What if I ain't no violinist?

143. Twoset Gen β II

Brett's POV

I couldn't believe it.

That new little kid at maths tutoring had followed me outside and not only did he see me without my mask on, he saw me drink tap water whilst outside my own home. I don't know which would get me into more trouble, being maskless or drinking from a foreign tap, if this kid dobbed me in.

I turned off the tap and I stood up straight and looked at him. I had water dripping from my hair and all over my face as I practically had my whole head under the faucet for a bit, just so that I could cool off. I shook my head like a dog to rid the excess water from my hair and face, then put my mask back on. I then called out to him.

"Eddy wasn't it? Can you come over here for a sec?"

I was surprised he didn't run away but actually walked over to me.

"...Brett, right?"

"Yeah. Look.. about me drinking from the tap.."

He stammered;

"I.. I won't tell anyone! I swear..!!"

"And about you seeing my face..."

He blushed, then stammered;

"I..I was too far away.. I didn't see anything, I swear. And I won't tell anyone.."

Then I got an idea.

"Well, maybe you could show me yours? Then we're even."

"W..what..??"

"Will you show me your face? Take off your mask."

I saw tears well up in his eyes.

"I.. I can't. I'm not allowed to do that. I'm sorry."

The little kid ran off. Sh*t.  I didn't mean to make him cry.  I just thought if we had a common secret he'd be less likely to dob me in.  I suppose he was just a little kid, too scared to disobey his parents. I felt bad for upsetting him.

When the break was over and we all returned to our tutoring classroom, he still sat next to me but was quiet as a mouse, not uttering a word to me for the rest of the lesson.

I was lucky when we reunited at youth orchestra practice the following day. I decided not to bring up our exchange from yesterday and just show how happy I was to see him again. Luckily he was also willing to go with that. After all, the rest of the orchestra members were much older than us and we needed to stick together.

Eddy's POV

I was so scared when Brett told me to show him my face. He said so that we could be even. But I was just a snotty little kid at the time and couldn't bring myself to doing anything bad. Besides, I was way too embarrassed to show my face.

I was so glad he was still nice to me when we met at the youth orchestra practice the following day.

I lied when I told him I didn't see anything. It was my first full-face reveal I had ever witnessed and even though it was from a distance and it was only for a short moment, I did see it and it was, it was.. out of this world. I sometimes think maybe it was some kind of an illusion.. because I remember seeing the most beautiful face and it had no tan line. I don't understand how that could've been possible. For years I thought I had just imagined it.

So Brett and I had become best of friends and I had always wondered what his face looked like.  I've been obsessed with the idea of seeing his face, though I had to keep it a secret and not let anyone know, especially Brett himself.

The second time I saw Brett's face, It was again in summer, this time we were at uni. By now I had the largest crush on my best friend of 5 years. We had booked the large practice room to practice a duet. I, we, were lucky again that it was downtime again with the virus and the restrictions were lifted and we were allowed to attend uni and go to rehearsals and even share practice rooms.

At any time of the year, the practice rooms were smelly so you could imagine how bad they would've been in the middle of summer. We again only had a pathetic fan which provided no relief from the heat.

 Brett tugged at the neckline of his T-shirt and I witnessed a trickle of sweat make a tiny puddle in the dip of his collarbone.  The badly lit practice room suddenly seemed brighter as my pupils dilated. Brett said he needed to cool down and left the practice room.  I needed a moment to myself to settle my palpitations anyway.

When he returned, he had his arm wrapped around his nose and mouth. He hurried back into the practice room and closed the door behind him.

"Brett? What's wrong?"

"...No one was around so I removed my mask to wash my face and my mask got blown away by the wind. Eddy.. do you have a spare mask?"

"Um.. yeah I'm sure I do... Um, why are you using the inside of your elbow to hide your face?"

"Cos if I use my hand, I'm more likely to touch something and contaminate it before I get to wash my hands."

"Oh. Yeah, Of course.  Here.  Here's my spare mask you can have."

"Thanks, Eddy, I appreciate this.. now let me quickly put this on and we can go back to practising..."

I knew I should've turned away. Or at least I should not have said what I said. But I couldn't help myself.

Brett was about to turn his back towards me to put on the mask.

"No..Brett.."

"What?"

"Don't turn away."

"What?"

His eyes were on me. He still had his arm wrapped around his face, hiding his nose and mouth, his other hand holding the mask I had just given to him.

Our eyes locked.

"Please Brett, don't turn away."

"Oh. Geez. Um. Okay."

To my surprise, Brett simply shrugged, then unwrapped his arm away from his face, showing his full face to me, something I had not seen in 5 years. He looked completely different. How stupid of me to say that, like he was 14 back then and now 19. In those 5 years my best friend had turned into a dude. A gorgeous dude. How could he still not have a tan line?? His skin was flawless.

Suddenly my heart ached for all the faces I could have seen and appreciated in the last 5 years I've known my crush, I mean, best friend. I could have sworn I heard my heart break in two as I pined for all those faces I missed out witnessing.

I was annoyed that my tears blurred my vision of Brett's face as he gasped and said to me;

"F*ck Eddy why are you crying?"