Chapter Four: Unfamiliar Feelings
~Ephram~
September 28, 2002
You know, it seems weird not to start these entries with 'Mrs. Young - today I got up, and wished I hadn't. Went to school, and wished I hadn't,' and so on. It's amazing how much I've changed in the past few months. Things that used to be important now seem stupid, and things that used to be stupid now seem important. Life in Everwood still basically stinks. Colin and Bright aren't messing with me as much, but that probably won't last. I have a feeling my life is about to get a lot more complicated.
There's really no use beating around the bush with you, since you're not real anyway, so I might as well just come out and say it. I think I have a crush on Amy Abbot. Yep, a stupid, high school, teenage crush. I guess it wouldn't be so bad, if Amy wasn't Amy. But she is: beautiful, funny, sweet, extremely popular, and out of my league in every way possible. And to make matters worse, she's also the girlfriend of Mr. Colin Hart, my apparent arch enemy. If Colin finds out I have a thing for Amy, not that I'm planning on telling anyone or anything, he will most likely beat the crap out of me, or worse. Then again, from what she told me today, things aren't exactly going the best between her and Colin . . . Oh well, I shouldn't get my hopes up. Even if things don't work out between her and the King of the Jerks, it's still not like she'd go after me . . .
*****
Ephram felt himself being jerked awake by some nagging force. He opened his eyes, and then re-closed them. Reality was slow to penetrate his sleepy state.
"Ephram! Wake up!" he vaguely heard his little sister Delia say.
"Saturday . . . no school," me muttered, rolling over.
"Ephram please get up . . . I'm bored."
Realizing that his sister wasn't going to go away, that and the fact that he most likely wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway, Ephram sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes, "What time is it, Delia?"
"It's almost a quarter 'till 12:00."
"Really?" Ephram asked surprised, he usually didn't sleep that late.
His little sister nodded, "Ephram, I want to go to the movies."
"Get Dad to take you," was his reply.
"Dad's busy. He said he had to make some 'house calls'. He told me to get you to take me."
"Dad's busy? What a surprise," Ephram muttered darkly, getting out of bed. The last thing he wanted was to go see a movie, but he didn't want to disappoint his little sister. It wasn't Delia's fault she had been cursed with a crappy father.
"What did you want to see?" he asked reluctantly.
The little girl grinned, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
Ephram groaned.
*****
Ephram and Delia made their way to the back of the line at the ticket booth. Delia was jittering excitedly, but Ephram wasn't paying any attention to her. He was once again struck by all the differences between Everwood and New York. When he had gone to the movies back home, yes he still referred to NY as 'home', there had been at least 10 different box offices at each movie theater. Here, there was just one, and barely anyone was waiting in line for it. Ephram's thoughts were interrupted a few minutes later, when he noticed a familiar flash of long silky hair headed towards the back of the line. He casually glanced back again, and sure enough, saw Amy Abbot standing alone in line. Yes, she was quite alone, and she looked rather depressed. Ephram frowned, wondering if he should go say something to her. Amy was one of the few people who had been nice to Ephram, but he still wasn't sure if they would be categorized as "friends". Before he changed his mind, he grabbed his sister by the hand, and headed towards the end of the line.
"Ephram!" Delia whined,"We're going to lose out spot!"
Ephram didn't comment. Delia had already insisted they show up to the movie a half hour early, so they weren't at all in jeopardy of missing anything. Not that he would have minded, considering the fact that watching Harry Potter for three hours was not exactly what he had had in mind for this Saturday.
"Amy?" he said, approaching the pretty girl.
"Ephram, hi!" Amy said, flashing him a genuine smile. She actually looked a little relieved, but Ephram wasn't sure what to make of that.
"How are you?" he politely inquired.
"Good, you?"
"Same . . . are you here alone?" he asked, instantly regretting the question when he saw a look of sadness flashing over her face.
"Yeah, actually, but it's no big deal."
"Well, what are you seeing? Maybe you could sit with us," he suggested, surprised by how nervous he suddenly was, waiting to hear her response.
"That would be great! I was going to see Corky Romano, what about you?"
"Well, er, we were going to see Harry Potter, but I we could see Corky Romano instead," Ephram said, not believing what he had just proposed. Why the hell was he suddenly so anxious to see the same movie as Amy??
"Ephram! No we can't!" Delia whined.
Ephram looked down at her in surprised . . . he had momentarily forgot about his little sister, actually.
"And who are you?" Amy asked with a kind smile towards Delia.
"I'm Delia," she responded, suddenly shy at having the older girl's full attention.
"Oh yeah," Ephram cut in, "Sorry, Amy this is my little sister, Delia, this is Amy."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Delia. Actually, I've been wanting to see Harry Potter myself. I think I'll just see that with you guys, instead."
"Really?" Delia asked, quickly getting over her shyness, and grabbing Amy's hand, "Have you read the books?"
"As a matter of fact I have . . ." The two began a rather confusing conversation, concerning things which Ephram had never heard about before. He had a feeling he was in for a long movie.
*****
Several hours later, the three exited the movie theater. Ephram had a headache, Delia was incessantly rambling on and on about how great the movie had been, and Amy was listening quietly, with an amused expression on her face. Amy and Delia had hit of almost immediately, and neither one of them had said barely a word to Ephram throughout the movie. He wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not.
Amy suddenly turned to Ephram, "Ephram, I'm really glad I ran into you guys today. I honestly wasn't up to watching a movie alone." She was looking sad again.
"Hey, I'm glad we ran into you two. It was fun."
Amy nodded, "Well, I guess I'd better . . ." She gestured over her shoulder. Was it Ephram's imagination, or was she looking regretful?
"No, Amy! Do you have to go? Why don't you come over to our house for a while," Delia suggested hopefully.
"Delia, Amy doesn't want to -" Ephram began, embarrassed.
Amy cut him off though, "Actually, I wouldn't mind coming over, if you don't mind, that is. I really don't have anything planned for the rest of the day."
Ephram looked over at her, surprised. Amy Abbot wanted to spend the rest of her Saturday at his house? Wouldn't she rather be spending it with all of her lovely, popular friends?
"What? Oh, no I don't mind at all. C'mon lets go."
With that the three of them started off towards the Brown house.
*****
It was around nine that evening, and Delia has just gone to bed. Amy was still there. She had spent the whole day there, including eating supper with them. She had seemed like she was having a pretty good time, too. Ephram was a little nervous having her over. It wasn't like he had the best home life, in fact, his father still wasn't home. And of course, his Mother wasn't there either. Ephram glanced over at Amy, suddenly realizing that she probably didn't even know about his Mom. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'If she doesn't ask, I'm certainly not going to offer it up.'
"Do you want to go sit outside or something?" Amy asked suddenly.
"Oh, okay," Ephram replied, leading the way to the swing on the front porch.
The two sat there in a companionable silence for a while, until Amy said quietly, "Thanks for letting me come over today, it meant a lot."
"It was no problem. You're welcome here anytime. Besides, Delia loved you."
"She's a sweet kid."
"Yeah," Ephram said, nodding in agreement.
"Actually," Amy began, almost uncertainly, "Earlier at the movies, you probably didn't notice, but I was actually kind of depressed. I didn't exactly want to be at the movies by myself. "
"So why were you?" Ephram asked, hesitantly urging her to continue.
"Well, I wanted Colin to come with me. He's been promising to take me to that movie forever, but well, he was 'busy' yet again. He said he wanted to hang with the boys today. He wouldn't tell me what they were doing, though . . . it was probably something bad, anyway," she sighed, then continued, "Yeah, well we actually sort of got into a teeny fight. I mean, it was really weird. Colin and I, we've just always been great together. But lately . . . things seem like there just changing. Like he doesn't have time for me anymore. I know, I know, it sounds incredibly melodramatic, but , well anyway, I was pretty mad when I got off the phone. Today was the last day Corky Romano was showing, so I just decided to go myself. I was in a really bad mood, but then I saw you and your sister. You guys really brightened up my day," she ended with a grin.
Ephram smiled back at her, not sure of what to say. He wanted to tell her that he thought Colin was a jerk, but he wasn't sure she would appreciate hearing that.
Amy, mistaking his silence, quickly said, "But I'm sorry, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is hear about my problems. Anyway, thanks for putting up with me today, I'll see you in school." She quickly got up to leave.
"Amy, wait!" Ephram said, standing.
"Yeah?"
"You didn't get to see Corky Romano."
She looked at him confused, "I know, but it's okay. Harry Potter was fine . . . "
"But today's the last day it was showing. The last movie is at 9:30, I'm pretty sure . . . do you want to go?" He was breathing hard, not sure where he had found the guts to just ask her that.
Amy started laughing, as her eyes lit up with excitement. "It would be okay, you wouldn't mind?"
"Not at all," he grinned.
"Okay, let me just call my parents and tell them I'm going to be late."
"Okay, I'll be right back." Ephram ran inside and scribbled a quick note saying that he too, would also be late. Ephram grabbed his coat and met Amy at the door. Grinning at each other, the two headed off into the night, both momentarily forgetting all of their problems.
A/N : Well, what did you think? Please, review and let me know. Also, I realize that technically Harry Potter didn't come out until November of 2001, but the only other kids movie from Fall 2001 was Monsters, Inc, and I didn't want to use that, so just bear with me. Okay, done rambling. *hehe* Bye everybody!