Andante

CLXI

He skidded into the living room and he saw it straight away. 
There was a white A4 envelope, innocuously lying next to his plate. His eyes opened wide. 
"Mum?" he called into the kitchen in Mandarin. "What's with the envelope?"
"It's addressed to you, it came earlier."
He glanced at Brett even as he lurched forward to pick it up. 
"It's from the masterclass!"
He could feel Brett freezing as the whole world disappeared and the only thing that mattered any more was the white object in his hands. This letter would decide so, so much. Would he be rejected, based on how he played a few weeks ago? And what would that mean for him, going forward, auditioning for the con? Or would he....
He could barely articulate the thought as he carefully sliced open the envelope and started taking out the letter with shaky fingers. There were a few papers, stapled together. He started reading the cover page quickly. 

     'Dear Mr. Chen, we are pleased to inform you you have been accepted into the masterclass with Richard Petti, which will take place in Perth on..."

He didn't even read any further. He was already jumping up and down like a five year old. 
"I got in! I got in!" he shouted at his mum, and he grabbed Brett, dragging him into his silly dance. 
"I got in!"
"This is awesome, Eddy!" Brett said, but something in his tone made Eddy stop jumping straight away. Brett looked... well, he looked elated enough, but there was something behind the elation...
Shit. Of course! He was an idiot. Brett hadn't gotten his own letter yet! Eddy had been so sure all along that Brett would have gotten in that he never questioned it, but maybe Brett himself wasn't quite as sure?
"Why don't you call home." he said then, his voice back to mezzopiano. "Yours is probably there too."
Brett seemed to swallow. 
"Nah mate, it's fine. We can just have dinner."
Brett wasn't fooling him, though. He could see it in everything now, in Brett's stance, in his eyes, in the slight tension in his eyebrows. He never showed it to anyone, really, but Eddy knew by now how insecure Brett could be. And it was up to him to lift him up.
"Bollocks to that, we're calling them." he said then, and he could hear the finality in his own voice. "It's very likely there anyway."
"Okay then." Brett whispered, and he started towards the phone. Eddy could feel the tension rolling off him like sound waves, and he signaled quietly to his mum, who had appeared in the door opening. 
"I got in, mum." he told her. "We're just calling Brett's, okay?"

Brett was already dialing home. 
"Hi, dad. Yes, I'm still at Eddy's. Yes. Erm, is there an envelope for me? There is?" 
He looked up to Eddy, his eyes wide.  "Erm, well, could you please open it for me and read it? It's... it's from the masterclass. Yes. Eddy's got in. I just... I'd just really like to know whether I did, too."
There was a horrible silence for just a few seconds that seemed to stretch on forever. This was Schrödinger's letter now, and what Brett's dad was about to say would decide... well, it would decide everything. 
Eddy saw Brett's face change before he even said anything to his father. His eyebrows shot up to the ceiling and the corners of his mouth started trying to reach his ears. 
"Really? Thanks so much, Dad! Yes! I'll see you soon!"
He hung up the phone and stared at Eddy, grinning like a loon. 
"I got in!"
And just like that they were doing the silly dance again, but this time they really were in it together. 

A/N. Just felt like sharing with you guys. A little insight into the life of Author-san. So... it is still early morning, I have just hugged my daughter tight and wished her a good day, then watched her cycle off to school; I have a little time to myself before many responsabilities hit. So I go around the living room, taking out a few wilted flowers from the bunch in the vase, lighting some candles against the Northern European Winter Gloom. I light a stick of incense and roll out my yoga mat. I put a soft woolly rug under it, and suddenly everything is soft, muted, muted light, soft wool under my bare feet. I do some yoga and then I pour the boiling water in the Polish tea pot and I put some loose Sencha silver flower green tea in a tea strainer. It will have to wait a little. The water will need a while to cool to eighty degrees, so the tea doesn't burn. I put a nice pink cup on the table and a pot of honey, and then I sit down and open the laptop.
You guys send me the loveliest messages, leave me the loveliest comments. And it is that feeling of being connected, that always makes the writing so good. I'm not just writing for writing's sake; no, I'm writing because it means something to people I don't know, all over the world. Like an invisible web: the internet at its best.
I love you all <3

Sorry, just had to get all florid on y'all's arse, back to tweaking some more chapters now! ;-)