lullaby

22. Lullaby

Brisbane, Australia. 2009

“It's cooooold”, Brett wimps. He sinks his head on his grey cotton scarf.
Eddy gets closer to him, his shoulders brushing against each other. “Of course it is”, he laughs, “It’s winter”. He brings Brett closer in a hug.
“We are almost there”, he whispers leaning close to his face, making Brett shiver. His cheeks are bright pink, but the scarf is covering half of his face.
“I already know”, Brett mumbles. “It’s our school after all”. He hates when Eddy plays with him like that. The whole flirty thing. He just can't deal with it. It's not fair for him.
Eddy giggles. “Don’t be such a grumpy”. He ruffles Brett's hair gently. Brett's stomach feels like full of a bubbly warm feeling. All of his anger fades away.

“Dude...”, he says almost in a whisper. “Can I ask you something?”. He fixes his glasses quickly, and takes a big breath.
“Yep. You know you can”, Eddy answers as they turn the street to arrive to the school entrance.

“Are you going to the prom?”, he asks looking at his feet. His hands are sweating.

A big silence. Brett feels a heat going up his face. Oh, no. That question is just wrong. Eddy stops from walking, and stands right in front of him.

“Why? Are you asking me to go with you?”, he says looking at Brett's eyes. Or at least he tries to, cause his face is sticking to the floor.
Until he turns his head to see him, and finds a devious grin on his handsome face.

“Oh, fuck you”, he answers annoyed, pushing him away. As if I didn't already knew how much he loves messing up with me.
Eddy laughs and follows him quickly.

“Were you really going to invite me?”, Eddy jokes, covering his mouth with one hand. Brett keeps walking fast, his feet smashing the floor. “Hahaha, so funny!”, he answers sarcastically.

“Brett”, he says with a serious voice. “I want to go with you too...”.

Brett freezes. The boys who are arriving to school, starts walking faster around them. A few wave Brett and Eddy when they pass by. The two boys stand still, staring at each other.

Brett almost starts to feel a small glitch of light growing inside his chest. But he shakes his head and laughs. Eddy looks at him confused.
“We can't”, Brett answers in a whisper. He turns around, and starts walking again. “You will take your girlfriend. Don't joke with me, ok?”, he answers mad letting out a bitter laugh.

The day of the prom is peculiarly rainy. Brett feels relieved of not having to go out that night, because he hates that kind of weather.
And parties with that kind of people. Except from most of his orchestra buddies, he is not peculiarly in to those people. Especially all of those giants making fun of him for not being able to play football.
This will no longer be important at uni, he thinks to himself. Just a few more weeks, and that's all.

He will only miss Eddy. But he's sure they will be together soon, next year. And everything will be alright again.
He lays down on the couch, and turns the tv on. The rain outside, gets louder.
His family is out tonight, so he can pick whatever he wants to watch. After a couple of minutes, he can only finds some soup operas and a couple of cheesy movies. He turns off the tv.

It's still 7pm, but he's already wearing his favourite black pyjamas. Just laying on the couch, looking at the ceiling.

“What would Eddy be doing now?”, he wonders.
He is such a good dancer. He must be dancing with his girlfriend. I wonder what was his final choice on the necktie. I loved the blue one, but the black made him look really...hot.

He jumps from the couch, scared at his own thoughts.

“Very funny, Brett. Very funny”, he mumbles as he walks to the kitchen. Maybe making himself a snack can help him to use a bit of his time, instead of having such weird thoughts. 
He makes himself a sandwich. With double lettuce.
He looks at the clock. Just a few minutes have passed.

“Oh!”, he exclaims to himself, “It's time to practice!”, he says relieved. He takes a big bite of his sandwich, and walks upstairs humming Tchaikovsky's piece.
He puts the sandwich on a plate over his room's desk, when he hears the door ringing.
“I’m coming!”, he screams running downstairs. He is almost sure his parents are finally back. “It’s about time!”, he says opening the door quickly with a smile.

But it's not his mother the one standing in front of him.
It's Eddy. Wearing a black suit and tie. His hair all soaked wet, as well as his shoes and clothes.
“Brett...”, he mumbles shaking cold.

“Eddy!”, Brett screams. “Go inside, quickly!”, he doesn't knows what happened, but he knows Eddy needs to dry himself quickly before he catches a cold.
“What happened?”, he asks as soon as both of them are standing in the middle of the living room. “The dance prom already begun...where is Stacy? You were supposed to pick her up an hour ago...”, he stops when he sees him quite and serious.

“We broke up”, Eddy answers. “He was making out with a boy when I arrived to his house”

“Oh my gosh...”, Brett whispers shocked. “I’m so sorry, bro”, he says tapping his shoulder. “Please, go upstairs, take a shower and we can talk shit about her together, ok?”
Eddy smiles and nods. Brett pats his back gently.
He goes upstairs, and Brett watches him walking slowly. He seems more shocked than sad...Why?