Neighbour

5.

Eddy was absolutely exhausted, and just the thought of rolling out of bed and give feedback to a bunch of kids who didn't seem to actually want to learn violin made him want to call in sick for the day. Why did they come to the lesson if they never practiced anyway? Some of his students never practiced at home, no matter how much he tried to motivate them. 

They weren't the reason he was so tired, though. He was tired because his neighbours had fought almost all night every night since he came back from the audition. 

Normally, he couldn't hear anything from their apartment into his bedroom, so this wasn't really a problem. If he had issues with them making noise, he'd just go in there and everything would be solved. That didn't work anymore, though. Not since they started hitting things against the walls. It sounded like when they fucked, but so much louder, like they were doing it deliberately. 

It usually died down around two or three in the morning, though. Eddy had gotten up to go to the bathroom around that time once, and he was pretty sure they made up by fucking each other's brains out. 

That didn't change anything of how little Eddy wanted to be awake as he rolled out of bed and placed his feet on the cold, wooden floor. The sun was just too bright as he pulled back the curtains too. He just wanted to close them again and pretend he had overslept. 

He jumped a little when his phone rang from his nightstand, vibrating against the table. He could think of anyone who would call at this hour, and figured it had to be a telemarketer or something like that. He answered it anyway, though, sitting back on the bed. 

"This is Eddy. Who am I speaking with?" he said after pressing the speakerphone button. It was quiet for a moment before he got a reply. 

"Hiya, this is Kirsten Williams, concertmaster of the CSO."

Eddy almost forgot how words worked for a moment. Why would the concertmaster of the orchestra he had auditioned with as badly as he had call him? Would she cuss him out for even showing up? 

"How can I help you?" he heard himself say, giving him a few more moments to snap out of it and suppress the yawn forcing its way out. 

"Congratulations, we've chosen to accept you for the substitute list position," the concertmaster said in a friendly tone, and Eddy was pretty sure he was still asleep at that point. Surely the concertmaster wouldn't call him about that? They had only sent emails to his friends who had made it in the past…?

"Thank you so much! Wow, I did not expect that," he admitted on an exhale, running a hand through his hair. He had to stand up and walk around for a bit to get the adrenaline out of his system. This was insane!

"Now, there's just one thing I need to ask. How soon can you start?" the concertmaster asked, and Eddy got an inkling to why she was calling rather than emailing him from her tone. 

"I teach today, but I suppose I can move tomorrow's lessons out of the way… So tomorrow, I guess?" he summed up out loud, running a hand through his hair again, tugging it a bit to check he was actually awake. It felt like he was. 

"Oh that's fantastic. We have a second violin who unfortunately had a sudden health problem. Would you mind stepping in for him? I can send you the music right now, and rehearsals start tomorrow. I know it's a bit short notice, but we really didn't expect to be so short staffed… "

"No problem at all! Just email me the music and the details and I'll see you at rehearsal tomorrow." 

"Perfect, can I just confirm your email address?"