
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/179180.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
  Fandom:
      Everwood
  Relationship:
      Bright_Abbott/Laynie_Hart, Amy_Abbott/Ephram_Brown, Bright_Abbott/Ephram
      Brown, Amy_Abbott/Laynie_Hart, Bright_Abbott/Laynie_Hart/_Original
      Character(s)
  Character:
      Bright_Abbott, Ephram_Brown, Amy_Abbott, Laynie_Hart, Original_Characters
  Series:
      Part 1 of Surrogates, Part 1 of Surrogates
  Stats:
      Published: 2004-09-27 Words: 1996
****** Then Again ******
by cerise
Summary
     This is a continuation of my twisted!Bright/Laynie series,
     "Surrogates." After a summer of commiserating, Bright and Laynie deal
     with the fallout of... things going back to normal. 2000 words
     exactly.
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
The first time Ephram comes by to watch him play basketball since getting back
from New York, Bright realizes he's got nothing left to say to him. The
intermittent thuds underscore the awkward silence between them, and it leaves a
bad taste in Bright's mouth. He feels off-kilter, and it's all he can do to
just concentrate on the hoop.
"You're probably sick of hearing about New York," Ephram offers, stilted and
hesitant. Bright doesn't look his way, just aims and shoots. "Tell me about
your summer. What'd you do while I was gone?"
Bright grins, shoots again, and answers, "Laynie Hart."
+
"So, let me get this straight," Ephram asks, and Bright chokes on his burger.
He sucks down half his Coke as Ephram continues: "You actually scored with
Laynie and Gemma this summer?"
"Not at the same time," Bright waggles his eyebrows at Ephram, who doesn't
notice that he's only half kidding when he adds, "At least, not yet."
"You're lying to me," Ephram tells him after a moment of consideration.
"There's no way the universe would align itself so far in your favor twice in
just eight weeks' time."
"What are you, like, an astrologer now? Pass me the ketchup."

+

Two nights later, Laynie's knocking on the door of the Abbott home, and just
her stupid luck that Amy answers the door. Her long, blonde hair is fetchingly
disheveled, Laynie thinks, and she can't help but stare before asking for
Bright.
She appreciates the way Amy quickly invites her in. But when she sees Ephram
draped over the couch, eyes on the television, an Amy-shaped dent in the space
next to him that she immediately refills, Laynie's almost sorry she came over.
"You look good, Laynie." Amy's head rests on Ephram's chest. "I love what you
did to your hair."

+

"I think I fucking hate your boyfriend," Laynie blurts out, slamming the palms
of her hands against her steering wheel.
"I hate when you say crap like that," Bright mutters sullenly, looking out the
window.
"He fucks everything up," Laynie cries. She looks at him, eyes wide and
blazing. "What do you even see in him? I mean, he's good looking, I guess, but
he's such a smug prick. The world revolves around him because he thinks it
should. What kind of justice is that?"
"What, you'd rather the world revolve around you?"
She smiles at that. "It's a start."
+
"Bright, can I ask you something?" Amy asks, standing his doorway later that
night. He licks the spoon clean of ice cream and shrugs, not looking away from
Totally Spies.
She edges in, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Are you seriously hooking
up with Laynie?"
"Why?" he asks, neutral.
Amy wrinkles her nose. "I saw you making out in her car."
"Don't you have your hands full enough with your own love life?"
She cocks an eyebrow. "Just curious. Jeez."
When she leaves, Bright makes a mental note to relay the conversation to Laynie
the next time he sees her.

+
"You know what we should do?" Laynie traces slow, lazy patterns on his
collarbone with her finger.
"No, I seriously have no clue," Bright breathes out, pulling her sheets over
him.
"We should have a threesome."
"No way. Are you high?"
"Why the hell not?" She props her head up on her hand and looks him in the eye.
"We're already sexual deviants! I've never done it, and I know you've never
done anything I wasn't an eyewitness to, so..."
"Wait. Deviants? This seems pretty normal to me."
"Awww," Laynie coos, all false sympathy. "Is that what you tell yourself?"

+
"Sometimes," he tells her as he yanks on his jeans, "I don't even think you
like me."
She rolls her eyes. "Can we skip whatever conversation that was supposed to
segue into? Because I'm not so good with the whole reassuring-male-egos
routine."
His next words come out like a guilty admission. "Sometimes, I don't even know
if I like you."
"You wound me, Brighton," Laynie sighs, and rolls on her side to get a better
view. "You like things about me, though. Pale skin, dark hair, sarcastic wit in
spades... Right?"
And she chuckles at his silence.
+
Laynie's always thought Susie Clarke was only a couple of notches above
earthworms in the brains department, so she's a little disappointed that she's
who Bright picks to invite over. Susie giggles far too much, but as the evening
progresses, she begins to unwind.
Laynie and Bright banter back and forth to put her at ease, but the drunker he
gets, the worse he gets at it, and so the girls shriek with laughter at him,
grasping hands so tightly, Laynie's knuckles start to hurt.
Susie's expression shifts only slightly when Laynie presses both palms against
her face and kisses her.

+

Bright's tired and sore when Laynie finally drives him home. And he's pretty
sure he's strained a neck muscle or two. Still, when Laynie pulls into the dark
Abbott driveway, he lets her kiss him, and doesn't object when she slides a
hand between his thighs.
"I don't think I can go another round," he groans against the crook of her
neck, but she rubs through his jeans, eyes glittering purposefully, until he's
halfway to hard again.
She bites at the corners of his mouth. "That was fucking hot."
"Mmm," he agrees.
"Next time, we'll do it with another boy."

+

"So, Laynie Hart, huh," Ephram muses a few days after that.
"'S no big deal," Bright shrugs.
"So is she, like, your girlfriend now?"
"Noooo," he answers quickly, then pauses. "I mean, I don't know. I think we're
just... seeing where it leads us."
"So you're basically telling me you're fuck buddies." He smirks at Bright, and
Bright fights back the sudden urge to throw the basketball at Ephram's head.
"Yeah, maybe. Does that bother you?"
Ephram holds his hands up, like a defensive maneuver. "Hey, man. It's a good
time. I get it."
Bright almost laughs at that.
Almost.

+

"Nate, this is Bright," Laynie tells him, leading him into her half-lit living
room by the hand. "Bright, Nate. We met at an ECC party a couple of weeks ago."
The other boy eyes Bright appreciatively and nods in greeting. His face tickles
a memory in Bright's mind, but he can't really place him.
"Nate's here to help, Bright," Laynie tells him. She pats the space next to
her, indicating that he should sit there, and he does. As far away from Nate as
he can manage.
"Help with?..."
"Your sexual liberation," she replies blithely. "And my voyeuristic streak."

+

The first time another guy sucks Bright off, he's kissing Laynie so deeply that
his mouth starts to hurt, feeling unnaturally stretched. He starts to think
there must be something wrong with that, but somehow that thought goes straight
to his cock instead. He tries to pry himself away to give some kind of notice
that he's going to come, but she just follows the direction of his head with
hers, until he's groaning into her mouth, jerking roughly, eyes wide open.
She finally pulls herself away, and he's gasping for air.
"Your turn now," she purrs in his ear.

+

Nate plops down on the other side of Bright and leans in for a kiss, but Bright
jerks back and looks at Laynie, questioning.
"What're you afraid of?" she asks, voice husky.
"Nothing, it's just. The kissing. I -You know. It's really -"
"Really what, Bright?" she goads him, lips stretching into a slow, innocent
smile. "Do I need to point out the obvious here?"
"You didn't seem like such a prude five minutes ago," Nate tells him flatly,
unimpressed.
Bright clamps down any trepidation, shuts his eyes, and lets Nate kiss him and
rub his erection against Bright's thigh.

+
"So, like, you and Bright, huh?" Amy asks Laynie haltingly in the school
cafeteria. Laynie looks at her like she's speaking another language for a
moment, then it dawns on her what she's referring to.
"Oh! Yeah, I guess," she answers nonchalantly, tray in hand. Amy grabs a
chocolate milk and grins.
"That's so weird. I never would've pictured the two of you."
Laynie's mouth goes dry. "Um. I guess it just sort of happened. That's OK,
right?"
"Of course," Amy's head bobs in approval. "What are you, kidding? I'm just
thrilled he's hooked up with somebody normal and nice."
+
Laynie answers her cell phone sounding almost irritated. "Yeah?"
"Hey. It's me. You busy tonight?" Bright asks.
"Sure am. Sorry," Laynie says, sounding nothing like regretful.
"Wait. Are you serious? What could you possibly be doing tonight that wouldn't
let you come out and see me?"
"Susie Clarke," she answers glibly, and hangs up.
Minutes pass before the shock fully wears off. Then he considers calling
Ephram. Maybe they can rent a movie, and Ephram can fall asleep on his arm
again, like -
Or maybe, Bright thinks, if he's really lucky, he can watch Ephram and Amy make
out.
Right.
+
"Hey," Laynie says breathlessly into her phone two nights later. "You wanna
hang out tonight? I've got two tickets to The Thrills."
"Well, gee, Laynie, that sounds swell," Bright says, affecting all the drama he
can muster. "Unfortunately, I've made other plans."
"You're so not funny."
"I'm so not kidding," he says.
Layne sighs, long suffering and patient. "Is this for getting back at me for
hooking up with Susie?"
"Of course not," Bright says agreeably. "It's just that I don't want you to be
there when I let Nate fuck me."
And this time, he hangs up on her.

+

"Jesus Christ, Bright, that is one huge hickey," Ephram crows from the fence.
Bright slam dunks the basketball furiously. It takes all the restraint he can
conjure up to keep himself from glaring.
"It was a hell of a night," he mutters. Dribbles some more.
"You and Laynie must be getting pretty serious."
"It wasn't Laynie." But he hadn't meant to say that.
Ephram's eyebrows climb upward. "Really? You two broke up?"
"Dude, do I ask you for details about Amy?"
Ephram considers this, cocks his head at Bright. "No."
"Okay, then." But he misses the next basket he shoots.

+
Bright doesn't even bother saying hello the next time he calls. Just snaps,
"You've been avoiding me."
"Is that your fucked up way of telling me you missed me?"
"No," he says, then adds, "Maybe."
"Such a sweet talker," Laynie says dryly on the other end. "What's the matter?
Can't get the Piano Man to keep you company?"
"This is not about Ephram."
"Look, if you say it's about you and me, I'm going to have to vomit. Because
there is no you and me."
"Sure there is," he says. Then - "It's just that it doesn't look like everybody
else's."

+

Bright crawls off Laynie and slips back into the driver's seat of his truck,
tucking himself back in and pulling his shirt back into place. He watches her
straighten her own clothing, all business, before asking, "So. Does this kind
of thing happen a lot?"
"Well, Bright, when two people love each other very much..."
"You know what I mean. Like. Girls like you. And. You know." He shifts.
Laynie ponders this. "No, Bright, I don't normally go around sleeping with gay
men. What does it matter? Nobody's getting hurt. So who cares?"
"I guess. But I'm not -"
"Whatever."

+
"You know how many times I've talked to him since he got back?"
She doesn't care, not really, but he sounds so miserable that she rolls over
and murmurs, "Mmm?"
"Fucking twice. It's like I don't exist anymore. Maybe I never did. Maybe I
was, like. A stop gap, or something."
"Love sucks, huh?"
She says things like that all the time. He never responds, or just makes some
egregious denial, so she feels like the wind's been chased out of her when he
says quietly: "It sucks ass."
She pets his arm, almost loving. "Yeah, I know. I know."
End Notes
     Thanks to alexajones22 for the read-through and the naming of the
     original boy character. I'm imagining him as being one of the cute
     frat guys in S2's "My Brother's Keeper." Susie Clarke was one of
     Bright's prom dates (the one with long dark curly hair) who has a
     recurring role.
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