Andante con Brio

CXCVIII

They went around the corner and into a little alcove at the end, where there was a little bench. Eddy pulled his great friend into it and pushed him down. There was nobody around, here. They could talk. 
"So." he said quietly as he sat down. 
Todd looked down at his knees, almost like he was frozen. Then he took a deep, shuddering breath and looked up at Eddy with his eyes full of tears. His bottom lip was quivering. 
"Oh, mate." Eddy said softly as he put his hand on Todd's knee. 
"I... I need to get over myself." Todd managed. A tear rolled over and fell onto his jeans, just beside Eddy's hand. 
"Not right now, you don't. We have a little time. Talk to me."
"What's there to say?" Another tear rolled down and he swiped at it. "I fucked everything up, Eddy. Everything."
Eddy shook his head and squeezed Todd's thigh.
"What happened this morning?"
Suddenly Todd looked right at him.
"What, you mean really early this morning?" he said, his hissed tone suddenly deadly. "That's what you want to know? I kissed him, Eddy. It was awesome. Everything I could ever have imagined. Then I sucked him, and he loved it, clearly. But then reality hit, Eddy, what do you think happened?"
"You know that's not what I meant." Eddy said, trying to keep out of his voice how taken aback he was by Todd's harsh words. Todd paled even more, then nodded morosely. 
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."
"What happened this morning, Todd?"
Todd took a deep breath, then another. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and squared his shoulders again. 
"He hasn't spoken to me. Not a word."
"Shit."
"So what do I do, Eddy? What the hell do I do to salvage what I had? Fuck, Eddy..." Todd closed his eyes and shook his head from side to side once, twice. "It was all I ever wanted and it was wrong, all wrong."
Eddy put his arm around Todd's shoulder as tears began to flow for real and he sobbed miserably. 
"Oh, Todd. I'm so sorry, mate."
"'s my own fault." Todd said bleakly. "I got drunk. I'm an idiot." He looked up to Eddy through teary veils. "Have I gone and ruined my life?"
"Do you... do you want me to talk to him? See how he feels, if he'll tell me, that is?"
Todd blinked as more tears fell. Then he nodded slowly. 
"Yeah. Would you?"
"Of course, are you kidding me? I just... I dunno, I don't know if he'll want to. But I'll try."
Todd took him by surprise as he suddenly enveloped him in a bear hug.
"Thanks, Eddy." he said in his ear as he thumped him on the back. He let go and took another deep, deep breath. "You're a good friend. Alright. We should go and rehearse. I... I've got myself together, now. Sorry about this."
"Stop. Seriously. Todd. Cut it out." He got up and held out his hand. "Come on, let's go rehearse."

They walked back into the rehearsal space just as Brett and Ian were sitting down in the semicircle once more. Todd hadn't lied, he did have himself together, but yet he didn't miss John's questioning look as he sat down on the first chair, didn't miss how his eyes were shooting back and forth between him and Todd, and back to Ian. He clearly new something was wrong, but Eddy couldn't worry about that now. So he opened up his sheet music again and did his best to focus on nothing but the Dvorák. 

An hour later John set his baton down on his stand.
"Right, gang, nicely done. I'll see you at three this afternoon, same place." 
Some orchestra members were already starting to file into the space. Eddy got up and quickly put his violin away. Was he going to be able to corner Ian? Would Ian even be willing to talk to him at all? But before he could leave the room John was there, by his side, his eyebrows knitted together. 
"Eddy? Can I ask, is... is everything okay with the guys?"
He looked into his mentor's face a little helplessly. 
"Er... that... that's what I'm going to go find out, John. Don't worry, they'll be okay, I'm sure."
John nodded pensively. 
"Okay."