the silence

twenty-two.

    brett spent the entirety of the car ride on the phone with their boss, explaining the severity of the situation. luckily, he was understanding. he hung up just as they pulled into the parking lot.

"are you okay?" eddy asked as they exited the vehicle. brett shook his head fiercely and latched on to his boyfriend's waist to comfort himself.

   "what happened?"

   brett took a shaky breath and pushed his hair out of his reddened face.

    "a, um.. a drunk driver. jamie was coming to see us and some asshole decided to get drunk and drive," he laughed bitterly before breaking into tears again. eddy held his hand tightly as they walked inside.

    to brett's dismay, they discovered that it could be hours before anyone was able to see jamie. he really wasn't listening to the reason why; he'd pretty much shut himself down as soon as the disappointing words came out of the nurse's mouth. eddy was too busy keeping an eye on brett to listen much either, but he did catch a few words. they weren't good.

    the aggressive lighting of the hospital made brett feel sick. his head pounded and his stomach refused to stop bubbling and growling lowly, annoying him to no end. he took a seat in a painstakingly uncomfortable chair and sighed loudly.

    "you can go back to rehearsal if you want," he mumbled to eddy, toying with the hem of the taller boy's shirt. eddy scoffed.

    "no," he said simply. brett squinted and shifted in his chair.

    "why not?" he asked. eddy frowned and turned to face his boyfriend, eyeing his puffy cheeks and reddened eyes.

    "i'm not leaving you here. i'm going to stay with you," he shrugged. brett huffed, exasperated.

    "but why?" he groaned, voice cracking as hot tears fell down his face. eddy sighed softly and put his arms around brett's shoulders. the smaller boy grabbed fistfuls of his boyfriend's shirt, burying his wet face in his neck.

    "because i care about you and i'm always going to care about you. i'm not going anywhere, bretty."

    "you promise?" brett whined, heavy sobs coursing through his small body.

    "i promise, baby."

    no more words were uttered for awhile as eddy held brett close, trying to steady his shaking frame the best he could. it was not working. his loud sobbing had caught the attention of a few passersby, which eddy glared at annoyedly.

two hours passed before brett managed to cry himself to sleep, slumped over in eddy's lap. the taller boy removed brett's glasses to keep them from pressing against his face as he slept and carefully clipped them to his own shirt. he leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling.

honestly, eddy was pissed. his anger couldn't necessarily be directed at one person in particular(except for the driver), but more so at the world in general. why did bad things have to happen to brett? eddy thought of him as the sweetest person in all creation and it was so unfair the way he was treated. it seemed that everything about brett was perfect except for his luck.

time seemed nonexistent in the constant brightness of the hospital. eddy stared at the television for a long time, scoffing at the mindlessness of whatever program was on. he missed brett's laugh and the resonant sound of his voice, reverberating off of every surface and coming back to his ears even more beautiful than before. the fact that he was hurting so badly destroyed the taller boy and not being able to fix it made it even worse.