Read Online Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski - Free Book Online Page B

“I know who to be when it’s one on one. Or when someone’s written the lines. I just think we’re the most ourselves when we’re alone.”
    He bit his lip, glanced inside where people were still milling. Our spots on the sofa had been taken.
    â€œHow ’bout a game of pool?” he offered.
    So we took the elevator down to the basement. In the game room’s poor light, Zach assembled the balls into a neat triangle.
    â€œNone of that stripes and solids polarizing factionizing nonsense,” he said. “Why divide the balls into opposing groups? God, why create false dichotomies? They’re all balls. Let them be united in their common ball-dom. Let’s just hit them in. But if you hit the eight ball in, we both lose, obviously.”
    â€œObviously,” I said, with zero idea of the actual rules.
    So I aimed for the eight ball. After I’d hit it in three times, he asked me if I was okay.
    I leaned against the table, regarding Zach’s silhouette in the half-light. “I was thinking about what Matt said. And about Polo. Do you think something’s going on at Westing?”
    What I wanted to ask, but didn’t: Why did you invite me to Polo, and not Matt?
    For a time, Zach didn’t speak. “There’s got to be, Noah,” he said, softly. “It’s terrible, but I want there to be. Is that terrible?” He spoke more quickly, grew more excited. “I’d rather have my head sliced open and my memories extracted and sold on AwayWeSellTheDeepestMostIntimatePartsOfYourSoulthan just, nothing. There’s too much secrecy for nothing. Am I terrible?”
    â€œOnly a little,” I said.
    â€œI just think—there’s this girl I know, Addie, who lives in Violet. This isn’t the way I thought I would bring it up, but I’ve kind of wanted to talk to you about this.”
    My throat constricted. “About what?”
    â€œI was just thinking last night about what if she disappeared, you know? And I saw her name on AwayWeGo and wouldn’t know where she went. If we figure out what’s going on, we could save her, kid. We could save everyone . And I feel that way about you, too. I want to save you. And I want to save Addie. But differently. Do you know what I mean? That’s what I realized. I want to save you differently.”
    I blinked.
    â€œNoah?”
    I felt like a wisp of a feather on Pluto.
    â€œCan you not call me kid?” I asked, sharp. A second later, mumbling at my sneakers, both of which stared up bleakly at me: “I don’t really understand. Was it Nigel?”
    He shook his head. “That’s not—that’s not it.”
    He didn’t elaborate, so I said, “It’s been a long day,” which it hadn’t been. I’d only been up for eight or so hours. “I think I’m going to bed now.”
    If I didn’t agree, we would still be whatever we were before this conversation. That was how it had to work.
    â€œNoah, I don’t want to lose you.”
    â€œI think I’m going to bed now.”
    â€œNoah?”
    â€œIt’s been a long day.”
    He started after me, but stopped himself.

    OPINIONS
    Action Necessary to Secure Civil Liberties of Youths in Recovery
    a society that discriminates against a segment of its population that numbers in the hundred thousands? A segment of the population that has been herded away, shut behind sophisticated, motion-sensing walls, whose communications are monitored and circumscribed, as if this supposedly free nation were the USSR. Why can students receive letters from parents and not phone calls or e-mails? Are a few regrettable incidents just cause for the total infringement of our civil liberties? Westing was pitched to its students as a “one-of-a-kind” institution, devoted to battling for improved conditions for all youths in recovery, but the function it really serves is to give governmental