Page 1 of Psync
Chapter One
Eli
Hot. It was hot and it was sweaty and it was godawful in the crowded auditorium. Eli’s modest stature wasn’t doing him any favors as he fought against the stream of students pouring into the stagnant, overfilled room. After an elbow to the face and thoroughly stomped on feet, it was increasingly clear returning to his dorm to retrieve his forgotten folder wasn’t happening.
He’d just have to make do.
With a sigh, he turned himself around to go back to his seat, which of course had already been filled with another, smarter freshman’s ass. One who hadn’t forgotten the information packet.
So instead of getting a seat up front where he could see what was going on, he was going to be stuck in the back—probably behind a ridiculously tall person whose sole job was to take up as much space as possible, so people of modest and very respectable heights were unable to see anything useful.
At this point he was ready to take any seat as long as it would get him out of the river of sweaty students he was currently trapped in.
Oof!
He’d reached the bottleneck where several rows met and was lifted right off his feet.
Hotcloseawfulhelp!Wrong!
Then hands were at his elbows pulling him out of the crowd and into an empty seat.
“Buddy, you okay?”
Eli looked up dizzily into a boyish set of friendly gray-green eyes and blinked. His attention was snatched away by a piece of paper folded into a fan flapping furiously in his face.
“Of course he isn’t okay, dork, he almost got trampled.” The fan wielder was a girl with her hair pulled back into a ponytail so tight it made Eli’s eyes water in sympathy. Her shirt had a blue, pink, and white flag emblazoned across the front.
The morning had started out so well. He’d left his room with plenty of time to spare and a song in his heart. He’d finally made it. The shadows in his mind were mere whispers in the face of this accomplishment.
Not only had he made it to college, but he’d made it to one with a good language program and on a scholarship to boot. Which meant every dime he had saved could go to living expenses. For once in his life, he could focus only on studying.
However, his wonderful mood of the morning was gossamer in the face of being manhandled by half the student body on campus. At the moment, he’d be proud if he could simply manage to catch his breath.
The fan waved faster in his face, and Eli used it as a focus to bring himself out of his head. It was dark in there, and sticking around was never useful.
“I’m Alice, by the way.” The girl’s voice was softer than when she was talking to her friend.
“And I’m Nate. Alice, get that thing out of his face.” The boy pushed Alice’s arm back.
Eli realized distantly that Nate was leaning back from him, giving him as much space as possible. On Eli’s other side there was a nice, safe wall. In front of him, instead of a row of seats, there was a set of railing. He found that there was air in the auditorium after all. “No, it’s okay. It’s giving me something to focus on.”
For a minute, he allowed himself the simple luxury of breathing. Once he was positive all the air in the room would stay where it was supposed to, he unfurled from the ball he’d curled himself into.
“Better?” Nate asked, the worried crease between his eyebrows fading.
“Yes, much. Thanks, I—” What little blood had made its way back to his face drained away again.
Holy crap. He’d just gone full-on nonfunctional in a group of complete strangers on his first day of college. Which was, of course, the one thing he’d been afraid of most. Score one for stress bingo.
Well, at least he’d gotten it out of the way.
“Sorry about that.” Eli managed weakly. Perhaps they would turn out to be nice people and allow him the option to pretend it never happened?
“Don’t worry about it.” Alice poked the fan toward him. “Take it, I can make another.”
Eli took it gingerly. Any second now, he was expecting them to give him the cold shoulder after his freak-out.
“Seriously, man, it’s okay. You don’t have anything on my mom. Once when I was ten, she had a panic attack at the grocery store. I had to wheel her back to the car in a grocery cart. My other mom was so freaked out she wouldn’t let her leave the house alone for a week.” Nate’s hand hovered over Eli’s shoulder like he wanted to pat it, but it never landed.
