Expectations (wlw)

Chapter 11

“Why not? Go ahead,” said Arden, after taking a second to consider.

As we walked out of the lobby, I muttered to Fairul. “You know there’s like eight kids who’re spending Christmas here, us excluded.”

“I’m not doing laundry again,” she said through gritted teeth.

We were back in the dorms building on the first floor. Fairul led me to a closed door, where she proceeded to violently jiggle and force the thing open.

“That looked like it was against school regulation,” I said as we stepped into what revealed itself as a storage closet.

“You’re against school regulation.” She was wheeling a housekeeping cart out of the room.

“How are we taking that upstairs?” But she was already through the door and heading to another one, the furthest in the hallway.

“There’s a service lift here. For service people--”

“I would think so, yes--”

“--And not for students.” She glared at me. “I don’t believe there’s actually a way to stop students from using it.”

As we stepped into the elevator, it creaked.

“That sounded like an omen.”

“It was the cart--”

“It was not the cart--” But the elevator creaked some more and lurched upward. It was too late to leave.

“Wouldn’t it be hilarious,” said Fairul, “if it got stuck.”

“Don’t--”

“Think about it! It would be our meet-cute.”

“We’ve already met, and nothing’s cute about dying in a rusty elevator.”
Her laugh distracted me from the pulleys’ heaving and groaning, though the ride was a little too long for a one-floor-upward trip.

I slid out between the doors before they could fully open, and Fairul and the cart rumbled after me.

“What’s the plan?”

“We should take down the decorations.” I jumped half-heartedly at a hanging streamer and missed. Fairul scoffed.

“Pathetic,” she said, and stood on tiptoes to pull it down. I rolled my eyes and rummaged around the cart. When I’d found a trash bag to put the decorations in, I turned back to her. She had the thing draped across her shoulders like a shiny feather boa.

“How do I look?” She said, doing a little shimmy.

“Great. Put them in here.”

“I’ll hold on to this one.” She grabbed another from the walls and threw it into the bag.

After a while, she reared back and exclaimed. “Oh, so I’m doing all the work.”

“I would like to state that my job is an important part of this operation.”

“What, holding the bag? I can do that myself!”

“I’m shouldering this responsibility so you don’t have to do all the work.” She shook her head.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” I gave what I considered a pretty casual laugh.

We finished the first floor and went back to the lift to ascend. It was much quieter this time, but mostly because it wasn’t moving. Before I could panic, Fairul laid a hand on my back.

“It’s normal, it always delays between the first and the second. I’ve been here before.”

“I thought you said students weren’t allowed in.”