Take Me Tomorrow

by Shannon A. Thompson

  It was the mother in her. She could always control us.

  Broden turned away as he shook off his jacket. Dirt fluttered to the ground as he kicked off his shoes.

  “What’s going on?” Miles asked, walking out of the kitchen. When he saw Broden, he chuckled. “What happened to you?”

  “I had to hide in the trees,” he said, “in them,” he emphasized.

  Miles continued to laugh, still intoxicated. I couldn’t wait for him to sober up.

  “The cops were everywhere,” Broden ranted. “They even saw us, and I have to bet that someone called them on us.” He raised his voice when he said someone, and his eyes were all over Noah.

  “He’s asleep,” I said. “He showed up here last night.”

  I didn’t have a chance to explain how he was on drugs. Broden had already snapped, “And you’re his watch guard?”

  I stepped back. My friend never glared at me, but he was now, and he wasn’t calming down.

  “I’m making sure he doesn’t stop breathing,” I justified.

  “He deserves to stop breathing,” Broden snarled.

  “Morning to you, too,” Noah yawned as he sat up to stretch. “Where am I?” he asked, looking around. When he recognized my house, he grinned. “Must have been a good night.”

  Broden glowered. “Are you done flirting now, Tomery?” Broden spat Noah’s last name, trying to dig under his skin, but Noah didn’t flinch. Instead, he glanced at his watch − his untimed watch − and shrugged.

  “I do believe it’s breakfast time.”

  “You left me out there,” Broden yelled.

  Noah studied Broden’s disheveled appearance for the first time. His lips pulled into a smirk, “You can handle yourself,” he said, borderline proud. “Obviously.”

  Broden didn’t budge. “Where did you go?”

  “Here,” Noah answered blankly. His poker face hinted that he didn’t remember much of last night, but I didn’t dare intervene. This was the boys’ fight, and Broden wasn’t accepting Noah’s answer.

  “You never even showed up.”

  Noah sighed, running a hand through his hair. “You were fine, man.”

  “But the others—”

  “They were fine, too,” Noah answered, “Better than fine, actually,” he continued. “They should have an alibi now.”

  Broden blinked. “An alibi.”

  Noah shrugged. He wasn’t about to elaborate on what he did, but he did do something. “Everyone was seen by the cops, right?” he pressed. “So, they couldn’t have been elsewhere.”

  I wondered how many others there were. I only knew of Broden, Noah, and Miles, but my father had turned out to be involved, too. Pierson was the only stranger I had met, and Tasia was the only person I had heard of. For all I knew, everyone was involved in one way or another.

  “Where were you?” Broden repeated.

  “We’ll talk about this later—”

  “Where—”

  “I got into the record’s building,” Noah said.

  Broden’s jaw dropped, and mine did the same. The record’s building had top-of-the-notch security. Rumor said that the record’s building was the only place in all of the regions that held every person’s information, even the ones that supposedly didn’t exist.

  “I think I did, anyway,” Noah added.

  Broden raised his hands. “What do you mean by that?”

  Noah didn’t speak. He simply kicked his feet off of the couch and laid his elbows on his knees. He hung his head and moved his neck in slow circles. From my position, I could see red marks on his collarbone where he must have hit it, but I didn’t see anything else. For breaking into a secured building, he was strangely in good shape.

  “Let’s continue this conversation after we eat,” Lyn suggested, waving toward the kitchen.

  Noah’s eyes lit up. “You always say the perfect things.”

  Even Lyn was capable of smiling. Noah had that effect on people, charming them even after doing something horrible. Broden was the only one who was immune.

  “I still don’t believe you,” he said as Noah stood up.

  “I’m used to it,” Noah retorted, walking right past him.

  I grabbed Broden’s arm before he could follow. “Wait,” I said.

  “What?” he snarled.

  My hand dropped, and Broden’s gaze fell. “Rough night,” he said. It was his apology.

  “I know,” I said, making sure that no one was listening to us, “but I need to talk to you.”

  “About Noah?” he guessed. When I nodded, he glared at the wall. “I don’t need to listen to you about taking his side again.”

  I ignored the hostility. “I’m not.”

  Broden’s neck didn’t move, but his peripheral vision met my determined stare. “What is it, then?” he asked.

  “I don’t think he got into the record’s building,” I said.

  Broden’s torso faced me. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because he was on tomo when he came back,” I said. “He wasn’t even gone that long.”

  “Why does that not surprise me?” Broden grumbled. He thought Noah ditched him to take drugs. He didn’t understand what I was saying.

  “Listen to me,” I said, grabbing his arms as if I would shake him. “I think Noah saw the record’s building, but I don’t think he went there,” I said. “Not yet, anyway.”

  An Explosion

  “Your breakfast is delightful,” Noah complemented Lyn, and Lyn blushed for the hundredth time.

  “Thank you,” Lyn responded graciously as she fed Falo with a plastic spoon. Since he had already tossed it a dozen times, she was forcing him to be spoon-fed. Even though he was old enough to feed himself, the boy didn’t seem to mind.

  “And your ink is fascinating,” Noah continued light-heartedly as blood began to boil through my veins. “Everyone from the Albany Region should show off such beautiful pieces of art.”

  “Stop trying to flatter me, Mr. Tomery.” She rolled down her sleeves and turned her complete attention to feeding her son. “Just eat.”

  Noah laughed for no reason at all before he ate more. Broden sat on the opposite side of the table, diving into the breakfast as if all was forgiven. His stomach had obviously taken over his priorities. Miles ate too, silently, but Lily leaned back, her eyes locked on Noah as if she could shoot him with her irises.

  “Don’t you have anything to say to my brother, Noah?” Lily spoke up, and Miles’ shoulders lifted to his ears.

  Noah glanced up from his eggs. Right when I thought he would speak, he picked up his coffee and sipped it. He looked over at a bruised Miles, a boy who wouldn’t even glance at him. “Morning.”

  “Morning,” Miles mumbled back.

  Lily slammed her silverware down on the table, standing. “What kind of sociopath are you?” Her tan skin flushed. “Coming in here all doped up on drugs, putting our lives in danger like we mean nothing. Nothing.” Her brown eyes darkened against her spray of white hair. “I don’t care if they are scared of you, Noah. I’m not. I won’t let you treat us like this. You need to leave Topeka.” She pointed toward the front door. “Now.”

  Noah tilted his head, and his blond hair shifted. Falo hiccupped. Noah glanced at the toddler before he looked back at Lily with the same look on his face. “Thank you, Lilianne.”

  I flinched at the fact that he had used her full name. First, it was Lils. Now, it was Lilianne. He could never call people by what they wanted to be acknowledged by.

  “For what?” she asked, infuriated.

  “For that entertaining monologue you performed,” Noah clarified, pointing his fork at her plate full of pancakes and eggs. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

  Lily shook with frustration and cursed at him before she grabbed her plate and left the room, apparently eating elsewhere. Noah lifted his coffee, but not fast enough. Everyone saw his smirk. “At least her appetite isn’t ruined,” he said before taking a sip.

  “
You could try to be nicer, you know,” Miles said, suddenly relaxed now that his sister was gone. “She has a temper.”

  Noah chuckled. “I remember.”

  My stomach bubbled with a feeling I didn’t recognize. I wanted to punch him and understand him at the same time.

  Noah knew everyone from childhood but me. Even though he was in my house, Noah hadn’t entered my world. I had entered his. In reality, I was the intruder, and I was an intruder in my own home.

  The sound of scraping silverware echoed through the house. Then, Falo squeaked as Lyn played with him, and Lily slammed the front door as she left the house, probably to get air. She wouldn’t walk home with the distance between our houses, let alone with all the officers on the streets now. The last thing any of us wanted was to get questioned about our whereabouts. We had a better chance at answering questions if they showed up here. We could hide Noah and pretend we were having brunch.

  “I hope there are no hard feelings between us, Miles,” Noah spoke up, but his eyes were sharp as they darted across the table to focus on the curly-headed boy. “It was strictly business.”

  “Business,” Miles repeated.

  Noah nodded. “And I need your help more than ever before.”

  Miles’ jaw pried open, and he laid his forehead on his fingertips, “You’re seriously going to ask for my help after what happened?”

  Noah shrugged. “I need it,” he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a black-faced watch with a silver band on the table. “I kept your watch.”

  Miles gaped at the jewelry. “I can’t help you. I won’t. I’m done.”

  “Do you want to survive this war or not?” Noah’s jawline hardened.

  Miles’ brown eyes widened, his shoulders tensing. Obviously, Miles believed him about the drug war. There was no questioning it. Miles reached out, but he hesitated. His fingertips twitched right before he snatched up the jewelry from the table.

  Noah’s upper lip stretched into a miniscule smile, “You’ll help me get my sister, then?”

  Miles’ eyebrows squeezed together. “Why is your sister so important?”

  “Family,” Noah emphasized, “is important.”

  “But—”

  “The rest will come later,” Noah quickly explained. “Until then, you all need to trust me.”

  He said the word “trust” so many times that it had begun to lose meaning.

  “Stop leaving us in the dark, then,” Broden said what everyone else was thinking.

  Noah ran a hand through his hair, “I can’t tell you everything—”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t know everything,” Noah snapped at the two, and his green eyes lit up as if he had taken tomo all over again. But he hadn’t. The lightning sparked from inside of him.

  The boys sat in silence, and then, they argued, and then, returned silence.

  I backed my chair away from the table and took my plate to the sink to clean it. My heart was pounding. The fear, the memories, Phelps. Everything was flashing before my eyes as if I was experiencing it all over again, and I felt the panic in my chest I had as Noah collapsed on the floor, vomiting. He had screamed so loudly.

  I turned the water off and gripped the counter, “What did you see last night, Noah?”

  The boys stopped, and I turned my torso to study the green-eyed boy who stared back. His face was flushed, and his eyes were wide, like an animal caught in headlights. He never looked calm when he looked at me. I hated it.

  “What did you see?” I demanded an answer.

  “I—I—” Noah stuttered, placing his mug on the table. “What do you mean, Sophie?”

  “On tomo,” I clarified. “You were screaming,” I informed him. “I know you saw something.”

  Noah’s upper lip twitched. He couldn’t even fake a smile for me. “I didn’t see anything,” he said.

  “You were hurt,” I accused, trying to jog his memory.

  Noah shrugged as if pain meant nothing to him, as if the concept didn’t register with his body, as if he were inhuman and completely immune.

  I gripped the nearest knife to me and held it in the air. “Do you know what I can do with this?” I threatened, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Broden straightened up while Miles jumped to their feet. Lyn didn’t move. Noah laughed.

  “Always with the knives,” he joked, continuing to sip his coffee. Little sips. Like he was controlling his breathing.

  I curled my fist around the grip and positioned my hips to the side. It was the only way I could let him know just how serious I was – or how serious I wanted him to believe I was.

  “I’ll be the cause of that pain if you don’t tell me what happened,” I threatened.

  Noah took one more drink before he placed it down. “Excuse me for a moment,” he spoke to Lyn, but the boys relaxed. Miles even sat down as Noah stood.

  The blonde crossed the kitchen in mere seconds. “Sophie,” he spoke softly and looked at me as if I were holding flowers instead of a blade. The closer he was, the less confident I was. He stood next to me and looked down from his height. For a single moment, his green eyes softened like they had when he begged me to stay with him after he overdosed. Those eyes. This boy. I couldn’t hold my ground.

  Noah leaned down and whispered into my ear so the other boys couldn’t hear, “Why does it concern you?”

  “Why doesn’t it?” I breathed back, unable to move.

  Miles coughed, and Noah straightened up, stepping away. Shivers ran over me, and I crossed my arms, only to see that Broden had done the same. He was glaring at the two of us. My eyes fell to the floor as I laid the knife on the countertop.

  “I have to tell you guys about my plan,” Noah announced, turning to Miles specifically, “You still work for the Traveler’s Bureau, right?”

  “They didn’t fire me,” he informed us, “as surprising as that was.”

  But it shouldn’t have been a surprise. My dad committed crimes and that was how he got his job. If anything, Miles just secured his job for the rest of his life for the very reason that Noah was about to say.

  “I need you to slip up,” he said. “They probably want you to anyway.”

  Miles paled. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you’re going to get us into the Traveler’s Bureau,” Noah said.

  “No.”

  “Listen,” Noah coaxed, sitting next to him. “Dwayne knew this plan.” Even my father knew more than me. “But he isn’t here right now, and you are.”

  Miles’ eyes flickered away, but Noah laid a hand on Miles’ face and forced him to only look at Noah.

  “Dwayne would do this, and you need to, too,” he said, “and then, your sister and you can do whatever you want.”

  Miles cracked. “Why?”

  Noah smirked. “There’s going to be an explosion.”

  I’ll Kill You

  Lyn’s dark eyes fixated on Lily and me in the rearview mirror. “You girls are not going,” she lectured.

  She wore a low-cut blouse that exposed an extravagant bridge tattooed on her chest. Between the art and her focused glare, I shifted uncomfortably in the backseat. Miles was in the passenger seat, but Lily and Broden were in the backseat with me. As usual, we were silent.

  Noah, unlike us, spoke, “I told you it would be fine, Lyn.” He was lying down in her Jeep’s trunk.

  “And I told you to be quiet,” she responded to Noah’s chipper tone. “I shouldn’t even be driving you kids—”

  “But you are,” Lily retorted, surprisingly encouraging the trouble. “If my brother can go, then I should be able to go, too.”

  Lyn’s frown bent her lips in half. “Dwayne would send me straight back to Albany if he found out I was helping you troublemakers out this much.”

  “But this was his plan,” Miles repeated the information, but no one responded.

  The only person who knew it was my father’s plan was Noah, and we knew enough about Noah to know he could�
�ve been lying. Still – we helped him because he was against Phelps, and our hatred for Phelps was our unification. As much as I didn’t want to recognize it, we had grown into one another somewhere along the way. We were officially a team.

  Broden glared out the window, tightening his fingers as if he were preparing himself for a fight, and Miles looked directly at his wristwatch. We were minutes away from the mission and feet away from the record’s building. It was attached to the Traveler’s Bureau, which was why Noah needed Miles, but the only access was locked a long time ago.

  The plan had been in place since the night Noah overdosed on tomo. Apparently, whomever he got the drugs from was an amateur chemist, and she was essential to our plan. Her name was Gigi, and she worked in the Traveler’s Bureau as a surveillance specialist. Miles had her supplies in a backpack. Noah had stolen them the night before, which was why Broden and the other boys had an alibi. The crime wasn’t on the news.

  Our first step was all about Miles. He would enter the Traveler’s Bureau with his access code. From there, he would enter the security office where Gigi was and hand off the backpack. She would leave, and he would unlock the entrance to the record’s building by the time Gigi met up with Noah and Broden. From there, they would get Rinley Tomery’s record, and Gigi would set up the explosion. They wanted the records to be a distraction, but they also wanted to destroy as much as they possibly could. The boys would get out before the arson would take place. Hopefully, they’d all get out alive. By the way Noah had screamed, I doubted it, and it took every part of me not to argue.

  Lyn would be waiting in the getaway vehicle – her government issued Jeep − and we would all return to my house before Noah would flee. He was leaving the Topeka Region as soon as he found out his sister’s location. We would have to cover his tracks before covering our own.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  Lyn maneuvered the Jeep through traffic without so much as glancing around for officers. She was blending in, and she knew how to. I held my breath and forced myself to look as normal as possible in case someone did see us. It was the afternoon. Even with the tinted windows, I somehow felt exposed, and my mind raced with the possibility of getting caught − or killed.