Brett's mum was very nice though. He introduced himself politely, in Mandarin of course, he'd be an idiot not to use that particular trump card, to the small lady in the apron and texted Brett's parent's phone number to his own mum before he followed Brett upstairs to his room.
Brett's room was so much like his own he had to surpress a smile when he walked in. There were a bed, a desk, some school stuff on a shelf above the desk, a computer, a tv, a music stand and some stacks of sheet music. It was tidy, of course, and there wasn't much in the way of anything else, really. The only things on the walls were a couple of concert programmes. I mean, what more would he need, anyway? Eddy smiled quietly to himself. They really were pretty much the same person.
He closed the door behind him, put his violin down and hesitated. He didn't know if he should ask. But then again, he really, really wanted to know.
¨Hey, bro. How are you? You okay now?¨
Brett turned to him straight away and eyed him seriously, pausing for a moment.
¨Yeah, I think so. I don't know. You?¨
Eddy nodded. ¨Same, I guess.¨
Brett smiled a tiny smile. ¨Come on, let's play some games then. Oh, and my mum would love to hear some duets if that's okay.¨
¨Absolutely!¨
Brett fired up the Nintendo, and Eddy made sure to pull the desk chair near the bed to sit on it. He figured it might not be the best idea to sit next to Brett on the bed again if they were going to stick to what they'd decided.
Because the electricity between them was still there. It had been there downstairs, but it was stronger now that they were alone. He realised even more now than before that there was no way his feelings were going to change. And when he looked at Brett, looking through his games drawer to see which one he wanted to play, he couldn't help but want to be close to him like that again. It would be so easy to walk over to him, to put his hand on his shoulder, turning him around, and then... He shook his head vigorously. Nope. SO not going there.
So when Brett sat down on the bed and gave him his controller he was prepared for the pull and he managed to stay quite focussed on the game.
After a while Brett said:
¨You wanna play the violin?¨
¨Yeah! I brought some duets I have that I thought we could play together. Maybe good for when we go busking on Saturday?¨
Brett beamed at him. ¨Cool! Yeah!¨
Eddy took his violin out of its case and tuned it while Brett was looking at the sheet music he'd brought.
¨Looks good!¨ he said, flicking through the pages.
Oh, but how awesome it was to play with Brett!! It really was like they'd known each other for ever.
When they'd played through all the duets he gave Brett a spontaneous high five.
¨We're really good together!¨ he said, breathlessly.
Brett smiled, and Eddy had to pretend not to see the sadness in his smile.
¨We are¨, he said softly.
Eddy nodded, the weight of the unintended double meaning of his comment pressing down on him.
¨Yeah.¨ He gave Brett a sweet smile. ¨We're going to get very rich on Saturday!¨
Brett laughed. ¨Cool, 'cause I need a better violin!¨
Eddy laughed with him. ¨Yeah, and lots of bubble tea!¨
It really had turned out to be a lovely afternoon, and when Eddy walked home he was much happier than when he came.
They'd played the duets again in front of Brett's mum and she had liked them a lot. He got the feeling she approved of him. He smiled wryly to himself as he walked along. Yeah, she approved of him as long as she couldn't read his mind...
Oh well. She couldn't, and his friendship with Brett was going just as well as he could hope for.
He'd finally found himself a real best friend, and he would do nothing to mess it up!