Page 4 of Psync
Department party tonight. Be home late.
-Jace
Well, at least he didn’t have to pretend not to be wired and oversensitive in front of anyone.
He managed to waste thirty whole minutes straightening an already immaculately organized room before flopping down onto his bed.
:And now there’s a rock in my shoe. Perfect.:
Eli shot off the bed like he’d been electrocuted.
He spun around looking for the speaker but found an empty room. After looking in both closets and under both beds, he sat on the floor and specifically did not hold his head while rocking back and forth. Only weird people did that.
If it had only been a single incident—he’d chosen to count earlier as a single incident since they’d happened so close together—it could be explained away by a million rationalizations. And he’d managed to go through most of them on the way home.
But there was no one around he could conveniently blame this voice on. He was alone now.
Alone and hearing things.
Come on, brain, you didn’t think I had enough interesting things to sort through? You had to throw a dash of schizophrenia into the mix just to make things fun? Thanks. Really, from the bottom of my heart.
This was absolutely not going into the list of things he was planning on talking to his therapist with.
You know, once he got around to getting a new one.
Eli wasn’t going to let this issue get the best of him. He pulled out the biggest weapon in his arsenal—his favorite language app. The next two hours were devoted to learning grammar patterns, practicing kanji, and leaving absolutely no space for anything else to shove its way through the cracks of his mind.
He barely noticed as night fell. He was so immersed in the world of words and symbols that the growling of his stomach was a distant, ignorable thing, and the dark room around him only served to cocoon him further into his studies.
So, when the door opened abruptly, the scream—a very manly shout of surprise—that emerged from him was completely understandable.
At least that was what his roommate told him as he sat next to Eli on his bed, fanning his neck soothingly.
“I think it would help if we got you a desk light that came on automatically at dusk. It might help you stay connected to your body enough to prevent scares like that in the future.”
Eli nodded absently. The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk about his issues. No, what he wanted to do was go to the basement and start digging a hole he could move into for the rest of the semester.
But he was an adult now—in theory. So, he pulled up the shopping list on his phone and typed in: Buy timer for lamp.
“Um, it’s okay if you want to switch rooms tomorrow. I wouldn’t hold it against you.”
Jace’s face softened. “Why would I want to do that? You’re a fellow weeb, we have to stick together!” He slapped the bed next to Eli’s leg. “Besides, you have the potential to become an excellent case study. Who knows, maybe I could plan my thesis around you.”
Eli let out a small laugh. One he didn’t have to fake at all.
???
He spent the next two days before class officially started going to freshman events and getting all the things he’d forgotten to buy for his new room.
Today, he was at the mall looking for the light Jace had suggested. Which didn’t explain the full cart in front of him. He’d only come here for one thing. How was he supposed to carry all of this up to his room?
He poked though his cart trying to decide between the NASA hoodie and the Dragonball Z button-up when he realized he’d crashed into something.
No, not something. Someone.
He looked up . . . and then looked up a bit more. Jesus, this guy was tall.
“Ack! I’m so sorry!” Eli bowed repeatedly, having picked up the gesture from his touch aversion and too much anime. “Are you okay? You came from out of nowhere!”
