Read Wish You Were Dead for Free Online

wish,” Sharon baited him.
    “With you? No way,” Dave shot back. “I’d rather stay a …” He trailed off, but it was too late. Sharon pounced.
    “A virgin?” she cackled. “Is that what you were going to say?”
    Dave’s face turned red. “No.”
    “Yes, it was!” Sharon insisted gleefully.
    “S-so? Look who’s talking,” Dave sputtered. “You’re probably a virgin for life.”
    “Only in your narrow definition of the word,” Sharon shot back, resting her hand on Laurie’s forearm.
    I glanced at Ms. Skelling, who normally didn’t tolerate such banter in her presence, but the chemistry teacher was staring out the window, almost as if she were in a daze.
    “Isn’t a week a long time?” asked shy, mousy Maura Bresliss in barely more than a whisper.
    The sound of her voice seemed to bring Ms. Skelling back to the room. She turned her gaze on Tyler and me. “You’re both aware that you’re supposed to stay until the client enters the house. Please tell me why standard operating procedure wasn’t followed?”
    It caught me by surprise when Tyler had cocked his eyebrow at me as if to let everyone know that it was my responsibility to answer. For a moment I felt a twinge of resentment, but then Itold myself that perhaps he was right. After all, I had been the one who’d urged him to leave Lucy standing there in the dark.
    I could have said that Lucy was being a total jerk, but that wasn’t the point. Jerk or not, we were supposed to wait. That’s why they called it Safe Rides and not just Rides.
    “It was late and I was tired,” I said. “I didn’t think—”
    “Obviously,” Ms. Skelling interjected. “Or, more precisely, you did think … but only about yourself. Really, Madison, what is the first thing you learned about people who’ve been drinking? They can’t be expected to make responsible decisions. That’s what you’re supposed to do for them. If Lucy didn’t get to her house, it’s probably because she made an irresponsible decision to go somewhere else.”
    “Or someone abducted her,” Dave reminded everyone.
    “Nobody abducted her,” Courtney said irritably.
    “How do you know?”
    “Because this is Soundview , Dave.” Courtney may have sounded just a little bit haughty, but she actually reflected the way most of us felt. Our parents had moved here for the excellent schools, and because it was safe and secure. The worst crimes were usually DWIs and, now and then, a break in.
    Besides, to kidnap or abduct someone, you had to know where they’d be so you could lie in wait for them. Lucy’s call to Safe Rides didn’t come in until after two thirty. The only people who could have known where she was going were a few at the party.
    And the people in this room …
    But before I had time to think about that, Ms. Skelling turned on me again. “I think it’s important for you to understand thegravity of what you’ve done, Madison. You know I don’t like to single people out, but honestly, you’ve jeopardized the whole purpose of this group. Who’s going to call a service that lost someone? And why are we in this spot? Because you, my dear, selfishly put your need for sleep ahead of someone else’s safety.”
    I wasn’t sure what hurt more, the harshness of her criticism or the fact that no one in the group came to my defense. In particular, I felt let down by Tyler, who was—at least in some part—responsible, too.
    The meeting ended. Usually I left with Courtney, but she popped up and exited the room before I had a chance to join her. Instead, I found myself leaving the lab at the same time as Tyler. Walking beside him in the noisy, crowded hall, I had mixed feelings. Part of me hoped we might pick up where we’d left off early Sunday morning, when he’d said he thought I was pretty nice. But another part was still feeling humiliated by what Ms. Skelling had just said. Meanwhile Tyler hardly looked at me as we walked down the hall.
    “Listen, this isn’t an