The next day before Ephram and Madison left to go back to school, Amy stopped by the house. Madison was in the kitchen making cookies with Delia when the doorbell rang. Ephram answered it, then stepped outside as to not let anybody know who it was. "hey you" he smiled, looking confused, "long time no see."
"Hey Ephram, Bright told me you were home so I thought I'd stop by."
"You never stop by the campus anymore, you should come see us once in a while! Madison's inside, you should come say hi!"
The two spoke for a few more minutes then hugged each other before Amy left.
Ephram didn't look too happy when he went back inside. When he went into the kitchen, the girls were having a blast.
"Oh, Ephram," Delia said as she threw dough at him, "Amy stopped by yesterday to see if you were home."
He scratched his head and lowered his eyebrows, "She just stopped by." he sighed and sat down at the table.
Madison leaned down to Delia, "hold down the fort!" and she went over to sit next to Ephram. "Why do you look so disappointed."
He pulled on the little patch of hair under his bottom lip and glanced at Delia, "…I'll tell you on our way back to school…"
Finally, the two got on the road to head back to school around 5:30pm, this time Madison drove back. When they got on the road, Ephram spoke, "…you know how you have some friends from high school who decide not to go to college for what ever reason."
Madison nodded her head as Ephram continued, "Well…Amy is one of those people…Our senior year everybody thought she was getting better, no more lashing out at anybody, no more lying…none of that…we were like best friends then…" he shook his head "then she started doing drugs…thanks to Tommy crack head…Even after he was sent away, she never changed. She's been living with Laynie for the passed two years. Laynie goes to school…Amy doesn't….I just felt….I feel helpless, you know."
Madison put her hand on the back of his neck to let him know she understood. To get his mind off it, Madison decided to play a game, "Hey, to pass the time, lets play 'I spy', what do you say?"
Ephram smiled, "you first."
The two played the game and other corny games for the rest of the trip home. Ephram's spirits were lifted. They got back to school close to 8pm and decided to go find Leah and Myka. When Ephram couldn't find Leah, he called her cell phone, "EPHY!" she cried happily into the phone, "come to room 343, we're having a party! No worries, there's no more than seven of us! Bright and Wendell are here!"
"I'll think about it" and he hung up. "Hey," he said to Madison, "wanna go to a party?"
"If I said no, what would you do?"
"Smile and be happy cuz I didn't want to go anyway."
"If I said yes, what would you do?" she smiled putting her arms around his neck.
"Smile and head over. As long as I am with you I don't care what we do."
"good answer." she said biting her lip, "but, I do have a long day tomorrow and I'm sure you have work to finish up…so how about we just chill for a couple hours before I have to head home?"
"sounds good." he smiled and kissed her.
Finally she had to head home and they walked to her car. Kissing each other deeply before she headed home. Ephram took off his hat as he headed to his room, smiling to himself.
