Warning: Minor swearing in this chapter. I know there has been some in other chapters, but there's more of it than usual in this one.
Chapter 8: Friends Are Like Comic Relief
Ephram and his friends sat in his room. It was a rather odd sight to see. Ten teens sprawled on the floor, the bed, and the chairs. They were reading manga books and talking about what was going on, even when the others said to stop because they would spoil it. [A/N: *cough cough* sound familiar Laura? Lol.]
"Hey Kay I got the new Inuyasha book," Ephram said.
"The fourteenth came out a while ago Eph," she replied, not looking up from the Chobits volume she was reading.
"No, not that one, the fifteenth."
"But how can you get the fifteenth, it hasn't come out yet."
"I know. I have connections."
"Like what, the quarterback?" said Jake from the across the room.
"Nah, he hates me. Actually, I'm friends with this guy who works at the comic book store. They sell manga books and anime tapes there too, so he lets me know when they get new shipments in and gives my stuff ahead of time."
"That's so awesome," Taylor said, from the floor by his feet.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. I was the only person in this whole town who knew, or cared for that matter, what manga and anime was, but finally I have other people to talk to."
"Oh come on Eph, you know you missed for other reasons," said Kelly.
"Yeah Eph, you know you missed us more than that," said Molly.
"No, not really." Suddenly Ephram had pillows, books, and shoes flying in his direction. "God guys, I was just kidding, no need to throw things."
"Ephram! I'm home!" his father called from downstairs.
"I'm in my room!" Ephram called back.
A few seconds later Ephram heard a knock on the door. "Go away," he said back. Instead the door opened.
"Ephram, I- oh, I see you made some friends."
"No dad, these are my friends from back home. If you'd been at home once in a while you would know that."
"Right, well, I just wanted to know what you want to eat for dinner."
"I don't care."
"Okay, I'll cook something then. Do you guys like meatloaf?"
"Yeah," was the answer.
"No, dad, you can't cook anything. It's bad enough that you try to poison your own children. Poisoning other peoples children is strictly frowned upon."
"Oh come on Ephram, it can't be that bad," said Amber.
"Hold on a sec." He walked out of the room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. When he came back he had a plastic container of what appeared to be pre-chewed spaghetti.
"Ew! Ephram, what the hell is that?"
"Leftovers from dinner last night. It was supposed to be lasagna."
"Okay, I'll pick up a pizza then," Dr. Brown said.
"Better make that like four. We finish off a pizza between the three of us," Ephram said.
"Okay," Dr. Brown said before leaving the room.
"Your dad's a nice guy. How come you're always so mean to him, and when you talk about him?" Skuzzy said.
"Think about it. We've all been friends since we were like two. You guys practically lived at my house. When was the first time you met my father?" Ephram asked.
"Just now," they all mumbled.
"Exactly."
"Can you make me a promise?" Ephram asked.
"Sure what is it?" Josh asked back.
"Promise me you won't eat anything my father gives you that doesn't come out of a take out container."
"Not a problem," Bryan said. They all agreed.
They sat there I silence for a few moments, but then Molly pulled out the latest issue of YM and all the girls crowded around her. They all began to read the different articles and giggle at the different stories.
Jake looked over at the group of them with a look of deep confusion on his face. "Why do they read that crap?"
The other boys just shrugged. They didn't have a clue either.
"Because it has information on clothes, make-up, celebrities, and other stuff. Not to mention the fact that it helps us to understand why boys do what they do, and what they think," said Amber absently.
"Basically it helps us understand fashion and YOU," Taylor added.
"Me?" asked Skuzzy.
"No, not you specifically, but all of you morons in general," said Kayliegh.
"Did she just call us morons?" asked Bryan.
"I think she did," answered Ephram. "Lets get her!" And with that the five boys attacked Kayliegh. Josh sat on her stomach so she couldn't get away, while the other four tickled her until she couldn't breathe. The other girls sat there laughing at her. They weren't going to help her because, first it was extremely funny and second because the boys would go after them too if they tried too help. However if they didn't help Kayliegh would kick their asses.
"AHHH! GUYS STOP! STOP! I CAN'T BREATHE ANYMORE!" Kayliegh yelled through her laughter.
"Ephram, I'm home. If you guys want food you'd better come now," Dr. Brown called up the stairs.
As soon as they heard that the five boys jumped up and started running towards the door of the room.
"Hey guys where's the fire?" Kelly asked.
Jake turned around and stared at her for a moment. "No fire. FOOD!" He stated sounding more like a caveman than a modern teenage boy.
"Oh because that really clears everything up!" Amber yelled after them.
About thirty seconds later Dr. Brown yelled up the stairs, "Girls, if you expect to eat in this decade you had better get down here now. The boys are eating all the food in the house." All of the girls laughed.
"We're coming!" Taylor shouted back. "And you boys had better save me some pizza or I'll eat you."
They heard a snort downstairs, but the sound of pizza boxes moving stopped.
*****
The next morning when Ephram woke up his house was very quiet. He wondered if he had imagined the events of the day before; his friends were NEVER this quiet. But as he went to put his feet on the floor they hit something squishy and he heard Josh's sleepy voice say, "Ephram, get your feet off my stomach before I kill you." Ephram moved his feet to the floor and laughed. At least he hadn't imagined it. Ephram tried to walk out of his room with out killing any of the boys sprawled across the floor. Unfortunately Bryan was right in front of the door and leaving the room would mean whacking him in the head with the door.
Ephram nudged Bryan with his foot.
Bryan rolled over and muttered, "Kay, go away. I have another hour that I can sleep."
"Bryan, you're in the way."
Bryan opened his eyes and looked squinted up at Ephram. "You're not Kay."
"And you're still in the way. Just move over so I can open the door."
Bryan rolled across the floor until he bumped into Jake.
"Thanks Bry."
Bryan waved his hand before going back to sleep. Ephram walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. As he walked in he saw he wasn't the only one awake at that hour. Kayliegh was sitting at the kitchen table sipping on a cup of coffee.
"You're up early this morning," she said looking up at him. "Well, early for you. It's 9:30."
"Really? Is it that early? I should've gone back to sleep."
"It's not too late, Grumpy."
"Yes it is. I won't be able to get back in my room."
"Why?"
"Because your stupid brother decided that the best place to fall asleep was right in front of the door."
"I hope you whacked him with it when you were leaving."
"Nope, but I kicked him to wake him up. And I stepped on Josh getting out of bed."
"Can you even walk around in your room?"
"No. Between the four of them they managed to take up all the floor space. I'm not even sure how. I've got a lot of floor space."
There was a knock on the door.
"Who the hell could that be?" Kayliegh asked.
"I don't know," he said walking towards the door. He looked through the window to see Bright standing on his doorstep.
"What the hell?" Slowly he opened the door. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to talk to that girl you were with yesterday."
"Which one? There are five of them."
"The one I was talking to."
"Okay, come in, I'll go get her."
Ephram then ran up the stairs and into the spare bedroom. He looked around the room. Kelly and Molly were asleep next to the bed, Taylor lay against the wall, but Amber was nowhere to be seen. He scanned the room once more.
"Guys, wake up," he said.
No one moved.
"Wake the hell up!" he yelled at the sleeping forms. Kelly rolled over and continued to ignore him. Molly sat up and glared at him. Taylor threw her pillow at him and then stole Molly's so she could go back to sleep. There was still no sign of Amber.
"Molly, since you're the only one who seem awake enough to speak-" he was cut off.
"Not by choice buddy."
"Right, well, since you can, where's Amber?"
Molly pointed at the bed, then reached out and grabbed her pillow back, so that Taylor's head hit the floor, hard.
"Molly, there's no one in the bed."
"Under it, dipshit!" she yelled.
Ephram walked over to the bed and lifted the bedspread so he could see under it. There was Amber, still asleep, under the bed.
"Why, are you under the bed?"
"What the hell do you want?" she said glaring at him.
"You have company."
"NOW?" she practically screamed.
"No, tomorrow. Of course now. You don't think I'd wake you up at 9:30 in the morning just to be mean do you?"
"Yes," they all said.
"Once. I did that once," he said leaving the room, Amber in tow.
When he got back downstairs he saw Kayliegh and Bright staring at the two of them and laughing hysterically.
"What where you guys doing up there? I heard a lot of yelling, and I loud bang," Kayliegh said, trying very hard to contain her laughter.
"Let's just say that you girls are incredibly hard to wake up." Ephram replied, laughing a little himself.
"And that loud bang was my head hitting the floor," Taylor said coming down the stairs, rubbing her forehead.
"There's coffee in the kitchen," Kayliegh said, knowing that would perk her friend up from the grumpy state she was in.
"OOOOO!" Taylor started to walk off in the direction of the kitchen.
"So how did you whack your head anyway?" Kayliegh asked following her.
"Molly. It's all Molly's fault."
"Hey, Kay, where's my dad?" Ephram said following the two girls out of the room.
"So um… tall blonde guy, what do you want?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you out. And my name is Bright. Bright Abbott."
"Oh that's right, you're that guy that was harassing us at the diner yesterday."
"Yeah, uh… sorry about that. I sort of hate Ephram. It's a long story."
"That's nice and all, but he's one of my best friends. I'm closer to him than I am to my own family. So why would you want to go out with me if I'm that close to your enemy."
"Because you're hot, and besides I'm going to have to learn to tolerate the guy eventually. I mean, my sister's like in love with him."
"She is! Really? Can I tell him that?"
"No. She'll kill me if she finds out I told anyone."
"But you're bigger than she is."
"Yeah, well, she's a tough girl. Anyway, will you go out with me? Tomorrow night. I'll take you to dinner."
"Yeah sure. Why not."
"Great. And by the way, you look beautiful."
Amber looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing and extremely large t-shirt and red pajama pants with reindeer on them, both of which almost swallowed her small figure (she was, after all, only 5' 2"). Her fuzzy slippers didn't help anything. Her dirty-blonde hair was a mess, sticking out in strange places from the bun she had put it in. To top it all of she wasn't wearing any make-up, but the mascara she had been wearing the day before had rubbed off, so her eyes had that oh-so-attractive raccoon look to them. She looked back at Bright and smiled. "Thanks, but I know you're lying."
"I'm not lying."
This made Amber smile even more, and blush a little. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. I have to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow." He bent over and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush even more. He then turned and left. Just before the door closed she called after him, "Hey Bright, do you even know my name?"
He stood in the doorway staring at her, blushing, and making it terribly obvious that he didn't. "No."
"It's Amber."
He smiled at her for a moment, then continued out the door.
The moment the door closed Amber heard gagging noises coming from the top of the stairs. Amber ran to the bottom of the stairs, only to see Jake and Josh standing at the top, pretending to stick their fingers down their throats, and puke on her.
"I hate you!" she said throwing one of her slippers at them, and missing by a foot.
"We're not the one dating Ephram's biggest enemy."
Suddenly Kelly's head popped out of the doorway to the spare bedroom. "Who's dating the tall stupid guy?"
"No one. Now go back to sleep," Josh said pushing her back inside and shutting the door on her.
"You both suck." She called up the stairs, before heading to the kitchen.
"Suck what?" the twins said following her
"I'm just going to ignore that," she said.
Kayliegh turned to the two boys that had just entered. "The two of you go back upstairs and tell everyone else to get their asses out of bed, and that as soon as they get down here they can have coffee then we're going to Mama Joy's for breakfast because Dr. Brown went to work but left us money."
They two boy sprinted back up the stairs. The three teens still downstairs heard a lot of crashing and yelling upstairs, and then in a record (for them at least) two minutes, everyone was downstairs and drinking coffee. Most of them were still in their pajamas, but at least they were awake.
*****
[A/N: Sorry this took so long. Between my homework, drama club, anime club, and GSA I've been rather busy lately. I was planning on finishing/posting this by the middle of last week, however, that didn't happen. I hope you enjoyed this. A look to the future: A softer side of Bright; Bright and Ephram face off. Okay that's all for now.]