Andante

CXIX

He couldn't stop himself from running home, even though he knew exactly how stupid that was.
Will running home make four o'clock come any faster, Eddy?
He shook his head and rolled his eyes at himself, but still he didn't stop the steady jog he had going. The day had been long, despite the good news from Lily, so he was just so happy that it finally was almost four and Brett would almost be arriving at his door, that he jogged. 
Oh well. People could just think he took exercise seriously, or something. 
He put his key in the door enthusiastically and walked straight to the kitchen for some green tea. His mum was in there, and without thinking he gave her a quick hug. She eyed him with a little surprise. 
Yeah, he got that, actually. For years he'd kind of been trying to work his way around her as much as possible, hadn't he?  
"Hi mum!" he said. "I'm going to do my homework straight away. And after Brett leaves I'll do some more, okay?"
She scrunched her eyebrows together and seemed to hesitate. Then she spoke softly, but surely.
"I'm glad to see you so happy, Eddy."
He stopped in his tracks at her words. Did he look happy? In fact... God, had he looked that unhappy in the past? 
And in fact number two... had his mum been worried about him, all this time?
Oh mum... if only you knew why I'm happy. You wouldn't look so relieved then, would you?  he thought, somewhat morosely.
He didn't say that out loud, very obviously. He just smiled at her.
"It was a really good week, mum. It just... I guess it just put some stuff into perspective for me." he told her.
He was taller than she was now, of course, by quite a margin. He'd overtaken her a while ago. She was small, but she was a formidable force.
He realised of course, as he stood there and smiled, that she would have no idea what he was talking about. But this sentence he had just spoken had the added benefit of being completely true. 
He hated lying to his mum.  

He ran up the stairs as fast as his mug of tea would allow and got to work on his chemistry homework. Not that he could focus, of course. Who was he kidding? All the images from last week were flooding his brain already as he stared not at, but through the paper filled with numbers into nothing. Brett and he, kissing. Lying next to each other in the white hotel bed, his own body pressing against Brett's so deliciously...
He shook his head vociferously. There was very seriously no need to get too deep into this while Brett was about to turn up, was there? 

When the bell rang at last he skidded down the stairs and opened the door for his love, but the sight of Brett stopped him in his tracks. He certainly looked happy to be here, but there was no hiding the tiredness, the bags under his eyes. 
Shit! Was Brett okay? 
"Mate..." he said, before he pulled him in. He pointed up the stairs, and Brett walked up to his room meekly. Eddy ran back into the kitchen to get more tea. 
Tea was always a good idea if someone wasn't okay.
Then he ran up the stairs once more with the cup of tea and closed the door firmly behind him. 

Now, he had personally envisaged kissing Brett the second he got there, the second the door between them and the rest of the house was shut, but that plan went to the back burner instantly now. 
"Tell me." he said simply. 
Brett shook his head softly and sat down on Eddy's bed. "Nah, nothing to tell, really. I'm fine, Eddy."
Eddy walked the couple of steps over to him and put his hand under his chin, so he'd look at him. Then he sat down next to him. 
"You're very obviously not fine, Brett. Is this because we're back home? Or did something bad happen?"

Never in a million years would he have expected what Brett did next. Big, strong, manly Brett, who was his rock always, cast down his eyes suddenly as tears started flowing over his cheeks and sobs started wracking his chest.