I'd Rather Not Be Dead by Andrea Brokaw Read Free Book Online Page A

Ricky
enough that he stops walking. “But... Aren't you..?”
    “None of your business,” Copper
Finnegan calls back.
    I snicker as I trot after him.
“What happened to you?”
    “None of your business
either.”
    My mouth opens for a second
before I start to grin. “Careful. You're almost acting human.”
    “Surprised you'd know about
that.”
    He manages to look serious for
two steps before grinning over at me.
    I shake my head and smile back
until the details of his appearance click in my head. His eyes are
bloodshot and the circles under them are heavier than they were
yesterday. His skin's more pale. His hair's more unkept. In short,
he looks more dead than I do, despite the ridiculously goofy
expression in his face. “You haven't been sleeping, have you?
You're punch drunk.”
    “Maybe.” He shrugs.
    “You'd better start or you're
going to blow the last game of the season Friday.”
    He shrugs again. “Trying to
care. Failing.”
    “Who are you talking to?”
someone we pass asks.
    “Blue Tooth,” Cooper Finnegan
says without missing a beat. The other guy gives him a strange
look, then seems to assume the ear piece is in the ear he can't see
and moves on.
    Another schoolmate passes
through my arm while I'm busy staring at my medium. “Seriously,
Cooper Finnegan, you're acting very strange.”
    “Thanks for noticing.” Halting,
he turns to look at me. “Why do you do that? Use my full name?”
    “I don't know.” Which is true.
It's just what I've always done. “I think it's because that's how
you were introduced to me. People gushing about, 'Oh my gosh,
Cooper Finnegan this,' and 'Cooper Finnegan that,' and, 'Oh, Cooper
Finnegan is so cute,' and 'Cooper Finnegan is just so much more
wonderful than anyone else.' It's how they talk about you, even
though it isn't how they talk to you.”
    He looks at me for a few
moments, a frown clouding his face. “No wonder you hate me. Put
like that, I hate me.”
    There's not much I can say. I
could deny the allegation, claim not to hate him. But he wouldn't
buy it. He may be an idiot, but he's not stupid.
    The silence between us is broken
by my sister, who rushes up to Cooper Finnegan with a hint of
desperation in her eyes. “There you are, Finn!”
    “Yeah.” He doesn't take his eyes
away from me, doesn't seem to notice how low cut Bobbi's top is,
even though she's all but shoving her tits in his face.
    “You look tired. Are you
alright?” she asks.
    He lets out a sigh and nods.
Then he looks at her, jerking a little when he notices what she's
wearing. “I'm fine.”
    “You'd better rest up.” Bobbi
leans forward to better show off her boobs, then droops when the
result of the maneuver is her prey redirecting his eyes to the
hall. “We need you at your best against Yancy.”
    “Yeah, I know.” He shifts like
he's trying to figure out how to leave without running over
her.
    “There's going to be a party at
Casey's afterwards.”
    “Is there?” Judging by the
trapped look on Cooper Finnegan's face, I'd say he caught the
not-so-subtle hint that my sister's after a date to this party. And
judging by the continued look of optimistic adoration on hers, she
wasn't catching on to his lack of enthusiasm.
    “Yeah...” Bobbi wraps a strand
of hair around her finger and bats her eyes in a vapid way likely
meant to be coy. “So... I was thinking...”
    “Maybe I'll see you there,”
Cooper Finnegan says, then darts around her and rushes away as I
laugh at his panic. What happened that was so horrible it made him
border on likable?
    Bobbi's friends rush over. “What
did he say?”
    “He hopes to see me there,” she
says with a toss of her hair.
    Not an exact quote.
    The friend looks disappointed.
“So you're not going together?”
    “They're meeting there,” another
one says. I should probably know their names. but they all look and
act the same. It's like they want to be stereotypes, like they take
comfort from it or something.
    “Yeah,” chimes a