Eddy took one look at his bathroom and immediately pulled out his phone to call Brett. This was a two-man battle, he knew, and was ready to take it on head first with a comrade at his side.
His phone rang for only just a minute, but it felt like several hours to Eddy.
C'mon, Brett. I need you right now! , thought Eddy.
He was about to hang up, when Brett's smooth voice came from the other end of the phone and said, "Hey Eddy. Watchya need?"
Relif flooded him. He then braced himself for impact before asking, "Brett, can you please come over right now? I-I want you to help me with..." he sighed, embarrassed, not wanting to prove Brett right. "...cleaning my bathroom." The last few words came out as a mumble, but Brett heard it loud and clear, and grinned like a sneaky cat from ear to ear.
"Could you repeat that again, a little louder? I'm not quite sure I heard what you said."
Eddy sighed again. He knew what game Brett was playing, and also knew there was no other choice than to let him win, given his desperate situation. "Will you help me clean my bathroom? Please?" he repeated.
Brett, still grinning, knowing that he had won, said, "Of course. I'll be over in 15 minutes, more or less." He paused so that his next words could take full effect. "I told you so."
Before Eddy could come up with a remark, Brett hung up and hurried to pull on some old demin work jeans and a causal gray t-shirt. He slipped on a pair of checkered balck and white Vans, (with socks of course, unlike you crazy slip-on loving people, who absolutely don't care if your feet are all sweaty and gross while you work!!) and grabbed his wallet, phone, and violin before heading out the door.
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17 minutes later, Eddy heard a knock at his door and jumped up from his couch to greet his friend.
"Your late." he said, with his voice dripping with sarcasm and a mock frown on his face.
Brett grinned and rolled his eyes at his friends theatrics, then shrugged and answered, "What can I say, never was the 'punctual' person." He let himself in the house, leaving Eddy and his mock attitude leaning against the door frame.
Eddy turned to face his friend, and then watched his slip off his Vans and place them on the shoe rack.
Brett walked towards Eddy's bathroom to inspect the damage for himself. And boy was it a sight to behold.
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The day of the incident, Eddy was not feeling well at all, his allergies were really aggressive, and his headache had been consistent throughout the entire day. He was invited to go to a local bar with a few of his rambunctious cousins, and after some serious persuading, he agreed, and they set off.
At that moment, a little ball of doom was created on this metaphorical hill of disaster, getting bigger and bigger, just itching to be pushed.
Everything had been going well, with minimal drinks and laying low for Eddy, until he had been offered a Yager Bomb, his favorite alcoholic drink. And even though a little voice in the back of his head (probably his conscience) was nagging at him to not take the energizing substance, he took it, and his little-not-so-little snowball of doom began to roll down the hill of disaster.
By what was presumed to be around midnight, Eddy could barley stand up straight, and his headache was now a blinding pain that he couldn't get rid of. He had one of his smarter and less drunk cousins drive are him home that night, where as soon as he had hit his once clean bathroom, threw up all the achohol he had consumed at the bar into his toilet bowl and the area surrounding it. It was not a pretty sight.
When Eddy had finally gotten rid of all the alcohol from his stomach, (or at least most of it), he realized he and his clothes were also disgustingly covered in vomit, along with the toilet, and stumbled over to his shower/bathtub to get rid of the substance.
Eddy tried to take a shower the best he could, but ended up making himself more messy then he originally was, also leaving his shower/bathtub almost completely caked in shampoo, conditioner, and his favorite lavender scented body wash. Which, evidently, made the bathtub/shower smell really nice, but it also mixed with he smell of alcohol, which made the bathroom as a whole not smell so nice.
Once Eddy had finally, "cleaned", himself up, he looked around at his once clean bathroom and was completely grossed out by the sight. He grabbed the closest thing in his cleaning cabinet under the sink and started to pour it over his whole bathroom, hoping it would help. It turned out that the stuff he was pouring was bleach, and it was starting to stain everything.
Panicked, Eddy left the bathroom in a daze, and managed to pull on some underwear and loose sweats before crashing on his bed for a nice, long, nap.
For 15 hours.
Until 4pm.
Which was way too long for Brett, who had been trying to reach Eddy all day. At this point, it was all he could do to not yell at Eddy for ignoring him when he finally did pick up the phone.
Their conversation went something like this, Eddy couldn't remember all the details:
"Eddy! There you are! Do you know how many times I've texted you and called you for the past three hours?! 17 calls!! 23 texts!! You haven't answered a single one of them!!!"
Eddy had forgotten the next part of the conversation, because Brett's volumus(?) voice had brought back his blinding headache, and it was all he could do to not pass out again.
When Eddy realized Brett had stopped talking, he sighed and tried to find a way out of telling the truth to his best friend. This was a tricky puzzle indeed.
He decided to try to make Brett feel guilty first. "Brett, please, calm down, I'm not in a hospital or anything, I'm fine. I just woke up, and your voice is way too loud." His voice came out in a scratchy whisper, barley audible over the phone.
Brett didn't want to make Eddy feel bad, but his suspicions weren't gone yet. "Ok, ok, sorry, I didn't mean to yell, but you just woke up? It's like, 4pm. Did something happen last night?"
Eddy gulped. Brett was suspicious, he knew this wasn't going to be easy. "Well, I crammed in a lot of work last night, till 2, and I know, I know, you're going to say I shouldn't have, and yes, yes, I know I shouldn't have, but it needed to be done and I had been avoiding it for a while now. Plus, I had a headache and really bad allergies all afternoon, so I just passed out on my bed when I was done. Your voice is still too loud, by the way, so could you please just whisper?" It wasn't a total lie, and hopefully it would be enough for Brett.
"Yeah, you shouldn't have. And I guess that checks. Sorry I was so worried." Was his voice really that loud?
Eddy was in the clear. For now.
"Its alright, I know you're just lookin' out for me. I gotta go make me some coffee now, and some breakfast. I mean, lunch. Gah, this is confusing. See ya later bro."
"You too."
"Bye."
"Bye." There was just a moment of hesitation before Brett spoke, just enough for Eddy to pick up on.
Neither one wanted to be the person to hang up. So Eddy said, "Brett?"
"Yeah Eddy?"
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"Being there for me."
Brett smiled. "Always."
They hung up in a happy silence, each one relieved for different reasons.
Brett was relived that Eddy was ok.
Eddy was relived that he had gotten away with telling Brett about last night. For now.
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After Brett was done calling Eddy, he grabbed his laptop, plugged it in the charger, and played a random movie from Netflix to play in that background as he worked (the movie was Disney's Bolt, and it's super good, so GO WATCH IT!!). He had only glanced at the title, but saw that it was an animated film, so he had nothing against it and therefore thought it would make good background noise.
He opened up his laptop and went straight to his emails, knowing those needed to be done first. But working for the sake of working was never fun, and 17 minutes later, Brett had completely ignored the movie and his emails to mindlessly scroll Instagram. Nothing was catching his interest, and he was about to turn off his phone to actually see what movie was playing, when he saw a post made by one of Eddy's crazy cousins. It wasn't a very eye-catching picture, and it was quite blurry, in fact, with someone's (presumably Eddy's cousin's) thumb over half the lens. Brett thought they must have really drunk when they posted this.
But it wasn't any of those factors that caught his attention. It was the person the camera was focused on, a person with dark brown hair, a drink in his hand, and a practice hoodie on, making him distinguishable even through the blurry lense. It was Eddy.
His Eddy. Eddy Chen, his best friend and companion for the last decade, that Eddy. You know the one.
Breyt couldn't believe his eyes. He scrolled down to read the caption to see: Had an awesome time at the Bay Bar with @eddyadventure last night. Glad he decided to come.
Brett dialed up Eddy. He did understand why Eddy wouldn't anyone to know about this, but, at the same time, he didn't like not being told the truth straight up.
On the third ring, Eddy picked up. "Hey Brett. Long time no see. Whatchya callin' me for?" He said in his casual tone.
"You know whats up. Tell me what happened at the bar last night."
Eddy froze in his tracks. He knew he would be found out eventually, but this was way sooner than he expected.
"I-I, well, i-it's a long story, a-and I was..." Eddy was truly sorry that he didn't tell Brett the truth, but he just didn't want Brett to work himself to the ground worrying about him. If that made sense. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you the truth. What can I do to make it up to you?"
"An apology. That's a start. I know you're sorry, and I forgive you for not telling me. Now, what really happened last night?"
Eddy told Brett everything that had happened, and apologized multiple times throughout his confession, trying to earn back Brett's trust.
When he had finished, Brett let all the information sink in, before saying, "Now it all makes sense. You know, I always knew you were unlucky, but this really takes the cake."
Eddy laughed. It was good to know that Brett wasn't mad at him. "I don't think it was luck that did this, more like me and my stupid decisions and persuasive cousins."
"Yeah right. I'd eat my rosin before I ever admitted that you were stupid."
"Thank you? Wasn't exactly sure if that was a compliment or not, but I'll take it."
"Love you too Eddy. See ya later."
"Bye."
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Brett toke a step back at the catastrophe before him.
Eddy had only told him bits and pieces about that damage so far, and hadnt let him inside yet, so seeing the real deal was a shocker. And after two weeks of ignoring this part of the house, even Eddy was surprised to see it.
Eddy's shoes, socks, and clothes were stained beyond repair, along with the small rug on the floor. The bleach had done little to clean the toilet, and it had in fact only worsened the smell. The two towels hanging on the towel rack were now splotchy and unusable, and some of the bleach they had soaked up had also stained the walls, turning the pretty navy blue to an ugly pink and red mixture. The only thing left virtually untouched was the sink, looking very odd as the only clean object in the middle of a sea of disgust.
No matter how many remarks and jokes were made at each other, Brett and Eddy both knew that they trusted each other deeply, and cleaning this bathroom was only one of the trials that they've faced.
Brett looked at Eddy and knew that he had to do this with him. It was just what best friends do, right? Stick with each other, and help out whenever they could.
Eddy looked at Brett and knew that Brett was with him till the end. Becuase it was just what best friends did. Right?
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