Read Online The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride - Free Book Online Page A

investigations regarding Croft are under way. After searching evidence taken from Croft’s home, it is suspected that he is responsible for the disappearance of at least four other minors from the tristate area in the last sixteen years.
    On September 10, Croft pleaded not guilty on the charge of kidnapping. He is being held at the Montgomery County Jail on a $1 million cash-only bail.
    The case is still under investigation.
    I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on the arm of my chair.
    Child pornography? I pictured a twelve-year-old Noelle posing in front of the mirror in her room, reciting lines from her favorite movies as she experimented with different facial expressions. Her goal in life was to make her way to a stage, to feel the heat of a spotlight shining on her face. She didn’t care if that dream led her to a fashion runway, a television studio, or a movie set. She’d even talked about auditioning for a reality show when she turned eighteen. I had always hated that her kidnapping was the way she had become famous. I looked at Charlie again, right into his dead eyes.
    â€œNo,” I said to him. “You will not be the last thing I see tonight.”
    Clutching the mouse, I maneuvered the arrow across the screen and stabbed the red X in the top right corner. Charlie was gone.
    With a jerky hand, I clicked on the folder holding my pictures and flipped through them until I found the one I’d taken of Max. He’d been sitting next to me, and I’d snapped the shot quickly, hoping he’d see it as some joke instead of what it really was: my need to study his face. When I came to the picture, I just stared, wondering how he could get better-looking each time I saw him. He had these super-thick eyelashes, and a few random freckles dotting the top of his cheeks.
    I was unprepared to deal with the wild feelings Max was sparking to life. I had told myself for two years that if Noelle couldn’t experience that giddy, falling-in-love sensation, I wouldn’t, either. Yet here I was, unable to push Max from my mind. While Noelle was struggling to experience one minute of normalcy, I was totally losing control over the new guy whom every girl was gushing over, and who was this completely … What? Beautiful, nice, strange new complication in my life. In addition to that—
    A light tapping pulled me back to my bedroom. I listened for the noise again, wondering if it had been real or imagined. It came quickly, sounding like a small pebble bouncing off the pane. Could it be him? He’d followed me home from school the other day to borrow a photography book I’d told him about. But how had he figured out which room was mine?
    I felt like I’d been plunged underwater again. As I walked toward the window, every piece of me was thick and sluggish. I pulled at the curtain, ready to see Max standing in the dark grass.
    I parted the blinds.
    The moment I’d dreamed about for the past two years had finally arrived. But I couldn’t jump-start my body—nothing would move.
    Standing in my side yard, the moonlight silvering her skin, was Noelle.
    With her head tipped toward my window, her face absolutely glowed. If I hadn’t been aware of her homecoming, I’d have been sure her ghost was visiting me for a midnight chat. What got me moving was her raising her hand and waving me down. My pajama pants whispered to the dark house as I ran down the stairs, avoiding the two creaky spots in the floor, because the last thing I needed was to wake my mother, who, since Noelle’s disappearance, seemed to have gained superpowered hearing abilities. I sucked in a deep breath as I tiptoed through the kitchen and turned the lock and handle to the back door.

    The steps were cold against my bare feet, the grass damp and slick. The chill that enveloped me was instantaneous, but nothing bothered me as I swam through the darkness. I felt detached, like I was watching the scene from