Page 101 of Psync
“Uh, hi! Have you eaten yet? I’m starving.” Eli asked, feeling awkward as hell. Had he been overthinking things?
Haruka pointed to the table next to him. There was an open pizza box with half a pizza inside.
“Great, thanks.”
Eli sat down. It didn’t seem like anything was wrong. How was he supposed to ask why Haruka hadn’t been his usual, possessive self this evening? Was he finally getting sick of Eli?
“So . . . how was your evening?”
“Good.”
“That’s good.” Why Eli so awkward all of the sudden? “Did you finish studying?”
Haruka nodded and continued to play.
“So, why did you decide to learn to play the guqin?” Oh no . . . he was so stressed out he was doing the random babbling thing.
“I like historical C-dramas so—”
“Jace asked me out.” Eli said, half hysterically, jumping to his feet. He couldn’t sit still right now. Not when he felt like he was about to explode.
The music stopped, but Haruka didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at Eli either. Instead, he was motionless.
“I said no and he was really nice about it and then I came home and also why haven’t you texted me?”
“Did you want me to?” Haruka slid the instrument off his lap.
“No . . . I don’t know . . . maybe? Why are you asking hard questions?”
Haruka said nothing in the eloquent way only he was able to achieve.
“Didn’t you pick up anything when it happened?”
“I noticed you were surprised a few minutes ago, but I thought it was from the show you were watching. You’ve been feeling things all night long.”
“So, you were paying attention?”
Haruka gave him a Look.
“Don’t look at me like that. I can’t read your mind.” Unlike some people. “Are you mad?”
Haruka shook his head.
This wasn’t helping with the anxiety that had been creeping up on him for the past few hours. Jace’s announcement had made it worse. Right now, Haruka was turning it into torture.
Was Eli subtle enough to get his antianxiety meds without drawing attention to himself? Did he even know where they were? It had been weeks since he’d even thought about them.
“What’s going on then?” Eli asked in small voice. “Are you tired of me?”
Haruka went very still. “How can you ask me that?”
“I don’t know you as well as you know me. For all I know, you could get sick of me and decide to be with someone else.” His stomach was a wasteland of a million stabby little knives. Eating wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“Tell me what you were doing at the booth with Kate after the club fair.” Eli slapped both hands over his mouth. It was literally the last thing he’d wanted to say, and yet there it was, out and about like a park pervert in a trench coat.
“After the club fair.” Haruka tilted his head thoughtfully. “You saw that?”
