The Dark of the Night More Inviting Than the Sunlight

Sky’s Point Of View

I was on the verge of tears when we were done with the detention with Howard, I think he saw me because he bit his lip and looked very guilty. I mumbled quietly under my breath “What is up his ass today?” Dawn just shrugged and frowned a bit.

Jepha actually looked really sad and troubled. I wondered what was wrong, but I guess it’s none of my business seeing as I am only 17 years old. I looked at him with a tiny frown and tilted my head slightly to the right as to see if something really was wrong. He looked pretty stressed out, I think he needed some time off.

I sighed as I changed my clothes and said good bye to Dawn. On my way home it started to rain, brilliant. Just fucking brilliant! I look down and walk a bit faster. “Watch where you’re going, Stevens!”

I heard a voice say, shit it was Mr. I-am-cranky. “I’m sorry, Mr. Howard” I said quietly and got up from the ground. I can say that Mr. Howard was not my favorite teacher today. “I’m sorry… shit, I’m sorry Sky, today has not been the best… shit” he said sounding stressed as he grabbed his hair and pulled on it a bit.

I smiled weakly at him “It’s ok to have days like that, Jeph… but next time I’d appreciate if you didn’t make us do pushups… I can’t do those” He laughed and ruffled my wet hair, I frowned jokingly and said “Well, see you in school then Howard”

“Yeah…” he mumbled and walked away. That was… weird. I did my homework but got stuck at math. I sighed and dialed Bert’s number… fucking genius. “Yeah?” He answered his phone. “Hey Bert!” I said happily.

-time elapse-

Class was really messy this wednesday and I felt really sorry for Jeph. He actually left the room after a while, but no one but me and Dawn seemed to notice. I stood up on my chair and screamed "Would you all shut the fuck up!?" Everone went quiet. "Fuck, thank you monkeyfaces!" I yelled and left the room to search for our teacher.

I walked around aimlessly and I said "Mr. Howard?" Once or twice.
I heard quiet sobbing sounds from around the corner.

There he sat, on the ground crying silently. It made me scared, I'd never seen a grown man cry before. I walked over to him silently and sat down beside him. "Hey, what's wrong?" I said softly to him. He looked up at me, he looked like a sad little puppy and I had to fight the urge to go "Awww".

I bit my lip, unsure what to do next. Hesitantly I wrapped my arms around him in a hug and let him cry on my shoulder. His sobs slowly turned into silent tears. "Hey.. Howard, don't be sad. You look like the saddest little puppy I've ever seen! And you're not even a puppy!" I said, desperate to get him happy again. He let out a tiny laugh and sat up.

"I yelled at the class a bit for you..." I said and looked at my hands. I looked up to see that he smiled a bit at me "Yeah? What did you say?"
"Uhm.. something along the lines of "Shut the fuck up" and "monkeyfaces".." I said and made it sound like a question. He laughed and ruffled my hair again "Nooo!" I whined. I heard quick footsteps and a worried voice that said "Sky? Where are you? What if Howard gets back and you're all gone! How fun will that be!?"

Me and Jeph looked at eachother and laughed a bit "I'm here Dawn, And so's Howard"
"Oh shit" she cursed with a laugh, I looked at Howard and saw his eyes light up as he heard her laugh. Oh, he's so into her. And she's so into him, I know it.

"Sky, the whole class was silent after you yelled at them! They were so shocked! Haha"
I raised my eyebrows "Oh my God, really?" I said and burst out laughing. "Sky, you've got to scream at all of my classes... that's what I'm going to have you doing at your future detentions!"

Dawn laughed and Howards eyes lighted up. Fuck yes. I smirked to myself and stood up.
"Come on, Dawn, we can't sit here all day... we're going to get detention" I said and winked at Jeph jokingly. He smiled and stood up too "Thanks girls, now run to class"

"We're not supposed to run.." Dawn said with a smile "Meh, do it anyways," He replied with a childish grin, it made him look really kind.

I smiled at him and Dawn and I ran off to class, we weren't late, surprisingly.