Play!

XXXII

“Beautiful! Wonderful, Brett!”, Mr. Jones exclaimed gleefully as the orchestra joined in his way too excited clapping in Brett’s opinion. He’d just finished playing the second movement of Korngold’s violin concerto and apparently, it had been alright. Not that Brett would know because his mind had been busy replaying a certain sentence someone had said just minutes before his performance. 

The most fun I had while playing the violin.

Eddy Chen had had fun playing the violin! With Brett. Outside with people listening to them just because they’d liked to, not because they were adjudicators, waiting to place their judgement onto them, to grade them or to decide who was better than the other. And they hadn’t played because they’d had to practice (which had been the initial reason, fair enough) and not because they really needed the money or anything, but just because, like Eddy had so wonderfully pointed out, it had been fun!

When someone who claimed him spending time perfecting his craft had nothing to do with enjoyment whatsoever looked at Brett the way Eddy had and stated exactly what Eddy had said, who could sue him for being a bit absentminded now?
But he expressed his thanks, even bowed once a few almost dismissive degrees and took his seat next to Eddy. 
“Good job, mate”, Eddy smiled while still swinging his bow up and down. 
“Thanks. Done for this morning! Now it’s your turn.”
“It sure is”, the taller said under his breath, more to himself than to Brett it appeared and the sudden competitive glint lighting up in his eyes caused Brett’s heart to race, out of fear or of something else, the smaller couldn’t tell.

First, there was a fifteen minute break though in which this time, Brett didn’t manage to dodge a certain red-haired someone. His own fucking fault for letting his guard down, he supposed while he simutaneously cursed his past self for not joining Eddy for his toilet break. 
“Brett! You did so well! Congrats! Really!”, Katie squealed (she might just have said it very happily, Brett was biased however, sue him!) and sat down on Eddy’s chair, making Brett’s eyelid twitch. 
“Thanks. How are you doing?”, he heard his overtly polite ass ask. A follow-up question? Was he mad?
“Fine! Thanks. I didn’t catch you after dinner yesterday. Bummer you didn’t join us for drinks after practicing. Did you turn in early?”
“Guess I lost track of time”, Brett technically told the truth, an eye frantically scanning the near surroundings for Cole’s silhouette. Where was that guy when he so desperately needed him?
“I see”, she said and tucked a strand of her red, shiny hair behind her ear, “Wanna make up for it tonight? We have workshop, but after that…”
Half of Brett’s cranium was wondering why he had to make up for anything while the other resounded in pure joy when Eddy’s voice came to his rescue. “Oh, Katie, right?”
“Eddy! Sorry, stole your seat!” Her flowery short skirt fluttered when she jumped up.
“No worries! Am I interrupting?”
“Nah! Not at all!”, Brett threw in, trying his damndest to keep the panic out of his tone, “Break's over soon anyway, right?”
“Right, but Brett, I’m sure we’d all be thrilled if you’d join us. You too, Eddy, of course!”
Eddy’s smile was blinding to say the least. “Thanks. Not my kinda thing though, but Brett’s certainly up for it.”
Yeah, no way his anxiety was NOT evident in the way and with the speed his head spinned towards Eddy. That little fucker…
“Not sure, Katie. I do need to be well-rested for all this soloist playing, you know. But thanks for inviting us.”
He really didn’t deserve that wink she threw at him. “Maybe you’ll change your mind. Just let us know.”
And with that, she finally, gracefully sauntered to the back of the first violins.

“Bro, what the fuck?”
Eddy’s grin widened, as if that were possible. “Helping out a friend, that’s all.”
“You know I’m not interested in her, why are you torturing me?”
“It’s kinda fun to see the panic in your face! Can’t believe she hasn’t noticed it yet”, Eddy said with a shrug and picked up his violin. 
“If I’d known you’d had such a sadistic side I would have kept my mouth shut!”, Brett shook his head. And despite knowing it was stupid and childish, he couldn’t prevent a certain acidic sting to abuse his heart. He deadpanned over it like a fucking world class mimic though because there was no need for Eddy to notice what a bunch of friendly and well-meant wingman moves did to him.

Again, their busy program saved Brett from overthinking stuff that surely wasn’t meant to ponder upon and it was Eddy’s turn to play the second movement and for Brett to lead the orchestra. Mr. Thames cued, the orchestra laid the warm, soft chords with a gentle, slow pulse and then, Eddy’s melody joined in. And oh, was it ever so sweet. Bittersweet in fact, with a hint of tension one second and letting said tension go the next, taking in deep breaths before the next line of worship. It was sacrilegious and Brett was well aware, but instead of following the conductor, his eyes were caught by this man standing in the spotlights in front of all those musicians, features soft, eyelids closed, his washed out, wrinkled shirt showing a rather cute drawing of a basket full of apples and his hair somehow even more disheveled after the break. Yeah, there was no need at all for Eddy Chen to wear a suit and make himself more presentable. Brett was fully convinced he’d have any audience’s full attention even when dressed in a garbage bag.

If there was any kind of insecurity Eddy was struggling with, it wasn't detectable in the slightest. Yes, the notes and phrases were still a bit too similar, his vibrato was still a tad too even, but even then, even like this, Brett found himself so fully drawn in it was a freaking miracle he didn’t get himself and the whole orchestra lost. And, was he imagining things or did his ears pick up on something that hadn’t been there before in Eddy’s playing? Something new, something… more?

Way too soon they reached the end of the second movement and as praise and applause rained on Eddy, Brett’s gaze seemed to be glued permanently on the taller now, like he was the super massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way and Brett a clueless star being pulled closer and closer to its singularity.

“Wonderful! That was all very remarkable!”, Mr. Jones’ voice boomed through the concert hall, “Very, very promising! This year’s final concert is going to be a blast and that’s all thanks to you talented musicians and of course, Brett and Eddy!”
Another round of applause, this time more polite than delighted.
“We’ll rehearse the first movement in the afternoon, but first, we’ll shake things up a bit and work on Mahler five.”

“And? What do you think?”
For once, Brett was at a loss for words and he couldn’t tell if it was because of Eddy’s performance or the droplets of sweat glistening on the taller’s forehead, letting him appear distractingly beautiful in Brett’s eyes. What the hell was wrong with him? 

Eddy frowned. “This bad?”
Brett shook his head violently, sending his hair flying left and right. “No! Gosh no! That was freaking amazing, Eddy.”
A victorious grin graced Eddy’s features, taking the rest of Brett’s breath away.
“Good.”