Took Me Yesterday (book 2 of The Tomo Trilogy)

I Kissed You

Wherever the entrance was, it wasn't close enough. My legs felt heavy. So did my arms. My head was swimming with liquor, and Lily couldn't stop giggling. All above us were stars and lights, blinking and bright. The city swirled. The city was alive. The city was music.

Jazz came out of one club; rock another. When we passed a tall building, the sound of piano flew out, energized. Miles danced with his sister, while Broden and I walked behind them. Every once in a while, we passed a bottle in silence. Ambrosia tasted sickly sweet. Like honeyed gasoline.

"We'll have to keep an eye on Miles," Broden said after taking a swig. He wiped his mouth off on his jacket. "He's a lightweight."

I followed his stare to the twins, both of them hobbling over one another, giggling.

I looked away. "How much further is it?"

Broden shrugged, but a smile tugged at his lips. "Have you ever seen the ocean, Sophie?"

I glared at him. "Don't call me that."

He chuckled. "I don't like calling you that anyway." But a part of him did. I could tell by the glint in his eye. It disappeared when sheet lightning scattered across the clouds. He looked up, but kept walking, his hands propped up behind his head. If I only looked at him, I could pretend we were in Topeka, walking home from school or something normal, but the night sky betrayed me. Topeka had a curfew. A strict, after-dark curfew. If it hadn't been for Noah, I'd rarely seen my friends in the dark. Now, it seemed normal. The secrecy of it all no longer a secret.

"What's up with that anyway?" Broden asked after a moment. Thunder rolled behind the question. "With Noah calling you that?"

I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep myself from grabbing my mother's necklace. The silver S had never felt colder. "My...mom calls me that."

Broden stumbled, but his eyes found me. Questions bounced about behind his copper gaze.

"What?" My heart pounded, sensitive to his bewildered expression. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he promised. "Just the first time I heard you mention your mom in a while."

Mom was a weird word for me, one that basically didn't exist. It hadn't left my mouth since I was seven, and even then, my memories of saying it to her were fleeting—and possibly not real. It was hard to say what was anymore. It'd been too long since I left her behind, too long to believe that life had happened to me and not to someone else.

I remembered screaming it most of all.

I rubbed my throat, my heartbeat racing beneath my touch.

Sometimes when I heard a kid scream it in public, I recalled the taste of cookies, the smell of bitter wine, and a cold, hard blast of water.

"We're here."

The ocean.

"Come on," Broden said, reaching out for me to take. He was halfway up a steep embankment, and sand rolled out from beneath his boots as he shifted to help me. "You're going to love it."

I doubted it, but I took his hand anyway. Miles and Lily's laughter soared over the hill before I reached the top, and wind blew my hair back. I must have lost my hair tie during the walk. The liquor was in my hand, too. I took a swig and shivered as the air chilled my bones. What I thought was thunder wasn't thunder at all. It was waves. Waves and then thunder. Both of them, together.