A Mishap of Semi-Epic Proportions
Author: Kaia Mariacle
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: See title.
Spoilers: Season I
Author's Notes: This had been sitting in that dreaded WIP folder for months. You can pretty much tell where I started it up again, because I originally intended it to be an angst-fest, and when I started writing it again, it became much more fluffy.
Dedication: To all the hardcore E/C fans. Even if I'M veering off to B/E land, I know there are still some of you out there who are keepin' the faith.
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Ephram Brown's life wasn't very complicated.
For the first fifteen years of his existence, he'd been a New Yorker. Born and bred under loud, blazing streetlights and dinghy, splattered pavement. He'd known how to get to the subway station by the time he was eight, that Emilio's had the best Giambotta's, and why his friend, Zax, had two mommies.
He'd grown up with a small group of close friends. Friends who knew exactly how he got that scar on his left knee, and the reason he hated peas so passionately. None of them cared if his hair was purple, and they knew who the Alkaline Trio were.
And yeah, maybe his home life wasn't the best. His dad was never at home, but he had a surprisingly cool kid sister and a great mom to make up for it.
He'd had, what he liked to think, a pretty normal life in New York.
But then his mother died, and IT happened.
Everwood.
His dad went crazy, quit his job, and opened a free practice in some hole-in-the-wall town that Ephram had never even heard of before.
That no one had heard of before.
So Ephram brooded.
It wasn't an uncommon practice, he'd always been just a tad over the angst line, but with the recent tragic events, well.....he thought he had the right to it.
Then he met a girl, and a seemingly simple life became very complex
Her name was Amy, and while he wasn't engaged in battle with his father, or trying to dodge the morons at school, he was busy making moon eyes at her.
And she was busy playing with his heart.
Of course he understood it sucked that the 'love of her life' was in a coma, but did she really have to build up a friendship, even a -dare he say it- relationship with him, and then turn around and ignore him when her boyfriend woke up?
He hoped and prayed that when she looked into coma-boy's eyes, she'd feel nothing.
And then his life got even more complicated.
Because he met the boy, and he looked into the eyes of the person who was keeping him from the girl of his dreams.
And he found something that scared the shit out of him.
He found himself.
So while Amy cried on his shoulder, whining about how her precious boyfriend didn't even remember her name. Didn't even know anything about her. While she bitched and moaned, Ephram got to know the enemy.
And stumbled on a boy named Colin who was just as lost and confused as he was. Who wasn't very fond of the people of Everwood; the people who seemed to think he had to act a certain way. Be a certain person.
And man, could Ephram relate to that..
So by some small miracle, it turned out that the new, reborn Colin happened to have a lot in common with the native New Yorker.
And so their friendship began.
It wasn't until a year later, when Amy kissed him, that life threw another blinding curve.
Because Colin saw them, and ran off.
And Ephram didn't know how to tell him that it hadn't meant anything at all.
Didn't know how to tell him that when Amy had kissed him -again, finally- he hadn't seen soft, doe eyes.
No, he hadn't been able to tell Colin that it was hard, muscular planes he was imagining beneath his fingers. Thick, dark hair brushing his chin. Strong, lean hands caressing his back.
It was eight days, three hours, and eleven minutes until it all came to a head.
It started out just like any other day. His dad woke him up, they argued. Delia attempted to make waffles, but only managed to make crispy frisbees. He ran to the diner, and bought some bagels, ran back just in time to miss the bus.
So he rode his bike.
After an argument with his home room teacher, while Colin pointedly ignored him, and Amy made googly eyes at him from the front of the room, he sat down at his desk and listened to Rasputina to drown out the morning news.
It was at lunchtime when everything came to a head.
Amy screamed his name across the cafeteria, and Bright was sitting next to her, smiling wildly. The entire popular table stared at the Abbott's in shocked dismay, and Colin sat silently in the corner, eating his lunch, and not once looking up at Ephram.
And Ephram. He stared at the 'popular' table, stared at Colin, and slammed his tray onto a table in the corner.
And sat down.
And ate his lunch.
He wasn't trying to get anyone's attention, but Amy seemed to think that Ephram alone, meant that Ephram needed her to plop down across from him, and share her thoughts on whether or not she should cut her hair.
He was trying to ignore her, really trying. And at the same time pretending that Colin wasn't burning tiny holes in his back.
"Ephram?" Her voice grated on his last nerve. "Ephram, are you even listening to me?"
He sighed. "Why would I bother listening to this asinine conversation?"
Her jaw dropped, and he couldn't help but smirk.
"Ephram, I don't think we're going to make a relationship work if you don't even care about my problems!" She screeched, right into his face.
The cafeteria went silent, and everyone stared at them.
He stood, leaned across the table, and said very loudly.
"Fuck off."
Then he looked over at where Colin had been, only to find him gone. He grabbed his backpack, and stared at the open-mouthed girl.
"And I mean that in the nicest way possible." He finished, before grabbing an apple off her tray, and whistling a jaunty tune as he left, ignoring the burst of chatter that followed him out.
"Well, that was easy." He laughed as he made his way to the bathroom.
He stared at himself in the mirror, and grinned. Then he jumped up, pumping his fists as he shouted. "Now I can live my life stalker-free!" He pointedly ignored the little voice in his head that jeeringly reminded he had been the stalker at one point.
He jumped when the door slammed loudly behind him.
"What was all that about?"
Ephram stared wide-eyed at Colin. "Um....huh?"
"That thing?" Colin answered, crossing his arms. "That thing you just said to Amy in the caf?"
"Oh, um, yeah.....that." He scratched his eyebrow. "I was kind of getting sick of her."
"What?!" Colin's bellow echoed through the small bathroom. "I back off, try to stop checking out your ass, and you dump the girl you're supposed to be madly in love with?"
"Madly in love?" Ephram gave the other boy a dark frown. "I NEVER said I was madly in love with her!" He shouted. "And I certainly never asked you to stop staring at my ass."
"What the Hell was that kiss about then?"
Ephram threw his hands up. "That was Amy mauling me!" He growled. "Her damn Octupi hands and her stupid, girl parts!"
Colin scowled. "It didn't look like that to me."
"Jeez, C." Ephram sighed in exasperation, and moved until their shoulders brushed softly. "If you had waited a second longer before running off, you would have seen me gagging at the obscene amount of spit from that disgusting kiss."
"But-"
"Hush." Ephram said, placing his hand over Colin's mouth.
"Mrhppph!"
"Hey," he whispered, turning to trap Colin's body against the wall. He gazed hungrily into bright, green eyes. "The moment her lips touched mine, all I could think about was you."
"Really?" Colin sighed as Ephram replaced his hand with his lips.
"Yeah."
~Finis~