The Dark of the Night More Inviting Than the Sunlight

Dawn's Point of View

"So. What's going on between you and Bert?" I asked Sky with a knowing smirk. That day we spent our time in the school's cafeteria during gym class, the rain was pouring outside so we hadn't bothered to leave the school building.

"Wh-wh-what are you talking about?" she laughed nervously, blushing slightly.

"You're blushing, how cute!" I teased her, she just shoot me a glare and took a sip of her strawberry tea. "Okay, I mean seriously, you were actually studying mathematics at his house last night. You hate math!" She started coughing.

"So what if I did? I just don't want to fail math class, that's all," she was avoiding my glance.

"Oh, come on Sky! We're supposed to be best friends, you can tell me anything! You do like him, right?" She sighed deeply as I said this.

"I guess I do..." She smiled to herself, obviously thinking about him. She really must be in love with him, I thought to myself.

"Of course you do! He seems like a pretty nice guy too, he's good-looking, smart and fun to be around," I said.

"Oh yes, he is..." she agreed. She was about to start daydreaming again when I spoke.

"So what did you two do last night?" I asked with a huge smirk plastered on my face.

"We were studying! For fuck's sake Dawn!"

***

It was Friday again and Mr. Howard made us stay after English class so that he could have a word with us about Physical Education. He looked at us for a moment before he finally spoke.

"Okay girls, you're obviously not planning on attending any of my PE lessons anytime soon, so I'm going to make you an offer. You are going to run lapses with me every Thursday morning 7 o'clock. That makes up for one missed gym class lesson a week and that way you'll be able to get actual grades in Physical Education." Mr. Howard explained to us. Poor Sky groaned from beside me, she really wasn't a morning person at all. "But there are actually two gym class lessons a week and that only makes up for one of them," he continued with a smug smile. "So as long you're not attending one of the lessons you will receive a detention every Friday morning before school start."

"I won't do it!" Sky groaned. "I really can't stand early mornings!"

"Well, either it's that or I'll have to call your parents so that we can have a meeting and discuss the importance of physical education and health," he said causing Sky's eyes to widen. "So what's it going to be?"

"I'm in," I sighed with my eyes resting on his tattooed arms. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt that day, so his muscular arms were exposed for everyone to see. 'I wonder how he manage to keep himself in such good shape,' I thought to myself before it hit me. 'Right, he's a PE teacher...'

"Okay, I guess I'm in too," Sky finally sighed and Mr. Howard seemed satisfied. We were about to leave when Mr. Howard called us back.

"This was your last lesson for the day, right?" he asked.

"Um, yes?" Sky looked at him questioningly.

"Well, I haven't punished you for this week's missed classes yet," he smirked.

"Oh," Sky said. This time it was my turn to groan.

"But sir! My father and brother are coming home tonight, I have to prepare dinner for them," I objected.

"You should have thought of that earlier, Ms. Jones. You decided not to participate in class, now you'll just have to deal with the consequences, take a seat." Sky sat down by her desk with a dejected sigh, while I on the other hand didn't.

"But you don't understand sir!" I objected once again. "I'm going now." I was about to walk out the door when he called after me.

"Ms. Jones! If you walk out that door right now I'm going to call your parents," he said sternly.

"You mean parent," I corrected him coldly as I passed him on my way back to my seat.

He made us write another extra task for English and do homework for about 50 minutes before we finally had the permission to leave. I shot him a death glare on the way out and told Sky that I really had to hurry home. She understood and hugged me before we went separate ways. I ran the whole way home.

"How come you're home so late?" my father, that I hadn't seen for about six weeks, demanded to know once I walked through the front door.

"I'm sorry dad, we were having this group project at school and we had to stay an extra hour to get it done," I explained. He shot me a glare and I looked down on my feet. "I'll start making dinner at once."

"Dawn this smells wonderful," Liam, my brother of twenty, said wrapping his arms around me from behind when I was in the middle of cooking dinner. I spun around and threw my arms around him. I hadn't been seeing much of him since he started college, which was a shame since we were usually really close. I was so glad to see him that I couldn't prevent the tears of joy from flowing down my cheeks.

"I've missed you so much," I sighed and breathed in his scent.

"I've missed you too."

The three of us ate dinner together for the first time in about two months, so it felt really awkward. I had cooked a vegetarian dish of food for myself, whilst Liam and dad ate the meat I had prepared for them.

"This is really good Dawn," Liam said smiling at me from across the table and I smiled back at him.

"Are you still only eating vegetables?" my father asked, critically looking at my plate.

"It's called vegetarian food, dad and it's not only vegetables," I explained.

"It's still all nonsense," he muttered in response.

After dinner dad wanted to have a word with me. At first I thought that he was going to rebuke me for being late, but to my surprise he smiled at me and said that he had brought me a gift as a late birthday present. He told me to go to my room and look. On my black writing desk by the window there was a brand new lap top. My mouth was wide open and I actually started crying in joy once I realized this was for real.

"Thank you so much dad," I cried and threw my arms around him. He froze for a short moment before he patted my back clumsy. I let go and smiled up at him, thinking that maybe he had changed.

'Hope only brings disappointment.' I wrote in my journal 2:33 AM the following Monday, tears were staining the page and my body was sore from the beating. 'If Liam was here, this would never have happened...' I thought sadly to myself as I closed my eyes to sleep.