Stuck With Him

3. It isn't over till the fat man yells.

   The bickering between James and Tom didn’t stop. Nor did Luke stop staring at me. And Ms Ruskin was still sleeping so basically, Erin, Chris and I were clearly the only sane ones here and were suffering. But because there was six of us all cramped inside a lift, it became humid really quick and my dress wasn’t helping at all. Although it was very pretty, it was really uncomfortable what with the sequins brushing against my skin, making it go red and itchy. Of all things to be wearing when stuck in a lift, a dress with sequins was not the way to go. And I’m also having to lift my arms above me so I don’t leave any sweat patches on the dress otherwise I’ll have to pay for it with money that was probably not in my bank account right now, not that Sara or Jess knew. Or my parents for that matter.

   Suddenly, there’s an excruciating itch on my elbow and I scratch it with everything I have, red   surfacing my skin quickly. As I look up from my elbow, I see Erin staring at me.

   “Are you... ok Emily?” she asks, whilst looking from my dress to my elbow. I give her a quick smile and explain to her the mess that is my dress and the itch that is my arm. Erin gives me a small smile back, her head slightly shifting side wards. “It is a pretty dress though,” and suddenly, James stops bickering and he agrees with Erin and so does Chris and I’m swaying from side to side, taking in all the complements because it’s been a while since anyone’s said anything that nice to me so I’m raking it all in till Luke opens his mouth.

   “Yeah, you look ho-ot!”

   And then I stop swaying and I’m about to lecture Luke about how he cannot just call girls hot when Tom suddenly asks why I was walking around in this dress in the first place. Oh Tom. Was it his shaggy brown hair, his pathetic personality or merely his presence which keeps pestering my  conscious? I glare at Tom, blowing a raspberry to greet him.

   “Pshhhh, what’s it to you?” I ask, almost too aggressively,

   “Sheesh, it was just a question,”

   “That won’t affect your life what-so-ever.”

   “Do you guys know each other?” James starts. “Because you seem to bicker a lot,”

   “Me? Bicker?” I laugh because I’m a weirdo but find it kind of funny how he had the audacity to accuse me of bickering when his sparring partner had been Tom all this time! Maybe James wouldn’t make the hottie shortlist after all. Not that there was much of a list. I’d better start praying for Channing Tatum to appear.

   “Answer the question then,” Tom implodes. I shift my eyes and give him a death glare.

   “Why don’t you answer the question?”

   “Why don’t you answer the question?” he mimics.

   “Yeah, very mature Tom,” I roll my eyes and cross my arms.

   “You’re one to talk!” he exclaims, waving his arms around, trying to get up in my grill. Honestly.

   “Back off my woman!” Luke yells.

   “Shut it kid,”

   “Seriously, this is stupid,”

   “Can we all please be quiet!” yells Chris so suddenly that we all had to turn to him.

   “Who said that?” creaks Ms Ruskin, who just awoke from her nap. For a big man, Chris takes a few miniscule steps back, nervously playing around with his fingers- who would have thought he was the owner of the large voice that brought us all to his attention.

   “What do you want fatty?” snaps Luke and I find myself staring at him with my mouth hanging wide open. What a little shit! Suddenly, all four corners of the lift were filled with cries coming Chris. We all looked at each other and right then I knew that we were all thinking the same thing.

   “Come on Chris, he’s just a kid,” Tom moans. I’ve always been known to have quick reflexes so I wasn’t surprised when I smacked my left arm against Tom’s right.

   “Emily- what the heck?!” he yells as I try and shimmy my way to Chris, bumping Tom next to Ms Ruskin as I place a hand on Chris’s arm.

   “I swear Tom, you could be such an insensitive prick,” I spit.

   “Language!” hawks Ms Ruskin once again and although I’m not looking at her, I’m thinking of how relieved I’ll be once I get out of the lift and away from Tom and Ms Ruskin. Both clearly planned to be here so they could conspire a plot to drive me insane and then I won’t be able to hack it and before you know it, I’m ripping my hair out and screaming for sanity. Now she calls out on bad language.

   “It’s ok guys, I’m fine,” Chris whimpers. “I’ve just had a bad day that’s all,”

   “Yeah, getting stuck in a lift isn’t my idea of a good day either,” James laughs but again, his face goes blank and he shuts up as Erin shoots him a look to kill. I’m pretty sure if Ms Ruskin weren’t here, Erin and I could run this ship and keep these boys in their places. I knew right at this moment that Sara would be proud of me, what with her being a proud feminist always calling people out on their injustice and sexism.

   “Yeah Chris, tell us what’s up,” Erin calls out as she turns her head to face him. Chris slides his gaze towards me and I give him a reassuring smile to help him on. Chris looks at his hands and sighs.

   “This day two years ago, my wife left me,” and this time he’s crying, like really crying. The kind of cries that occur when you feel really hurt; the kind which took me back to when I found out that Tom had cheated on me and I spent a whole afternoon crying like Chris was doing right now. I don’t know why but even though he was big and probably the same age as my parents, I suddenly felt really protective of him. Despite his size, Chris was a really sensitive man and clearly his wife leaving him still haunted him to this day. I turned my face to Tom and glared at him, cursing him like a soldier.       

   That mother fu-

   “She said she didn’t love me anymore,” Chris managed to say in between his cries. “But I later found out that she was pregnant and the baby wasn’t mine,”

   “How do you know it wasn’t yours?” Luke asks innocently whilst he’s been listening during this whole time. Suddenly, Chris shifts uncomfortable and we’re all staring at him. He looks nervously from Luke, to everyone else.

   “Because,” he starts. “I... had a vasectomy,” he almost whispers. Chris shifts his gaze to me, then Erin, Tom and James, avoiding Ms Ruskin’s gaze and we’re all tense as Luke asks the inevitable.

   “What’s a vasectomy?”

   We all shuffle and look at each other, whether to unravel some of life’s secrets to this eleven year old or whether we act as if Chris hadn’t said anything. But surprise surprise, there was one among us who clearly didn’t share the same thoughts. Tom had an answer to everything.

   “It’s when they chop off your balls mate,”

   And just like that, the blood from Luke’s pale face seemed to have drained away and he’s standing there as if his innocence has been stripped away. His mouth was slightly open, his lips quivering and you could practically see the pain sprawled across his face. Neither of us knew what to say next to reassure this eleven year old after all, some things can never be unheard.

   “Such vulgar language I tell you!” Of course, Ms Ruskin- who could forget about her? “But as for your situation Chris,” she starts, turning her head to face him. “In my day, such woman were thrown out, disowned and usually take residence in a brothel,”

   And this is helping Chris how? But of course I don’t say anything to interrupt her. I didn’t want to get slaughtered by her just yet. Ms Ruskin looks at all of us for the first time and sighs heavily. “My own husband left me broken two years into our marriage,” I held my breath.

   “He was having an affair with another woman. Yes, it hurt but eventually you need to find closure. You must understand that those who do such things will never truly understand what it takes to be in a functioning relationship. It’s their loss,”

   I catch Tom’s glare, his brown eyes searching mine, his mouth slightly open. I start nibbling on my lip and look away.

   It’s his loss.