Page 44 of Psync
“Growing up Cherokee? Uh, it was only for a little while, but I liked it. I mean, I was really little, so all I remember are fragments. Falling asleep by a bonfire at a powwow, using my sister as a pillow. Dancing like a crazy person. The smell of sage. Oh, and the taste of fry bread.” He’d never forget it as long as he lived. As far as Eli was concerned, it was the food of the gods.
“What’s fry bread?”
“Something I’d make you try if it were available up here. It’s so freaking good. But it’s not something you can buy easily. You have to make it and I’m a menace when it comes to hot oil.” Eli did his best to describe the delicious, flaky treat, but when he got to the part where the best kind was fried in bear lard, Haruka began to look decidedly pale.
Eli pulled into his parking spot in the garage next to his building. “Do I get my bag back now?
“Just let me put my groceries away, then I’ll drop you off at your room. You can have it back then.”
“No way, if I show you my room, I’ll come back from class one day to find it full of bran muffins or something. I’m onto you.” Eli pointed at his eyes and then Haruka’s.
“Oh no. You’ve discovered my evil plan,” Haruka said evenly as he got out of the car.
When Eli popped the trunk, the first thing Haruka grabbed was Eli’s bag, then he took everything else minus one bag of groceries. “You can get that one.”
“I’m not your servant.” Eli grumbled as he took it.
When he hefted it, he realized it weighed almost nothing.
He followed Haruka silently all the way to his room—he would get his backpack back without revealing the location of his room by any means necessary.
When Haruka unlocked his door, he said, “Follow me.” And ignored the plastic bag Eli tried to thrust in his face.
“I promise you hell will freeze over before I go into your roo—Oh my god, you have a guqin.” He was across the room and hovering over the instrument without even registering how he got there, noticing only vaguely how Haruka had plastered himself against the wall to avoid being run over. “Can you play it?”
“A bit,” Haruka said as he busied himself putting groceries away.
“I’ve always wanted to learn but could never afford one.” Eli’s fingers twitched as he gazed longingly at the simple, but bold design painted onto the enamel. He’d never even touched one before. “And then there’s the near impossibility of finding someone to teach me.”
“I could teach you.” Haruka reached for the bag Eli had carelessly thrown onto the bed as he’d passed by.
“Really?” Eli stepped away from the instrument and sidled over to where Haruka was stowing the last of his snacks in his small refrigerator.
“If you let me walk you back to your room.”
Eli leaned against the counter in Haruka’s tiny makeshift kitchen. “I could do that, but then I’d give up my right to a muffin-free room.”
“Do you have something against muffins?” Haruka placed a large hand on the counter next to Eli’s hip.
“Nooo, but I like having the option to decide when muffins come to visit me.” Eli pulled his hood down. Would it be weird if he took his hoodie off right now? Because it was getting a bit warm.
“I could give you one lesson so you can see if it’s worth letting muffins into your room.” Haruka leaned in slightly.
“W-we could do that.”
There were little flecks of gold in the brown of Haruka’s eyes.
Haruka pulled away abruptly, walked over to the guqin, took it from its stand, and sat with it on the floor. “You coming?”
Eli did his best not to skip from enthusiasm on the way over and plopped down in front of Haruka.
Haruka’s eyes flicked to the hoodie Eli placed on the floor next to himself.
“Sorry, is there somewhere I can hang it up?”
“No, it’s fine,” Haruka said as he worked on tightening the strings on the back of the instrument.
Eli sat cross-legged as he listened to Haruka explain the components of the guqin, how to tighten and loosen the strings, and why it was important to loosen them after you finished playing. Then he showed him a few simple chords and encouraged Eli to try.
