Play!

LXXV

Brett wasn’t so sure anymore if he really didn’t need any hype men, or women or whatever.

It was the sixth time he just couldn’t reach that high note right before the tutti was coming in for the first time and having a tough spot this early into the piece he was about to play just wasn’t on! His nervous, sweaty right hand ruffled through his hair as he let out another frustrated sigh, his scrunched up eyes staring down the damned note. 
“Fuck”, he muttered. This really wasn’t the place nor the time to panic. The competition was only a few hours away and minus dinner, showering and getting changed, he had a good three hours left. He tried again, bow ready, fingers at the right place and took a deep breath. E, F-sharp, G, G-sharp, A, B, C-sharp and-
“Fuck!”, Brett yelled into the crunchy, out of tune high D. Fuck it! What was he supposed to do now? He never had trouble reaching that note before. It was an upward scale anyway, no jump, lots of time to prepare, so what was his problem? The chair creaked when he slumped down on it, brushing through his hair for the thousandth time. 

Did he need a break? Bubble tea? Eddy? Brett pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. Two hours had gone by without him having seen the other and he was already showing signs of withdrawal. Maybe that’s why he was playing like he was sightreading? What was he gonna do once he was back in Brisbane, a thousand kilometers keeping them apart? He took a deep breath, got up and just wanted to lay down his violin to grab his wallet, when someone knocked.

Brett flinched and almost dropped his bow. “Yeah?”
“It’s me”, Brett’s most favourite voice in the world sounded through the door, “Can I come in?”
“O… Of course!”, Brett yelled, his heart beat immediately doubling its speed and forming a clump in his throat. He gulped while the door to the tiny practice room creaked open. 
“Hi!” Eddy’s head appeared, a glowing smile decorating his features. “Taking a break. Even brought payment, in case you’ll deny me entrance.”
“Oh thank God!”, Brett exclaimed and hurried over to drag Eddy into the room. Eddy sniggered and dangled a plastic bag filled with the most delicious life elixir in front of Brett.
“Am I accepted in your chambers?”
“More than welcome you are!” Brett stated, took the bag in an instant and pulled out a cup of bubble tea.
Eddy blankly stared at him with a lost, faltering smile. 
“What?”, Brett asked while stabbing a straw through the lid with a satisfying pop. The taller blinked, shook his head left and right and mumbled a “Nothing” before grabbing his own cup. 
“Thanks for that!”, Brett moaned, taking sip after sip and loudly chewed on the pearls.
“How’s practice going?”, Eddy asked, sipping boba in-between.
Brett groaned. “Don’t ask! If I can’t get this figured out, you’ll win without having to play.”
A small frown formed between Eddy’s brows. “What’s the matter?”
“There’s this one high note I can’t get right! It’s not even a difficult passage, just super high.” 
Eddy pensively scratched his chin. “Have you tried playing it differently? Slow practice and all?”
“Hmm… you mean like playing it backwards?”
Brett hadn’t and he could slap himself for it. Did Eddy really have to tell him twice about this method before he could implement it at the right time?
“Yeah.”
“Nah. Dumbass me forgot about it.”
Eddy laughed.
“Happens to me too sometimes. It’s hard to think clearly when you panic. Can I take a look at your violin?”
“Uh, sure.”

The taller got up, walked over to the piano on which Brett’s violin was resting and picked up the instrument. 
“When was the last time you changed strings?”, he asked while inspecting the violin.
Brett sat up a bit, a thought nudging his consciousness. “Couple months ago.”
Eddy looked at him. “How many months ago?”
“Probably like seven, eight months?”
He didn’t, but Brett could tell that Eddy wanted to make a snarky comment by the way the corners of his mouth twitched and this time, Brett couldn’t help but give his forehead a resonating smack. 
How, how on earth did he miss that right before a competition?

“Uhm…”, Eddy cleared his throat, “It could help, you know… changing strings.” 
“Give it to me, come on. No need to hold back! I deserve it. God, I’m so fucking dumb!”, Brett cursed and scrunched his eyes shut.
“Maybe a little?”, Eddy chuckled, “Can happen to anyone. Do you have strings here? I have a spare set, if you need.”
“I bet this never happened to you. Gosh! Can’t believe I wasted like an hour to try playing a note on such an old E-string!”
Brett sprung up and shuffled to his case to see if he still had a set of strings left. Probably not though. If there were, he would have seen them and the thought of changing his strings would have occurred way earlier. 
“Oh”, he made as his fingers dug up some paper packages, “Unbelievable.”
Eddy roared.
“But what the hell? They need time to adjust and I only have a few hours left till the competition. That’s not enough!” 
New strings took days to adjust until they didn’t go out of tune all the time.
“Only change the E-string then? Should be fine till the evening, you just have to play a few hours.”
“Oh yeah, I can do that!”, Brett exclaimed and immediately started to unravel the highest string on his violin. Out of the four strings, the E-string settled the fastest and should indeed be ready for the competition. “You’re saving my ass again, mate! Thank god for you stopping by, otherwise I would have lost my mind.”
“I hope that helps.”
“You could have just let me suffer and claim an easy win tonight”, Brett remarked with a smirk and drew the old string out. 
“You should know by now that I don’t want easy wins.”
Brett glanced at him, his features carrying a soft twinkle. “I know. I owe you!”

“You don’t. We've helped each other out all week. That’s not gonna change because of some competition”, Eddy stated and got up, his cup in hand, “Gonna head back now so you can practice. In case you still have trouble, try playing it differently and if that doesn’t help, you come to me, alright?”
“Alright!”, Brett said, already drawing his bow over the new string to tune, “Thanks, Eddy.”
“See you at dinner? Ah no, wait!” Eddy laid his free hand on his forehead, “My mum’s gonna come at five and I’m eating with her.”
“How nice”, Brett meant, despite the small pang he felt in his stomach. It was probably better like this anyway. He needed time to practice and get his head straight for the performance.
Eddy stilled. “Wait, you wanna join us?”
Brett’s bow skidded over the strings. “Wha… what?”
“Would you like to have dinner with us? My mum’s nice, I promise.”
“Oh, uh… I kinda need time…”
“But you need to eat too, right? We’re just gonna be at the cafeteria anyway. Still have to shower and get changed, so it’s gonna be like super chill and short. I bet she’d love to meet you.”
Brett wasn’t sure if he was ready to meet Mrs. Chen but then again, not seeing Eddy at all before the competition seemed like a bad, and most of all, very painful idea too.
“I mean, if I’m not disturbing you guys…”
“Not at all!”, Eddy called and gave Brett’s shoulder a slap, “Then it’s settled! See you at five at the cafeteria! And good luck practicing!”

And with that said, Eddy closed the door, leaving a stunned Brett behind.