Page 5 of Psync
When his victim bowed back, Eli realized he recognized him. “You’re Haruka!”
“I am.” Almond-shaped eyes narrowed appraisingly as he took Eli in. “And I didn’t come from out of nowhere. I was standing here, minding my own business, until you barreled into me.”
“I’m sorry, I . . . wait, were you watching me come towards you? Why didn’t you move out of the way?”
“I wanted to see what would happen. I didn’t believe someone would be stupid enough to do that.” Haruka smiled ruefully.
“Well . . . I . . . hey!” Eli felt his ears burn, and he fought the impulse to cover them. “I’ve got a lot going on right now, and—”
“Didn’t ask for an explanation.” Haruka was already turning to walk away, but he paused and looked back. “Watch where you’re going next time, chibisuke.”
“I’m not short!” Eli’s ears were joined by the rest of his face, only it wasn’t embarrassment anymore. Yes, he was on the small side, but that didn’t mean people had to go and point it out. “I mean, that’s not my name.”
But Haruka had already begun to walk away. “Didn’t ask. Don’t care.” He threw over his shoulder as he went.
Eli was so busy wanting to curl up in a ball and die that he failed to notice Haruka turning back to look at him once more before disappearing down an aisle.
Chapter Three
Eli
Somehow, Eli had managed to pare down his purchases to two large bags. He wasn’t made to let go of the large, fluffy blue pillow he’d discovered, which meant he was going to have to endure the dirty looks he got for taking up more than his fair share of the elevator. So be it, lady giving me the stink eye. My sister does it way better than you could ever dream of.
Since he was thinking of Juniper . . .
He juggled his bags around until he could use his phone to drop his sister a gif of a cartoon zombie dog rolling its eyes.
He smiled when she immediately sent him one of a busty, blonde anime girl giving the camera the finger. Then he saw the time and cursed. He was going to be late for his faculty event!
He raced down the hall to his room, staying only long enough to fling his purchases in the general direction of his bed before legging it to the center of campus.
He screeched to a stop outside the classroom where all the freshmen were gathered and did his best to make himself look like he wasn’t seconds from asphyxiation. Once he looked as normal as he knew how, he went inside and glanced around the room.
Alice was here! He hadn’t seen her or Nate since they’d rescued him from death by stampede, and he’d been kicking himself for not exchanging phone numbers.
He’d spent the past two days wondering if they were just being nice when they’d met, or if they’d also gotten the sameinstant friendfeeling Eli had.
Alice spotted him, and her eyes lit up. “Eli! We saved you a seat!” She waved her hand energetically enough that Nate, who was sitting beside her, had to dodge to keep from losing an eye.
Eli hurried to the seat she pointed to. “Nate, what are you doing here? I thought you were a Bio major?”
Nate shrugged. “I already finished my faculty events, so I thought I’d keep this loser company.”
“Please, he wanted to see you as much as I did. I can’t believe we didn’t exchange numbers. Here, call yourself, I’m not letting you get away again.”
Eli took the pink and black phone shoved under his nose and dialed his number before handing it back.
A silver phone appeared on his desk. “You might as well do mine too,” Nate said in a bored tone.
While Eli did the same thing to Nate’s phone, Alice said, “Please, Nate, you’ve talked about Eli at least as much as I have.” She put on a much deeper baritone voice than Eli could have managed and made her eyes large and dreamy. “Oh Alice, do you think he likes Sword Art Online as much as we do? Because if he does, we could all watch it together!”
“I do, actually. It reminds me of an episode of this older anime I watched once calledTsubasawhere the characters got sucked into a virtual world—”
“He watches CLAMP, Nate. He’s mine now.” Alice went to grab Eli’s arm but stopped just shy of touching and switched to squeezing his backpack instead.
She’d remembered not to touch him and had done it without making a big deal about it. Something inside Eli glowed warmly. For just a second, it eclipsed the ever-present emptiness inside.
Shortly, several teachers filed in and introduced the room to the various department heads in the program. Each took turns explaining how the first few weeks would go for various language majors.
