I felt Nathan chuckle lowly against the back of my neck, and I was immediately swarmed with a large concoction of emotions - Fear, stress, and above all, raging anger.
With spite, I rammed my elbow harshly into the soft part of his stomach. He grunted in pain and immediately let go of my wrist before backing away a couple of spaces.
I swerved around to face him before pushing him back by his chest so that he staggered back a couple of steps.
"How could you do this to me?" I screamed.
He rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets, all casual-like, as though he hadn't done one of the cruelest things known to man.
"Oh, would you calm down. We're literally only going to the top floor and then back again. It'll be easy peasy," he laughed.
"Easy, peasy?" I have fucking claustrophobia, you piece of shit," I hissed.
He shrugged. "Well, I have arachnophobia, so an eye for an eye," he taunted with a sly little smirk.
I was seconds away from wringing his neck when I suddenly felt a large jolt as the elevator started to rise.
I shook my head frantically. "No, no, no, no, get me off, get me off," I stammered out, getting louder at each word.
Not knowing what else to do, I started to kick at the elevator door like a mad man. I knew it was just in my head, but it didn't change the fact that it very much felt like the walls were getting tighter and tighter. I felt like I could hardly breathe, my chest rising and falling, faster and faster.
I jumped slightly when I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?" Nathan asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.
"Don't fucking touch me," I hissed as I ripped myself away from his grasp.
My head darted around to look at all the sides of the elevator, frantically searching for a way out of this prison-like hell. Nathan watched my movements with an arched brow, but I was far too panicked, to give a shit what he thought about me.
Finally, my eyes latched on to the control buttons and I immediately ran over to the wall in which they were mounted. Manically, I started to press each and every button randomly in the hopes that the doors would magically open.
The disadvantage of never being an elevator before meant I had no idea how to use them.
"Hey, what the fuck are you doing? It's not a toy!" Nathan yelled as he moved closer to me and grabbed my wrists. I immediately snatched them back and continued randomly pressing buttons.
"Yeah, I know it's not a toy; that's why I want to get out," I screamed.
Nathan let out a frustrated groan. "If you carry on like that, you might brea-"
Before he could finish the sentence, the elevator lights flickered before switching completely off, and the whole shaft came to an abrupt stop.
"-break it," he finished off quietly.
Oh shit...
I let out a shallow sob sound as I was drowned in absolute darkness. I'm not an elevator expert, but I knew that lights switching off was not a good sign.
Still hanging onto a slither of hope, I gave the elevator buttons a couple more random pushes, but then I squealed as a flash of sparks sprung out of one of them.
Yeah, this wasn't good...
I turned to face Nathan's shadowy figure and frantically shook my head.
"No, no, no, this can't be possible. We can't be trapped, we can't-" I chocked out, barely able to speak.
"Well, thanks to you and your over-active-button-pressing-self, we are," he spat sarcastically. "But it's alright, all elevator buttons have an emergency button," he sighed as he brushed his way past me.
Moving to the control panel, he pressed a red button in the middle, and he jumped back in shock as it made another sharp sizzling sound.
"Seriously, this is broke too? How cheap is this stupid fucking elevator," he cursed.
I rolled my eyes. Even in emergency situations, Nathan couldn't resist getting a jab in about how cheap my whole apartment block was.
"I'll call the number on here, I guess," he mumbled as he pointed to the sheet taped to the wall.
I heard rustling as he fished out his phone from his pocket. There was a long moment of anticipative silence before Nathan cursed lowly under his breath.
"No fucking reception," he spat before angrily shoving his phone back into his pocket. He turned back to face me. "Check if you have reception," he ordered.
If we were in another situation, I would have cussed him out for thinking he can order me to do fucking anything, but I was too much on edge to respond that way now. I nodded, then patted my back pocket for my phone, then I stopped when I found nothing.
"It's at the stupid apartment," I groaned as I gave one of the walls of the elevator another aggressive kick.
"Typical," he said drily.
"Excuse me for not having time to grab it before a self-righteous idiot decided to throw me over his shoulder like a fucking maniac," I bit back sassily.
He scoffed. "Well, I wouldn't have done that if you didn't throw a shitting spider at me," he yelled.
"And I wouldn't have done that if you weren't such a massive dick," I screamed.
I know my plan was to try and become his friend, which you know, involved playfully bantering with him and such, but I was in no mood to reel in my hatred for him.
He deserved to be yelled at. Thanks to him, I was now stuck in this metal box of death for an indefinite amount of time. It was my absolute worst nightmare come to life, and I was going to be forced to endure it.
My head started racing with more and more nervous thoughts until it felt like my whole brain was ringing. Before I knew it, my breaths started coming out more ragged and deep. Not knowing what else to do, I pressed my back against one of the walls and sunk down to the floor.
Cradling my tucked-up legs in between my hands, I sunk my head down into my lap and started to recite the words, you're safe over and over again under my breath.
In between the silence, I heard an awkward cough before footsteps drew closer. I stiffened slightly as I heard a heavy weight drop down onto the floor beside me.
I jerked my head up and swerved to face him. I was surprised to find his face visible despite the darkness which I soon realized was because he had his phone on torch mode to help illuminate the room.
"Why the fuck are you sitting next to me? Come to gloat that you managed to get me scared, huh?" I snapped over aggressively, my voice quivering slightly.
Nathan stared at me in absolute silence. His eyes flickered back and forth between mine, shining with an emotion which dare I say it, looked like guilt. It couldn't be though, obnoxious rich monsters like him weren't capable of anything of the sort.
His eyes then drifted to look at my bare arms. "You're shivering," he said simply.
"Yeah, no shit, that's what people do when they're scared," I spat before burying my head in my lap once more.
A zipper sound soon broke through the air, followed by some rustling. Was this bitch going to apologize to me by stripping or something?
I mean, I wasn't entirely opposed to it...
Before I could lift my head up to investigate, something heavy fell around my shoulders, and I was suddenly encapsulated by warmth. I pulled my head up curiously and looked down at my arms to find an expensive dark grey jacket draped against me.
It was incredibly large, and from the strong wafts of Nathan's aftershave that were emitting from it, it was blatantly obvious that it was his.
And, of course, because he was the only one trapped in the elevator with me...
I was stunned for a second before I came to my senses and snatched the material off me. I scrunched it up into a tight little ball before throwing it to the far corner of the elevator.
I glared at Nathan with spite. "I don't take charity from bullies," I hissed.
Nathan sighed before climbing to his feet and walking to the far side of the elevator. He quickly picked up his jacket and straightened out all the crinkles I had put in them. I looked at him drily and waited for him to put the expensive cloth back on himself.
But he didn't. With a completely neutral face, he returned back to my side. I widened my eyes in shock as he placed it back around my shoulders before sitting back down on the floor once more. I looked at the jacket and then at him.
He had a look of stubborn persistence burning brightly through his eyes which I knew meant, 'don't throw it off again, or I'll put it right back on'.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked simply, my voice lightly echoing the air.
There was a slight delay before he answered. "Well, for one, I don't want to sit next to your shivering ass for however long we're in here; it's distracting," he teased.
I rolled my eyes, and despite my willingness not to, a small hint of a smile broke out onto my face. And when I caught Nathan's eye, he winked at me, probably as an internal gloat at the fact he had said something to cheer me up.
My smile started to fade as I latched onto a specific part of his statement: for however long we're in here,"
I swallowed and tightened my grip around my legs, so my nails were practically digging into my skin. Despite, the slight distraction of Nathan in here with me; it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult to breathe. My mind was still convincing me that the space was smaller than it was. I saw Nathan throw a glance my way, then he paused as his eyes danced between my own.
"Why don't we play a game?" he asked abruptly.
I was taken aback by the suddenness of his question, but as soon as I processed it, I let out a bitter laugh.
"No, Nathan, I don't. Funnily enough, all I care about is escaping this stupid fucking box that you trapped me in."
There was a little voice inside my head, reminding me that yelling at someone was not a way to seduce or befriend someone, but I didn't give that voice two shits worth of my attention.
He snorted. "That's cute, that you think you have a choice. I proposed it as a question to be nice," he snickered.
Not halfway amused, I simply replied with the middle finger.
"I'm feeling in the mood for never have I ever what about you?" he asked.
Silence defeaned the air as I glared at him.
"Hmm, yes, Sophie, I do agree that it is an excellent game. We should definitely play," he said with a little nod, pretending as if I was actually participating in the conversation.
"Wait, Sophie, what was that?" he asked as he suddenly cupped his hands over his ears as though he was struggling to make out what I had said.
I gave him a very dry; and unimpressed look.
"What? You're telling me I'm the sexiest man you've ever seen?" he gasped overdramatically as he held a hand to his chest.
Not being able to resist the temptation to make commentary, I let out an ugly snort. "You keep playing make-believe, Nathan because the only time I'm going to come close to calling you sexy is deep deep within that delusional head of yours."
"I think you and I both know I'm not being delusional," he teased.
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Natalie, let's hurry up and play your stupid never have I ever shit," I snapped as I waved around an impatient hand.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, likely surprised that I actively wanted to play. My words surprised me and all, but I guess a part of me was desperate for the kind of distraction he could provide.
He cleared his throat. "Okay, I'll go first. Never have I ever used someone," he boldly pronounced.
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Author's Note:
That's chapter twenty-one done, hope you enjoyed xx
Any guesses, on how this little game is going to go?
Next update: Monday (6-8 PM - UK time)