Andante con Brio

XXIV

He was an idiot, he knew this full well. This panic wasn't even rational, she was probably just getting some ingredients for dinner she forgot, he knew that. But yet he couldn't stop his heart from racing, he couldn't stop his breath from hitching in his throat and staying there. Where the fuck was she? How mad was she? Or how disappointed? 

Of course it was only like a minute before the door opened. His mum stepped in and he felt like a serious idiot for having run through the house like that. He couldn't stop his voice from sounding breathless though.
"Mum! You're home!"
She looked at him, and it was only because he knew her so well he saw the tiny bit of surprise that floated over her face. Then he noticed what she held. 
It was a cake. 
It was a chocolate cake, just like the one he knew she knew he liked, and suddenly he wanted to cry in relief. Had she gotten cake, for him? 
"I thought we would celebrate." his mum said, pointing at the cake, another one of those weird tight smiles on her face. She walked off to the kitchen and he followed her wordlessly. She put the cake on the counter and leaned over to the cupboard to take out three little plates. Then she picked up three pastry forks and a knife. 

Eddy surprised himself as much as he did his mum when he took the step over to her very suddenly and threw his arms around her. 
He didn't care, right now. He didn't care about what she had said, weeks ago on the day he had sent in his submission to the con. He knew that all of that shit had to be fixed, one day, or maybe it never would, but right now all that mattered was that he was in, and she had bought him chocolate cake, and how she had come to him the night before. 
"Mummy." he said softly as he pulled her head to his chest. "Thanks."
Wait, was that a tear, on her eyelid? What?
"Of course, Eddy." 
He could tell that that was all she was going to say, so he blinked hard to make sure that he wouldn't grow a matching drop of liquid on his own eye. He walked into the living room with Brett on his heel and sat down. 

He wolfed down two helpings of cake and told her everything, almost every little detail of the day, using more words than he had done for months. He omitted only the embarassing things like how he had almost thrown up in a bathroom at the end of a hall and rushed back to Brett for support. Even Brett didn't know that one. He told her about what the committee had said, how the pianist had smiled at him and how he had played, and about how kind the man in the middle's eyes had been. She sat in silence opposite him, eating her cake one small bite at a time, her eyes not quite open enough to show him how she felt, but she listened to him and she nodded, all the way until all his words dried up and she knew everything. 
"I... I'm just going to go play some games with Brett, mum, and do some studying for my French test day after tomorrow."
She nodded again and got up. A ghost of a look crossed over her face, almost as if she was pained, somehow. He chose to ignore it, for now. 
He had enough to think about. 


"See? If you keep stressing like that you'll give yourself a heart attack before you're twenty five."
Brett had dropped down on his bed and made himself comfortable. He already had the controller in his hand. Eddy grinned softly. 
"Jesus, when she wasn't there? I thought she'd gone off... well, I don't know where."
Brett had a point though. He really didn't need to stress as much. Everything had gone well, right? He shook his head softly as he saw his desk chair, still close to the window. He had sat there last night, so fucking stressed it wasn't even funny. And now it was done, now the moment that he had thought about the night before was here. Everything had changed, today. His future forever altered. 
And he was in.