Ch.19

                                    

                                          

 "Hey! Are you Brett Yang?"
                          
Brett was startled on his way to lunch when an Asian girl suddenly approached him after his algebra class. 
                          
"Uh, yeah?" Brett could not recall her name as he turned around and looked at the girl closely. 
                          
She has long black hair, wearing a pink T-shirt, jeans, glasses, and carrying a...Is that a flute case?
                          
Brett actually could not remember this girl at all. "Sorry. What's your name?"
                          
"Toni. Toni Wei. We play in the same orchestra." The girl blushed and answered shyly.
                          
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Toni." said Brett. He still had no idea why would this girl approach him though.
                          
"Sorry. I was not really paying attention to faces and names during rehearsals. You know, too many people." Brett tried to ease the awkwardness in the air. 
                          
"Right...too many people." Toni seemed really nervous and was not making any eye contact with Brett.
                          
"Well, do you have a question for me?" Brett quickly glanced at his phone after a brief vibration. He knew that must be Eddy even before he checked. 
                          
"Uh, well...yes." Toni appeared to be very hesitant. "I know this may sound really odd, but can you introduce me to your deskie?"
                          
"My what?" Brett's mind went blank for a second. Does she mean Eddy?"
                          
"The tall guy that always sits by you during the rehearsal...The conductor told me that his name is, uh..." 
                          
"Eddy?" Brett asked. He suddenly felt weird in his stomach for some reason. 
                          
"Yes!" Toni replied with excitement. "Uh, I have a performance at the end of this month and my accompanist just bailed on me at the very last minute. And I was thinking maybe I can find someone from the orchestra to help out..."
                          
"...OK?" Brett raised one eyebrow.
                          
"And the conductor suggested that I can ask one of you guys since both of you have some experience in playing the accompaniment part. She said that she will bring it up for me at the next rehearsal but I just don't want to wait for another week." Toni finally provided more context which explained her odd behavior. 
                          
"I see. So you decided to ask Eddy?"
                          
"It's just that you are probably busy with uni applications since you are one year ahead of me? That's why I am thinking about asking Eddy but I am having a hard time finding him..."
                          
Brett tried not to laugh. "Oh. Eddy is... busy." 
                          
He knew that Eddy was so shy that he sometimes just hid himself and avoided as much unnecessary small talks as possible.
                          
"Really? Well, maybe I should ask other people for help then..." Toni seemed quite disappointed and worried. "Sorry if I scared you. I was just anxious about the performance...I really want to practice with my new accompanist as soon as possible..."
                          
"No worries." Brett knew that Toni must feel desperate about finding an accompanist as he had been 'abandoned' by accompanists in the past as well. "Uh, I can try to talk to him about it if you want? I can't guarantee that he would say yes though."
                          
"Are you sure?! That would be awesome!" Toni immediately seemed more hopeful. "Please...can you maybe just tell him my situation and see if he is interested in helping out? My performance is on the last Saturday night of March."
                          
"I will try my best but I don't know if he will be down."
                          
"That's fine! Thank you so much, Brett! I will keep asking around, too. Can I get your number..."
                          
They exchanged phone numbers and Brett was finally released by Toni, rushing to meet Eddy for lunch. 
                          
At this time, Brett had no idea how regretful he would be about helping a random desperate flutist with looking for a last-minute accompanist.
                          
And he also did not know how Toni would impact his relationship with Eddy.
                          
In an unexpected way.
                          


                          


                          


                          


                          
TBC.