Free Take Me Tomorrow by Shannon A. Thompson Page B

I snapped, dropping my jewelry into my shirt. I didn’t want him to see the only part of me I couldn’t see for myself.
    “I shared information that could get me arrested, “he pointed out. “What’s wrong with you sharing information with me?”
    My hip cocked to the side. “This isn’t an exchange, Noah.” If anything, it was a trap, and he had expected me to fall into it like last time. I wouldn’t, and he didn’t like it.
    His brow scrunched, and his lips contorted into an unpleasant grimace. I didn’t wait for him to come up with a one-liner that stumped me.
    “Why did you have my address , anyway?” The words slipped out, but it looked like I had slapped him as I said it.
    His bottom lip hung open, “You read the paper.”
    The paper he had dropped was now safely tucked away in my desk, saved under two notebooks and a stack of notecards for history class. “Why wouldn’t I?”
    He glanced at the house in that infuriating way that he always looked away. I fought the urge to grab his face and force him to look at me. “So, this is that address,” he said it more as a statement than a question.
    “I am standing right here,” I said.
    He turned back as if I had to remind him. “Listen, Sophie—”
    “I hate that name.” There was only one person on this planet that used it, and he wasn’t allowed to be the second.
    He flinched, “Just,” he sighed. “Just listen to Broden for now, and everything will be okay in the future, and you’ll know everything, and—”
    “Stop talking to me like I’m a child,” I snapped.
    “I’m not,” he defended quietly. “I talk to you like a comrade, someone who I trust to trust me.”
    I ignored his words. “Put it however you like, but I’m not falling for it.”
    Noah ignore d my tone. “You can believe whatever you like, but you’re already a part of this.”
    “I helped you once. That does not mean I’m a part of your mystery team,” I argued. “You heard Broden. Keep me out of it.” I spun on my heel to storm away, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. When I whipped around, he had his arm up like he had expected me to hit him. I wasn’t going to, but his reaction made me freeze.
    His expression dropped at the same time that he let me go. He rubbed his face before he spoke, “You really believe that you’ve only recently fallen into this?”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means it doesn’t matter what Broden or I or you think,” his rushed voice teetered on the edge of desperation. “You’re involved, and you have been since way before I came back into town,” he said. “How can you not see that?”
    “I don’t take drugs,” I said, knowing that my anger controlled my harsh comment. Too many people had died over tomo, and now I was seeing my friends fall into it.
    Noah’s mouth hung open like he was preparing to yell at me, like he was going to expose everything, but his jaw snapped closed. Instead of responding, he resorted to his favorite gesture − he turned his back to me.
    “I have my orders,” he said as he dipped into a collection of trees. “You’ll get yours soon.”

 
     
    Stay Home
     
    “Dad,” I shouted, only to realize that my house was empty.
    The living room echoed, and the wooden fl oors creaked. Nothing else responded to me. I shifted my weight from foot to foot and felt the hairspray in my hair scrape against my bare shoulders.
    I had been dressed up for the H omecoming party for more than an hour, and the angst was beginning to get to me. All I wanted was a quick distraction from my father, a normal chat, but he wasn’t home. He was out of the State again. I sighed.
    “Dad?” I spoke up one last time, knowing that he wouldn’t respond, but I heard footsteps, and my heart skipped. “Hey,” I started, excited that he was running late. “I wanted to talk to you about—”
    I halted in the doorway as my eyes landed on the owner of the stepping sounds. Argos, my protective elkhound, stood in