Wish You Were Dead (15 page)

I stared at her, wide-eyed. So it
was
possible that the “mystery guy” had learned that Lucy, Adam, and I were friends. And that meant he could have left the note at the guardhouse. But why?

“I mean, how completely freaky is that?” Courtney asked.

I was too distracted to answer. The police were looking for
this person because they believed he had something to do with Lucy and Adam. But I’d gotten the note
before
Adam disappeared. Why would the person who left the note want to warn me ahead of time that my friends were in danger? It seemed like that would have been the last thing he’d want to do.

“Hello?” Courtney gave me a little wave. “Earth to Madison?”

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

“Duh. So what did Tyler want before?”

It was an effort to drag my thoughts from one mystery to another. “Oh, I don’t know,” I said, feeling frustrated that he wasn’t in the cafeteria.

“Something wrong?”

I told her how I’d accused Tyler of lying when it wasn’t even me he’d lied to.

Courtney let out a “when will you learn?” sigh. “You don’t get guys to like you by accusing them of lying.”

Nodding woefully, I agreed. “I know. It was stupid.”

Courtney stared past me and her expression changed. Jen came out of the lunch line with Tabitha Madrigal and Cassandra Quinn and started toward us. “Look who’s bringing reinforcements,” Courtney muttered under her breath.

“Hi, girls,” Jen said cheerfully when she reached the table. “Okay if Tabitha and Cassy join us?”

I smiled and said hello to them, but Courtney was less enthusiastic. Not because she disliked the girls, but I imagined because she was irked by Jen’s blatant plan to step into the vacuum left by Lucy. As if Lucy was gone forever.

“So what do you think of the voluntary curfew?” Jen asked
with a slight roll of the eyes to let us know what she thought of it.

I didn’t answer. Tyler had just entered the cafeteria. He took a seat by himself at a table near the window and opened a book. I purposefully didn’t stare, mostly because I didn’t want Jen to notice and start gossiping and spreading rumors about who I might be interested in. But then I felt Courtney’s elbow gently nudge my side.

“Be right back.” I got up and headed for the lunch line, then circled back toward Tyler’s table, hoping Jen wasn’t paying attention. Tyler was busy reading a book titled
SERIAL KILLERS: The Method and Madness of Monsters
.

I breathed deeply to calm my nerves and stood across from him until he looked up. He frowned, and then seemed to force an uncomfortable smile as he closed the book.

“No lunch?” I said.

“That’s what you came over here to say?” Tyler’s face was expressionless.

“No. I came to say I’m sorry. What you tell Dave is none of my business.”

Tyler blinked as if he was surprised. “Okay, thank you.”

I glanced back at my table where Jen was busy gabbing. She hadn’t noticed me standing across from Tyler, but she might soon. “Would you mind if I sat?”

“It’s a free country.”

I sat down and tapped the cover of the book. “Interesting reading.”

When Tyler nodded but didn’t reply, I began to feel even more uncomfortable. “Well, I just I wanted to say I was sorry.
Didn’t mean to interrupt.” I placed a hand on the table and started to get up.

“Don’t go,” he said. “What do you think is going on?”

“I wish I knew.” I nodded at the book. “That’s what you’re thinking?”

Tyler shrugged. “It’s just an interest of mine.”

“Serial killers? That’s not exactly in the same league as video games or fantasy sports. What’s so interesting?”

“I guess because they’re just so different. So outside the norm.”

“You like things like that, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t say I
like
it,” Tyler said. “Maybe I’d just like to understand it. It’s a lot more interesting than what’s inside the norm. Although, you’d probably disagree. You probably like the norm because it’s safe.”

He was baiting me again. Only this time, it was easy not to rise to the bait. “Not necessarily. Sometimes the norm can be pretty boring. But right now, anything safe sounds really good.”

Tyler nodded. “True that.”

It felt like the conversation was flowing more easily, and I was tempted to steer it toward the things I was curious about—Where was he from? Why had he moved here a month after school began? But before I could ask, a commotion began on the other side of the cafeteria. Voices rose in alarm. Heads began to turn and people stood to get a better look. A small crowd had bunched up, and a lunch monitor was telling people to move back. The cafeteria doors opened and Principal Edwards hurried in, followed a few moments later by the school nurse. More kids
went to see what was going on, and now Principal Edwards’s voice joined the lunch monitor’s in telling everyone to move away. Some kids started back to their tables.

“What was it?” Tyler asked one of them.

“Looks like Maura fainted,” the kid said.

Gradually, except for the grown-ups and some kids around Maura, the cafeteria began to return to normal. Things briefly got exciting again when two paramedics arrived with a stretcher. But then the bell rang and Principal Edwards told everyone to go to class.

chapter
15

Thursday 9:00
A.M
.

MAURA WASN’T IN school the next day. By Thursday morning, it seemed almost everybody had forgotten about the incident in the cafeteria and was once again focused on Lucy and Adam. But when I got to homeroom early and found Ms. Skelling marking papers, I decided to ask. “Have you heard anything about Maura?”

Ms. Skelling looked up at me with a slightly astonished expression on her face. “Do you know that you’re the only one who’s asked?”

The comment made me feel self-conscious. “I was just wondering. That’s all.”

She hooked her thick red hair behind her ear. “You needn’t apologize. There’s nothing wrong with caring about someone who’s not in your crowd. She’s much better, thank you. I expect she’ll be back at school tomorrow.”

“Okay, thanks.” I started to turn away.

“Madison?”

I stopped. “Yes?”

“You’re one of the few young people in this school with any manners.”

“Well … it must be from my parents, you know?” I backed out of the room. “But thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, and looked back down at her papers.

During a free period in the afternoon, I went to the library to research a paper on Shakespeare’s tragedies. Dave was sitting on a couch, reading a
National Geographic
. He glanced up briefly, his eyes large behind his glasses.

“PBleeker?” I said.

His face went blank, then slowly formed a scowl. “Sorry?”

“That doesn’t mean anything to you?”

“Should it?”

“Paulie Bleeker? From
Juno?”

Dave’s lips parted into a smile. “Right. Sorry, I didn’t get it. So …?”

Either he wasn’t PBleeker or he was a very good actor.

“I’m glad you brought the movie to Safe Rides the other night,” I said. “I’d forgotten how good it was.”

“The best,” he agreed. “I mean, like, everybody knows it’s hard to be a teenager, right? And you think you’re the only one who feels that way even though you know that can’t be true. And then there’s that line where Juno says—”

“ ‘I think you are the coolest person I’ve ever met. And you don’t even have to try,’ ” I quoted. “And Paulie says, ‘I try really hard, actually.’ ”

Dave grinned. “You remembered!”

“You told me a few nights ago,” I reminded him.

“But I didn’t think you were listening.” He shrugged sheepishly.

“I was. It’s a great line. Do you really think it’s true?”

“No—I mean, yes. It’s just that some of us, the harder we try, the less cool we are. The problem is, if we don’t try, we’re not cool, either. In fact, no matter
what
we do, we’re not cool.”

I felt a smile grow on my face. “That’s funny.”

Dave beamed. “Yeah, you know, I thought it would be funny? And I wanted it to be funny? But I was also being serious. Does that make sense?”

“I guess so.”

He grew quiet, and I wondered if he was practicing every sentence in his head before he said it. Then he said, “Okay, Madison, the truth is, being a dweeb really sucks. And now you’re going to say, ‘But Dave, you’re not a dweeb.’ ”

I laughed again. “And then what do you say?”

“I insist I’m a dweeb and then we get into a big argument over whether I’m a dweeb or not.”

“Who wins?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it ends with a standoff. Or a dweeboff. Only I don’t know what a dweeboff is and I only said it because I thought it might sound funny, and if it sounded funny, maybe you’d think I was cool, only we’ve already established that I can’t be cool.” He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the tail of his shirt.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you look a little bit like Michael J. Fox—the actor from
Back to the Future
, remember?”

The unexpected burst of laughter from Dave’s lips was loud enough that people around the library looked up from what they were doing. Dave ducked down behind the
National Geographic
.
“Wow, Madison,” he whispered, “your credibility just went straight down the toilet.”

“I don’t think so. I bet if I’ve noticed, other people have, too.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “At least a dozen people a day. And that’s not counting all the people who tell me I look like Zac Efron and Kevin Jonas. I’m telling you, Madison, with all the attention I get, sometimes it’s hard just being me.”

“Are you always this funny?” I asked.

“Well, actually, no.”

We both chuckled, then grew quiet. I waited to see if he had anything more to say, but he didn’t. “Well, guess I better get to work.” I got up, then turned to look at him.

Dave was squinting up at me. Only now he didn’t look quite as much like Michael J. Fox. “Thanks, Madison,” he said.

After school, Laurie drove them home. As they turned the corner, Sharon saw the dark green sedan parked in her driveway. “Pull over!”

Laurie pulled her car to the curb and gave Sharon a quizzical look. Panic swept over Sharon. She felt as if her temperature had just risen five degrees. She bit her lip until it hurt. “Tell me that isn’t an unmarked police car.”

Lest there be any doubt, the Costellos’ front door opened and a thin man with a blond moustache walked down the path to the car and got in.

“Oh, God,” Sharon groaned. Her insides turned upside down. She was certain she’d been busted. That little creep
Maura had narced on her. She was totally screwed.

The dark green sedan backed out of the driveway and started in their direction.

“Duck!” Sharon gasped, and hunched down beneath the dashboard. She looked up at Laurie, who hadn’t budged. “Come on!” Laurie didn’t move. “What are you doing? He’ll see us!”

“He’s gone,” Laurie said calmly.

Sharon poked her head up over the dashboard just enough to see. The street was empty. She slid back up to the passenger seat. “What’s wrong with you?”

Laurie gave her a droll look. “Would you chill, please?”

“You don’t think that was a detective?” Sharon asked. “You don’t think they asked Maura in the hospital where she got the ketamine? You don’t think my parents are going to kill me the second I walk into my house?”

“You don’t know,” Laurie replied.

Sharon flipped open her cell phone and called Maura’s house. She wouldn’t be able to say anything over the phone because Maura had warned her that her mother listened in on her conversations, and Maura had to be the only teenager in the world without a cell phone. A woman answered.

Sharon made an effort to sound friendly. “Hi, is Maura there? This is her friend Sharon from school.”

A moment later Maura got on. “Hello?”

“Hi, I have that book Mr. Osmond asked us to read,” Sharon said. “I’m not far from your house and this would be a good time for me to drop it off.”

The line went quiet and Sharon held her breath. If Maura
had anything more than the brains of a toadstool she’d understand that Sharon wanted to see her.

“Okay,” Maura whispered.

Sharon made Laurie drive her to Maura’s place. Maura came out wearing a stained white sweatshirt with a tear in the collar.
What a loser
, Sharon thought as she opened the car window. In a low voice she said, “You told the police where you got the Special K?”

Maura looked surprised. “No, I didn’t.”

“They didn’t ask you at the hospital?”

“They did, but I said I’d had it for a long time and couldn’t remember where I got it.”

That was a smart answer, but it sounded too smart for Maura.

“You’re lying,” Sharon said.

“No, I’m not.”

“Then why was there a detective at my house just now?”

Maura frowned. “How would I know?”

Sharon stared at her uncertainly. “If I find out you’re lying, I will kick the crap out of you.” She turned to Laurie. “Let’s go.”

Laurie started to drive. “Think she was telling the truth?” Sharon asked.

“Yes.”

“Then why was that detective at my house?”

“Why don’t you go find out?”

On the way home, Sharon’s insides began twisting again. She was surprised at how terrified she was of getting in trouble with the police and amazed to discover that she was equally afraid of what her parents would do. Suddenly her big plan of going to San
Francisco felt like nothing more than a crazy fantasy. How could she have believed that she’d go all that way alone? Where would she live? What would she do? How would she support herself?

They pulled into her driveway. Sharon began to tremble from fright. She turned to Laurie. “Would you come in with me?”

Laurie nodded.

“Promise me you won’t leave unless everything’s okay?” Sharon asked.

Laurie put her hand on Sharon’s. “I promise.”

chapter
16