When a Man Enters the Shrinks Office...

13) 3 Mill!

9 dec
The next day they achieve the 3 million subscriptions they have been waiting for.

Eddy pronounces it with a green face when he sees it during lunch.
He is totally lost for a moment, realizing he really has to play the Sibelius concerto for thousands of people. He almost faints by the idea.

Brett, also sitting at the table with his knees on the stool and at against his chest, casts a look on his green face and instantly starts laughing hard.

"Oh mate, you are so screwed!"

It is such a nice sound in comparison of the silence who has been an uninvited and surely overstayed guest the last couple of weeks. Eddy loves it, so he immediately feels a bit better.

"Yeah yeah. Don't forget you have to play the total orchestra part!".

But Brett only laughs and laughs, tears rolling down his cheeks. Happy tears.
Happy tears are okay.

Eddy gleams and thinks: And now we just need to step up on our practice to ace this piece! Practice together. That will make everything better.

9-15dec

So for the next week Eddy is trying really hard to be a LingLing reincarnation to get his version of the Sibelius in his head and fingers.
It also takes his mind of the problems with Brett.
After the practice room episode everything became a bit better.
Brett has more energy now his sickness is treated right and the medicine are working.
But he still keeps avoiding Eddy most of the times and is still not talking like he did in the old days.
He is also not eating like he should, although Eddy is trying his best with the best food he can provide. He even cooks!
He never could have imagined that he would do that one day. But he wants the best for Brett.
So he tries with Google at his side and with the advice of his mum to make the . She is delighted that she finally can teach Eddy her famous recipes.

But Brett just looks at the food and sighs.

He wonders if he is nervous for the 3Mil drop too?
But after the life-stream is over everything will be better!
Eddy is sure about it.
So he is determined to nail this as good as he can.
Everyone will be watching.
Brett will be watching.
He can't drag him down now, can he?
It's also the only thing he can do anyway.
It's the only thing he has some influence on.

In the mean time he also bought them time by finally posting online the situation at hand.
The one that they have to take a break, without disclosing too much.
It has resulted into a bit of a chaotic video, but hell, he is living in a chaotic world now, so he can't be bothered by it too much. The reactions are surely heartwarming. Every time he reads all the get well wishes he almost cries. He knows Brett reads them too and hopes he finds some encouragement in them.

We will get back you guys! Trust me! I only don't know when.

----------------------------------

At the same time Brett has been trying to get his music feelings back.
The good part is that it's actually working. He can't be happier.
When he is by himself he can hear the melody's again and can get lost in the beautiful sounds of his own violin playing.
The meds are finally doing their job, so he has more energy to play anyway. Downside still being that he needs to rest sacrilegiously often, eating up valuable practice time.
LingLing will be disappointed, but to hell with it. It's not that he chooses to be in this situation, now is he. He wants it to be different. But he is getting there more and more.
Also listening to concerto's is getting good again.
It takes his mind of things and lets him fantasize about future possibilities where worries will be in the past.

But of course he is still embarrassingly pining.
So eating is still difficult when he faces the man he loves but can't get.
You try to swallow with a thick throat!
But it's getting better. Some days he has the feeling that everything will work out, others are more difficult.

His focus is now to get this Sibelius-thing working.
It's a nice goal to be able to perform again for so many people. Although they won't see them directly, Eddy and he know they are watching.
Maybe they hit the magical 40.000 viewers! It's an exhilarating feeling.

So he steadily has gotten the joy back in his music playing and practices hard for the orchestra part for the Sibelius of Eddy.
They can nail this!
And maybe after that, they can be normal again.

While practicing his phones rings.

"Hey Ray. How are you?"