AUTHOR: always krissy
RATING: PG
PAIRING(S): Ephram/Amy implied, Ephram/Colin implied
It's awkward for Ephram.
He still loves Amy.
He will always love Amy.
She filled his gap when he had nothing but memories of his old life left. She was his reminder that life went on, despite the annoying buzz in the background that tried to bring him down. His father, his life, Bright, his father... It all made sense when Amy was near. It made him want to strive to be better. It made him want to accept the world.
There were problems, oh yes there were problems, but they always managed to understand one another. They always managed to find one another again, despite the pain, and doubts, and awkwardness.
But now Ephram isn't sure they will survive Colin's homecoming.
Ephram isn't sure he wants it to survive it, to tell the truth.
He finally likes knowing Amy's true intentions. He likes knowing that he is finally knowing the real Amy -- the Amy who really only does care about what the popular kids think. That she was using him, and nothing he says can change it, and he also likes knowing that he and Colin can laugh about it privately. They know.
It's awkward for Ephram.
He is beginning to love this boy -- this boy everyone loves -- that is a mere copy of him. He looks like Colin, and sounds like Colin, but he isn't Colin.
Ephram marvels in the fact he is the only one that knows this.
They share whispered conversations about the "cool crowd" long after the sun sets. They laugh at how stupid Bright is -- yeah, like Colin wants to pick on the new freshman kid. Instead, when Bright and his pack leave him, they pick the pieces up. For him, and for them.
"It's us against them," Colin told him the first night they really became friends. Ephram nodded, giving an honest grin (one of the first ever), and one hundred percent agreeing.
Ephram didn't mind Colin's mask. He saw it all the time, but unlike with Amy, he knew it really was just a mask. Because he didn't know what was under Amy's mask until now, and now, he realized, she never wore one.