Take Me Tomorrow

Chapter 27: A Dim Halo

"It keeps us connected," Noah explained. "Why do you always wear that necklace of yours?"

He knew it was my mother's. He didn't have to bring it up, but he did.

"Can I see it again?" he asked, facing me from only an inch away. His eyes locked with mine. His vision had adjusted to the dark. He could see me now. "Can I see it?" he repeated.

I pulled it out of my tank top mechanically. He reached up and cupped the silver heart in his palm. When he ran his thumb over it, the black leather chain brushed against the nape of my neck. I knew what he saw. The smooth metal only had one slit on the bottom, a thick scrape that indented S for my name.

"She has one, too, you know," he said, dropping it against my sternum. "It has an E etched on it."

I tried to picture my mother wearing a matching necklace only a world away.

"What do you know about her?" I asked.

"Not a lot," he said, but he remained entranced by the jewelry. Behind his gaze was a memory I wanted to snatch from him. "You look like her."

I knew that, but it was about all I knew.

"Was she okay?" I asked.

Noah frowned. "We got along."

His words didn't register. "What does that mean?" I asked. I wanted to know what he was thinking. I always did. But he didn't say a word. His blank expression remained unreadable, and he refused to look at me. He was lost in his own thoughts, just like he got lost when he took tomo. His silence weighed me down.

"You were beautiful that night, Sophie," he whispered, changing the subject so suddenly that my mind sputtered in disbelief.

"What night?"

"The dance," he answered, raising his face to match mine. "You looked beautiful."

My throat tightened, remembering Homecoming, how we had danced moments before he had tossed me into the river. I could've drowned. I almost did.

"Why are you telling me this now?" My voice strained.

He shrugged, only to wince from his shoulder wound. "I wanted to tell you then, right in that moment, when we were standing by the river—" I tried to imagine my curling hair matted to my face, my makeup smeared, twigs and mud coating my dress. "But I didn't. I don't know why."

My heart pounded.

He rubbed his temples as if to get rid of a migraine. "I hit my head on a rock, right?"

I nodded, wondering how he had forgotten. "You have the scar to prove that."

Noah lifted his long fingers to his forehead and stopped at the slit. "I wasn't supposed to hit it."

"What do you mean?"

"You were."

My once pounding heart slammed into my lungs. "W-what?"

"I always thought the future tomo showed was fate, that it couldn't change," he paused. " I have lived by that comfort for years, but—"

"But what, Noah?" I grabbed his arm, refusing to let him ignore me again. I grabbed his chin and forced him to look me in the eyes. "What happened?"

He squinted, but he didn't pull his face away. "When I pushed you in, you were fine in my visions, but it changed when you hit the water," he explained, his tone wavering. "You hit it. Your head—it smashed into it—and you were unconscious. You drowned."