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Chapter 2

"So…."

"So….."

"Eeenie meenie moe?" Sam raised her eyebrows and looked across her slice of pizza at her two eating companions.

Ephram smiled. He looks so pretty when he smiles, she thought as she smiled back at him, Or handsome. Whatever you prefer….

She giggled aloud, earning her seven raised eyebrows and a smirk. That one scary looking dude at the counter only raised one. She giggled again, and tried her best to raise only one eyebrow.

"Sam, what the hell are you doing?" Ephram laughed at her as she put down her pizza and raised her eyebrow with her hand.

"I'm trying to raise one eyebrow, what's it look like I'm doing?"

"I thought you could only do that when someone does or says something really stupid…" Amy-I-think-that's-her-name Abbot said skeptically.

"Well, then, in that case!" Sam turned around and stuck her tongue out at the man.

The man crossed his eyes at her.

"Moat! He's making fun of me! Make him stop!" It's amazing. Even when mothers complain that their children sound like babies, none of them have ever sounded like Sam did now. If I had a pacifier I would throw it at her.

"Shut up, Sam. You deserve it!"

"Could somebody PLEASE tell me what this 'Moat' thing's about? It's gonna bug me all day!" Amy said, sounding more than a little irritated.

"I want the truth!" Sam cried.

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!!!!" Ephram stage-bellowed back.

"You know what? I think I'm going home now." Amy placed her money on the table and grabbed her jacket. Big baby.

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Why doesn't she just jump on his lap? Amy thought bitterly as she grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair.

"Amy, you sure you have to go? It's only 4!"

That was Ephram. Or should I say 'Moat?'

Amy was getting sick of this girl. She drives into this town, looking like one of Amy's girlfriends, with her stylish clothes and pretty red hair, and falls all over one of Amy's close friends.

Amy had no idea when Ephram was promoted to 'close friend' status. He just was.

"Yes. Dad'll have a fit." Amy lied. She'd always been good at lying. She didn't LIKE to lie, heaven forbid, she just had the TALENT for it. She often wondered why she should have talent for something that she so rarely did, and wouldn't help her in an future career she was planning on.

Now she knew why.

It was to get her out of moments like these.

Amy didn't know why she was so bothered by that girl. She was perfectly nice.

AMY didn't know why she didn't like Sam.

AMY didn't know why the 'Moat' thing boggled her so much.

But then again, Amy doesn't know anything, does she?

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As he watched Amy walk from the cheap restaurant, Ephram felt torn. Like the cells of one side of his heart were tugging one way, the others another.

"You okay, Moat? You look like you're having a stroke." Ephram jerked his head from the door and looked at his old friend.

"Could you kill it with the Moat thing when she's around? She's just gonna keep asking what it means."

"And is that so bad?" Sam looked at him, hard.

"To me? No. To you? Yes."

And Ephram was entirely right. Sam didn't have many things in this world that were just hers. Moat was hers. Ephram belonged to Amy, to Delia, to Dr. Brown, to his mother, to all of his friends. Moat belonged to her.

Sam smiled, uneasily. Unlike Amy, Sam wasn't born a liar. She couldn't lie very well at all. In fact, it had taken her years to work up the meager skills she had. Unlike Amy, Sam HAD things she had to lie about. She had things she needed to keep hidden. So when Sam looked into Amy's eyes and saw how well SHE lied, and how much she disliked it, she thought to herself- Poor little rich girl.

Ephram, of course, was oblivious to Amy's deceit, Sam's possessiveness, Sam's struggles. He was even oblivious to his own oblivious state. Which can only be expect of one who is as oblivious as he was at that moment.

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Amy walked through the Evercrowded streets of Everwood. She smiled. I made a joke, she thought.

The icy wind combed through her hair as her mind was busy churning. She wished they had just answered the questions she'd asked. Then she would have been able to eliminate some of the awful possibilities that were racing through her head.

How exactly did they know each other? How did they meet? Why was she here? Were they 'together' together? Are they 'together' together? Were they at this very moment taking heed of her silent shoutings of 'GET A ROOM' and found a ditch somewhere?

Why did she care?