Page 13 of Psync
Just to be safe, Eli put several inches of space between them. Haruka noticed and raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything.
“Is it just me, or is this a little hard to follow?” He finally asked.
“You’re able to follow it?” Haruka asked, faint surprise lacing his tone.
“Well, yes, but it’s making my head hurt.”
Haruka leaned closer and gave him a measuring look.
When the teacher finished her explanation and told everyone to split in pairs, it only made sense to stay with Haruka since they were already sharing a book. As it turned out, his partner was actually useful. He broke down difficult problems in a way that made perfect sense to Eli. Once he was able to understand the basis of the formula he was supposed to be using, he sailed through the rest of the work, finishing well before the rest of the class, aside from Haruka.
His paper was snatched out from under his hand. “Hey!”
“Partners check each other’s work.” Haruka placed his own notebook in front of Eli.
The handwriting was neat, almost like it had been printed from a computer rather than written by hand. Eli went through each problem but couldn’t find any mistakes. Instead, he saw one place where he’d gone wrong on his own work. At least he could fix it when he got his paper back.
“Wow.”
“I know, I got number 10 wrong, but I know how to fix it now.”
“No, I mean, wow, I can’t believe you got any of these right, considering you’re in the wrong class. You even got the extra credit one . . .” Haruka trailed off as he frowned at Eli’s paper.
It took a moment for what Haruka said to sink in. “Wha—wrong class? What do you mean, wrong class?”
“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be across the hall in Geo 101. This is 209, baka.”
Being called an idiot in Japanese went right over his head as the blood drained from Eli’s face. “I’m in the wrong room? I missed my first class?” Where had all the air in the room gone? An iron clamp began to tighten around his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to see your face when you realized. I thought you’d notice right away when the material was introduced, but you managed to keep up.” Haruka leaned forward. “Are you okay? You don’t look good.” He reached out a hand to Eli’s forehead.
Hastily, Eli scooted his desk away, hating the loud, attention-grabbing screech it made as it moved across the floor. “Please . . . don’t touch.” He choked out. Being touched by a stranger was the last thing he needed right now.
He couldn’t miss his first class. He was a scholarship student. He couldn’t miss any classes, ever. And if he did, it couldn’t be over a stupid thing like going to the wrong class. What if he got sick later and needed to take a sick day? The iron clamp around his chest tightened another notch.
“Hey,” Haruka’s voice grew soft. “You’re okay. It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. Just breathe.”
Just breathe, huh? Easy enough to say, less easy to do at the moment. It took everything Eli had to suck in a thin, shuddering breath.
“There you go, just like that. Good job.”
While Eli worked on breathing, he tried to console himself with the fact that he wasn’t going to need to worry about Haruka irritating him anymore. After this, the man was likely to turn and run the next time he saw him.
Time seemed to pause as he focused on taking in another breath of air while he listened to Haruka’s deep, soothing voice.
As his breathing began to normalize, the rest of the world started to filter into to his consciousness. At some point, class had ended and everyone in the room had left, leaving him and Haruka alone in the room.
“Feeling better?” Haruka had scooted his desk back from Eli’s, but he was turned in his seat, leaning toward Eli.
It didn’t feel intrusive. It felt protective.
What a stupid thought. No one was here to protect Eli.
He’d chosen a to go to a college that was hours from home, so he could prove he could take care of himself. So his mom could stop looking at him with sad eyes. So his sister would stop overprotecting him and verbally dancing around the Incident. Some days it seemed like everything she said was deliberately designed to not reference it. How exhausting that must be for her.
He sat up and pulled himself together. Pulled the mantle of normality around himself. Then he turned to look at Haruka and smiled. It was his best smile. It was his,hey, anything you saw just now couldn’t possibly be as bad as you thought it was if I can look at you like this nowsmile.
“Yes, much better, thanks.” He took his notebook and placed it calmly and meticulously back into his bag, making sure it went in the right spot. One thing at a time, with no focus on the past or the future. All he needed to do was the next right thing and then the next so he could get the hell out of here and lick his wounds in peace.
