Light of Dawn Ch. 01

"I'm doing you a big favor here. You've hooked up with a senior on your first day of college. You have no idea what this will do for your reputation." She seemed to perk up, unaware that the senior in question was little more than a human cheat sheet.

"You know most guys would be horrified if their little sister got a reputation for hooking up with seniors."

"I'm not most guys."

"Lucky for me," she said, leaning her head against the window. "So what's in it for you?"

"Excuse me?"

"What possible reason would you have for setting me up with some senior guy, or any guy for that matter, unless you were promised something in return." She brushed off his feigned innocence. "I know you, Jeff. I know you don't do anything nice for anyone unless it benefits you. So what were you promised?"

She did know him, a hell of a lot better than he knew her. "A history paper."

"A history paper? You're pimping your little sister out for a history paper?!" She sighed. "The disgusting part is you're so much more intelligent than you pretend to be." Jeff groaned. He hated little girl lecture time. "If you would have taken your grades more seriously in high school you could have earned a scholarship to areal university. Instead you end up cheating your way through some no-name degree factory like Choteau."

Choteau may have been a small school with big financial woes but it was far from a degree factory. "Sure, I could have studied hard and went to Princeton or Yale orFlorida State," Jeff admitted, "but where would that leave you? Waiting around in the parking lot for Daddy."

"I'm so lucky to have been born your sister," she said, sticking out her little pink tongue.

"Don't ever forget it."

After a few seconds of quiet she continued, "you can do better. I know you can."

"I can," he agreed, "but as long as I can throw a football I don't have to."

"So that's your plan? Coast through the rest of your life playing the dumb jock. It's so pathetic how lazy you are. What if you get hurt, what if you don't make it to the pros? So many---"

"Drop it, alright?" Jeff put enough force behind his words to silence her. The thought of him getting moral guidance from an eighteen year old kid was ridiculous. When would she understand? He wasn't in the market for a new mother.

He merged onto the interstate, accelerating to pass a tractor trailer. Jeff chanced a peek at Dawn. Her bloodless fingers curled around the strap of her seatbelt. Muscles in her arms and legs, normally concealed beneath a layer of soft skin and flesh, tensed as he accelerated, relaxed as he slowed.

A rural landscape replaced the sprawling college town. For the next twenty miles the road seemed to disappear as Jeff navigated an amber sea of corn and wheat. Dawn's arms flexed as she worked the stiff crank that opened the passenger window. With a groan that begged for lubrication, a gap in the window appeared. A breeze of sweet scented air seeped into the cab, teasing her long hair. Another revolution of the crank opened the window further. A gush of warm air poured into the cab. Her red locks whipped fiercely, rippling like wildfire.

"Can I drive tomorrow?" she asked, her voice barely audible over the rush of air.

"Hell no," he barked. "You think I'd let a chick drivemy car? The deal was for your little ass to ride in the passenger seat at all times."

Dawn covered her mouth to intercept a giggle. "What about thatother place you wanted my little ass to ride?" Silence was his answer. One little comment would haunt him forever.

Dawn yawned and stretched her back and arms. She propped her legs on the dash. Creamy and smooth, every inch of those legs begged for attention, attention he would have willingly given had they been attached to any other girl.

Dawn kicked off her sandals. The leather soles slid off the dash, thumping against the floor. She stretched her legs and wiggled her little pink toes. Another yawn parted her lips. Jeff gripped the wheel tighter. Her naked legs were sure to leave smears on the immaculate vinyl. "I waxed the interior yesterday," he said.

"I waxed my legs yesterday," she countered. For some strange reason that piece of information made his cheeks warm.

"Get your damn feet off of the dash." He seized her baby-smooth calves and forced each foot to the floor. Jeff cursed under his breath. Their arrangement was doomed. Dawn would be riding with Dad by the end of the week.

***

The Thunderbird pulled into the driveway at six. Daddy was waiting outside the garage. "Sunshine!" Vince Kramer hugged his little girl before she could escape the seatbelt. He held the door for her as she climbed out. "Tell me all about your first day as a college girl."

He was crazy about Dawn. She was the infallible ray of sunshine that lit his life. "It was amazing Daddy," she lied. Dawn had found college strikingly similar to high school, except on a larger, slightly less rigid, scale. "My Literature professor was really nice. We talked for twenty minutes after class." She was rather proud of that fact. Sixty students in one class and she had impressed Professor James the first day.

"You didn't make a good impression because you're special, Sunshine. You made an impression because your shorts barely cover your ass." Ice and fire were equally mixed into Jeff's insult. "Maybe tomorrow you can forget the bra and go for a spot on the dean's list."

"That is not the way you talk to a lady, especially not your sister."

"And you're such an expert on women. What is this your twelfth year without a date?"

Daddy ignored Jeff's insult. His eyes passed over Dawn's outfit, rapidly appraising the short shorts and baby doll t-shirt. "I think you look cute."

Dawn wanted to groan (she really did) but Daddy meant no malice. No matter how bold her choice of clothing, she would always be his little girl.

Jeff and Daddy had nothing more to say to one another. Once again the two weren't speaking. It seemed like they were never speaking. She had grown used to the silence. The house grew colder and lonelier each day but she preferred the tense peace to the unbearable shouting matches the two men had regularly engaged in.

Dawn wished her family could go back to the way it was when Mom was still around, when everyone got along, but Jeff and Daddy were both too proud (stubborn actually). Their fights, while never physical, were terrible things to witness. Daddy had a short fuse where Jeff was concerned and her handsome brother was capable of saying some truly ugly things when provoked. There were no awful words tonight, just that lonely silence. Jeff never came in for dinner. Dawn shouted his name from the garage door, calling him once the frozen pizzas had been crisped but Jeff opted to ignore her. Remaining outside until well after dark, he fiddled with the radio dial in his car.

That stupid car. She rued the day Daddy had brought it home from the charity auction. It was supposed to be a peace offering, a way for Daddy to get close to Jeff as they spent their weekends restoring the vintage auto. That was the idea anyway. Daddy soon found out that the only thing worse than living with Jeff was working with Jeff.

So that's how it was. If he wasn't at school or on a football field or on a hot date he was under the hood of that car. It was his turtle shell, the place where he could hide from the world, more specifically hide from his family. He was incapable of loving anyone the way he loved that hunk of lifeless steel.Maybe that's his problem.

To be continued...

Thanks for reading the first chapter of my second novella. I hope to have a new chapter up every week. Be sure to rate the story by clicking on 1-5 below. And don't be shy about leaving public comments and/or sending me private messages.