Andante

CXLII

Eddy looked at his watch for the twentieth time that minute. It wasn't making it any later, of course. It was still unperturbedly saying that it was two minutes past five.
He'd worked his arse off, today, getting up at ridiculous o'clock to practise and get to school on time. He'd spent the afternoon making all his homework and he'd promised his mum he'd get back to work the second he got home. 

Five o'clock. The time when Brett's dad would come home, and Brett would sit both of his parents down and tell them he was going to be auditioning for the con. The time when so much would be decided about their combined futures. Was this going to go the easy way, or the hard one?
Eddy sighed deeply to try again, against the waves, to quell the nerves that were blossoming in his chest, that were making him nauseous AF. He scrunched his eyes shut as he leaned against the side wall of the house on the corner of Brett's street. Would he have a relieved Brett, here, in a minute? Would they skip off to get a quick Bubble tea, on the double so they would still be home by six? Or would he be in shambles? Or would he... would he maybe not even be allowed out at all, regardless of whether he was seventeen, about to be eighteen in a few short months time?
He sighed again and glanced at his watch once more.
Five past five. Could time crawl any slower?
He focused on his breathing, like he'd read in some article at school the other day about how, when you breathed deeply, your nervus vagus responded and your blood pressure dropped and your heart rate slowed down. Medical proof that meditation worked.
Well, now was as good a time as any to start, right?
In... out... 
Images of Brett and his parents at the kitchen table forced their way into his brain. Brett, distressed, his parents angry.
In... out...
In... out...
He tried to replace the unhappy images with better, more successful ones, but his stressed out brain wasn't having any of it. Birds were singing in the silence, distracting him from his attempt at zen from the tree across the street, and for a moment he wondered about how nice it would be to be a bird, and not have to deal with any of this shit. 
No one gave a bird any crap about singing whenever it wanted, did they?
Come on, mate, you're supposed to be meditating here, not thinking about wacky metaporphoses. 
In... out...
Gah, this was taking forever! He just needed to know how Brett was! 

He opened his eyes with a huff and looked at his watch again. Ten past five. He wasn't getting the feeling he was very cut out for meditation, really. 
Suddenly there was a movement out of the corner of his eye. Was it... Shit! It was Brett! He forgot all sense of decorum and ran to him, skidding to a halt right in front of him. 
"How did it go!" he breathed, checking Brett's face for distress quickly. It seemed fairly neutral. 
Brett paused for a second, and then he put his hands on Eddy's shoulders. 
"Jeez, you look like you were really rattled."
Eddy shrugged. "Maybe. But how did it go?"
Brett narrowed his eyes at him for just a second, appraising him. "Come on, let's walk to the park. I'll tell you how it went."
They started walking towards the park together, and because Brett was so calm, Eddy sensed the small beginnings of relief. At the very least Brett was still allowed out of the house, no? 
"So." Brett started at last. "They.... they were okay, I think. To be honest, better than I'd expected. They said.... well, my mum said she'd kind of seen it coming. They did say a few times did I really not want to try accountancy school first?" He grinned suddenly. "Can you imagine it? Me, an accountant?"
Eddy smiled somewhat mechanically. Adrenaline was still floating uncomfortably around his system and he was jittery. He could feel that little surge of relief as well though, building up from his chest and out. At the very least, this one conversation seemed to have gone as well as they could have hoped for, right? 
"I don't think accountancy's necessarily for you, no." he said then. "And I've discovered I'm not very good at meditation, just now."
Brett grinned again. "For real, that's what you tried? I think you may want to start with slightly less stressful circumstances to try meditation. Jeez, Eddy, you're wound tight as a spring."
They were walking into the park now, and they didn't need words to know where they were going. Eddy glanced at the pond in the middle of the park as they went past. A colourful duck was quacking loudly at its friend as it floated around. There were more ducks than people around, at this hour on a week day.
Eddy felt that little spark of relief grow as their field came into view. There was nothing in the world he could use more, right now, after the tension of the last forty eight hours, than one of Brett's soft, strong hugs. And he was getting the very distinct feeling Brett wouldn't mind one either, not one bit.