Title: Author: Liatli Disclaimer: I want Bright. Summary: future fic. Colin, Ephram, Amy, and Bright in college (about 21 yrs old- legal drinking age, at least) A/N: Oh, man, thank you guys SOOOOO much for the feedback! I LOVE it! I'm so insecure about my writing (owe it all to my bitch English teacher! Damn that old hag). I love it and I love you!!! **smooches!!!**

Part 1

"Ka-CHING!!!"

Bright rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth,

"I hate it when you do that."

Colin looked at Bright innocently. After all these years, he was still able to pull off the "coma-boy" look. Bright shook his head. He knew Colin was anything but innocent. In fact, no one in their little gang was innocent any longer. I guess it came from living in New York. Whatever it was, Bright was grateful for it. It flushed out what was left in them of Everwood. Bright's mood immediately darkened when Everwood popped into his mind. He didn't particularly care for Everwood anymore. It had been fine up until he had gotten to be about 17. Then, Everwood had stopped being the charming little town nestled between the mountains with the perfect views, the perfect people, the perfect life. He felt stifled. Everwood was too small for Bright Abbot. Not in a sense of physical capacity, but of mental capacity. Of emotional capacity. Small town people.just small towns in general weren't Bright's style. He had always pictured himself living in Everwood forever. But Bright was eternally grateful for the basketball scholarship that had helped him haul his ass out of the little hamlet in Colorado. Off to the big city. The big apple, if you will. Bright loved New York. Couldn't get enough of it. The dorm suite he, Colin, and Ephram shared in the building their Fraternity occupied at NYU was perfect. The city was perfect. His relationships with his roommates were perfect. His girlfriend was perfect.

Surprisingly, and some would say inevitably, shortly before graduation Bright and Ephram had settled their differences. Colin had realized, after his second surgery, that life was too short to waste and that, while he did love Amy, it was more of a brotherly love than a romantic love. Very soon after Colin and Amy's breakup, Amy and Ephram had started to date.

Ephram and Amy still were together, now, around 6 or 7 years later. In fact, they were engaged. Colin was still busy flitting from girl to girl. His current victim was a nice girl from Boston named Shirley. Bright had been dating a girl for a few months now. Her name was Colleen. She was beautiful. Long, platinum blonde hair and pale blue eyes, a smattering of freckles across her nose, and a tall, athletic frame. She was smart, Valedictorian of her class in high school. She was funny, results of her father being a stand-up comedian. Bright didn't know what was wrong with him. They had been dating for a while now, he knew she felt deeply for him.he just didn't feel more for her than slight affection. Enough to keep dating her, of course. But not enough to show excessive amounts of affection. She just thought he had a hard time showing his feelings. Colin thought he was going blind. Ephram.didn't really care. Amy figured maybe they didn't have the right chemistry. Bright agreed with Amy. Bright didn't know what he was going to do about Colleen. He felt bad, leading her on this way when he knew they had no future.

"Earth to Bright!"

Bright shook himself mentally as he came back to attention. Colin was waving his hand in front of Bright's face annoyingly and Bright grabbed Colin's wrist. He said, a half smile on his face,

"I'm back, Colin. Quit it."

Colin grinned and tossed Bright the basketball he had been dribbling while waiting for Bright to stop daydreaming. Bright knocked it away, released Colin's wrist, and began to walk towards the dorms. Frowning, Colin rushed after Bright. He said,

"Hey! What about the game?"

Bright shook his head,

"I forfeit. You win every time, anyway."

Colin grinned cockily and said, his chest puffing out,

"Yeah, well. Can't help it. It's just something I was born with."

Grinning now, Bright rolled his eyes. As they entered the room the phone began to ring. Bright picked up the phone,

"Hello?"

"Hello, is Colin there?"

Turning around, Bright found that Colin had abandoned the room. He called out,

"Colin?"

No answer. Shrugging, Bright said,

"Sorry, can't find him. Can I take a message or something?"

"Naw.I'll call back later."

Bright raised an eyebrow,

"You want me to tell him who called?"

"Nah. Thanks, though. Bye."

"Bye."

Just as Bright hung up the phone Colin walked in, dragging a towel behind him.

"I'm gonna hit the showers, man."

Bright nodded, flopped back onto his bed, and spread his arms out. He shook his head and called out,

"Try not to scare off the freshmen in there, C!"

Bright heard Colin laugh. Smiling, Bright dozed off.

* * *

Bright paused outside the door. Colin was talking to someone, obviously on the phone.

"-Me too.really? If they want to know, you can tell them.No, I haven't told them yet.I will! I promise. Just, give me some time, okay?.I swear.okay.yeah, me too."

When Bright heard the click of the phone being set back on the base, he walked in. Colin turned when he heard the footsteps. Bright walked in, a slight smile on his face, only a towel slung low on his hips. He said, sitting next to Colin on his bed,

"So, who was that?"

Colin shrugged and he said,

"A friend. He's the one that called two days ago, when I was out of the room."

"Ah. The mysterious one who wouldn't leave his name."

Colin laughed,

"His name's Shawn."

* * *

Amy danced into the room. She was smiling widely, her face bright. She said happily,

"We set a date! The weekend of July 25th. About a month and a half after graduation."

She clasped her hands to her heart and Bright couldn't help but smile. She was glowing. Ephram walked in after her, smiling happily, himself. He slipped an arm about Amy's waist and nuzzled the side of her neck. Giggling, she whirled around, threw her arms around Ephram's neck, and kissed Ephram. Bright feigned disgust and said,

"Eew! Get a room, guys."

Amy laughed and said,

"Get a life, Bright." She turned, "So, broke it off with Colleen, huh?"

Bright sighed and mumbled,

"Uh, yeah."

Amy sighed and smiled,

"Good. Hey, Bright, there's nothing wrong with you, hun. Maybe she's just not your type or something."

"Yeah, I guess. She wasn't very happy."

Amy and Ephram laughed.

"She'll live."

Satisfied, Amy turned back to Ephram. She said softly, batting her eyelashes,

"Carla's out of town.I have my dorm room to myself this week."

Ephram laughed and called as they exited the room,

"Later, Abbot."

Bright rolled his eyes, smiling. Just then, the phone rang. He picked it up,

"Hello?"

"Uh.Colin there?"

"Nope. You just missed him. Wanna leave a message, Shawn?"

A shocked silence settled over the phone. After a minute, Shawn said unsteadily,

"He.told you?"

"Told me our name? Yeah. Is that a problem, dude?"

"No! No, I just.never mind. Well, just.tell Colin I called, okay?"

Bright nodded,

"Sure thing, man."

He wrote Shawn's name on a pad of paper by the phone and drew a big 'C' next to it then doodled a picture of a telephone on the other side of Shawn's name. Shawn said,

"Well, bye, then."

"Later."

* * *

Colin was lying on his bed reading a book and Bright was listening to a CD with headphone when a knock sounded on the door. Colin shouted,

"It's open!"

The door opened and Danny, one of the guys across the hall, poked his head in. he said,

"Yo, Hart, I found someone wandering around lookin for ya."

Colin sat up and Bright removed his headphones. Danny pushed the door all the way open to reveal a tall guy with slightly curled strawberry-blonde hair and puzzled light blue eyes. When he saw Colin, the puzzlement vanished from his eyes and he took a step forwards, then hesitated. Colin smiled widely and motioned for the guy to enter. Colin called to Danny,

"Hey, thanks, Dan."

Danny nodded,

"No prob., bro."

Danny left and the guy walked in. Colin hopped up and shut the door, then led the guy to sit on his bed. Colin turned to Bright, who was staring at the guy, and said,

"Bright, this is Shawn. Shawn, my best friend, Bright."

Smiling, Shawn stood up to shake Bright's hand. Bright placed his hand in Shawn's and shook lightly, and then Shawn sat back down. He looked at Colin and said,

"Sorry, I couldn't find the building first, then I realized I didn't know your room number, so I was asking around downstairs. I figured someone would help me."

Colin grinned,

"I'm glad you visited."

Shawn smiled back, relaxing a bit. He said,

"I only came by for a moment, 'cause I've gotta be at Perry's in about 15 minutes."

"Perry? Oh, right. Your brother."

Shawn nodded and said, a hand resting on Colin's forearm,

"Well, I just wanted to say hi, so I'm going to go." He lowered his voice and said, "Charlie's at 7?"

Colin nodded, smiling, then stood up to walk Shawn to the door. At the door, Shawn took a step towards Colin, then glanced at Bright, sighed, and stepped back. He opened the door, smiled briefly at Bright, then at Colin, and left. Colin closed the door behind Shawn and said,

"So. You met Shawn."

Bright responded,

"Yep, I met Shawn. Colin-"

"I know what you're gonna say."

"No, I don't think you do."

"Yes, Bright, I do. So, he resembles you a bit."

Bright snorted,

"A bit, Colin?"

Colin shrugged, blushing,

"So, he resembles you a lot. It's just a coincidence, man."

Now was Bright's turn to flush.

"I know, it's just.a little weird, is all."

Colin looked down at his hands,

"I'm sorry."

"No! No, don't apologize, Colin."

Bright stood up and walked up to Colin. Colin said,

"I just.don't want you to be.freaked out, or anything."

"I'm not. Honest."

Colin glanced up at Bright, searching his face for signs of Bright lying. He didn't find any. A smile blossomed on Colin's face and he said,

"Wanna go shoot some hoops?"

* * *

Downstairs a party was raging. Bright was only slightly drunk, as was the brunette standing next to him. Bright leaned over and pressed his lips to hers quickly as he fumbled with the lock on his door. The girl responded positively, leaning into him to take the kiss farther. when Bright got the door unlocked, he pushed it open. They stumbled into the dark room and Bright felt the wall for the light. He flipped it on with a grunt of satisfaction. The girl pulled back the pull her shirt over her head, then shrieked. Surprised, Bright turned around. His face turned beet red and he had to grab for the nearest piece of furniture to hold himself up. No wonder the door had been locked. Bright managed,

"You could have put a sock on the door, man."

Colin was as red as Bright as he reached for his boxers on the floor. He got out of the bed and began to pace the room. Bright's eyes were still trained on the bed where another heavily blushing figure was hastily getting dressed. Colin walked back over to the bed and sat down, burying his face in his hands. A comforting hand rubbed circles on his back. Sighing, Colin murmured,

"I think.maybe you should go, Shawn. I think Bright and I need to talk."

Nodding, understanding, Shawn stood up. Avoiding eye contact with Bright, he left. Bright said to the girl,

"I think maybe we should take a rain check, doll."

The girl shrugged, still staring at Colin and said,

"Gimme your hand."

Absently, Bright held his hand out. He was aware of a slight tickle, then he felt her drop his hand, press a kiss to his cheek, and leave, closing the door behind her. Bright glanced down at his hand. The girl had scrawled her name and number. He murmured to himself,

"Beth. Nice."

Then Bright turned his full attention to Colin. He sat down on his bed, across from Colin and said,

"So. Shawn."

Colin echoed, nodding,

"Shawn."

Bright caught himself before he grimaced, then said, his eyes suddenly sad,

"Why didn't you tell me, man? Didn't you think you could trust me?"

Colin hopped up, then went to kneel in front of Bright, he said, grabbing Bright's hands,

"No! No, that's absolutely not it, Bright. I was just.afraid, is all."

"C, you had nothing to be afraid of. I love you, man."

Colin grinned,

"Sorry, Bright. I'm taken."

Bright laughed and leaned forwards to punch Colin playfully. Colin grabbed Bright's fist, his face suddenly serious again. He said urgently,

"So, we're cool?"

"Of course we're cool, Colin."

Colin smiled, relieved. Then he wiggled his eyebrows,

"So. That chick. She's hot."

Bright laughed,

"Yeah. Beth."