseum and looked at them. They seemed so ordinary compared to