Fall Back Skyward (Fall Back #1)(28)

I take a long, shuddering breath and exhale, pushing the sheet off my body.

Damn Florida weather and its sudden thunderstorms. I hate feeling helpless and scared.

Swinging my legs off the bed, I climb to my feet, pull the T-shirt over my head, and toss it in the corner. I head to my dresser, grab a clean tank and scuttle out of the room before the next round of thunder. Right across the hall from mine is my mom’s room and the one at the furthest end of the hallway, near the bathroom, is my dad’s. Elise’s stands between a guest room and Elon’s.

I stop in front of Elon’s door, which is next to mine, turn the door knob and enter. The next roll of thunder has me sprinting in the dark toward Elon’s bed, stumbling and trying to right myself. My knee hits the side of the bed and I double over as pain stabs that spot repeatedly and mercilessly.

“Stupid son of a cross-eyed dragon!” I curse furiously while rubbing my knee.

“Nor?” Elon’s surprised voice, croaky from sleep, pulls me out of my stupor. I glance up but I’m only able to see the outline of her head in the dark. “What are you doing?”

I straighten and crawl on the bed. “Can I sleep with you? It’s raining outside. . .”

I don’t need to finish the sentence because she knows that storms scare me. She nods quickly, scoots toward the wall and pats the empty space beside her. Once I slip under the sheets, I whisper, “Thank you.”

I feel her hand move down my arm and stop when she finds my fingers.

“Always,” she whispers back, linking our fingers together.

Seconds later, her breathing steadies and my heart finally settles into its normal rhythm.

I probably should be embarrassed. I’m the older sister. I’m supposed to be the one offering refuge to my nine-year-old sister. I stopped feeling embarrassed when I realized that my sisters accepted me with all my oddities and scars.

Finally, I close my eyes, feeling at peace.




The next time I wake up, it’s twenty minutes past eight in the morning. I clutch my chest, trying to breathe through the tightness trapped there, but I feel as though my lungs are dying from lack of oxygen. My body shutting down, every part of it turning numb.

Oh God.

I hate losing control over my own body. I hate that, years later, the memory of my dad’s angry face illuminated by lighting still triggers fear inside me, sending me into full panic mode.

With one last glance at Elon sprawled across the bed, softly snoring, I slip out of the bed, careful not to jostle it too much and tiptoe out of the room. When I reach mine, I change into my running shorts and head downstairs. The house is silent, so I assume my mother and Elise are still asleep. After shoving my feet inside a pair of tennis shoes, I rush out the front door, hungry to find the relief running gives me. Humid heat slams into me the moment I step outside. The ground is dry with no evidence of last night’s storm. As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, I’m off in a furious sprint, feeling the muscles in my legs snap into action.

Finally, I can breathe.





STEPPING OUT OF THE FRONT door of my house, my attention is drawn toward the Blake’s house, like it has been since Nor moved in, automatically finding Nor’s room. There’s a white ladder on the side of the house that leads to her roof, which was built by the elderly couple who owned it previously. That room belonged to their son, who moved out almost ten years ago.

I’ve seen Nor climb out the window at exactly ten o’clock every night since she moved in next door. She settles in on the jutting roof and lies there, contemplating the night sky. Half an hour later, she clambers back inside her room and disappears from sight.

Waiting for her every night has become an addiction to me and I can’t shake it off. She fascinates me, this girl, for reasons I cannot explain. What does she see when she stares at the sky?

I stride toward my car, open the door and toss the sketch pad and pencil case on the passenger seat. Then I slide in the front seat, forcing my mind to stop obsessing over the girl next door. Dad is meeting a prospective client downtown, who is looking for a firm to do a complete overhaul on an old residential complex. He opted to go with my dad’s company, BH Architects & Builders, instead of contracting different firms to do the job. He founded his company ten years ago. It has come a long way from operating in the little room he’d built in our backyard, to renting a plush office in town. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard in my life. After many late, sleepless nights in the office, it finally paid off. BH Architects is now one of the top ten architectural firms in Florida. I hope to join him one day, which is why I will be attending Eastern Lake University, starting this fall to study architecture.

I pause when I see movement in my peripheral vision. I turn around just in time to see Nor, looking cute yet still sexy in a white T-shirt and bright pink running shorts, race out of her front door and sprint down the street as though Hell Hounds are after her ass.

I glance from the door and then back to her tiny frame moving farther away from me.

What’s going on?

Worried that something must be wrong, I start the car and peal out of the parking spot. Gripping the wheel with both hands, I duck my head, searching the road ahead for her red hair and pink running shorts.

Where the hell did she go?

I slow down the car to a cruising pace and look around for any signs of Nor. I pull up on the shoulder of the deserted road and hop out of the car, my gaze scouring the woods. I’m about to give up when I catch a glimpse of pink through the trees on the path that leads to St. Christopher’s Church on the other side of the street.