Broken String

LV (2nd half mildly NSFW)

The next couple of days seem to glide by in a new, calmer rhythm. Get up. Get ready. Eat. Sit on the couch while one of his friends practises at home. Wait, until Brett comes home from the con. Breathe deeply with the relief. Look, he knows Brett is still cancelling things, but he can't let him cancel everything, so he'd rather bite off his own tongue than tell him how relieved he is when he's back. Or how he hates it when he's gone.
The best time of the day comes when everybody gets home. They're still playing D&D every night, Todd is cooking every night, and even though Eddy feels bad about stopping his friends from doing whatever else they really should be doing he somehow can't seem to get himself to make it stop, either.
"Eddy, did you want to shower tonight?"
He looks up at his best friend who is on the couch with his phone, looking at him expectantly. His eyes shoot to the clock. It's eleven.
The question is innocent enough, of course, and very thoughtful. And Brett is right, he does need to shower. It's been like three days since that last, fateful shower. So why does an uneasy tremor trill through him at the thought?
"Actually, that's a good idea." he says quietly. Brett's face, as he nods, gives nothing away about how he feels about it. He just gets up and starts pushing him towards the bedroom so he can gather his things.

It's so weird still, to take off his clothes again in front of Brett. Nothing about this has become normal yet. At least this time he's wearing sweats already, so Brett doesn't need to take off his belt. There's no need to tell Brett either that that's why he's not been wearing jeans, these last few days. As soon as he's naked Brett helps him onto the plastic stool and turns on the shower.
Oh, God, the water is nice. Oh, the warm water is so nice, and it's probably the relaxation that washes over him with the cascading water that makes him blurt out the question he's not asked all week.
"Do you think you could help me change the bed sheets in a minute?"
"Of course!" Brett says as if it's nothing, as if it hasn't been on Eddy's mind at all.
The bed needs to be different, you see. It needs to have no remnants of Anna, no remnants of tears or pain. He wants to forget all about all of those things.
"I'll shampoo your hair?"
"Yeah, please." Eddy admits.
Brett nods and takes the bottle, squeezing some of the sweet smelling liquid in his hands and lathering quickly before putting his supple fingers through Eddy's hair. His short nails scratch the scalp again in just that way. God. It's heavenly.
"Hmm." Eddy hums before he knows it.
Brett grins above him.
"Yeah?"
Eddy knows his cheeks are colouring. God, this is embarrassing. But even apart from the shameful hum he's also quickly realising that he finds himself in a dangerous situation here. He remembers very well what happened last time after the shower, after the hot water had done its lush thing with his skin. Oh, that was such an awesome orgasm, one that would be so great to repeat. In fact, it's just what he needs. But he also knows he really shouldn't do that again. His right hand is a bit less sore than it was just after, but still a lot more sore than before he did that. So there's no way.
God, he wants it though, especially now he's thought of it, he can feel the vibrations run through him as Brett soaps his hair gently, then leans him back to rinse out the suds.
Liver. Raw, red, bloody liver. He scrunches his eyes shut, thinks of liver and wills all of his body parts under control. Thank God he's twenty now and not fourteen or he'd definitely be sitting here with a boner, and how the hell could he explain that one?

"Okay, that'll do you, I think. I'll give you a minute?" Brett asks.
"Yeah, thanks." he says through his pounding heart. Brett smiles at him and leaves the room so he can wash himself in peace. And that's when his control falls away.
Oh God, he's hard already, before the door has even fully closed behind his best friend. He's like a rock in fact, he looks down and sees his dick standing proud, begging him to touch it, begging him to take it and move up and down as fast as he can until he shoots his warmth to mix with the warmth of the water still cascading over him.
Then he shakes his head.
No. He knows he'll regret it if he does. There is no telling how much worse it would make his hand. So he takes deep breaths and washes himself gently. His erection tingles with elation when he runs his soapy hand over it.
"No, mate. Sorry." he whispers, and goes back to his deep breathing.

By the time Brett comes back in he's back in his normal state and he has himself under control. Look. It's just what it is.
He'll have to accept it.
"Ready for bed?" Brett asks him as he hands him a towel. "I've taken the sheets off already, so it'll just take a minute to put some clean ones back on."
He smiles up at him.
"Thanks bro. You're a life saver, you know that, right?"