Free When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) by Kathleen Rovner Page A

Her mind felt weirdly fuzzy, like someone cocooned her anger and frustration away. She didn’t feel as upset about moving anymore. She lay there watching the clock tick off, ignoring her body’s urging to get something to drink. It was 4:15 now. She didn’t feel like moving or doing anything ever again. This apathy wasn’t like her, this blankness about her family crushing her dream. It felt like someone had slipped into her room and taken her drive to care about anything.
    Maybe if she didn’t care about anything, it would hurt less.
    Hadn’t her parents said they were leaving today? They were going to pack up a bag and let other people move their stuff. Her eyes started stinging in pain. The tears hurt. She welcomed the pain. It was better than being numb.
    Would she get a chance to say goodbye to her friends? They were sleeping now. They were planning on going to school and having a normal day. This was just Monday to everyone else.
    And she would just not be there.
    The clock ticked off another minute. 4:21. Pulling her arm out of the covers, she reached for where she kept her phone. It wasn’t there. She felt around for a minute and then pulled her arm back into the covers. She had her phone yesterday when she woke up. She had left it downstairs on the kitchen island.
    Julie lay in bed and watched a few more minutes tick by, debating what to do. She didn’t feel like doing anything. She wanted to let her friends know what was going on. 4:37. Her throat ached.
    She threw the blanket off to sit up. The act felt like it took every ounce of her will to accomplish. Somewhere in her mind, she fought off a voice to relax and lie down. Everything would be all right. There was no reason to be upset. Just be okay with all this.
    She shook her head, bent over, and put her head in her hands, fighting the urge to go back to sleep. How could she be tired? She must have slept all day yesterday and most of tonight.
    Julie took a few deep breaths and stood to do some stretches from her normal dance warm up. She willed the familiar tingling feeling over her muscles and mind. As soon as she did, the apathy fell away, and some of her anger returned.
    Dancing always made her feel better. She smiled.
    She walked quietly to her door and peered into the hall. There was no one there. All the cracks at the bottom of the doors were dark.
    Julie hesitated for a minute but quickly turned to throw on jeans, socks, and a sweater. No one ever said she couldn’t say goodbye. She wasn’t going to ask. No one had asked her about moving.
    Her fists clenched until they turned white, and her face was hot with her anger. She took another deep breath. She needed to stay calm if she was going to sneak out.
    She crept down the hall and down the back stairs to the kitchen, planning on going out the back door. Julie stopped midway on the turn in the stairs as she realized that the light was on. There were muted voices.
    Her parents were up.
    She debated about trying to sneak out the front door instead, but then thought she heard her name. Creeping down a little more to hear better, she stopped on the last stair that was concealed by the wall before the stairs opened up to the large kitchen. She could picture her parents sitting at the large white stone island sipping coffee and eating breakfast like she had seen a thousand times before. Like everything was still the same. Her eyes stung.
    “I don’t blame Julie for being upset. I couldn’t even face her yesterday. I don’t want to move back either.” Mom’s voice sounded hoarse like she hadn’t slept.
    “I know you don’t, but you knew when we decided to have children there was a possibility we would have to. There aren’t enough marriages like ours. How could we know one way or another? It seemed like the kindest thing to assume the worst and move out here.”
    “I know, it brings back painful disappointments for me, and I hate to do the same thing to Julie.” Julie could picture Andromeda