Take Me Tomorrow

by Shannon A. Thompson

  He passed the two-car garage and rounded the corner to walk up to the steel doors that decorated the front of his house. He didn’t even knock. He simply shoved them open. “Oh, Broden,” Noah bellowed. “Broden, where are you—”

  I cursed at myself as I chased Noah into the house. As soon as I had reached Noah, Broden entered through the entranceway, his brown hair sticking up in five different directions. His face was blotchy with the pattern of a blanket pressed to his face, and his sage jacket hung loosely off his shoulders. With rolled up sleeves, his splint showed off his injured arm, but the stitches above his brow were much less severe. Nevertheless, the cut burned as he glared at Noah. “What are you doing here?” he asked before pointing at me. “What is she doing here?”

  Noah opened his arms up in loving mockery. “Thanks for the welcome, Broden. Long time, no see.” His grin was a borderline snarl. “I was sort of expecting you today − around three-thirty − at the ravens, you know, where you said you would be, but—” Noah spun in a theatric circle. “You didn’t show.”

  “Of course I didn’t show, Noah,” Broden yelled. “Are you insane?” He marched across the room to slam the front door. When it shut, he locked it and leaned his back against it. Now that he was facing us, he looked Noah up and down. His once-blonde friend was now a brunette, and the reality sunk in. “Looks like I wouldn’t have even recognized you, anyway,” he said. “What the hell happened to you?”

  Noah gestured toward me. “She recognized me,” he said, sounding strangely proud.

  The mention was the only reason Broden remembered I was there. “You can’t be here. They could catch you,” he stumbled over his words before switching his focus to Noah. “Our house could be bugged. We’re not sure if it is. We’ve never known.”

  His words were impossible to comprehend.

  “Bugs?” Noah sounded like he was on the verge of laughing. “Who cares if it’s bugged?”

  “My family,” Broden said, grabbing his hair. He was panicking.

  “How is your family?” Noah asked, but his serene state was cruel.

  Broden’s lips pressed into a thin, white line.

  “It doesn’t make a difference if your home is bugged anyway,” he mentioned. “If it is,” he continued, placing a hand on an entryway stand that held a decorative china plate, “they already know I’m here,” Noah stated before he pushed it to the ground.

  The china smashed across the floor, and I leapt back. Broden, on the other hand, shot forward and screamed at Noah to leave. Instead of leaving, Noah shoved another stand to the ground, glass scattering across the hallway. Broden threw his hands in the air, but his splint forced his one arm down.

  I pushed my back to the wall and clutched my bag. Noah’s demeanor had flipped from strange, nice guy to threatening bully in seconds, and I had seconds to react. I grasped my bag, felt for my knife, and slipped it out as the boys fought.

  Broden held himself back, but he shouted, “You’re going to get us killed.”

  “Not if you give me the tomo,” Noah threatened.

  At the sound of the drug’s name, my fingers tightened on the knife’s grip.

  “Give it, and I’ll leave,” Noah continued with his back to me. He always had his back to me. “They’ll never come after you.”

  Broden held his ground. “They’ll know you were here,” he promised.

  I couldn’t worry about who “they” were. It didn’t matter if it were drug dealers or the government because it was probably both.

  Noah waved his arms around the broken room. “Don’t you think they would’ve arrived by now?” he tested.

  Broden shook. “My parents—”

  “Aren’t coming home for another three hours,” Noah finished confidently. “Don’t think I was dumb enough to forget to look into your life before coming here.”

  Broden didn’t react, as if stalking was the perfectly normal, maybe even the expected, thing to do, but my blood pressure rose. Apparently, he had already known Broden would be home. He didn’t need me to tell him that. He didn’t need me to take him at all. Why he had come to me was beyond me, but there was a reason, and I had fallen blindly into his plan, but I could see my way out already. I just had to wait for the opportunity.

  “Where are the drugs?”

  Broden shook his hand, “Just get out.” His voice was consumed with sympathy instead of anger, acceptance instead of vengeance.

  I watched, planning my attack, as the boys erupted into argument. Broden moved toward him. Noah shifted, and his peripherals were even out of my sight. He wouldn’t see me coming. Not in his sober state. Not without tomo.

  Before either of the boys knew what happened, I kicked Noah in the back of the leg, knocking him off balance. His forehead smacked the doorway, and he fell down. I landed my foot on his ankle and held my knife to his throat. He didn’t even have time to grab his head.

  Noah was completely dazed.

  I wanted to order him to leave and never return. I wanted to call the police, call Phelps himself, and learn exactly who this boy was. I wanted to guarantee the government arrested him for everything he had ever done, and I wanted my life to return to normal, without him in it, and I wanted him to know that. But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I could only concentrate on the feel of the blade in my hand and how coarse my breathing had become.

  A red mark appeared on Noah’s forehead, but it was the fear in his eyes that I saw. His pupils were dilated, and he tried to hold his unnerving breath, but it escaped out of his shaking bottom lip. He, suddenly, didn’t seem capable of danger at all.

  I heard Broden step toward me before he spoke, “Sophia—”

  “He needs to leave,” I spat, locked on Noah.

  His shocked demeanor had shifted, but not enough. His lips had pulled into a smirk, but it still shook. His eyes were glaring, but his brow was twitching. His finger curled, but his hands weren’t in fists. He wanted to be calm, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t in control. I was.

  “I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with, Sophie,” Noah whispered.

  My anger increased with the nickname he used so casually. He didn’t know me. He wasn’t my friend. He had no right to have a nickname for me, let alone use one.

  “I don’t care who I’m dealing with. I don’t want to deal with you at all,” I retorted, watching his only confidence crumble. “You’re lucky I’m not having Broden call the police.” I moved the knife back, but not by much. I gestured to the door with my head. “Now, go.”

  Noah remained on the floor, looking up at me as if my words had more of an impact than my weapon. I wasn’t sure if Noah was shocked at my bravery or stupidity, but either way, he was clearly shocked.

  “Sophia.” Broden laid a hand on my shoulder and pulled me away. It wasn’t until my back was against his chest that I realized I was shaking with adrenaline, and it wasn’t until Broden slowly took my knife that Noah stood up. He even took the time to straighten out his uniform.

  I gaped at my empty hand, knowing my violence was wrong. “I—” my voice trembled as I told myself to look at Broden, but I couldn’t move. “I don’t know what’s happening,” I explained, “but I don’t like this.”

  Broden’s eyes saddened. “None of us do.”

  “But—” I gestured to Noah who stood by me, silent.

  “Noah doesn’t either,” Broden promised.

  I looked over, but Noah was staring out the opaque window, his expression blank. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I wanted more to be able to take back what I had done. My father had always taught me never to take out a weapon unless I was positive I was going to use it, and I had gone against that. I had gone against almost all of his rules in one week.

  “Noah isn’t my enemy,” Broden continued, “Trust me.”

  My stomach twisted, knowing that Noah would hear my next words, “I can’t.”

  Broden sighed, and then, we stood there in silence. The broken pieces of art were scattere
d around us, but the house hummed as the air-conditioning turned on. A car drove past, and Noah tensed until the car pulled into the driveway across the street. It wasn’t a cop. Broden’s neighbor was returning from a late night at work, but Noah never took his eyes off of the car.

  “I have a plan, you know. I’ve always had a plan,” Noah said, “but you need to trust me, too.”

  Broden studied his childhood friend before he handed my knife back. The flickering of the blade gained Noah’s attention. I hesitated, but I took it back. When it was safely in my grasp, Broden spoke, “Is your plan safe?”

  Noah grimaced. “It never is.”

  Broden nodded as if he expected this answer.

  “I really—” Noah’s eyes didn’t move from my blade as he spoke to Broden, “I need your help like old times.”

  At the mention of their unmentionable history, Broden managed a meek smile. “What about Sophia?”

  Noah sighed. “I only brought her because I had less of a chance at being questioned if I was with a citizen,” he said. He had planned everything. “She wasn’t very hard to find. I figured you two met when you transferred out of military school.”

  My gut sunk, but Noah’s gaze moved up to my eyes. “I’ll admit that you surprised me,” he said light-heartedly, somehow sounding dangerously flirtatious. My heart pounded for reasons I didn’t want to admit. “And,” Noah continued, naïve to my racing heart. “I’ll get you home safely if you’ll allow me to.”

  “What?” I gasped, glancing at the window. It was darker than I had expected. More time had passed. I had planned to leave immediately, but I had stayed. I wouldn’t make it home in time for curfew. My shoulders dropped. “Just fantastic.”

  Noah grinned. “It’s not every day that someone successfully pulls a weapon on me.” If I wasn’t mistaken, Noah had thoroughly enjoyed my attack. “I can get you home safely and meet Broden at the ravens in an hour.”

  Broden’s thick eyebrows furrowed, but he looked at me as if he were waiting for my answer. When I didn’t respond, Broden took it as an agreement, “I’ll see you at the ravens, then.”

  My jaw dropped. “I’ll go with you, Broden.”

  “You need to go home, Sophia,” Broden’s lecture sounded like my father. “Noah knows these streets better than me. He’ll keep you hidden,” he said. “Plus, you seem to be able to handle yourself.” Now, his lecture had turned into a lesson. I hadn’t listened, and I would have to deal with the repercussions.

  I glared at my best friend. “I’m not against him taking me,” I argued. I was against Broden helping him.

  Broden understood my tone. “I have to.”

  “You don’t have to do anything.”

  “I want to.” Broden worsened the situation. “I’ll be there soon,” he stated to Noah. “Just get Sophia home.”

  Noah opened the door and waved his arm as if he were directing me into a carriage. “Let’s go, Sophie,” he teased, still using his stupid nickname.

  “Don’t call me that,” I said as I stomped past him.

  He returned my words with a chuckle, but his chuckle sealed the deal. Everything had changed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

  Ask What You Want

  We walked for an hour in silence, dipping in and out of the trees. We crossed one field before we darted across a parking lot, only to meet another field. I hadn’t even known the fields existed. They were tucked away between neighborhoods, mainly used for untouched backyards. As much as I hated to admit it, Noah knew what he was doing, and he knew Topeka better than I did. By the way he paused at intersections, I had to bet that he even knew other ways to walk around undetected. He was just picking the best one for his uniform’s green color. If it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing a uniform, we wouldn’t have had to hide the entire time, but I was trying not to think about it. If I did, I would be too tempted to ask questions, and questions would only lead me to frustrated half-truths, so I bit my tongue and followed.

  When we reached the edge of the tree line, he stuck his head out instead of me. He didn’t even ask for my help. In fact, he ignored it, and I ignored him. Noah was someone I wanted to hate but someone I had yet to gain the ability to hate. One second, he was an outlaw, and the next he morphed into the boy next door – quite literally. We didn’t just have the same friends. He lived on the same street as them at some point.

  The sound is what gained my attention. The rumbling of the road, the exhaust of an older engine, the squeak of a thrown off axis. I grabbed Noah’s shoulder before he could jump out in front of it. “Wait,” I hissed right as the vehicle drove by in a slow crawl. How he hadn’t heard it or seen the headlights was beyond me. When it passed, I let him go with a slight shove. “Be more careful.” My reputation was on the line, too.

  He glanced over as if that was a good enough of a thanks, but then, he started a conversation by asking, “Who trained you?”

  My dad did, but I wasn’t about to talk about illegal activities with him, even though he had clearly seen how I had borrowed a government Jeep. If we had been caught, it was a felony. It was only a ticket to the lumberyards because I was a minor.

  “My mom trained me,” he stuttered over the word “mom” as if he hadn’t said it in a long time. I understood the feeling.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I muttered as I marched out of the tree line to cross the street.

  When he caught up with me, he explained, “Because I know how painful it can be to know enough to ask what but not enough to ask why.”

  “Really?” The sarcasm in my voice was impossible to control. “Because it seems you know everything.”

  “Except that you were going to attack me,” he pointed out. “I didn’t even see that coming with tomo,” he chuckled like the entire incident was part of a comedy routine. He hadn’t been on tomo at the school, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t taken it beforehand.

  I had yet to put my knife away. When Broden handed it to me, I took it as a sign. He still didn’t want me to trust Noah, and I was mad at myself for even attempting to reason with the boy. “Don’t think I won’t do it again,” I threatened.

  “I hope you do.”

  I glared at him through the darkness, but I felt like I was glaring at someone else entirely – Nate Harper, an innocent military student. “What’s with your attitude?” I bit back.

  His smile only grew. “Coming from you, that’s an ironic question.”

  “Can you stop deflecting everything I ask you?” I groaned. “Please?”

  He stopped in his tracks, and I had to mirror him to look him in the eye. His brow was creased, and for the first time, I noticed the slight sweat on his hairline. He was worn out. “I can do my best,” he said after a moment, “but I honestly can’t tell you everything. Not yet.”

  Yet. The word stuck out.

  He kicked the ground as he started to stride forward, slowly this time. “So, ask what you want,” he dared.

  I knew I had to start small. That’s how successful interrogations began. You had to build a bond first. You had to make them think you weren’t going to move into important topics, and you had to move into vital topics with care. “How did you get out, anyway?” I asked, focusing on the sage color. If it weren’t for the forest, I would’ve hated the color green. It represented everything in the State that I hated.

  “Starting small, aren’t you?” he asked, revealing that he knew everything I was thinking, but he didn’t fight it. “Getting out is easy. It’s allowed,” he said. “Getting back in after curfew is the hard part.”

  I sighed. “So, how do you plan on getting back in?

  “I know someone.”

  “Name?”

  He was hesitant. “Tasia,” he admitted a name. “She’s one of the night watchers.”

  The information wasn’t something I could take lightly. He had revealed a comrade, someone I could expose with a simple call to the police. He had told me something that could get another person
killed, but the fear came from something else entirely. Tasia, whoever she was, had to be a government worker. It seemed like everyone was in on it somewhere.

  “Does she know who you are?” I managed as I saw my property appear on the horizon.

  “Not exactly,” he said, surveying the same land where we met. “To some people, it doesn’t matter who I am. It just matters what I’m doing.”

  “And what are you doing exactly?”

  “I can’t tell you that,” he answered quickly.

  I crossed my arms, and my steps turned into angry stomps. The dried twigs cracked under my feet as he ran to keep up with me.

  “But I will,” he added.

  I hadn’t been expecting that response. “When?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Once I get permission.”

  “From who?”

  “From someone I deeply respect,” he was starting to sound annoyed. “It wouldn’t be my business to tell you without asking him first.”

  “Him?” I repeated, knowing about our mutual friends. “Broden doesn’t care.”

  Noah tilted his head back and laughed toward the stars as they began to appear. “I respect Broden,” he said, “but he isn’t about to tell me what to do.”

  Whoever he was getting permission from was not someone I knew. “Who, then?” I pressed.

  “We’re going to have to end this lovely interrogation here,” he said, stopping in his tracks. He pointed through the trees to the flickering lights my house gave off. I could see Lyn in the living room. “We’re home.”

  My face heated. “This is my home.”

  His hand dropped to his side. “Has it always been?”

  When I looked at him, his eyes sliced through me. Even though the four-worded sentence was simple, it was filled with a meaning I couldn’t comprehend. I knew he was laying the clues out for me to see, but he might as well have put a blanket over them. I glanced at the house I had spent the majority of my life in, but I didn’t see anything but my present. Living in the Albany Region was too distant of a past to recall. I barely remembered my mother, but I found my hand on the necklace she had given me through Lyn.