"every day"

Chapter 8

"Hey, Eddy. I'm back." The first thing Brett saw when entering their shared dorm was Eddy practising in the common area. Though with his violin on his shoulder but not playing, idly staring at a fixed point.

"...Welcome back." Eddy seemed jolted by Brett's words and quickly came out of the trance.

"Are you in the middle of something?" Brett asked casually, gesturing to his violin while walking towards his room.

"Well... Kinda, but don't mind it. I'll go grab the book." Eddy gave a shrug as he stood up and put his violin down, heading over to his room.

Brett stares at him a millisecond more than necessary before entering the room to put his bag and violin case on the floor and on the chair. Why do I have a feeling that Eddy's feeling a bit down? Am I overthinking?

There's a knock on the door to catch his attention. The door wasn't closed, so when he turned, he saw Eddy holding the book standing there.

"Thanks, bro!" Brett beamed and waved Eddy to come in. "How did you meet her anyway? Oh, and how much is it? You said you paid, right?"

Eddy handed him the receipt and sat on his bed. "I was trying to find a spot to practise during the afternoon, had a bit of spare time, and... she spotted me and came to talk to me." Thinking back to the encounter, a sigh came out as he said.

"Hmm..." Brett was fumbling with his bag as he listened. "Guess it kinda saved our time in the end."

Another sigh came from Eddy, though he verbally agreed with Brett's words.

There was a bit of silence after they exchanged the book, Brett put it away while Eddy stood up and stood awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"Actually–"
"I was thinking–"

They spoke at the same time and burst into laughter, which always happened every time they did something not pre-decided simultaneously.

After Eddy's laugh died down, he went straight into saying what he wanted to say. This is again something they agreed upon since this happened so many times before, there is no need for the "you first; no, you first; no, no, you go first" all the time.

"I was going to say– Do you want to eat outside? I checked the kitchen earlier, and we don't really have anything decent."

"Oh, oh! I was gonna say the same thing. I didn't know the fridge situation, though. Yeah, sure, are you hungry now, or do you want to practice a bit more and then we go?"

Eddy shrugged. "I'm fine, are you tired? We can go after you take a bit of rest if you want."

Despite almost a whole day of class, Brett didn't feel too tired, and it didn't seem like Eddy was very hungry, same with him. "Let's leave in 30, then." He suggested.

"Cool."

§§

"Why do you suddenly want to eat outside today? Normally you would just say we order takeout or something."

"Ah..." Brett paused a bit as if hesitated to speak his mind. "I don't know, just wanted to." He shrugged.

Eddy threw a quizzical glance at him as he closed the door and started walking. That's not it.

Seeing Brett didn't pay him any mind, he just continued to stare at him until he noticed.

"Okay, fine." Brett heaved out a sigh. "I just wanted to do something a bit different on my birthday."

At that, Eddy was at a loss for words. He didn't know Brett would bring this up himself.

They did not talk about Brett's birthday or birthdays in general, knowing how Brett and his family feel about it. At least that's what Eddy knew about the topic.