Get out

Duality

"Thanks, I'll carry them up myself," Brett said, dismissing the two guards with a nod. Both of them looked like they wanted to protest and say they could carry them upstairs for him, but the boss didn't open up for discussion with his tone. This was a private matter, not a work matter.

He watched them move into the corridor to their break room and waited for the sound of the door closing behind them before even looking at the small collection of boxes that had been carefully placed in a row by his grand piano. There weren't as many boxes as he expected, knowing how Eddy used to feel sentimental value for the tiniest things like bubble tea straws or old copies of sheet music when they were younger.

The boss was certain his guys had been thorough when picking up and inspecting the boxes. They always did their best. Brett just wanted to make sure everything was there, make sure he was in fact doing his best for Eddy despite the unfortunate circumstances he had caused for him.

He opened the first box and carefully shifted through it, finding it full of clothes. A few of the t-shirts he didn't really recognize as Eddy's style, being much rougher in their designs than what he remembered his best friend used to pick the few times they had earned enough from busking to go shopping afterwards.

The second box seemed to contain a few weapons, including a gun he was sure had to be the same kind he had gotten for Eddy ages ago. He doubted it would be the same one, but it was nice to see it had been an okay enough choice of a gun for a trained assassin like Eddy to keep a similar one. He checked that it was empty before moving on to the next box.

"Huh, what's that?" he asked out loud to himself when he opened the next box and found a white envelope on top. It looked out of place among all the other stuff. The envelope was simply too new compared to everything else. Dust covered most of the other items or they were clearly worn, but this envelope was so white it almost hurt to look at. He had to figure out what was up with that, make sure it didn't contain new instructions for any attempts on his life or anything like that. Not that he thought Eddy would do anything, but better safe than sorry.

Brett picked up the envelope, briefly getting distracted by the framed picture of himself and Eddy underneath it. He remembered when the picture was taken, a fond memory. Strings camp in Canberra back when they were barely old enough to be out of town on their own. It had been a blast, and the fact that Eddy had gotten a disposable camera for his birthday to take pictures for the trip made it possible for them to remember things clearer. It had been an amazing time, and Brett honestly missed the good times.

Eddy's mom had kept most of the pictures, though, wanting to put everything in albums. The only reason Eddy had this picture was one little detail on the shelf behind them that had made them decide to pull it out of the stack before handing them off to his mom.

"I can't believe we were so paranoid over that," Brett chuckled to himself as he studied the picture. The tiny detail? A singular beer can, which easily could be mistaken for a can of soda. He shook his head slightly and put it carefully back in the box. The good memories put a smile on his face, made his stomach tickle.

Brett shifted his focus back to the envelope in his hand. It had 'Eddy' written on it on the front, and it wasn't sealed properly. Just kind of tucked closed, which was probably a good thing as Eddy probably didn't approve of him looking through his stuff.

He carefully opened the envelope and peeked inside, seeing only paper with some neat handwriting.

"What's this then?" he muttered to himself as he pulled the papers out of the envelope and unfolded them.

It took him exactly two seconds to realize this wasn't something he was meant to read and re-folded the paper. Unfortunately he hadn't realized it soon enough and was left standing there while processing the little information he had.

Why did all good things in his life have to be so complicated?

He slowly put the papers back into the envelope, but his shaky hands made it difficult. Stupid letter. Stupid Alex.

It would've been so easy for him to just toss the letter out, burn it, pretend it didn't exist, be Eddy's sole comfort. He knew he couldn't do that, though. He knew he couldn't, so he put the letter carefully back into the box once he had re-closed it. Brett simply couldn't break Eddy's trust like that. Then he picked up the box to bring upstairs. Might as well get it over with. Who was he to think he was going to get another chance at patching things up with Eddy anyway?