𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 • 𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙩 • ✓

{13th of July - b.y}

right after the rehearsal, me and ray headed to the lockers to deposit our violins to discover eddy getting harassed by some random dude (even though we couldn't see him, we could recognize the voice). after the two of us combined forces to chase him away (ray was proud of himself given that he thought his demeanour scared him off), i went around to eddy to check if he's alright to realise something was quite off given the shock on eddy's face. something about the atmosphere earlier (we overheard a little bit, sorry eddy) meant that things weren't simple between eddy and the other man. i have him a pat on his shoulder and he jolted back to life.

"you okay?"

he stared blankly at me, still confused about what happened. then, after a moment of refreshing, he extended his arms and pulled me into a hug. now it was me who's dumbfounded, but all i knew is that something was wrong as eddy's hands that wrapped around my body trembled tremendously.

andddd, of course, ray joined in the hug, unbeknownst to him that is. he thought it was a celebratory embrace. it's fine, he'll know.

the three of us broke the embrace and we stared at eddy in silence, who's face was flushing with shades of red painted all over. we were speechless as well, we didn't know what had happened and eddy didn't seem like he'll say it any sooner. to comfort him, i went in front of him and gave his messy, soft hair a ruffle.

"hey, it's okay, you'll be fine."

"what happened to you?" ray approached closer as well, questioning softly.

eddy took a deep breath.

"well... it's complicated."

"don't worry, we'll listen!" assured an optimistic ray, giving eddy a few pats on his back. but both he and i didn't expect what eddy would say to us afterwards. he took another breath and spoke very very quietly.

"umm, so actually, i'm gay..."

awkward silence.

"oh." both me and ray is at a loss for words. meanwhile, my heart is racing like mad.

"ughhhhhh that's just the tip of the iceberg!" eddy sighed as both his hands flew to cover his face from the embarrassment.

"no, no! we're sorry, we, uhh, didn't mean to, uhh, offend you-" ray tried desperately to even put a sentence together.

"it's alright." eddy removed both his hands to reveal a very tight smile that forced itself on his lips. "it's not the important bit anyway, plus i'm... used to that reaction so i don't mind it much." i could almost hear the hurt in his tone and my heart ached with it.

"no eddy! we didn't mean it like that!" i grabbed his shoulders to turn him to face me. "......no matter who you turn out to be, we'll support you because we're... friends you know?"

this scenario also played out in my life at least twice, i knew how it felt. and the word "friend" nearly got stuck between my throat because my heart was in denial of the term.

"it was just a bit too sudden, besides, uhh, you're... not the only one here who felt like this."

"really?" eddy's gaze glanced up to connect with mine. "who?"

so it was my turn to flush, and seeing that i was too shy to speak, ray said it for me.

"brett here is bisexual."

another awkward silence. i fidgeted with the strings of my hoodie looped around my fingers. eddy's eyes widen.

"omg, seriously?! i thought i will be the only one amongst any friend group for eternity!" eddy gave a small laugh and looped his arms around me again, pulling me closer to his chest. as his hug got tighter, my face and ears became scarlet as i listened to the gradually increasing heartbeat of eddy's. his embraces were always warm and soft and i would never want to pull away from him, ever. to my disappointment, we pulled back anyways and we finally gave eddy a chance to speak.