Todd Strasser - Wish You Were Dead

I sipped the tea and turned the TV off. My thoughts wandered, and whenever that happened lately, Tyler was waiting nearby. Why, the day before, had he said that everything happens for a reason? Was he just trying to appear cool and mysterious? And that reminded me of how Ms. Skelling had ripped into me about leaving Lucy on the street outside her house. What a mean thing to do. Did she think I didn’t already feel bad enough without having to make me feel worse? And that made me think of Courtney, who’d popped up so quickly from her seat after the meeting and vanished into the hall before I could find her. Why had she done that? Did it have something to do with Adam? Why did I feel like everyone had secrets? Was that true, or was I just being paranoid?

I looked up at the clock. At school, fifth period would be ending in a few moments. Courtney would be going to study hall, a class she could always be late for. I sent her a text: ?4U

Normally, she would hit me right back.

I waited.

No reply.

On any other day I might have assumed the message hadn’t gone through, or maybe her phone had died. But today I had to wonder. Was she ignoring me?

I sent a second text: PTM . Please text me.

But she didn’t.

I finished the tea and felt a weird combination of anxiety and boredom. I’d told Mom I wouldn’t go to school, but I hadn’t said I wouldn’t leave the house. Besides, it was day, not the middle of the night when bad things happened. Even Mom had said that it was highly unlikely that kidnappers would strike twice. And it seemed even more unlikely that they’d do it in the middle of the day.

School would be ending soon. By now Courtney had had plenty of time to answer my texts. I could only assume that she was ignoring me. But she was supposed to be my closest friend. If that was no longer the case, I wanted to know.

I got dressed and went out. The air was cold and damp and there were puddles in the driveway, but at least it had stopped raining. It was hard to know where Courtney would go after school. Sometimes she went into town and hung out at the Starbucks. Sometimes she went to the mall, or to one of her other friend’s houses. Most of the time she didn’t go home until dinner.

After deciding that the best place to find her after dismissal would be near school, I drove over and parked a few blocks away. Pulling my hoodie tight around my head, I stood at the bus stop. It wasn’t long before the front doors opened and kids began flooding out.

Courtney came out alone, her red backpack slung over one shoulder, her long black hair with those streaks of pink and blonde dancing. Since she was alone, I assumed she wasn’t going to a friend’s house. That was good news, because it meant she would pass me on the way to town or the mall.

But instead of making a right at the bottom of the steps, she made a left. That was bad news, because to catch up to her I’d have to walk right past school.

Hoping that no one would recognize me, I started down the sidewalk. Courtney was walking fast, which was totally not like her. I wondered if she was going to meet someone. Rather than rush to catch up, I hung back and decided to see.

She turned right on the next block, entering the residential neighborhood closest to the school. This was one of the older neighborhoods in town, and not many kids we knew lived there. Where was she going? At the next corner she turned left. By now it was just me and her on the sidewalk.

As she walked, she took out a compact and checked her makeup. Now I was certain she was meeting someone. It was all so strange to me. I thought I knew almost everything about her. Could she really have a secret life I knew nothing about?

At the next corner she turned right and started to speed up. I practically had to jog to keep her in sight. Then she looked back at me and started to run.

I started to run after her. Every twenty feet she would look back at me. Suddenly I realized what was happening. She knew someone was following her, but with my hoodie on, she didn’t know who it was. I pulled the hood back and called, “Courts, wait! It’s me, Madison!”

Courtney looked back and stopped. She bent over and placed her hands on her thighs. As I got closer, I could see that she was panting for breath. “You scared … the crap out of me.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“What … are you doing? Why … were you following me?”

“I came to school to find out why you weren’t answering my texts.”

Courtney kept panting. “Why weren’t … you in school today?”

“Mom saw Lucy’s dad on TV this morning offering a reward for her return. It freaked her out. I mean, the whole idea that Lucy might have been kidnapped. She wanted me to stay home.”

Courtney nodded and straightened up. She breathed deeply and ran her fingers through her long black hair.

“Who were you going to meet?” I asked.

“No one.”

“A few moments ago you were checking your makeup in your mirror,” I said.

“A few moments ago I was looking in my mirror to figure out who was following me. For God’s sake, Madison, you totally scared the crap out of me.”

“Yes, you already told me that.”

We stared at each other. It felt like we’d reached a stalemate. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?” I asked.

Courtney looked around. “How’d you get here?”

“My car. It’s parked back on Rosewood.”

“Give me a ride to Starbucks?” she asked.

“Aren’t you going somewhere?”

“I just want some coffee.”

“When did it start?” I asked twenty minutes later as we sat at a small table inside Starbucks. Courtney had just admitted to me that she’d been seeing Adam on the down low. Based on the way she’d been acting, I should have guessed, but I hadn’t. In fact, I was totally blown away. Courtney propped her elbows on the table and cupped the double latte I’d bought her in both hands, as if using it to warm them.

“Junior prom.”

I stared at her in astonishment. “Last year?”

“Shhhhh!” She hushed me and her eyes darted left and right at the other kids sitting around tables and at the counter. “It’s been on and off.”

“But why?”

“Why has it been on and off? Or why did I do it?”

“The latter.”

Courtney raised and dropped her shoulders. “He’s a studmuffin.” As if it was that simple. As if Adam wasn’t Lucy’s boyfriend. As if this wasn’t about the most scandalous thing I’d ever known her to do.

“There are lots of other muffins,” I said. “I think you’ll have to do better than that.”

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Why do you care?”

“For one thing, I thought we were friends. I thought we told each other everything.”

Courtney sipped the latte and licked some foam off her upper lip. “You used to be best friends with Lucy.”

Now I understood. “You thought I’d tell her?”

“I don’t know. You’re also friends with Adam. It was complicated. And he doesn’t want anyone to know, either.”

“If he likes you, why didn’t he just break up with her?”

“He was going to. I think that’s what that fight on Saturday night was about. But you know Lucy. It wasn’t like she’d just let him dump her without making a huge stink.”

Then there was indeed a reason why Lucy might have decided to run away, or do something else that people would think of as extreme. “Do the Cunninghams know that it wasn’t just a fight? That Adam was planning to actually break up with Lucy?”

Courtney frowned. “How would I know?”

Suddenly I realized something. “I have to talk to Adam.”

“Why?”

“Because Lucy is the most competitive person I know. Adam breaking up with her is exactly the kind of thing that could make her snap. The Cunninghams have to be told about this.”