A/N: So I thought, what the hell, loads of reviews and all of them nice so I'll update again. This chapter should make you guys happy. I finished the story a week ago, so I should have the whole thing up soon (if you all keep with the reviews). I don't own any of this, I'm just playing with them for a while.

Chapter Five

Bright's POV

It was only a couple of days until Valentine's, and I didn't have a date yet. Not that I wouldn't have one, but time was kind of running out. Not that I cared though, much anyway. Having a relationship is just too much work. I mean look at my stupid sister and Ephram. They were supposed to be so in love, but Amy didn't exactly look happy. In fact, she hadn't been happy since she'd found out that Madison and Mac had gone with Ephram to Denver when Ephram got Amy's Valentine's gift. Honestly, I didn't see the big deal, but Amy did.

I checked my watch and saw it was time to head over to Dr. Brown's house. I had taken over as Delia and Sam's babysitter, since I didn't have much else to do in the afternoons. It was a good excuse to watch a lot of Spongebob anyway. Delia was a good kid, and Sam actually reminded me a lot of myself when I was little.

I managed to get there just before Sam, but Delia was already in the kitchen, bouncing around, totally hyperactive.

"I know a secret, I know a secret," she kept chanting. It was kind of cute at first, but after a couple of minutes it got way annoying.

"So, are you gonna tell me the secret?"

"I can't, it's a secret." She paused for a moment, thinking. "I guess it kind of involves you too. You have to swear not to tell. Not even pinky swear, like grown-up swear."

"I swear I won't tell anyone." I motioned crossing my heart.

"You can't tell, but," she paused dramatically. "Linda's coming back!" Delia started bouncing around again.

"My Aunt Linda? No way, that's so cool."

"I know. I think she and my dad are getting back together. They started talking on the phone again after Ephram moved in with Nonny and Grandpa. Now they spend like hours on the phone every night, and Dad's been all happy again. And last night he said she was coming back for a while. But I think she's going to stay forever. It's so great!"

"What's so great?" asked Sam, walking in the back door.

Delia glared at me. "Just that we're going to make Valentine's cookies today," I quickly said. Delia smirked at me; looking so much like Ephram it was scary. I'm not sure Everwood could handle two teenage Brown kids.

I searched around for the things we needed to make the cookies. Ok, so most 19-year-old guys don't know how to make cookies, but I'd spent the past few months just hanging around, pretty aimless. You find the oddest things fill up your time. Now though, I know what I'm doing. I decided I wanted to teach kindergarten. Not exactly what anyone expected, huh? So I'm babysitting Delia and Sam in the afternoon, I help out at the Elementary School 4 days a week and I'm going to ECC in the fall.

The cookies didn't turn out too bad, despite the fact that Sam refused to use pink frosting, even in honor of Valentine's Day. So we had some pink and some blue. Delia suggested that we go give some to her grandparents, but it was kind of obvious she just wanted to go see Mac. Not that I blamed her, because Mac was possibly the cutest baby I'd ever seen. And the fact that she belonged to my best friend had nothing to do with that.

We knocked on the door, and when Madison opened it, Delia held out the plate of cookies.

"Hey, sweetie. What's up?"

"We made cookies," Sam interrupted.

"Thanks guys. You want to come in?" She smiled.

"Sure," Delia answered, running into the kitchen looking for Mac.

"She's in the den, sweetie," Madison called after her.

"Hey Madison." I still felt kind of awkward around her.

"Your sister's here too you know. She and Ephram are down in his room if you want to go say hi."

"Uh, I don't think so. I have to see Amy at home enough, and honestly she didn't look like she was in a very good mood this morning."

"She didn't look happy when she got here either. I've been hiding in the den with the TV turned up loud so I don't hear her yelling at Ephram," she admitted, looking kind of embarrassed.

Just then, Amy swept up the stairs from the basement and headed out of the front door, slamming it on the way out.

"You want to go talk to him? I can handle Mac, Delia and Sam for a while," I asked.

"You go. I'd probably make things worse."

So I headed downstairs to Ephram's room, and found him sitting on his bed.

"Hey man. Trouble in paradise?"

Ephram's POV

Bright looked at me expectantly.

"She broke up with me." There wasn't really much else to say. I couldn't tell her brother that I was glad because it made me feel less guilty.

"Aww, dude, I'm sorry. That bites. Why's she do it?"

That was something I didn't actually want to tell her brother. "Uhh, that's kind of private."

"Man, c'mon. You can tell me. Right now just ignore the fact that Amy and I happen to share genetic material."

If he wanted to know that badly, I wasn't going to stop him. "She broke up with me because I didn't want to sleep with her. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"Dude, aww, man, no. That is something I never wanted to know about my sister. She really did that?"

I just nodded. I didn't exactly want to talk about it.

"But I thought, I mean, Labor Day weekend? Your dad went camping with Delia and Amy stayed at your house. You guys had to. She didn't stop smiling for a week after that."

"We did. God, I really don't want to talk about this with you. It's just after the, after I found out about Mac, I just couldn't."

Bright raised his eyebrows. "You mean like physically couldn't?"

"Augh, no!" I ran my fingers through my hair. "It's like, I don't know, it just freaks me out, ok? Like the idea that I could have another kid. I mean, I'm not ready to risk that. You know?"

"Well, obviously not. I mean isn't Amy on birth control?"

"Yea, but I mean it isn't 100% safe, is it? I know it doesn't make sense, but I just, I don't know. I'm just not ready yet."

"Well, as much as I never wanted to know my sister is some kind of sex maniac, I'm here, you know? I'm not exactly good at the whole sensitive thing, but you know. Anyway, it's totally her loss. I'm sure you're a very attractive guy. I mean, you nailed a college girl. Even I never managed that."