Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Everwood characters. I just love them
dearly.
Ephram walked into the auditorium to start rehearsing. He set his book bag down and searched for some music. He laid it up on the music holder on the piano, closed his eyes, and started to play. He completely let go as he pressed down the keys to the ever-familiar song. After it was over he opened his eyes scribbled something down on the sheet. He then pulled out a peace of music he had been working on. It was for Lilly. He knew that he had tried this with Madison; he had a feeling that Lilly would appreciate it more. He scribbled on the sheet and then put it up so he could read it. He started to play and gave up half way through. He thrust his hands down on the keys in frustration. He couldn't make it sound right. He was never going to have it finished by her birthday, which was next week. He knew that he could just go out and buy something, but that would feel so mundane. He had remembered the way she acted when he told her that he had wrote a song for Madison. She said she had always wanted someone to do that for her. Ephram sighed and scribbled something down. Just then He saw someone come into the auditorium. He was surprised to see that it was Lilly. She smiled and came down next to him. He quickly stuffed her song into his pocket.
"What are you working on?" she asked laying her head on his shoulder.
"Just things the professor asked. Why are you here?" He said arranging different music and started to play.
"I was tired of hearing about who was wearing what, when and what she spilled on it. I wanted to be with you," she said as she kissed his cheek.
Ephram smiled and leaned in to kiss her on the lips. He lifted his hands from the piano, put them around her waist, and pulled her closer. She responded by wrapping her arms around his shoulders. All of a sudden they heard the door open and they pulled away immediately. When they looked to the door they saw Amy standing there with a look of disgust on her face. She stormed out of the auditorium and Ephram ran after her, leaving Lilly by herself.
Ephram ran towards her as she made her way down the hall. When he finally caught up with her he spun her, forcing her to look at him.
"What?" Amy asked through bared teeth.
"What is wrong?" he said looking into her eyes. He could see that she was hurt and it killed him. He had always loved Amy, and it was hard to see her sad.
"Nothing is wrong. Why would anything be wrong? I mean, I only just witnessed you in a make out session with your girlfriend," she said trying to pull away, but he had a tight grip on her shoulders.
"I know you, you're not okay. If you would just come out and say what is wrong then you wouldn't feel or look so depressed," Ephram said with a look of concern in his eyes. She did look terrible. She looked as if she hadn't slept in days and hadn't washed her hair either.
Amy looked at him with detestation. "Fine, I'll tell you," she said trying to fight back tears. "I don't think this is fair. You said you wanted us to work, but you turned around and cheated. You said you loved me and now you're with someone else. Why? Why do you want us to be apart when I want us to be together?"
Ephram kept looking into her eyes. She was pleading with him to come back to her. Nevertheless he couldn't. At one point in his life he would have killed himself to be with Amy, and now he was turning her down. "I just can't do the me and you thing. I would have loved to do that, but I can't. But I do care about you, I hate that you're hurting and I want you to just let me go. Even if we dated though, I would always wonder if Colin was on your mind. You never stop thinking about him or standing up for him. You just have to let go,"
Amy looked at him in confusion. How could he say that? She was over Colin, plus that was her boyfriend and he died and she was still going to think about him. Without noticing it she had started to cry. Ephram hugged her and she laid her head on his chest. When she finally brought herself together she pulled away.
"Thank you, Ephram. I really needed that," she said and then walked away.
He turned and went back to the auditorium and found Lilly still waiting, looking through his music. When he came in the room she looked up at him and sighed.
"What happened?" she asked when he sat down.
"I think she's okay now. So, where were we?" he said with a mischievous smile as he leaned into kiss her.
Right when Lilly put her arms around his shoulder though, the bell rang. They pulled back and sighed.
"Can you skip next period?" Ephram asked hopefully.
"No, I have Latin and Mr. Adams would kill me if I wasn't there. We are learning about Cato today," said Lilly grabbing her purse and her books.
Ephram sighed and grabbed his books. He walked Lilly to her class and then went to his own. On the way he thought about what he would have to do to make Lilly's song better.
The bell rang and Lilly ran out her classroom door. It was finally the end of a long Monday. She went to her locker and opened it; she shoved all of her books in there and then pulled out her bag for practice. She met up with Daniel and they went down to the gym together. Halfway there, Ephram caught up with her. Daniel smiled at him and kept walking. Ephram slid his hand into Lilly's and kissed her neck. Lilly giggled pushed him away since she was ticklish. When they made it to the gym they kissed each other goodbye and Ephram left. Lilly stared in envy as he left the school, wishing that she could go home and nap. Daniel nudged her and she turned around. Coming towards her was Amy. Lilly looked at Daniel to see if she knew what was going on, but Daniel just shrugged.
"Can I talk to Lilly alone for a minute?" Amy said as she reached them.
Daniel nodded a little unsurely and then left. Amy pulled Lilly to the side, and started to bite her nail. Lilly noticed that she didn't look angry or tense; instead she looked relaxed and friendly.
"I'm sorry that I was rude to you and caused you to fell unwelcome, I just felt unwanted and I wanted you to feel the same. I'm sorry," she said sticking her hand out for Lilly to shake it.
Lilly took her hand and they shook. Amy left and Lilly went back over to Daniel. When their coach, Claire, called them they ran over to stretch. Lilly couldn't help but think if Amy was sincere. She seemed to be, but she could be faking. Why would she fake? Just so she would put her guard down so she could make a move on Ephram? Lilly tried not to think about it, but in the back of her mind, she couldn't stop wondering.
Ephram sat in his car waiting for Lilly's practice to let out. He had finally had a break through with the song that seemed to go perfectly with Lilly. He scribbled on the paper bearing down on the steering wheel. Ever once in a while he would hit the horn and the people parked in front of him would flip him off. When he was done he leaned back and looked at it. He had to hear it. He looked at his watch to see if he had time to run to the auditorium. He had ten minutes. That wasn't enough time, but he needed to hear it immediately. He taped his fingers on his leg and then finally he got out of the car and ran. If he got there quick enough and ran through it, he would be back in time. He ran through the halls and down to the auditorium. He pushed the doors open and ran to the piano. He set the music down and went through the song as quickly as possible. It was perfect; to him it reminded him of Lilly. He laughed and pulled the song down. He had forgotten his hurry and slowly walked back to the car. When he got outside he noticed that Lilly was by herself leaning against the car. She was looking around for him and when she saw him she took a sigh of relief. She waved at him and he come to run towards him. Half way there he realized he still had the song in his hand, so he stuffed it in his pocket. When he reached the car he kissed her and let her in.
"Where were you?" she said as she got into the car, "I was worried,"
"I had to go put something in my locker. I thought I had enough time, but I guess I didn't," he lied as he buckled himself in.
Lilly nodded and turned the radio. "That reminds me, I need to get a new license. I still have one from Georgia and I need a new one. Do you know when I can take the test?"
"We can set one up this weekend if you want to," he said still feeling overjoyed that he had finally written a good song.
Lilly looked at him suspiciously. He was smiling pretty widely and tapping his hand on the steering wheel. "What's up with you?"
"Nothing, why would you say that?" he said leaning over and kissing her cheek when they reached a stop sign.
Lilly gave him a crazy look. "Are you sick?" she said feeling his head.
Ephram laughed a little, "No, I just...I can't tell you. Just trust me, you'll know in a week,"
Lilly shook her head, but didn't press the matter. She then remembered her birthday was in a week. That made her smile, "Can I guess why you're happy?"
"Sure," he said shrugging.
"Does it have to do with my birthday?" she said starting to smile.
"Maybe," Ephram said starting to look at her from the corner of his eye. He refused to tell her what it was. It was their first holiday together and he would not give away his secret.
Lilly smiled, "Did you buy it from a store?"
"Maybe," he started to roll his eyes.
"Did you buy it at all?" she asked getting frustrated.
"Maybe," hey, he wasn't lying. He bought the paper and pen he wrote it with from a store.
Lilly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She had to find someway to pull this out of him. Lilly finally gave up asking and put her arms to the side. Ephram slid his hands into hers and she squeezed it.
"So, what are we going to do tonight?" asked Ephram as he pulled onto Main Street.
"How about you and I go out somewhere, we haven't been able to do things like that since we got here. What do you think?" she said.
"Great, I know the perfect place. I took Laney there one time and it had the best jazz ever," he said, but remembering how that date crashed and burned.
"Who's Laney?" she asked.
Ephram tried to remember if he told Lilly about Laney. Then he realized he hadn't. "I dated her before Madison. It didn't last long though. She was Colin's sister and I was obsessed with Amy then. That was before Colin even died. Wow, a lot has happened since then,"
Lilly nodded. "You must have really been in love with Amy. Are you still?"
Ephram bit his lip; he knew if he told her about his obsession of Amy that it would raise questions. "I do care about Amy, I couldn't have known her all of this time and been through so much with her without having some kind of feelings. I don't love her like I love you, but I do love her,"
Lilly raised her eyebrows. She felt weird talking about how he felt about his old girlfriend, but it was better to get this conversation out now then later.
"What?" he asked when he saw her face, "I just told you the truth. I do love her a little. It's like how I feel about Delia,"
Lilly nodded, "I understand, I'm not upset. I'm just listening, to see if you want to talk a little more about it,"
Ephram didn't want to talk about it. He just wanted to talk about fun things, so much crap had happened in his life, he was sick of talking about depressing things or things he didn't want to talk about. "I'm good, I don't want to talk about it,"
All the happiness from before had left him. He let go of Lilly's hand and kept driving.
"Ephram don't be upset. I'm not forcing you to talk. Stop throwing a fit, I swear in six months I'm going to be taking care of two babies," said Lilly. She was fed up with his wallowing-in-how-pitiful-he-was-moods.
Ephram lightened up a little and held Lilly's hand again. "So, do you forgive me?"
"Of course I do. I'm not one to hold a grudge. So, does my birthday present smell pretty?" she said scooting over closer to him.
"No, oh crap!" he forgot, no concrete answers, "I mean, maybe,"
Lilly laughed, so her present wasn't perfume or it was perfume, but it just smelled bad.
"You are sneaky," he said kissing her hand.
"I know, but that is why you love me," she said placing her free hand on his leg.
Ephram smiled as they pulled up to their house. They walked into the house and Lilly got ready for their date that she had almost forgotten about. She put on a baby blue dress with matching strappy heels. She washed her face and applied new make up and brushed her hair straight. Then she found a purse that went well with her dress. Then she hurried downstairs and waited for Ephram. She chatted with Delia who was doing her homework at the table. Soon, she saw Ephram coming down the stairs. He took her breath away with the simplicity of his gorgeousness. He felt the same way with her and immediately went over to kiss her. She became weak in the knees as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Delia made gagging noises while she watched them kiss, forcing them to break apart. Ephram rolled his eyes at her as they started to leave.
"Hold on one second," Ephram said. He needed to tell his dad where he was going. He ran into the kitchen and picked up the phone off of the table. He started to dial Andy's work number and waited for him to answer. He had to work late that day and so he wouldn't be home until later.
"Hello?" answered Edna, who was in the middle of eating dinner and was irritable. She had to work with her son now and that always made her angry.
"Hi, Edna, I need to talk to my dad," Ephram said tapping the counter.
"Sure," she went into his office and told him Ephram was on the phone.
"Hello, is there anything wrong Ephram?" said Andy picking up the phone in his office.
"No, I was just telling you that Lilly and I were going out and won't be back until later,"
"Who's going to watch Delia?" he asked.
"I was thinking, Nina could,"
"Okay, just don't stay out too late. Have fun," Andy said hanging up the phone.
Ephram hung up too, "Delia go over to Nina's, she is going to watch you tonight okay?"
"Fine," said Delia rolling her eyes. She packed up her things and walked over to Nina's house.
Ephram walked back to the car and helped Lilly in. When he got in the car, he turned the on and the song Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch was playing.
"I love this song," Lilly said turning the song up louder.
Ephram started to listen to the lyrics and he decided he liked it too. "Maybe this could be our song?"
"Wow, that sounds serious. Are you sure we want to be tied down like that?" joked Lilly, getting a little sentimental.
Ephram smiled and leaned over to kiss her. "I think we are already tied down, remember?" he said kissing the finger with her engagement ring on it.
She smiled to herself, "So this is our song? It's perfect,"
Madisa Delinda Est!
Ephram walked into the auditorium to start rehearsing. He set his book bag down and searched for some music. He laid it up on the music holder on the piano, closed his eyes, and started to play. He completely let go as he pressed down the keys to the ever-familiar song. After it was over he opened his eyes scribbled something down on the sheet. He then pulled out a peace of music he had been working on. It was for Lilly. He knew that he had tried this with Madison; he had a feeling that Lilly would appreciate it more. He scribbled on the sheet and then put it up so he could read it. He started to play and gave up half way through. He thrust his hands down on the keys in frustration. He couldn't make it sound right. He was never going to have it finished by her birthday, which was next week. He knew that he could just go out and buy something, but that would feel so mundane. He had remembered the way she acted when he told her that he had wrote a song for Madison. She said she had always wanted someone to do that for her. Ephram sighed and scribbled something down. Just then He saw someone come into the auditorium. He was surprised to see that it was Lilly. She smiled and came down next to him. He quickly stuffed her song into his pocket.
"What are you working on?" she asked laying her head on his shoulder.
"Just things the professor asked. Why are you here?" He said arranging different music and started to play.
"I was tired of hearing about who was wearing what, when and what she spilled on it. I wanted to be with you," she said as she kissed his cheek.
Ephram smiled and leaned in to kiss her on the lips. He lifted his hands from the piano, put them around her waist, and pulled her closer. She responded by wrapping her arms around his shoulders. All of a sudden they heard the door open and they pulled away immediately. When they looked to the door they saw Amy standing there with a look of disgust on her face. She stormed out of the auditorium and Ephram ran after her, leaving Lilly by herself.
Ephram ran towards her as she made her way down the hall. When he finally caught up with her he spun her, forcing her to look at him.
"What?" Amy asked through bared teeth.
"What is wrong?" he said looking into her eyes. He could see that she was hurt and it killed him. He had always loved Amy, and it was hard to see her sad.
"Nothing is wrong. Why would anything be wrong? I mean, I only just witnessed you in a make out session with your girlfriend," she said trying to pull away, but he had a tight grip on her shoulders.
"I know you, you're not okay. If you would just come out and say what is wrong then you wouldn't feel or look so depressed," Ephram said with a look of concern in his eyes. She did look terrible. She looked as if she hadn't slept in days and hadn't washed her hair either.
Amy looked at him with detestation. "Fine, I'll tell you," she said trying to fight back tears. "I don't think this is fair. You said you wanted us to work, but you turned around and cheated. You said you loved me and now you're with someone else. Why? Why do you want us to be apart when I want us to be together?"
Ephram kept looking into her eyes. She was pleading with him to come back to her. Nevertheless he couldn't. At one point in his life he would have killed himself to be with Amy, and now he was turning her down. "I just can't do the me and you thing. I would have loved to do that, but I can't. But I do care about you, I hate that you're hurting and I want you to just let me go. Even if we dated though, I would always wonder if Colin was on your mind. You never stop thinking about him or standing up for him. You just have to let go,"
Amy looked at him in confusion. How could he say that? She was over Colin, plus that was her boyfriend and he died and she was still going to think about him. Without noticing it she had started to cry. Ephram hugged her and she laid her head on his chest. When she finally brought herself together she pulled away.
"Thank you, Ephram. I really needed that," she said and then walked away.
He turned and went back to the auditorium and found Lilly still waiting, looking through his music. When he came in the room she looked up at him and sighed.
"What happened?" she asked when he sat down.
"I think she's okay now. So, where were we?" he said with a mischievous smile as he leaned into kiss her.
Right when Lilly put her arms around his shoulder though, the bell rang. They pulled back and sighed.
"Can you skip next period?" Ephram asked hopefully.
"No, I have Latin and Mr. Adams would kill me if I wasn't there. We are learning about Cato today," said Lilly grabbing her purse and her books.
Ephram sighed and grabbed his books. He walked Lilly to her class and then went to his own. On the way he thought about what he would have to do to make Lilly's song better.
The bell rang and Lilly ran out her classroom door. It was finally the end of a long Monday. She went to her locker and opened it; she shoved all of her books in there and then pulled out her bag for practice. She met up with Daniel and they went down to the gym together. Halfway there, Ephram caught up with her. Daniel smiled at him and kept walking. Ephram slid his hand into Lilly's and kissed her neck. Lilly giggled pushed him away since she was ticklish. When they made it to the gym they kissed each other goodbye and Ephram left. Lilly stared in envy as he left the school, wishing that she could go home and nap. Daniel nudged her and she turned around. Coming towards her was Amy. Lilly looked at Daniel to see if she knew what was going on, but Daniel just shrugged.
"Can I talk to Lilly alone for a minute?" Amy said as she reached them.
Daniel nodded a little unsurely and then left. Amy pulled Lilly to the side, and started to bite her nail. Lilly noticed that she didn't look angry or tense; instead she looked relaxed and friendly.
"I'm sorry that I was rude to you and caused you to fell unwelcome, I just felt unwanted and I wanted you to feel the same. I'm sorry," she said sticking her hand out for Lilly to shake it.
Lilly took her hand and they shook. Amy left and Lilly went back over to Daniel. When their coach, Claire, called them they ran over to stretch. Lilly couldn't help but think if Amy was sincere. She seemed to be, but she could be faking. Why would she fake? Just so she would put her guard down so she could make a move on Ephram? Lilly tried not to think about it, but in the back of her mind, she couldn't stop wondering.
Ephram sat in his car waiting for Lilly's practice to let out. He had finally had a break through with the song that seemed to go perfectly with Lilly. He scribbled on the paper bearing down on the steering wheel. Ever once in a while he would hit the horn and the people parked in front of him would flip him off. When he was done he leaned back and looked at it. He had to hear it. He looked at his watch to see if he had time to run to the auditorium. He had ten minutes. That wasn't enough time, but he needed to hear it immediately. He taped his fingers on his leg and then finally he got out of the car and ran. If he got there quick enough and ran through it, he would be back in time. He ran through the halls and down to the auditorium. He pushed the doors open and ran to the piano. He set the music down and went through the song as quickly as possible. It was perfect; to him it reminded him of Lilly. He laughed and pulled the song down. He had forgotten his hurry and slowly walked back to the car. When he got outside he noticed that Lilly was by herself leaning against the car. She was looking around for him and when she saw him she took a sigh of relief. She waved at him and he come to run towards him. Half way there he realized he still had the song in his hand, so he stuffed it in his pocket. When he reached the car he kissed her and let her in.
"Where were you?" she said as she got into the car, "I was worried,"
"I had to go put something in my locker. I thought I had enough time, but I guess I didn't," he lied as he buckled himself in.
Lilly nodded and turned the radio. "That reminds me, I need to get a new license. I still have one from Georgia and I need a new one. Do you know when I can take the test?"
"We can set one up this weekend if you want to," he said still feeling overjoyed that he had finally written a good song.
Lilly looked at him suspiciously. He was smiling pretty widely and tapping his hand on the steering wheel. "What's up with you?"
"Nothing, why would you say that?" he said leaning over and kissing her cheek when they reached a stop sign.
Lilly gave him a crazy look. "Are you sick?" she said feeling his head.
Ephram laughed a little, "No, I just...I can't tell you. Just trust me, you'll know in a week,"
Lilly shook her head, but didn't press the matter. She then remembered her birthday was in a week. That made her smile, "Can I guess why you're happy?"
"Sure," he said shrugging.
"Does it have to do with my birthday?" she said starting to smile.
"Maybe," Ephram said starting to look at her from the corner of his eye. He refused to tell her what it was. It was their first holiday together and he would not give away his secret.
Lilly smiled, "Did you buy it from a store?"
"Maybe," he started to roll his eyes.
"Did you buy it at all?" she asked getting frustrated.
"Maybe," hey, he wasn't lying. He bought the paper and pen he wrote it with from a store.
Lilly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She had to find someway to pull this out of him. Lilly finally gave up asking and put her arms to the side. Ephram slid his hands into hers and she squeezed it.
"So, what are we going to do tonight?" asked Ephram as he pulled onto Main Street.
"How about you and I go out somewhere, we haven't been able to do things like that since we got here. What do you think?" she said.
"Great, I know the perfect place. I took Laney there one time and it had the best jazz ever," he said, but remembering how that date crashed and burned.
"Who's Laney?" she asked.
Ephram tried to remember if he told Lilly about Laney. Then he realized he hadn't. "I dated her before Madison. It didn't last long though. She was Colin's sister and I was obsessed with Amy then. That was before Colin even died. Wow, a lot has happened since then,"
Lilly nodded. "You must have really been in love with Amy. Are you still?"
Ephram bit his lip; he knew if he told her about his obsession of Amy that it would raise questions. "I do care about Amy, I couldn't have known her all of this time and been through so much with her without having some kind of feelings. I don't love her like I love you, but I do love her,"
Lilly raised her eyebrows. She felt weird talking about how he felt about his old girlfriend, but it was better to get this conversation out now then later.
"What?" he asked when he saw her face, "I just told you the truth. I do love her a little. It's like how I feel about Delia,"
Lilly nodded, "I understand, I'm not upset. I'm just listening, to see if you want to talk a little more about it,"
Ephram didn't want to talk about it. He just wanted to talk about fun things, so much crap had happened in his life, he was sick of talking about depressing things or things he didn't want to talk about. "I'm good, I don't want to talk about it,"
All the happiness from before had left him. He let go of Lilly's hand and kept driving.
"Ephram don't be upset. I'm not forcing you to talk. Stop throwing a fit, I swear in six months I'm going to be taking care of two babies," said Lilly. She was fed up with his wallowing-in-how-pitiful-he-was-moods.
Ephram lightened up a little and held Lilly's hand again. "So, do you forgive me?"
"Of course I do. I'm not one to hold a grudge. So, does my birthday present smell pretty?" she said scooting over closer to him.
"No, oh crap!" he forgot, no concrete answers, "I mean, maybe,"
Lilly laughed, so her present wasn't perfume or it was perfume, but it just smelled bad.
"You are sneaky," he said kissing her hand.
"I know, but that is why you love me," she said placing her free hand on his leg.
Ephram smiled as they pulled up to their house. They walked into the house and Lilly got ready for their date that she had almost forgotten about. She put on a baby blue dress with matching strappy heels. She washed her face and applied new make up and brushed her hair straight. Then she found a purse that went well with her dress. Then she hurried downstairs and waited for Ephram. She chatted with Delia who was doing her homework at the table. Soon, she saw Ephram coming down the stairs. He took her breath away with the simplicity of his gorgeousness. He felt the same way with her and immediately went over to kiss her. She became weak in the knees as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Delia made gagging noises while she watched them kiss, forcing them to break apart. Ephram rolled his eyes at her as they started to leave.
"Hold on one second," Ephram said. He needed to tell his dad where he was going. He ran into the kitchen and picked up the phone off of the table. He started to dial Andy's work number and waited for him to answer. He had to work late that day and so he wouldn't be home until later.
"Hello?" answered Edna, who was in the middle of eating dinner and was irritable. She had to work with her son now and that always made her angry.
"Hi, Edna, I need to talk to my dad," Ephram said tapping the counter.
"Sure," she went into his office and told him Ephram was on the phone.
"Hello, is there anything wrong Ephram?" said Andy picking up the phone in his office.
"No, I was just telling you that Lilly and I were going out and won't be back until later,"
"Who's going to watch Delia?" he asked.
"I was thinking, Nina could,"
"Okay, just don't stay out too late. Have fun," Andy said hanging up the phone.
Ephram hung up too, "Delia go over to Nina's, she is going to watch you tonight okay?"
"Fine," said Delia rolling her eyes. She packed up her things and walked over to Nina's house.
Ephram walked back to the car and helped Lilly in. When he got in the car, he turned the on and the song Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch was playing.
"I love this song," Lilly said turning the song up louder.
Ephram started to listen to the lyrics and he decided he liked it too. "Maybe this could be our song?"
"Wow, that sounds serious. Are you sure we want to be tied down like that?" joked Lilly, getting a little sentimental.
Ephram smiled and leaned over to kiss her. "I think we are already tied down, remember?" he said kissing the finger with her engagement ring on it.
She smiled to herself, "So this is our song? It's perfect,"
Madisa Delinda Est!