Read Online Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready - Free Book Online

night. We should send flowers or something.
    “That’s nice.” I scrolled down to see a link that said,
View all 152 comments
. I clicked, then scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled some more.
    Megan tried to close the laptop screen. “Aura, one last time. Please don’t read this.”
    I shoved her hand away and angled the screen so I could see. The first couple of dozen responses were sympathetic or shocked, lots of people remembering Logan from when he went to Ridgewood before his family moved out to the County. There were offers to pitch in five bucks for flowers, then an argument about whether they should donate the money to a charity in Logan’s name instead.
    Then Casey Crawford said,
You know it was drugs, right? Heard Aura gave them to him
.
    “What?” I shouted.
    Lauren Bankford:
No way. Aura pretends she’s all badass, but she’d never have cocaine
.
    Casey:
It’s what I heard
.
    Mike Brubaker:
I could totally see Logan OD’ing. I knew a guy who used to get high with him in eighth grade. Dude always had to take more hits off a joint than anyone else
.
    Lauren:
You ‘knew a guy,’ huh, Mike
? ;-)
    Amy:
People, can we get back to the charity topic? Maybe we should donate it to a drug awareness group
.
    Mike:
You mean those retards who put on skits for assemblies? I’ll feed the money to my dog instead—his turds are better quality than those plays
.
    Lauren:
Shut up, Mike. I think it should go to the antidrug thing. When my granddad died, people gave money to cancer research
.
    Amy:
Off to soup kitchen. Back later
.
    Nate Hofstetler:
Maybe it should go to Viagra safety research
.
    Mike:
ROFLMFAO @ Nate
.
    Casey:
Wait. What’s this about Viagra?
    Nate:
Logan had a heart attack. Viagra causes heart attacks
.
    Lauren:
Does not
.
    Nate:
See the commercials? They say it at the end
.
    Lauren:
It’s bc old guys use it and their hearts explode when they have sex, LOL
.
    Sarah Greenwalt:
I don’t think cardiac arrest is the same as a heart attack. I just looked it up
.
    Nate:
Maybe it’s not only old guys who use Viagra
.
    Casey:
You are NOT saying what I think you’re saying
.
    Mike:
I’d need Viagra to get it up for Aura Salvatore
.
    My stomach went cold, but I kept my face rigid so Megan wouldn’t shut my laptop. I had to keep reading, find out who had started these rumors.
    Casey:
No way, man, she’s hot
.
    Mike:
She’s, like, three feet tall & she’s a total ballbuster. Italians yell all the time
.
    Casey:
Aura can yell in my ear all she wants while I’m doing her
.
    Nate:
Yeah, she’d be yelling, “IS IT IN YET?”
    Mike:
Plus, you can tell she’ll be fat in five years
.
    Megan McConnell:
YOU GUYS ARE SUCH ASSHOLES. YOU WEREN’T EVEN THERE, SO YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT!! NONE OF YOU, SO STFU!!!
    Lauren:
Srsly, let’s take this into chat. Amy’ll zap this thread anyway when she gets home
.
    Casey:
Bitches
.
    My finger hovered over the refresh key.
    “Don’t do it,” Megan said.
    I hit F5 to reload the page. The thread disappeared.
    “Thank God, Amy killed it.” Megan reached for the laptop lid. “Don’t worry about those idiots.”
    I grabbed the base of the computer. “No, I have to find out what they’re saying now.”
    “What difference does it make?”
    “What difference?” I shouted. “Logan’s dead, and they’re telling lies about him!”
    “What are you gonna do, huh? Tell everyone the truth?” She tightened her hold on the laptop lid. “Gina will kill you if you talk about this online.”
    “I don’t care!” I wrenched the computer to the left. Megan lost her balance and knocked over my propped-up calculus book.
    The hidden glass of ginger ale flooded my keyboard. My laptop sizzled as the soda soaked into the frame.
    “Oh my God!” Megan yanked a tissue out of the box, then flipped it over. “It’s empty!”
    I pulled the plug from the back of the laptop and held down the power button until the screen went black. Then I turned the computer upside down and propped