Era

8

[Shinsou]

Acceptance letters are in

You coming?

[Era]

Need me to hold your hand while you open it?

[Shinsou]

Fuck you

Thought it’d be fun to open them together

Besides, if I don’t force you to look at it you’ll probably just forget about it

Go lift weights instead you fucking jock

[Era]

It seems I’ve hit a nerve.

I’ll be over in ten.

Also for the record calling me a jock who lifts weights is not an insult.

[Shinsou]

How about a jock who can’t remember the quadratic equation

[Era]

Hm.

Make that fifteen minutes.

I want to give you a proper head start.

[Shinsou]

Now who’s hit a nerve

--

Era slipped her phone back into her pocket, tugging at the strap of her backpack as she neared the post office. It was heavy, even with just the essentials: water, food, weapons, change of clothes… things she’d need for a quick get away. She’d taken to carrying an emergency kit at all times, just in case.

She didn’t want to do this. Even entering the post office felt wrong, suffocating, like walking across the bottom of a pond through murky water and weeds that grasped at her wrists and ankles. Her temples throbbed; a hold over from a few nights ago, and that confrontation with Eraserhead. Her head had been aching ever since. The lack of sleep probably didn’t help matters, but Era was too twitchy to risk it.

The letter was easy to find; it was the only thing in her mailbox, other than a few ambitious magazines that were promptly tossed in the garbage. The plain white paper burned in her hands, begging to be thrown out as well, but instead Era tucked it into her pocket and jogged towards Shinsou’s house. Better to get this over with.

As usual, no one seemed to be home. Era knocked out of custom, but quickly abandoned that to open the door and slip inside, toeing off her shoes before making her way down the hall towards Shinsou’s room. She’d never met his parents; from what he told her, they weren’t often in the picture, working or minding their own business in other parts of the house. Avoiding him, came the unspoken truth.

“Took you long enough.” Shinsou didn’t even look up as she opened the door, leaning against the headboard of his bed.

“Sorry, this asshole kept texting me.”

“Hilarious. You got it?”

Era brandished the letter, forcing herself not to regard it with too much disgust. Ducking to the side, Shinsou procured his own, identical slip of paper as Era settled on the ground with her back pressed against a wall.

“Well.” Shinsou stared at the letter in his hands, face expressionless, though Era could see a twitch in his fingers and a tension to his shoulders. “You ready?”

Turning the letter over in her hands, Era gave a slow nod. She heard him breathe deeply, settling himself before he ripped open the envelope.

Not seeing an easy way to delay this, Era did the same. Her eyes flickered across the letter, both of them consumed by breathless silence as bits and pieces began to coalesce into sentences, into paragraphs of explanation that…