Page 3 of Psync
Finally, it was the young man’s turn to speak, and he took his place at the podium. For a moment, he stood motionless, using his new vantage point to scan the crowd. Again, his eyes lingered on the area where Eli and his companions sat. A lock of hair had fallen artfully in front of his face. It was so perfect, Eli suspected the man had done it on purpose.
The lady in the pantsuit—who turned out to be the Dean—cleared her throat loudly in an attempt to get the young man to continue.
Rather than chagrin, his face showed mild irritation, but he ceased his search and spoke into the microphone in a deep, confident voice that made Eli’s skin tingle. “I’m Haruka from the Language department. If you’re one of ours, we’ll work you hard, but we’ll take good care of you.”
Huh. They were in the same department.
Eli waited for him to continue, expecting to hear about the heavy course load he’d read about in his information packet. It had sounded like a shit ton of work, but that was perfect for Eli. The more work the better. If his brain was occupied, it was less likely to make him its bitch. But instead, Haruka bowed sharply and went back to his seat.
The room was treated to the Dean looking flustered and rushing back to the podium to fill in the dead space in the program. She managed to hem and haw her way through the first few awkward moments, glaring in Haruka’s direction more than once, until she reached a point where she could close the assembly with a modicum of grace.
Eli’s new friends kindly waited for the auditorium to empty, making it seem like they had nothing better to do with their time than to sit and learn all about Eli.
“The guy from the language department was hot like fire. Eli, your job is going to be to help me achieve contact.”
“Um.”
“Just because you’re both in the same department doesn’t mean he’s your servant, Alice.” Nate grabbed his bag and stood up. “Are you two ready to go? I’m supposed to meet my advisor soon.”
The rush for the door had thinned to a trickle, which made now as good a time as any to leave.
Eli stood and shouldered his bag.
:I must be losing it.:
Eli jerked his head up. “What?”
“I said are you ready to go?”
:This is ridiculous.:
“Um . . . yes?” Eli said in response to both.
He turned to look behind him, but the seats were all empty.
In front, Nate and Alice were bickering pleasantly as they made their way down the stairs.
What the actual fuck, brain?
Chapter Two
Eli
After his little episode, he’d left his new friends and wandered in a daze all the way back to his room.
Over his short life, he’d gotten used to the random quirks his mind continued to introduce to him. Like the no-touching thing. He’d had that since he could remember. It was close friends with a gnawing sense of emptiness inside, as if he’d been born incomplete somehow. And of course, after The Incident, he’d learned being alone at night was no longer an option for him. According to his therapist, it was normal and he would grow out of it.
He was still waiting on that one.
He’d had a brief, but intense, argument with his mom over whether or not he should have a single room or a double. She wanted him to push his comfort zone and try to learn to sleep by himself. She even went so far as to suggest it would be unkind to inflict his nightmares on a perfect stranger.
Eli had countered her argument by stating his nightmares rarely happened when he wasn’t sleeping alone. Then he immediately contacted the student housing people and explained the situation. The man on the phone had been more than happy to find him a psych major who had no problem with Eli’s idiosyncrasies.
It turned out better than Eli could have hoped. When they met yesterday, his new roommate Jace had been the first to bring it up, asking Eli about his problem and how it manifested, somehow making him feel at ease and not a total nutcase at the same time.
Of course, that didn’t stop Eli from deciding not to mention his recent panic attack the next time he saw Jace.
He took a deep breath and opened the door to his room, slapping on hiseverything is fineface. He dropped it as soon as he realized the room was empty. A note on his bed caught his attention, and he plucked it off his comforter.
