Four thirty-three

Chapter 12

Brett put down the violin and glanced at Eddy. The teacher nodded approvingly.

"You've improved a lot since last Monday, Yang. Good job."

Brett raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

"What? Surprised by the compliment?" Eddy chuckled.

He shrugged noncommittally. "I'm not used to hearing them from you, that's all. You're usually so mean to me."

It took Brett a full second to realize how childish and whiny that sentence had sounded, and when he did, he blushed beet red.

"Oh, am I?" The derision in the teacher's voice was blatant, even if he tried to maintain a straight face.

"Nevermind."

♪ ♪ ♪

"Good." Chen nodded. "Vivaldi's coming around nicely, so we'll start working on this one next month."

Brett took the sheet music Eddy gave him. "Sonata Op. 5 nº12 La Follia , by Corelli," he read out loud.

"Do you know it?"

"Uh... No, I don't."

"It's still Baroque repertoire, but this one's a bit harder than the Vivaldi."

Brett gave the score a once over and his eyes widened. Eddy must have noticed the shock in his face, for he chuckled and said, "Don't worry. Just listen to it a few times, you'll see you'll end up liking it."

"Listen?" Brett blinked. "But, erm... how?"

"Mhm? Oh! Yeah. We've got CD players in some practice rooms. Let me fetch the CD and we'll go give it a listen before dinner, okay?"

♪ ♪ ♪

Once in the practice room, Eddy inserted a CD in a very old, huge CD player, pressed play and lay down on the floor.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Brett asked.

"The floor has the best acoustics in the whole room, don't ask me why."

Brett looked down at him, befuddled.

"Come down here."

"What??"

"Come on, Yang. Don't make me go up there and get you," Eddy said playfully.

Brett sighed, but did as he was told and lay next to Eddy. He shuffled a bit, trying to find a comfortable position.

"The floor is cold," he mumbled.

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Your body will warm it up enough in a few seconds."

Brett hummed, but didn't comment any further. They stayed in silence after that, listening to the piece. When it finished, the CD automatically went to the next piece. Neither moved to stop it. After a while, Brett started shuffling again, his head hurting from lying directly on the floor for so long.

Eddy glanced at him from the corner of his eye and sighed. "You're such a delicate thing." He straightened up, took off his hoodie, made a bundle out of it, and gave it to his student. "Here. Put this under your head."

Brett turned his head towards him, his glasses crooking when the side of them touched the floor. He looked at Chen, then at his hoodie, then back at Chen again. Without a word, he shuffled to place the garment so it acted as a pillow.

Chen's smell enveloped him, sweet, warm, safe. He sighed softly.

Dinner hour came and went, and neither made any sign of moving at all. Eventually, the soft music, combined with Eddy's steady breaths, lulled Brett to sleep. He started snoring softly.