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XXV

Of course, Brett would bump into the one person he didn’t want to see right now, or for the next six months, for that matter, when he left the practice room. 
“Oh, Brett. Hi.”
Katie looked up to him, her blue eyes full of glee. Brett shuddered. 
“Uhm, hi Katie. What are you up to?”
“Rehearsals just ended and we’re going to have dinner. I was looking for you, actually.”
“Oh, you were?”
“Yes, of course”, she smiled brightly, blindingly, “You’re gonna join, right? We haven’t had the chance to talk all day.”
Yeah, duh! 
“Uh, I just have to use the bathroom quickly. Is Cole somewhere around?”
“I think everyone’s outside the con already. We’ll wait for you there?”
“Sure”, Brett pressed out through gritted teeth. His friend was gonna be there. It was gonna be fine!
She gave him a short wave, another one of those wide smiles, turned around and walked towards the staircase.

“That the girl?”
A clonk rang through the hallway when Brett almost dropped his violin case. He whirled around and saw Eddy leaning against the wall, case dangling from his shoulder and a smirk playing around his lips. 
“Jeez! Dude! You scared me to death!”
“So it is her”, he raised an eyebrow, “Again, not that it’s any of my business.”
“Can we just…” Brett closed the distance between them, his steps urgent, quick, his hand reaching out for Eddy’s its own again (this really was becoming a habit at this point), pulling him along. Ben could come out the practice room any minute and the last thing Brett wanted or needed was his teacher getting a whiff of a discussion about someone having a potential (or rather confirmed) crush on Brett.

“So, yeah. It’s her!”, Brett’s whisper traveled as a faint echo through the deserted corridor they’d arrived in two turns later, still too loud and distinct in his opinion.
“Brett”, Eddy said, tone serious in contrast to the amused expression he still carried, “You really don’t need to tell me anything.”
“How did you figure?”, he brushed past Eddy’s comment. 
“Oh”, Eddy shrugged, “You were tense like a pillar carrying the weight of a skyscraper. I noticed even when all I saw was your back.”
Brett pursed his lips in short consideration. “Angelica found out that she likes me, apparently.”
“Okay…”, Eddy nodded slowly, “And this is a problem because…”
“Because I don’t like her like that. Hell, I don’t even know her! And the last thing I want is to give her false hope.”
“Was that the real reason for your escape during break this morning?”
“Yeah”, Brett sighed, the hair in his neck sensing the judgemental gaze for his childishness already.
Instead, Eddy asked, “What’s her name again? She’s from the Sydney con, right?”
Brett snorted, “Dude! She’s even got the same teacher like you. Katie. Don’t ask me about her last name.”
“Ah, I thought she looked familiar “
“How do you not know her?”
“Told you I’m bad with people.”
“Ah, yeah, right.”
“Don’t think I’ve ever talked to her. She seems nice enough.” The corners of Eddy’s lips curled upward again. “You sure she’s nothing for you? She’s pretty, no?”
“Maybe”, Brett said, the topic irritating him the more they talked about it. Did Eddy’s smug smile have anything to do with it? He averted his eyes. “But I’m not here to start anything and I have other things to worry about.”
“Alright. But she hasn't said anything, has she?”
“Nah, thank god she hasn’t.”
“Maybe she won’t. But if you act like this around her, she’s probably at some point gonna ask why you’re this weird and then, you’ll have to tell her.”
Brett pondered over what Eddy’d just laid out. It was true. It wasn’t like she’d asked him out or anything. That before had been a totally normal conversation between friends and maybe, just maybe, he’d been overreacting a tiny bit. She hadn’t even insisted on getting dinner just the two of them. 
“Hmm, you might be right.” Brett’s gaze caught Eddy’s. “You’ve got some pretty insightful advice for an introvert.”
“It’s just what I would think and do if you’d be like this around me.”
“You mean, like you have been in the beginning?”
Eddy blushed. 
“Well, yeah. And didn’t you ask me why I was like this?”
Brett grinned, “True. I’m glad I did. Wouldn’t wanna miss out on knowing you, you know?” The last part had just popped out his mouth, the absence of his filter painfully making itself known. Brett’s eyes widened in horror, but before he or Eddy could react in any way, his phone vibrated. With one quick move, Brett pulled out his device, thanking God for the distraction.
“Cole?”
“Dude, where are you? We’ve been waiting forever.”
Oh, fuck!
“Fuck, I’m so sorry! I’m on my way.”
“Hurry! You know how cranky Nathan gets when he’s hungry.”

“Gotta go?”, Eddy asked when Brett hung up, seemingly unfazed by what Brett had said and if he was, he was good at hiding it. Brett let out a breath.
“Yeah. You wanna come with? We’re gonna grab dinner.”
Eddy scratched the back of his head. “Dunno… gonna go practice some more I think.”
“You do need to eat, no?”, Brett tried, feeling like if Eddy would tag along the evening would become a thousand times more interesting for some reason. 
“Uhm…”
Brett could practically observe the battle Eddy was fighting inside him and was just about to let the poor guy off the hook, when the taller meant, “Alright, I guess.”
Brett blinked. “What, you really gonna join us?”
A shrug. “Guess so. Might change my mind however if you keep staring at me.”
Wow, what a turn of events! And what a great prospect dinner suddenly held!
“Would never dare! Let’s go then?”
Eddy looked like he bit into a lemon, an especially sour one, but he bobbed his head once nonetheless. 
“Yeah.”