A/N: Italics aren't cooperating so I've replaced all thoughts with asterisk (*).

At the Hart's

"What'd he say?" Amy asked eagerly, barley giving Laynie a chance to get inside.

"He said no," The brunette simply stated.

"Why?" Bright asked surprised and disappointed.  He was upset that Ephram had declined the invitation because he really wanted to see what it was about "The Kid From New York" that always made his sister cheer up. 

Laynie just kept quiet.  She really didn't want to tell the others about the words exchanged between her and Ephram…some things were just too personal.  Although she knew that a large part of Ephram's reason for not going was because he didn't want to see Amy and Colin together, she couldn't help feeling a little responsible.  But of course that was buried in the depths of her carefully hidden soul.

"You can't really blame the guy," Colin said after his sister's silence.  "We haven't been treating him too great."

Amy was about to speak up but decided against it.  She had treated Ephram the worst of the four people sitting in the Hart's living room at that moment.  She had ripped his heart out and she had crushed said heart repeatedly, yet he still always ended up by her side when she needed him the most.

*Why?* she asked herself.  *Because he loves you* was the answer.  She knew that.  She had known that since Ephram had.  And she loved him back.  But she also loved Colin and so she had chosen Colin because he needed to be saved, and whether or not she wanted to or admitted it, she needed to be saved as well. She needed to be saved by the only person who ever could save her- Ephram Brown and that thought scared her completely.  She was perfect, she was the heroine of the town, homecoming queen, and that had left her so very lost and empty.  But no matter how scared she was of facing reality, that voice inside her kept nagging her to lose her fears and turn for salvation, and with each passing day it grew louder and louder.  That's why she was relieved when Ephram had said he wouldn't go.  That nagging voice was to the point where it was almost impossible to suppress and she knew she'd live out her worst fears if she were to be trapped in a car with him for a very long time.  Everwood's Dark Prince had turned her world upside down once, and now that she had it back to where she had it, she wasn't about to let it end up upside down again.  No Ephram was bad for her.  Ephram would bring her out of her own coma.  Ephram was the only thing she had ever truly wanted or needed.