Fantasia

XVI

"Oh, so you're back?"
Eddy heard a warm voice next to him as he tried to clear his head. Was he lying on the ground? What was happening? Everything felt so real Eddy first thought he'd simply fallen out of his bed, until he opened his eyes and found himself in a big, dimly lit hallway with high ceilings.
He turned his head slightly to the right.
"Brett?", he heard himself groan.

A small smile played around Brett's lips. It made him look soft somehow, very friendly and open. It reminded Eddy so much of their teenage years that he stopped halfway while he tried to sit up.
"What is it?", Brett asked curiously, the corners of his mouth still lifted up. He was still wearing the black pants and the patterned shirt Eddy'd seen last time.
Eddy shook his head. "Nothing. You just remind me of something."
"Of what?"
"Well... you, really", Eddy answered honestly, got up and looked around. He couldn't make out the end of the hallway, but big white pillars flanked the side of it all five meters or so and gave the whole place a kind of majestic vibe.
"How long have I been gone?"
Brett pondered about the question a bit, before he said, "A few hours maybe? I really have no idea though, everything's always the same. It's impossible to keep track of time."
Eddy eyed him carefully. "And you remember me?"
Brett's features showed surprise when he stated, "Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?"
"Because you didn't know who I was before."
"Because we haven't met before you came from the other side!"
"We did though", Eddy said matter-of-factly.
"Not here we haven't."
"... That's true."

Here. Here, where Eddy had landed directly without having to step through the mirror, he suddenly realized.
"Wait..."
"Hmm?", Brett made, his violin loosely in his hand.
"I'm here."
"Uh... yeah?"
"Like.... I really made it here!" Eddy brushed through his hair.
Brett frowned. "Did you try to come here then?"
Eddy glanced at him. "I guess I did."
"How? And why? There's nothing here!"
"Did you expect I'd come back? How did I even vanish last time?", Eddy asked back.
Brett leant his back against one of the white marble pillars. "Might sound stupid, but I blinked and you were gone."
"For reals?"
"Yeah. I looked for you even. Called your name and stuff, but there was no answer. And I mean, I was hoping you'd come back. It's pretty boring here without anyone to hang out with."
Eddy nodded slowly. Brett explained everything like he was telling Eddy about his daily breakfast or something. Like it was the most normal thing in the world, just to be here without knowing why and for how long. It made Eddy's head dizzy, even though he himself knew for a fact that all this was a dream. However, it was odd how he had tried to meet Brett again and had obviously succeeded.

"How did you even... how did you make it here in the first place?", Brett asked, scratching the back of his head.
"I played the violin", Eddy started.
"Huh?"
"After I heard your playing on the other side, I guess on my side of the mirror, I took out my violin again." Eddy was aware that he might sound like a mad man, but everything in here made zero sense, so he just threw the little caution he might have had stored somewhere in the security-and-sanity-liking part of his personality out of the window and hoped Brett kinda got at least some of what he was babbling about. "After the first time I looked at it, I heard you much clearer in my dream and was able to touch the glass without waking up. And after I played the violin the next day, I ended up here" Eddy's eyes searched Brett's before he said, "and met you."
Brett gulped visibly, his eyes were big and wild, like he'd just witnessed an accident. "And this time?", he whispered.
"I left out a night. Was too tired to so much as glance at my instrument and just went straight to bed. I didn't see anything while I slept, so I figured me being here has something to do with me taking out my violin. I played again this evening and now, I'm here.", Eddy concluded neutrally.
"You left out a night?", was all Brett managed after a short silence.
"Yes", Eddy cofirmed.
"And you also play the violin?"
"I told you we were in youth orchestra together right?", Eddy recapped bits of their first conversation.
"Uh huh..."
"We used to play the violin. I mean, I used to. You went ahead and studied violin even."
Brett's eyes got even bigger. "I did?"
"Yeah." Somehow, it made Eddy sad that the Brett here didn't know anything about himself. About the great talent he had and all the hard work he'd put in.
"And you didn't?"
This comment made Eddy even sadder. He shook his head and hid his eyes behind his fringe.
"No. I don't even play anymore. Haven't for ages till I heard you play."
"Oh, wow..."

Eddy hesitated for a bit, before he asked, "Do you wanna know more about yourself?"
When he saw Brett's face lighting up, Eddy felt his own mood improving immediately. "You... you know more about me?"
Eddy chuckled. "As I said, we were close when we were teens. We have lost touch since I went to uni though, so I'm not sure about the present Brett Yang."
"Doesn't matter! Any new info is good!" Early teen Brett Yang would have been jumping up and down by now, Eddy was pretty sure. The other's excitement seeped through every fibre of his body and it made Eddy smile.
"Okay. Well, you have a younger brother named Alan, a dad called Eric and your mum's Cathy. Your family lived in Brisbane Australia, but you were born in Taiwan. You sucked at math, that's why you were taking math tutoring classes."
"Didn't you too?", Brett wanted to know, seemingly remembering what Eddy'd said last time.
"I did" Eddy mirrored Brett's stance and leant on a pillar opposite of Brett. "But I just went because my mum had forced me to. My math's always been fine."
Brett's laughter was deeper than back in their days, but Eddy immediately grew fond of that sound.
"But aside from math, you were quite a good student. No, wait... you suck at spelling too."
Brett doubled over in laughter. "Bro! You're just insulting me non stop!"
"You wanted to know everything, didn't you?", Eddy grinned wickedly.
"What else?"
"You're a very social person. You like people, you like parties. You have like that great ability to bring up the right behaviour according to the social context. You know how to be funny and make people feel comfortable around you. That's probably why we became friends, even though I'm still super awkward around people till this day. You're patient, humble, most of times at least. You never got angry with me, even though we did pull some pranks on each other occasionally and had some intense discussions. You love good food and you're willing to travel kilometers for it. We always went to get that giant one liter bubble tea across the bridge in Brissy during our breaks and had to run to get back to our lessons in time."

Brett's eyes were big and shiny as he heard Eddy's list about characteristics of himself, his lips slightly open and quivering. Eddy's breath hitched a bit upon seeing Brett like this, so vulnerable. But this was important. Probably the most important thing he'd done in a long, long time, so he continued.
"We loved bubble tea. Oh, and you love very weird, fucked up stuff. Like stuff I'd never buy, you just scraped together all your savings to buy the weirdest things." Eddy took a deep breath. "And we loved playing the violin. Even went busking together and made quite some money too. Your playing had that nice, sweet and silky tone since I've known you and you're very good at technical stuff I could never do. Staccato, left hand pizz and everything. And you used to practice tons. That was the one thing you never left out, even when you were sick or tired or had a shitload of assignments from school."

Suddenly, Eddy felt something wet run down the side of his face. His eyes were burning and his sight got blurry. Wait, was he crying? In front of someone else? For reals? And then, a sob escaped his mouth just before he was able to press his hand against it.
"E... Eddy?", Brett muttered, his voice weak and unsure. Eddy heard soft steps coming closer and a warm, comforting hand laid itself on his shoulder.
"I... I'm sorry...", Eddy drew in a stuttering breath and quickly wiped away those treacherous tears. Way to be embarassing, mate!
"No, it's fine. Are you... are you okay?"
Was he? Eddy wasn't sure. He was certainly astonished about how much he still knew about Brett Yang, a guy he hadn't seen for a decade. Someone Eddy'd thought he'd left behind. But all those things he was able to tell about Brett just showed Eddy, that he clearly hadn't, that he clearly still cared for his old friend, and probably always had.
And how could he not? Someone this great... how had Eddy been able to cut this, the friendship they had, out of his life?

"Yeah...", Eddy finally managed and looked at Brett's worried features just centimeter's away from him, "yeah... sorry. Just old memories you know. I'm surprised about how much I remember."
And how much Brett by all accounts meant to him.
"So am I. I mean, didn't you say we lost touch?"
"Yeah, we did."
Brett seemed to deliberate on his next question, before he said, "Do you also remember why?"

Oh, Eddy did. But that was one thing he didn't want to dig out tonight. Yet, he nodded. There was no fooling Brett. At least not dream-Brett. Eddy felt there was simply no way he could lie to him here.
"I do. But that's a story for another time."
Brett's now calm eyes locked with Eddy's and he bopped his head in agreement. "Okay."
He took a step back. "So, you wanted me to show you around last time, right?"
"I did." Eddy straightened his back and brushed away the last set of tears.
Brett smiled. "Let's go then! Before you wake up and vanish again!"