"You seemed a little out of it today in class, is everything okay?" Ephram said as he shut his locker to look at Amy.
"What…oh yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired, hectic weekend" Amy said, as if she were on autopilot. She didn't even look up as she spoke. She began to walk away, but Ephram was too fast for her. He grabbed her arm and swung around so that he was in front of her. She looked down at the floor and moved her feet back and forth.
"Amy…look at me" Ephram said calmly.
She shook her head. When looking at her, he immediately saw the fear in her that he had seen the day of her recital. She looked like a vulnerable little girl. Although this time, she wasn't opening up and letting everyone know how she felt. She was pretending to be okay, and for those who didn't know her well, she seemed believable. But to people like Ephram, he knew something wasn't right.
"Amy…I know you're not okay. I can tell that something is up. I know that something happened this weekend that obviously had a big impact on you and I'm hoping that you feel close enough to me to tell me when you're ready. I'll be waiting"
Amy finally looked up.
"Really Ephram, I'm fine. Absolutely fine…I have no idea what you're talking about."
His eyes searched hers for some explanation of why she was obviously lying to him.
"Please let go of me Ephram," she said naturally.
"Sorry" Ephram said as he released her arm. He stood in the middle of the hall and watched her walk away.
"Can I talk to you a minute?" Ephram asked Bright in the middle of the cafeteria.
"Do I know you?" Bright said laughing. Of course, he had to act like a jerk in front of his friends.
"Bright, it's important. It's about Amy" Ephram said seriously.
"Give me a few minutes" Bright said to his friends.
They walked out of the cafeteria into the hallway.
"Is she okay?" Bright asked.
"Well, she's not hurt or anything but I could tell that something was up"
"She didn't tell you?" Bright asked, sounding surprised.
"Didn't tell me what?"
"I don't know if I should be the one to tell you this. Maybe you should wait for Amy to talk to you"
"She's not going to, I can tell. She's trying to suck it up, and it's working for now. But not for long, she's going to breakdown soon, just like she did last time."
"I'm still not sure" Bright said, a little uneasy.
"I know that you don't like me very much, but for Amy's sake. Don't you want her to have someone to talk to?" Ephram said.
"Well…yeah." Bright said.
"So then what are you waiting for?" Ephram asked.
Bright led them to a bench outside of the main office where they sat down to talk.
"When we went to visit Colin this weekend, he was awesome. He totally remembered me and my parents and we talked about stuff that happened years ago." Bright said, "We came to your place to pick up Amy and we told her that Colin was doing great but of course my dad said that he just woke up and he might not remember everything and not to get upset. Stuff like that, you know?" Bright said as Ephram nodded. "And Amy was really excited and we got to the hospital and Colin was sleeping when we got there so we waited. When he opened his eyes, the both of us were standing there and he asked Amy if she was my girlfriend."
"That would explain it" Ephram said.
"So…she's been real upset ever since. At home, all she does is sit in her room and cry. Maybe you should try talking to her." Bright suggested.
"I already tried…no such luck"
"You can't give up on her man. If you do, who's gonna keep trying…nobody" Bright said sadly.
"Yeah…okay. I'll give it another shot," Ephram said as he rose and headed back to the cafeteria.
"How was school Ephram?" Andy asked as Ephram walked in the door.
"Very very weird" Ephram responded.
"Why? What happened?"
"Well…first of all, Amy was pretending not to be upset but I could tell that something was really wrong. So then I had a chat with Bright, and he actually talked as if he had some brains and he informed me that when Amy saw Colin, he didn't remember her." Ephram said.
"I thought they said he was doing great" Andy said sounding confused.
"He was…with everyone except Amy. He remembered everyone else, isn't that really strange?"
"It doesn't usually work that way. Maybe I should pay a visit to Colin this week"
"Oh and yeah, somehow in all of this, even though Amy has already told me she is fine, I have been voted the person to go and talk to her…again" Ephram said.
"Well, if you look at it positively, Bright would rather you talk to his sister than him. That just shows that he thinks Amy respects your relationship with her more than the one she has with her brother."
"I guess you're right" Ephram said as he headed for his room.
The doorbell rang and Amy stood on the other side of the door. Ephram was honestly surprised to see her standing there. She looked like she had been crying.
"Amy, what are you doing here?" Ephram asked.
"Ask me again," she said quietly.
"What are you doing here?"
"No, not that question. The one you asked earlier."
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Amy shook her head as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"No, I'm not. Can we talk?" Amy asked.
"Of course, come on in" Ephram said as he took her coat and bags from her and led her to his room.
"Hello Amy, how are you doing?" Andy asked when he saw that Amy was visiting. Amy pulled her hair behind her ear and Andy saw that her face was wet. Before Andy could say anything, Ephram said, "We're gonna go to my room to talk now"
"Okay, call me if you need anything" Andy said as he heard the door close.