Andante con Brio

CC

"Wait, what?"
He had no idea what to say, what to do, but then Ian grunted and pointed to the bed Eddy was sitting on. 
"I had the best orgasm of my fucking life there, yesterday. From the greatest guy in the world. And yeah, I was drunk, too drunk to stop myself. But not so drunk I can't remember every fucking detail, Eddy. And now what am I supposed to do with my life?"
Eddy stopped breathing and his heart started pounding in his chest. He blinked again and tried his hardest to process what he had heard. Wait... did he... no, surely not?
What?
"But... the greatest... Ian, whoa... you gotta tell me... how do you feel about Todd?"
Ian shrugged harshly and looked down at his legs.
"Isn't it obvious, Eddy? I... oh, fuck, man. I can't believe I'm telling you this. I like him, okay?"

Try as he might, Eddy wasn't about to be able to stop his mouth falling open, his eyes opening wide.
"Fuck, are you serious? But you... you're straight, right?"
Ian scoffed.
"I haven't been straight around Todd for a long time, Eddy. I mean, you know the guy. He's awesome. Just... he's everything. What more could I ever want? But he's way, way out of my league. I've always known that. I mean, what am I supposed to tell him?"
For a long moment Eddy sat and stared at him, his mouth still open, his brain too scrambled to even process what he had just heard. Then he dug his phone out of his pocket.
"Jesus Christ." he said as he slid his finger across the screen. "Ian... Jesus. Okay. Look, just trust me. You sit there, don't move. Hey, Brett? Please take him up to his room, this second. Okay?"

"Are you sure?" Brett asked incredulously. 
"Yep. Now, please." He hung up before Brett could reply and turned back to Ian.
"No, Eddy!" Ian said. The bleakness that had been in him all day was quickly being replaced by blind fear. "No, you can't tell him!" 
"I won't." Eddy said definitively. "I never would. But trust me. You should. If you trust nothing else I say, ever, trust this."
"But why?" he said, suddenly quiet, his face so, so pale. 
Eddy couldn't tell him why, of course. Those words were not his to say. And before he could have started anyway, the door opened and Brett burst through it with a shocked looking Todd on his trail. Eddy got up and pulled Todd further into the room and towards the spot he had just vacated. 
"You. Guys. Need to talk, right now. Ian, tell him what you told me. Trust me. Tell him."

Ian's mouth opened once, twice, like a goldfish on a river bank. He shot a helpless look at Eddy, but Eddy just pointed at Todd. 
"Please." he said. He wasn't breathing, he wasn't moving. Frozen in his spot in the familiar room. 
Todd sat down on the bed next to Ian and looked at him worriedly. 
"Ian, I... mate, are you okay?"
For a moment Ian looked like he wanted to run out of the room, run to the airport, vanish, do pretty much anything to stop from having to say this. Then he took a deep, shuddering breath, looking fixedly down at his knees, and he slowly opened his mouth again. 

---------------------------------------------

A/N. Hi there everyone. Whoa, I can't quite believe another two hundred chapters have just flown past like that. I certainly would not have expected that to happen when I started writing this little story like two years ago! In fact, I distinctly remember telling someone (you know who you are <3) that this wouldn't be a long book. Famous last words, hey?
But it is getting a bit long now, though, and I have all sorts of ideas for a new book bubbling in my head. So this means that I am going to be starting ONE more book in this series, but it will be a short one, fair warning ;-). Maybe about fifty chapters, or so? And it will wrap up all the story lines. So no worries, it's not over quite yet, and I really, really hope you'll all come over to the new book, which is called Allegro con fuoco, as one of my dear readers so aptly guessed a while back! You can find it through my profile, of course, or through the link I will be putting in the comments under this chapter. 

So... yeah, I guess that's it! Thank you so much, all of you, for sticking with this whole story, for commenting (these comments often make my day, I promise you) and starring. I love you all, and I will see you on the other side!

xoxo Author-san.