Psync by Zile Elliven
Chapter Eighteen
Eli
He didn’t budge from his room for the entire weekend. Not even for a trip to the library. Instead, he dove into his studies. He finished his geometry assignment in a depressingly short amount of time and decided to try and get ahead in all of his classes. If he could test out of future classes, so much the better. Besides, there was no such thing as knowing a language too well.
And when his brain began to flag, he put on a C-drama and let it play in the background while he dozed fitfully. The noise served as a filter while he napped. He was more likely to dream about long-haired cultivators flying through the air having epic sword battles than shadowy assholes who liked to go around kidnapping children.
At least that’s what he told himself. Sometimes it even worked.
He prided himself on responding to everyone who texted him—including Haruka. Not that he said much to anyone. Instead, he told them he was buried under his course load and needed the weekend to focus.
When Monday rolled around, he managed to sweat his way through another workout session with Ash. But got no closer to figuring out if the Voice was Ash or not. Eli really hoped it wasn’t him. Something about the guy was beginning to ping his creep radar.
The Voice had been silent all weekend. Sometimes, however, Eli got an impression of frustration and worry. He’d almost convinced himself that he was projecting his own feelings onto a creation of his own mind—a kind of imaginary friend to help him deal with the stress of leaving home, but then frustration spiked hard when Eli shuddered his way through Ash helping him stretch his hamstrings.
Eli could have sworn to a jury that he heard the sound of glass shatter against a wall.
He checked his phone when he got back to his room and saw he’d missed seven calls from Haruka while he’d been at the gym. His phone buzzed in his hand while he was checking. It was Haruka again.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?” There was a growl in Haruka’s voice.
“Good morning to you too, sunshine.”
“. . .”
“Did you sleep dial me?” Juniper did that sometimes. He was used to getting bizarre calls from her that she later claimed to have no memory of. Maybe Haruka was the same way.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“I was at the gym. I leave it behind, so I don’t get it all sweaty.”
“Put it in a plastic bag next time and take it with you.”
“You’re incredibly bossy first thing in the morning. And in the afternoon . . . also the evening. You should look into that.” Eli put his phone on speaker so he could get dressed to go out for coffee.
“What are you doing right now?” Haruka’s voice sounded a little softer. Maybe he was starting to wake up?
Eli pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it in the laundry basket. “Getting ready to go out.”
“Get breakfast with me.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say yes, but then the memory of Haruka visiting Kate at the end of the club fair flitted into his mind.
“I don’t have time for breakfast this morning.”
“I’ll bring it to you, just tell me where to meet you.”
“Sorry, you’re breaking up. I’m going through a tunnel, bye!” Eli ended the call.
External frustration spiked again.
No, no, no, not going there. Not right now.
Eli threw on the rest of his clothes and raced out of his room, once again taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
He arrived in class with an extra-large coffee and the wrong book.
Why was he so pissed off right now? He was more of an anxiety kind of guy, not a tear things apart with his bare hands until he calmed down sort of person.
Though angry didn’t quite cover it, did it? Instead of spikes of annoyance, it was a gestalt of worry, frustration and something else—all simmering together, building in intensity until . . . Until what?
Eli’s pen tore a hole in the paper he was scribbling pathetic, incoherent notes onto. He might have had too much caffeine this morning.
When his class finished, he shoved everything back into his bag haphazardly, not caring whether everything ended up in a crushed, disorganized mess or not.
At this rate he wasn’t going to make it through the day. Shit. In his haste to get out of his room this morning, he’d completely forgotten to take his meds. At least he’d taken them yesterday . . . right?
He took a detour to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water.
History of Japanese Religion was next. He loved that class because he got to see Alice and hear all of her hilarious, whispered commentary on which religious leaders were queer according to some surprisingly in-depth research she like to do in her free time.
He took a deep breath and made his way to class.
“Hey, man! I see you survived this morning’s workout.” Ash waved at him from the steps of the building Eli’s next class was in.
He’d forgotten. Ash was in the same class with him and Alice.
“Let me know if you need me to carry you.” Ash waggled his eyebrows at Eli and then let out a low whistle. “Shit, look at that girl, she’s got legs for days.”
Automatically, he turned to see who Ash was talking about and saw a coed in a miniskirt hanging on the arm of a familiar figure. Eli could pick out that short ponytail in a crowd and the profile was unmistakable.
The person leaning down and talking to the beautiful girl was Haruka. Over one shoulder, he sported a light pink backpack, embroidered with a graceful pattern of purple flowers.
The girl lifted her face to Haruka’s, leaving bare inches between them. Haruka wasn’t pulling away.
Distantly, Eli was aware of a ringing in his ears.
Haruka jerked around and locked eyes with Eli, his gaze burning into him. At first, Eli thought he was going to charge right up to him, but the girl clinging to Haruka’s arm leaned on him and stared up at him with doe eyes. Haruka hesitated but eventually turned back around and led her away.
Much like he had with Eli when he’d kidnapped him on Friday.
Only the girl with him seemed to have zero problems with touching Haruka.
All of the foreign emotions that had been swirling around inside Eli spiked, and he grabbed his stomach.
“Hey, are you okay?” Ash took Eli’s elbow to support him. The wrongness that spread from his touch was muted compared to the maelstrom going on inside Eli. “I get it though, that guy makes me sick too. That’s the third girl I’ve seen him with this week. Nice touch with the backpack, right? Must make them feel safe and protected or something.”
“Or something.” Eli managed. “Hey, go on without me. I forgot something.” He pulled his arm free and started to walk away.
“You want me to come with? You look like crap.”
Eli waved a hand absently. He needed to be alone. Now.
He picked up his phone and called Nate. “Can I crash at your place?”
✽✽✽
He met Nate for a quick key exchange, grateful when he asked no questions. The first thing he did in Nate’s room was go into his contacts list. He found HotJerk and changed the name. His phone rang in his hand right when he finished. His screen read, StupidHotJerk.
Eli hit decline call. Then he blocked the number.
His emotion storm dialed up to a ten, and he barely made it to the bathroom before his stomach proceeded to turn itself inside out.
Eli didn’t know how long he spent leaning against the divider between stalls, trying to summon the energy to go back to Nate’s room to lie down, but eventually he realized someone was going to call an RA if he didn’t pull his shit together.
So, he did. He zipped up his hoodie, rinsed out his mouth and—bit by bit—he pulled on all of his best emotional armor. Then he made his way back to Nate’s room on shaky, but resolute legs.
Guys were stupid.
Especially the hot ones.
It was good he hadn’t gotten attached before finding out exactly how much of a jerk this one had turned out to be.
It wasn’t like they were dating.
Or that Eli cared what Haruka got up to in his spare time.
His stomach rolled once more, but it was definitely empty now. No point in running back to the bathroom.
He went into Nate’s closet, pulled out a sweater, and put it on. Then he crawled under the covers on Nate’s bed.
He spent a very long time not caring about Haruka before he finally fell into an exhausted sleep.