Denial - a Breddy fanfic

107.

They eventually made it outside in search of anywhere they had some good food, Brett just doing whatever Eddy suggested. All he wanted right now was to go back to sleep and not wake up in a while. If maybe this day would just pass, everything would be better tomorrow. Maybe Eddy was right, that his parents were just busy with something, and that they would call tonight and tell him how happy they were for him.
Hoping wasn't prohibited, right?
"Maybe we could go there?" Eddy suggested, pointing to a Brazilian bbq place that popped up on the map on his phone. Brett just shrugged.
"Whatever you want", he mumbled, not really feeling hungry.
"Or we could go to that Italian place where I got takeaway for us?" Eddy suggested, trying his best to pull Brett out of his grey cloud. Brett shrugged again, pointing to his last answer. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and stared down at the stone tiled ground in front of him. Eddy sighed in defeat.
"Italian, then?" he half decided, receiving only a tiny nod from Brett before they started walking there.

"I'm sorry", Brett mumbled on the way, making his hands into tight fists in his pockets.
"You don't have to apologize, Brett", Eddy repeated. "I'm just worried about you."
Brett bit the inside of his cheek for a moment until he felt the laste of blood in his mouth.
"You shouldn't have to worry about me", he said eventually, quietly. "And that's what I'm sorry about."
Eddy reached out and took Brett's hand out of his pocket to hold it tightly. He stopped their walk for a second.
"And that's exactly what you don't have to be sorry about. You are going through some stuff, and I worry about you because I love you and want you to be okay."
Brett looked up at Eddy, and the intense and honest look on Eddy's face made the corner if his mouth twich slightly upwards.
"I love you too", he said, tiptoeing to kiss Eddy's cheek. "Thank you, you always know what to say."

They decided to just eat at the restaurant, to avoid just staying in their hotel room all the time. They shared a pizza and discussed possibly vlogging a trip up mount Fløien, which Eddy had read about online. Appearently, there would be some kind of railroad to get up, which Brett tried to make sense of.
"But, isn't it, you know, very steep? We have to check that out", he said, taking another bite of his pizza.
"I mean, yeah, but do we vlog it?" Eddy asked, sipping the coke he had gotten.
"I mean, sure, why not?" Brett said with a shrug, still chewing the pizza. "Need content, and that's possibly good content. Should we maybe even play something up there? Like, I don't know, Grieg?"
Eddy laughed a bit at the suggestion.
"I mean, he is literally everywhere, we should totally play some Grieg."

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Brett's phone vibrating against the table top. He furrowed his brows when he saw the name on the screen.
"Looks like mom's ratted me out", he mumbled, grabbing the phone from the table and answering.
"Hello?" he said to his brother in the other end, running a hand through his hair nervously.
"Bro, I got some bad news", was the only reply he got. Eddy reached out to hold Brett's hand on the table when he saw the change in Brett's expression. Brett just sighed.
"If you're calling to tell me mom's disowning me, I kinda figured already", Brett said quietly, concentrating on how soft Eddy's fingers felt in an attempt to stop himself from crying again.
"What, no? Why would she disown you anyway? Actually, tell me later. I have something important to tell you."
Brett's face moved from sad to confused, and Eddy's followed close by. He tried to understand the conversation just from hearing one side, which was difficult.
"What is it, then?" he asked his brother, his mind racing to figure out what could be the bad news.
It went silent in the other end for a moment before the sound of his brother inhaling sounded through the phone.
"Dad's dead", he finally said, half choked. "He was sent to the hospital in an ambulance after suddenly collqpsing in the kitchen. He died last night, Brett."
Brett's face blanked, trying to understand the words his brother spoke.
"What?" he said, feeling his throat tighten.
"Dad's dead. I'm sorry, mom didn't tell you before because she left her phone at home. I just arrived at the hospital myself." It hurt to hear the sadness in his brother's voice.
"Are you okay? Are mom okay?", Brett asked, not even thinking about how he was feeling himself. Eddy squeezed his hand, definitely noticing the change in Brett's voice without realizing why it had changed.
"I'm okay, mom... Not so much", his brother said with a sigh.
"Take care of her for me, please", Brett said quietly. "Take care of mom." His voice cracked at the last word and a single tear ran down his cheek.