Caution! Fragile

Chapter: 11 A Day With The Dawson's

Nate's POV:

I had another restless night of hardly any sleep. I keep having a reoccurring nightmare where I'm in the car with Elliot, talking and laughing just like old times; the next thing I know, we're swerving off the road and crashing into a tree then everything goes black and I'm calling out his name, but there's no answer. I would usually wake up gasping for air, sweating bullets, having to keep telling myself it was just a dream.

I wasn't there the day Elliot died, but I can't stop thinking of ways I could've stopped it from happening. I'm surrounded by the guilt, it consumes me on a daily basis and I don't know how to make it stop; some people call it 'Survivors guilt', whatever the heck that means.

Once I finally calmed down, I got out of bed and walked down stairs to the breakfast table. There, I saw my mom reading a book and sipping her cup of tea. My dad was reading the newspaper and drinking his cup of coffee, he preffered it black. Our cook, Rita, was frying eggs and bacon at the stove as well as squeezing freshly picked oranges for juice.

I saw a familiar face in between my parents, someone I hadn't seen in a couple months, my little sister Kim. She was sitting at the table, on her phone looking bored out her mind, and didn't seem to realize I was there. "So Kimmy, you come home and you don't even notify your big brother, I'm hurt." I teased as I rested a hand over my heart, what can I say- I like to be a little dramatic.

Kim's head snapped up and her eyes lit up when she saw me and she smiled so big I was worried her jaw would break. "Natty!" She exclaimed as she jumped up and ran over to me. She crushed my ribs in her famous bear hug- I had a feeling she missed me.

"Careful Kimmy, I can't breathe here." I choked out.

She giggled, "sorry," before she finally released me.

Kimmy was 16, about 5 feet tall, skinny but built making her crazy-strong, and literally weighed only 80 pounds. Besides that, she had crazy blazing red hair, blue eyes identical to mine, and pale skin even though she could spend hours outside.

Kimmy and I have always been really close; Elliot and I were always "The Dawson Brothers" but Kimmy and I had a different connection. I'm her big brother, she was the annoying little sister; we fought, we argued, She hated me, I hated he.. In the end we found common ground and we loved each other in our own crazy way. While my parents were busy taking care of Elliot and making sure he was okay, they often forgot about Kimmy- which meant I had to step in and take the role as the parent to look out for her. When Elliot died though, my parents became even more distant from her and I was too broken to take care of my sister; something I will never forgive myself for, I let her down when she needed me most.

Kimmy couldn't handle it anymore so she begged my parents to let her go to boarding school, just to get away from our dysfunctional family. It didn't take much though, they wrote that check faster then she could finish her question. So Kim's been gone off and on for the last three years, only having time to come home for the summer. What can I say- I've missed the crazy girl.

We sat around the table, chewing on eggs and munching on bacon, just like we used to. Nothing has changed, I thought to myself.

After a long silence, Mom cleared her throat as she placed her cup of tea down. "So how has school been Kim?" she asked in her motherly tone.

Kimmy perked up, "It's been fine, you know it's school, but it's fine." She states. My parents glance at each other and back at Kimmy. "I'm thinking of studying English for college and becoming an English teacher" she continued.

A smile spread across both of my parents faces "That's fantastic Kimmy! Which school? I'll write the check right now." My father said. Oh great here we go I thought.