Andante

CXLV

Eddy could not sleep to save his life, and this pissed him off so much he could hit himself, or bang his head against the wall. He realised that wouldn't help him sleeping, though. 
Seriously! The past week and a half had crawled by so slowly time had felt like porridge. The school work had been endless, Ian hadn't wanted to talk very much about stuff any more, even though he'd tried to be there for him as much as he possibly could, and he hadn't seen Brett nearly enough. So why, now, when it was finally, finally the night before he was going back to Lily's house, before he'd spend the day being out, having fun with his friends, and before he'd finally spend the night again with Brett, in the little bedroom in the double bed with the frilly comforter, why oh why was this the night he could not get to sleep?
He shot yet another look at his little alarm clock, like he had been doing approximately every five minutes for hours, the green digits glowing unpertubedly in the darkness of his room. It was almost two, now.  
He groaned softly in frustration, and then on a whim he rolled over and picked up his phone from his night stand, quickly unlocking it and taking if off plane mode. He knew that Brett would have his phone on plane mode if he was sleeping, so he could do what he was about to do without any risk of waking him up. 

     'Hey Bretty, you asleep?'

He lay back in the dark and stared at the little square of light for a couple of minutes until suddenly it buzzed in his hand. 

     'Nope. Can't sleep, for some reason. No idea why :-P. Was kind of hoping you'd be sleeping soundly, but I'm guessing no, hey?'

Eddy smiled into the darkness despite himself. 

     'Nope. Sorry to disappoint ;-)'

And he felt mean for feeling it, because obviously he really did want Brett to be okay, to be sleeping so he would be happy and awake tomorrow, but he simply couldn't help it. The fact that Brett was awake too, was talking to him from his own bed in his own room, that they were together, somehow, even if they were apart, was such a comfort. He scrunched his eyes together and willed the phone to vibrate, until it did.

     'You could never disappoint me, my lovely Eddy. You should go to sleep, though.'

Eddy smiled some more as he typed. Brett was so, so sweet, wasn't he?  

     'So should you. Wish you were here to hold me, though. That would certainly help me sleep.'

It didn't take long at all for the phone to buzz again. 

     'Okay, so just imagine me there, then. I'm lying next to you, and your head is on my chest where it belongs. My right arm is around you, and I'm already asleep, because we're both comfortable and warm.'

Eddy closed his eyes and imagined it with all his might. Then he typed one more time. 

    'Well, that's simply the best image ever. I love you, you know.'

The answer came in seconds. 

     'Tomorrow it will be true. I love you too, more than you'll ever know.'

Eddy grimaced in the dark. No way, Bretty. No one's ever loved anyone as much as I do you. 
But right then, rather than let himself be pulled into all sorts of worries again, rather than allow the thoughts to start running riot around his head once more, he pulled the image Brett had given him into his mind and focused all of his brain on that. He clutched his phone to his chest and finally, gently, drifted off into the dream-like picture.