Andante

LXXII

The conductor came towards them, a wide smile on his face and his hand extended in a friendly greeting.
¨Hello!¨ he said. ¨My young talents have arrived, welcome!¨
Eddy smiled widely at mr. Davids. He looked at the conductor's kind eyes and he remembered just how fond he'd been of him. He shook mr. David's hand heartily.
¨Thank you so much for inviting us, this is an awesome opportunity.¨
Mr. Davids smiled again. ¨Well, you all deserve to be here. So, this lady will take you to your dressing room and I'll see you out there in a bit!¨

A lady had appeared behind the conductor now and they all followed her through the stark corridors of the theatre to a smallish dressing room. Eddy had to pinch himself as the lady opened the door and invited them to go in with a grand arm gesture. 
Wow. They were away now from all the opulence of front of house, and into the business end of music: the drab hallways where musicians roamed. Their dressing room may have been small and somewhat shabby, but it was a real dressing room in a real theatre, and it even had some of those mirrors with lightbulbs around them. It was just unbelievable. 
He knew there was going to be lots of waiting around this week, because they weren't in most of the pieces, but he was quite happy to sit in the hall and listen to the orchestra. Or sit in front of the building in the sun or walk around in the neighbourhood with... with Brett. 
He swallowed. He really hoped it would be like that.
Would it still be like that? 

They all put their bags down in a corner and then they slung their instrument cases onto their backs again and walked over to the hall entrance at the bottom of the stage as a group, to find a pretty big youth orchestra sprawled over the podium. Mr. Davids was on the rostrum before them, waving his baton enthusiastically.
Eddy paused in the door opening and listened. Oh, awesome! They sounded pretty good! He was relieved that the orchestra seemed just as decent as Todd had claimed they would be, and he looked at him brightly.
¨Pretty good, huh?¨ Todd whispered with a wink. 
¨Yeah!¨ he whispered back, and then he pulled Todd backwards by his wrist on a whim, back into the hallway. Todd came willingly and eyed him curiously. 
¨Erm... I just wanted to apologise for this morning, Todd. I'm sorry.¨
Todd's brows furrowed. ¨You don't have to apologise, it's fine. I was being an arse.¨
His eyes shot around, but the others had walked into the hall; they were alone. When Todd spoke again his voice was hesitant.
¨Eddy, are you okay? Is there trouble in paradise?¨
Eddy would have kept quiet, he would have fixed things himself like he always did, but suddenly he felt the words spilling over and the threatening tears rising.
¨I don't know, Todd. Brett's been... he's been weird. I... I don't know, maybe he doesn't feel the same anymore.¨
He looked down at his feet, fighting the moisture in his eyes with all his might. 
Then he felt Todd's hand on his shoulder.
¨Mate... seriously, I wouldn't worry. I've never seen anyone as in love as you two. Just talk to him, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for it. Maybe he's just got a belly ache or something.¨
Eddy looked up at Todd's sympathetic face.
¨He'd tell me if his belly ached.¨
¨I'm sure he would. But you know what I mean. Don't jump to the worst possible conclusion.¨ 
Eddy nodded and he sighed deeply. 
¨You're probably right. I would have talked to him this morning, but you rapped on the door.¨
Todd's eyes brightened in understanding. 
¨Right. I'm very sorry about that.¨
Eddy shook his head. ¨Nah mate. Being late would've been worse. I'll talk to him in the break.¨

They walked into the auditorium then and mr. Davids called the four of them up on the stage to introduce the quartet to the orchestra. Eddy couldn't help his glowing beam as his name was called out as a soloist in front of all these young musicians, who applauded them enthusiastically. He smiled at Brett as they walked back to the small stairs on the side of the stage and Brett smiled back, but something about his smile still felt off.
Mr. Davids had said that they were free until after lunch and Todd and Ian were already settling into the plush seats to listen to the orchestra. 
So Eddy looked sideways at Brett again at the bottom of the steps, and even though he had his deadpan face fully deployed, Eddy knew better. Brett clearly wasn' t okay, he wasn't okay at all. And he needed to know why. Instantly his belly was full of butterflies again, but this time it wasn't the good kind. 
Right. He guessed they were doing this now. 

A/N. Hi guys, I suddenly realised I hadn't told you yet about my new story!
So, I have some news! I have a new novel, a supernatural romance story, that started last week, and I'd love to invite you all to come take a look. 

Find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/user/SayaAnneMay (link in comments too :)), the story is called Perception.
I created a different account, because this one is going to be more public than my Breddies, which I'd like to mostly keep between you the reader, and me :)

Anyway, many hugs, and lots of love to you all! Thank you so much for all the comments, all the stars and all the love, it really means the world to me <3