jamie and eric-26-flashback to highschool

Eric’s clearest memories of Jamie were of when they first met. First met in the bathroom when Jamie was crying. Led him around St. Phoenix’s campus avoiding detection, stealing food and office supplies. They didn’t really talk much. Or at least Jamie didn’t talk much. At the end of the day they just managed to sneak onto the busses heading back to the boarding school.
But Jamie disappeared as soon as they got off the busses. The crowds of students in bright red blazers, it wasn’t hard. And Jamie stayed disappeared for almost a week. Had they not been bonded Eric wouldn’t have cared, well if they hadn’t been bonded Eric would never have stopped to comfort him. But they were, and Eric kept looking over his shoulder hoping to catch sight of him.
In passing time before last class period on Friday a small black haired boy approached Eric at his locker. He didn’t say anything, he barely looked at Eric. “There you are, you jackass!” Eric exclaimed. “I’ve been looking for you all week.” And Jamie’s bright eyes widened with surprise. Jamie still couldn’t say anything though, shy and tucked into himself. Eric looked around at the busy hallway. “Let’s ditch class. Head out into the woods.”
Jamie gulped, clearly afraid, and managed to say “No.”
Eric scuffed the floor with his shoe. Jamie looked ready to run away. “Hey don’t freak out. We can hang some other time.” Jamie nodded. But Eric was freaking out. A little.
The crowd in the hall was thinning out. Jamie looked visibly nervous. It was making Eric nervous. The hall monitor security guy walked down the fall shouting out, “Get to class boys.”
Jamie almost ran, but Eric grabbed his shoulder. Letting go quickly. He tweaked something in his arm. His hand fell asleep. He pumped his fingers a couple of times and the feeling died down.
“Here after class. I’ll find you.” Jamie blurted out and ran away.
Eric smiled. He just felt happy. Eric’s older self knew that this was the moment that the bond had physically formed. Vaguely Eric wondered if this had been the first moment of being bonded, then how were they bonded before.

* * *

The pain was subsiding.
Eric could see his food again. He could see Jamie’s food. The table. The paintings on the wall. Eric forced himself to slow down and breath deep to fight the shakiness he felt.
Touch. Being close enough that their energies could touch and attach to each other. They were bonded again. It really hurt this time. It changed the way he felt. All of the feelings of mistakes, uselessness, emptiness, undirected energy… It was gone. It was gone. Completely.
Eric laughed from embarrassment. What was all of the angst over? He didn’t know what to do with his life. He didn’t know what to do? He was a part of Jamie’s research. He helped with Jamie’s research. He remembered talking to all those millions of candidates with some level of bond. Jamie spent a lot of time with books, and Eric talked to so many people.
And then he realized that he hadn’t remembered any of this. Hadn’t remembered that moment, the moment when he had first bonded with Jamie, before this lunch. The memories were his. The knowledge, the knowing. Were natural in his mind. But he knew that he had not known this yesterday.