distraction: you

interlude - elizabeth chen

she had long known her son would outgrow her influence. it had only been a matter of when.

ever since eddy had fled the family home, elizabeth has adopted the habit of gazing at his childhood picture, a gangly boy framed in ornate wood on her nightstand. there, he is eternally youthful. there, he is forever under her wing.

perhaps she hasn't gone about it in the proper method, years in hindsight. she does not consider herself the best of mothers, but she has always believed that her way is the right way. perfection is to be sought, and in order to do this, there can be no distractions. she'd done her best to ingrain that on eddy as she raised him, and she had succeeded.

after what his father had done to him, elizabeth hadn't thought eddy would so easily change the mindset she had instilled in his brain.

but then he has. after two and a half decades of living in the path elizabeth had set out for him, eddy's finally chosen to stray from it. for brett yang.

she doesn't know what to think of him. this strange, kaleidoscopic nobody shows up at the doorstep of eddy's life and jumbles it up, like a tornado. a force of nature, certainly; eddy had even seen fit to throw away the dream he's always had and offer it at the feet of his newfound—friend? with the way he had looked at the soloist that night of the opening concert, elizabeth isn't very surprised.

eddy has never been one for subtlety, in the face of his emotions.

and so when he tells her that he is in love with a man, there is no doubt in her mind that the man in question is brett yang. and in the light of eddy's request for her to stay away, to keep from meddling, there is absolutely nothing she can do to dissuade her son from this.

but: perhaps there is something there, something hopeful. she knows that eddy would have never set foot in her house again if not for brett's influence.

i just wanted to let you know.

(she hasn't heard him call her mama since the day he left home.)

and so for that reason alone, she'll allow eddy this, if nothing else. it's the very least she can do now.

she'll keep a close eye on the man, however, for her son's sake. just in case.