When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Chapter 15: Practice Makes Perfect (Part 3)

After dinner that night, Julie escaped to the front porch swing, her red notebook and one of her school books with her. She rested her head on her knees, drawn up on the cushions as she gazed out over the front garden.

She touched her lips. They still tingled from earlier today. She couldn't think straight. She wasn't sure she was able to comprehend what happened.

Was she just another girl to him? He could have been lying when he said that it was unusual and he wouldn't hurt her. Was she an idiot for having made out with him all afternoon?

But it had felt so good, so real, and all her worries went away for a while. She liked the escape. She wasn't sure she even liked him or how she could feel this way about him. Didn't you have to love someone to feel this way?

Of course she didn't really know him. Maybe she should give him a chance. Was that her desire speaking?

She wasn't so sure anymore. Her mind wasn't as made up as she thought.

It felt awkward writing all this down. Too much like a stereotypical teenager writing about a boyfriend in a diary. Julie didn't want to forget any of this, but it was way more personal than anything she had ever written before.

What if he bragged to others about this? What if Jamie found out? He would be so upset with her.

But Jamie was lying to her.

She shouldn't see Rory again. She didn't need this right now. There was too much other confusing stuff. She would tell him to go away tomorrow. If he even came. She realized he said he would see her soon. That was it. Her eyes narrowed. He hadn't made any promises—she should remember that. He had left with no reason and expected her to be there for him.

A flush came to her face as she thought about seeing him again, even to tell him to go away. Or tell him after they kissed a little.

There wasn't any harm in seeing him a little. A little couldn't hurt. Just once more. Then she would tell him to go away.

"Julie?" Andromeda called from the doorway.

"Yes?" Julie closed her red book and tucked it under the pillow on her lap, opening the other book to a random page.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Eh, reading my summer assignments." She held up Pride and Prejudice. "I know I've read this before, but I wanted to re-read it before next year. It seems different every time, you know?"

"It is only a few days in. Isn't it a little early to start?"

Julie shrugged, looking up at her.

"What else have I got to do? Kara is gone, and so is Muriel. I have no other friends, and the kids from the other school don't like me. I wonder why that is. At home lots of kids were friends with others who went to different schools."

Andromeda was silent. She needed to stop expecting comments like that to get a response.

"What happened between you and Marian?"

She frowned, but she came over to sit on the wide swing. Julie shifted over to make room, careful to keep the red notebook under a pillow. Andromeda stared out into the garden, and her face went from looking closed to sad.

"Marian was supposed to marry your father. I got in the way." The words were barely audible.

Julie sat up. "What?"

"Marian and I were friends growing up. When she started going to the other school, we lost touch. Like you see with Kara and her cousin Melissande. Your father went to the other school with Marian. They ended up together for a while. Then one day your father and I happened to run into each other again, and well...that was that."

"Why does going to the other school mean people can't be friends anymore? It doesn't make any sense."

"I agree with you, honey. But that is the way it is."

"But why?"

Andromeda didn't look at her. She kept her gaze fixed out over the garden. "I wish I could tell you."

"I'm so tired of hearing how much people would like to tell me something and not telling me. Especially from my mom and Jamie."

Andromeda looked back at her, eyes narrowing. Her whole body tensed up. "I can't tell you."

Had she gone too far?

Julie nodded and made her gaze focus on the garden. She let her eyes look like they glazed over. The older woman watched her for a minute and then looked back out at the yard, body relaxing again.

She tried to watch this out of the corner of her eyes. How many times had she faked this now? But having to do this with her family made her miserable every single time. Andromeda slipped away without even a backward glance, and Julie got up a few minutes later.

She fell asleep that night thinking about Rory and how strange everything was. Was he controlling her somehow? Maybe that was the game Jamie meant that night on the porch.

Could she stop seeing him? Did she even care?

In her dreams, she was walking along the beach, smiling and holding Rory's hand. But when she looked up at him, his eyes turned from gray to blue.

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