Disclaimer: Yadda yadda. I don't own anything I didn't make up. God this is getting tiring e.e
A/N: I now have a new, very good friend by the name of Nick. ^_^ He role plays Ephram, and very well I might add. Anyway, some of the ideas in here, wouldn't have happened without his aid. Also, there's some new developments in this chapter. And I'm sorry, Nick, I just altered it a bit to fit my story :P Hope you enjoy :) Anywho, on with the story! And please, R&R!!!!!!!!
A/N2: Umm. Street names may differ. I don't know the names exactly so I'm just making it up xD Don't hold it against me.
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Amy sighed as she turned off her computer, her mind reeling from a little fight she'd had with Ephram over the internet. Seems he'd had quite enough of being snuffed and ignored by her, though she didn't mean to be SO rude, though she knew she was. Standing up, Amy walked over to her bed and flopped down, kicking her shoes off and slowly peeling away her socks. Within a few minutes, she'd changed her clothes and she was slinking into bed. With a gentle groan as her back ached when she stretched out, she slowly fell into a deep sleep.
But all was not so at the Williams residence. The young daughter was anywhere but near rest. She'd shut herself in her room, crying, and not allowing a soul to talk to her. The call they received was from the doctor, reporting that her parents weren't doing any better, in fact, they were getting progressively worse and worse. Their minds were slowly coming to a stop, though they would wake up and move around in bed, it was nothing compared to what they were like before the crash.
" Crystal, are you going to come out to dinner?" When there was no reply but a feeble sob, Grams frowned even lower than she had been and quietly padded away from the door in her slippers, sitting next to her husband. She sat there for a few moments, her face looking very troubled. One daughter-in-law was near death, and one grand-daughter was locking herself away from the world. She just hoped Crystal would go to school and make herself some new friends for support.
The next day at school, Crystal looked like hell and death, sliced through a blender then thrown into a fan. No makeup was on her face, which was too scrunched into a perpetual scowl for anything to be applied anyway. Her clothes were regular lounge-type...a team shirt and ripped, dying jeans. She didn't care about the looks she got. Had she ever, after she came here? After glaring at a few preppies, she stormed into the school and walked to her locker briskly, opening it up and leaning in, tears beginning to fall again silently as she stood there.
Classes went normal, and began to numb Crys's brain, almost as if -she- were in the hospital as well. 'If only...' she thought to herself. In the halls after school, Ephram finally decided he would try one last time to see if he couldn't bring her out, but as he stood next to her by their lockers, Ephram was approached by Amy. Crystal had acknowledged his prescence as he walked up, and didn't really want to talk, so she'd ignored him. When it seemed he was about to talk to her, another girl walked up to him. She glanced at the girl and the boy, but upon hearing the tone that the conversation went, she quickly decided they were not romanticly involved. Either that or they had a very rocky relationship. Either way, it wasn't her business.
Days went by, still, to no real avail to Ephram, though he did get some conversation out of her. Well, it was more like, "Hi." and "Bye." and "Nope." and "Yep." Not a whole lot, but it was a start. Every day, by the lockers. However, she still seemed perpetually upset and sad over something. Ephram just wished he knew what. He wanted to help her. He knew what it was like being new, and lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it) for him, he at least had had Amy. This girl, she had nobody. He watched her a little from the corner of his eye, frowning at how sad she seemed that day.
Her hand raised and wiped the tears that had been mindlessly rolling down her cheeks, even though she wasn't feeling herself cry. She looked up and down to move her eyes at least, training the rest of the tears back. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Crystal turned and closed her locker, wiping more tears off her face an involuntarily whimpering, quickly closing her mouth after she did. Too late, though. Ephram turned and looked over Crystal for the first real time that day, seeing even how her body was quivering all on it's own.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her, as he saw her begin to wipe more tears away. Maybe this tough girl wasn't all she was cracked up to be, as she slowly looked like she was tearing down a wall. Her voice was cracked, and overclouded by painful tears and huffs, which would explain the little noises she made when she attempted speech the first few times. She had been holding it in all day... the free crying, the talking, the shaking. Finally, the wall was tore down, and the river surged through.
"No, I am not okay. I'm the exact OPPOsite of okay." She began pouring out. She knew he wouldn't mind, and if he did, that was his own damn fault for trying to get her to open up to him. "You know why? Do you know why? Do you even want to know why, Ephram Brown? Well I'm sure you do because you keep talking to me so you must obviously want to know why. And if you don't, it's your own damn fault." Yep, true to her conscience. Always was, always will be. As the halls cleared, she was still standing there with Ephram, telling him all that had happened, from moving, to the plane crash, to her parents being in the hospital.
"Wow..and wow..and again, I state, wow." Was all Ephram could really get out in between her crying bits of speech. He would have given her a hug, but he wasn't too sure she wouldn't punch him straight in the nose for it. However, that day, she looked like she could really need one. So, mustering his courage, he opened his arms and gently pulled her against him. Caught off guard, Crystal stopped moving as he embraced her, looking at him, and slowly resting her arms around his back, continuing her sobs into the nape of his neck. When she calmed herself, she let go of Ephram, and looked at him with new eyes. For the first time in quite a while, a smile broke it's way onto her face.
Ephram smiled, quite satisfied with himself for withdrawing a piece of Crystal's inner feelings. She still looked very broken, and began to withdraw into herself again, pulling her arms back around her waist. Sniffling, she turned back to her locker, pulling her backpack out of it and stuffing it full of the books she'd need for homework that night.
"You going to be okay now?" He looked on as she busied herself, her head nodding and shaking. "Is that a yes, or a no?" She turned around, closing her door gently for once, and slung her bag around her shoulder. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, Ephram. Go talk to that girl who was coming up." Ephram's attention turned as he thought she meant Amy. "Was she blonde? Looking really pissed?" Crystal blinked, but nodded. "Then even more pissed and then sad." She pointed down the hallway that she went.
Ephram turned to run off where she gestured, but stopped, looking at her, as if for permission. Crystal smirked and nodded. He set off, and taking this as her signal to get lost, the girl walked out a different door, so's to not seem like she was following him. She looked around, and frowned as the bus seemed to be gone. A look at her watch confirmed she'd have to wait another half hour until it would come back to the stop. Huffing, she walked indignantly to a bench, brushing off some melted snow to sit down, jumping slightly as her rear seemed to freeze as soon as she sat.
Ephram ran out into the main parking lot, looking around to see if Amy were still there, though she were most likely leaving in Bright's truck. He sighed and seemed to punch the air below him as he scowled. "Damn it!" The exclamation startled a few passerby's, staring at him oddly as they walked on. He looked behind him, just to be sure she wasn't just leaving. Though instead of Amy, he saw Crystal leaving the building. She looked just as disappointed as he did, and decided not to bother her, and walked over to his bike. He started to unlock it, and then tugged it to freedom.
Sighing, Crys stood up and just decided to walk. She'd freeze to death just sitting there, her rear becoming one with the bench. She started walking down a road before she looked rather dazed and confused. She turned around, and looked at Ephram as he was approaching her with his bicycle. Smirking, she flagged him down.
"Stalking me, now, are you?" She asked him accusingly, waiting for him to slow to her walking pace. "Yeah, nothing like stalking your friends to show you care." Was his answer, returning her smug look. "Well, as long as you enjoy yourself. ..Friends?" She tilted her head a bit, as if confused. "We are friends, aren't we? I mean unless you have momentary lapses of insanity and that hug back there was one of them." Ephram grinned at her, and held his hand out, now walking his bike along. Crystal took it, slowly, her grip was like a bodybuilder's, possibly because her nerves were on high alert as of late.
"You , ah...don't happen to know where La Herron Street is, would you?" She asked a bit timidly, not wanting to sound too needy, but truth be told, she was rather lost and just hoping she could wander enough to find her way home. Her eyes were downcast, slightly embarrased from asking for help. And Ephram, in turn, noting her hesitation nodded. "I should, I live on it." Crystal's face picked up as she looked at him excitedly. "Yeah?! I mean.. you do? Cool. Can I stalk you home? Maybe I'll skip the bus, who needs excersize?" She grinned at him, waiting for him to answer.
"Sure. If you can catch me." He smirked and sped off down the street, turning the next corner onto a rather less-than-travelled road. Crystal gasped and gave chase, running after the boy, laughing as she turned the corner as well, shouting threats. "I'm gonna get you, Brown!! Just you wait!!" Though, her laughter stopped as she looked on in horror at the sight that lay ahead of her.