auggy1984 & beama-- All in good time ;)
colorado2-- It's great seeing that I've made Hana real to you. And here's more Ephram/Hana!
Hana had been sitting on the toilet for almost an hour now. In that same period of time, she'd managed to listen in to countless bits of gossip that various girls had talked about while they were doing their Loo Time. A little about her, but mostly about some other random girl or guy.
It was getting a tad boring.
Besides, wasn't she supposed to be home now? Her father was probably looking for her. She didn't want to get into trouble so soon, especially after just breaking his trust.
But she couldn't leave just yet. She still had something left to do. It shook her nerves like a live wire everytime she thought of going through with it, but her conscience wouldn't allow her to let it go.
She owed somebody an apology.
I took a deep breath, no, three, before I gently pushed the auditorium door open. I knew he would be inside. I felt it in my gut.
I shook myself off, straightened my shoulders with resolve and walked my way in. True enough, Ephram was up on the stage. He'd turned on the lights this time. Strangely though, there wasn't any sound coming from the piano.
He was bent over the keys, his fingers touching them. He just wasn't...moving.
Maybe I'd come in during a bad time. My already cowardly resolve broke completely. I turned around to leave.
But as I pulled open the door, I heard him call out my name questioningly. Drats, I thought.
"Hey," I greeted with a shaky smile as I turned around. I geared myself up mentally and rehearsed what I'd wanted to say to him in my head as I walked up to the stage. What was he expecting me to say as his eyes watched me?
In the end I was standing right in front of him, my fingers weaved together in front of me.
Why wasn't I saying anything? My mind had gone blank.
"How are you doing?" Ephram spoke up first.
"Me? I'm doing okay," I replied and tried a smile. Liar. "Listen," this was it. "I...I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. For what I said to you the other time. You were right, about Emily, and I know that you hadn't meant what you said the way I'd said you'd meant it and I was just- I don't know, angry at- at...well not at you...I just..."
Oh, why couldn't I stop babbling incoherently?
Ephram held up his hands for me to stop. I was almost relieved. "Whoa," he laughed. His green eyes still held that same sparkle. Was I the only one who noticed? If Amy could only see him the way I saw him. She would be crazy to turn him down.
"Apology accepted," he replied with a nod. I grinned at him embarrassedly. Then his expression turned thoughtful. He moved so that there was a space on the seat beside him.
"Sit down," he said to me.
"Okay..." I replied, puzzled, and sat down beside him. "What is it?"
"I'm gonna teach you a simple duet. You ready?" he smiled at me. In reply, I dropped my bag down onto the floor beside me and looked at him expectantly.
He couldn't say exactly what it was about Hana that made her easy to talk to. Maybe it was just the way she carried herself; the way she looked at him and talked to him with such vulnerability that it was impossible for him not to open up to her. He already knew that she could choose not to be. He'd had a taste of the other side of her.
In the end, he found himself telling her about Amy, and she listened to every word. He found himself ranting at times, but even with the slight embarrassment he felt afterwards, he couldn't help also feeling...relief. Finally, he had somebody to confide in. A real friend, perhaps.
He also couldn't help feeling as if she understood all his feelings towards Amy.
What he couldn't know was how much she understood.
The next few weeks were heaven to Hana, and maybe..just maybe, for Ephram too. It felt almost as if they were escaping from the real world. But the way the world went, reality would always eventually catch up. Hana knew that. But she tried not to think about it too much.
Hana also wasn't foolish enough to believe that Ephram would like her the way she liked him, nor that he would immediately be able to sense how she felt about him. He was, after all, just human. And he had things on his mind too. Amy, more specifically.
And so Hana was content in just being his friend. When he confided in her about Amy, she willed herself to push all her jealousy deep inside her and listen to him, even give him advice. Because what was worse than Ephram being in love with another person was for her to lose their newfound friendship.
Besides, things were comfortable this way. And Ephram would never know the extra pleasure she took in having lunch with him, or pretending to study with him while she actually sat drinking in his profile.
"Whaddya think?" Ephram asked as he shoved a drawing in front of Hana's face.
"Well...I'd be able to tell you if I can see it with my eyes crossed". Hana laughed and grabbed it off his hands. She laughed some more when she saw what the drawing was. It was cartoon of a girl and guy sitting back-to-back while the crowd around them walked by, oblivious and faded into the background. It didn't take much to tell that the girl in the drawing was Hana. She had long braids, glasses, a pile of books by her side, and a sandwich in her mouth?
"You just had to add the sandwich, didn't you," Hana deadpanned. Ephram grinned and shrugged.
"Somehow I can't forget that image of you". Hana felt her face turn red at the memory. Ephram laughed evilly.
"Ha. Ha. Ha".
The Ephram cartoon had headphones around his neck, a pile of manga comics beside him and purple hair.
"Ah...I remember this hair. You caused quite a stir," Hana grinned, her eyes lighting up.
"Yeah, kinda miss it actually," Ephram said wistfully. Hana laughed.
"Dye it back, then".
"Nah, kinda hard to find purple hair dye here...besides it attracts too much attention," Ephram said matter-of-factly, indicating to everyone else's fairly normal-coloured hair.
Just then, something caught Hana's eye. One of the jocks was making his way over to a table of girls. Ephram turned to see what she was looking at.
"Prom," he said, non-plussed.
It was quite a common sight these days, seeing an invitation happening live. Quite an entertaining sight too, especially with the guy's friends waiting for him like hawks at their own end. Would he suffer the humiliation of rejection or rejoice the victory of getting an acceptance? Usually though, such incidences were later accompanied by secret gleeful squealings in the girl's toilet.
But Hana wasn't planning to go for prom, was she? She averted her eyes back to Ephram.
"Hey you haven't answered my question," he said to her now.
"What?" she asked blankly. He reached over towards her, took the drawing out of her hands and held it up.
"Whaddya think?" he asked and closed his eyes in mock-fear as he waited for her judgement. Hana laughed.
"It's bee-yoo-ti-ful!!" she said dramatically and he opened one green eye. But she really meant it.