The Dark of the Night More Inviting Than the Sunlight

Sky’s Point Of View

I sat in Mr. Howard’s office with Quinn and cried as he wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. I felt so bad, so useless, as I sat there without knowing what was bothering my best friend, and it felt as if I should have noticed that something was wrong.
Quinn held me tightly as I sobbed quietly. I wanted to know if Dawn was okay, what had happened to her and to hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

The door opened slowly and Mr. Howard stepped inside, he looked at me with a pained expression on his face. “I’ve noticed that I can’t stand girls crying…” He mumbled with a sigh and I managed to smile weakly.

“Is Dawn going to be okay?” Quinn asked, and he wasn’t using that very upbeat, happy voice of his. “Dawn is going to be alright, she just needs to catch up on some sleep… but, I have a few question about Dawn’s past… its quite important, can you tell me anything about her past?” Jeph asked us.

I let out a shaky sigh, those sighs you get after crying for a little while. “Well…” I started but bit my lip in thought. “When did all of this start…? Or…” Jeph questioned, unsure of what to say next.

“I guess it all started when she was ten, her mother committed suicide and… I guess she’s never really been the same since that happened. She’s grown up too fast… I mean, she’s still a kid, right? And she acts like she’s so much older. Not in a teenage-wannabe-old kind of way, but really mature if you get what I mean” I told Mr. Howard.

Howard stared off into space and nodded slowly. “Anything else?” he questioned us, I was on the verge of tears again.

“I-I don’t know for sure…” my voice cracked slightly and Quinn hugged me tighter for a while, encouraging me to continue “But she always seems to be really down whenever she walks home… and we haven’t visited her place in forever and…” I started to cry silently. “And it feels like it’s my entire fault!” I choked out.

I wiped my tears and looked at Quinn; he had a pained, sad expression upon his face. An expression I had never ever seen on the usually happy Quinn Allman. We continued to talk for a while, tears still falling from my face as Quinn tried to comfort me.

Suddenly the door burst open with a loud bang and in ran Bert McCracken. “Sky! What’s wrong!?” He shrieked, as he wrapped his strong arms tightly around me. “What the hell did you do to Sky!? Why is she crying?” He roared at Jeph.

Jeph’s eyes went wide in shock.
“He didn’t do anything, Bert. I’m not crying because I’m in trouble” I mumbled against his chest. “Oh… really? Heh, sorry teach…” Bert said apologizing to Jeph, Howard nodded as if to say that it was okay.

“Then why are you crying, baby girl? I don’t like seeing you cry…” Bert then mumbled quietly in my ear. I explained what had happened quickly and why we were in here. “Ooh…” He said understanding our situation. “No need to feel bad though, love… If she didn’t want you to know there’s not much you could do about it” He told me.

“It feels like I could have tried harder” I muttered childishly. Jeph smiled at us before he left the room. “I think I’ll go find Dan” Quinn said with a sigh as he too stood up. I sighed too, wondering what to do now.

“Hey, I have an idea…” Bert said thoughtfully “Why don’t we have this weird girlish sleepover-party this weekend?” He continued, I noticed that he said the word ‘girlish’ and ‘sleepover-party’ with a real weird voice “So that we can make sure that Dawn’s alright, we’ll just have some fun and try to cheer her up a bit or something”

“That sounds like a great idea” I replied, smiling as I pecked his cheek. He smiled at me and grabbed my hand as we walked out of there. I wondered where Dawn was and if she might be needing a hug or something.

I chewed carefully on my bottom lip as I thought about where she might be. I decided to walk over to the nurse’s office, holding hands with Bert on the way there. He sat down on an empty chair and made me sit in his lap, waiting for the red little “The-room-is-busy-button” to turn green instead.

I figured that Dawn was probably in there so I knocked softly on the door. Branden opened the door and I saw Jeph and Dawn sitting in there talking, Dawn was actually smiling and the sight made me happy.

She looked towards me and saw my tearstained face, the pained expression got back to her face. “Oh no! No, no! I’ll just go, you never saw my face! You’re happy talking to Jeph! Shoo” I said before walking out the door again, before the door closed I hear a light giggle escape from Dawn as she said “I love that girl”

It warmed my heart to hear her say that, it made me feel better about myself even though I should be feeling guilty. I smiled to myself as I walked over to my boyfriend and sat down in his lap burying my head in his chest and wrapping my arms around his neck.

He sighed contently and kissed the top of my head before his muscular arms made their way to my waist in a loving hug. I shot a glance at the door and heard mumbling noises from there. The rain was smattering against the windows in a calm rhythm making me tired, wanting to sleep.

“Go to sleep, baby girl” Bert murmured against my cheek as I closed my eyes, dreaming about a better place on earth.