Word count: 2222
Pov: Travis
It was so dark the darkness felt tangible, like a giant wad of black gum. The elevator lurched, but I was sort of used to it by now. I felt the muscles in the girl's shoulders bunch up.
Suddenly, she sprang up from her seated position and stomped her foot on the ground, hard. Or, at least, that's what I think she did. I couldn't see her at all, not even her silhouette.
"What the heck‽" I wasn't entirely certain who she was yelling at, but it was very entertaining. "I refuse to do this! LET ME OUT!" at which point, she slammed her foot into the elevator ground again. The entire car shuddered and the girl stumbled into me. She tripped and landed square across my lap.
I allowed myself a satisfied smirk. She couldn't see it anyway.
"Quit smirking!"
Or maybe she could.
"It's not funny!! I want OUT!!!" Then she shouted again, "Let Me OUT!!!!"
"I wonder who she's talking to, very loudly might I add. She wouldn't happen to be speaking with the very elevator? Because if she is I feel like someone should tell her the elevators probably not gonna respond."
The girl didn't answer, she just started pacing. I laid down and tried to relax. I was startled out of my near comatose state by a lurch, then all the wind was knocked out of me when the girl kneed me in the stomach.
"Oh my gods!! I'm so sorry!!"
"Yeah- Fine-," I groaned, gasping for air.
After about a minute, I could breathe again. I quickly stood up, rubbing my sore solar plexus. So, I was caught off guard when the elevator lurched again. This time, I slammed my face into the wall. Yes, I had the best luck in the world.
The girl managed to grab my arm and pull me to the floor. We both sat down, panting slightly. "This is like that time me and Miranda got trapped in our closet, if the closet had been on a bouncy house."
I hadn't been expecting her to say anything, so I was startled, "One time, me and my brother, Conner, stayed in a vent for seven hours without making any noise. Conner sneezed when we had five minutes left and we had to abandon the project. True pain."
"The... Project? Do I want to know?"
"Probably not. But it would have been amazing."
"Well, one time our neighbors kept sending their dogs over to our backyard to dump, so me and Miranda killed their garden by dumping all the doggy doodoo into their flower bed."
I stared at her, well, in her direction. Such a beautiful, wonderful, absolutely positively amazing girl. "Me and Conner died our mom's hair blue once. Got grounded for a whole week."
"A week?" She sounded surprised.
"I know, my mom is harsh with punishment."
"That's totally what I meant."
I put my arm around her shoulders very dramatically, "You see, when you're already grounded three weeks for setting a herd of goats free on school property, and two weeks for spreading jam across the roof of some guy named Herald Biscuit's house, and-"
"I get it. You're permanently grounded."
"No, I've just got..." I made a big show of counting something on my fingers, even though she couldn't see. "Eighty-seven months, two weeks, and five days left."
I could feel her incredulous gaze on me. I allowed myself a self satisfied smile.
"Do you know what story we're on?" She turned her head towards me, and I was realized she hadn't shaken my arm off her shoulders.
"Well, I've never read any stories where a brave young, handsome, brave, smart, chivalrous, brave, handsome young man gets stuck in an elevator with an unnamed girl." I groaned when she dug her elbow into my already bruised side.
"No, Moron, I was talking about how many stories of this building."
"Oh, well, I didn't know this building had any interesting stories." She shoved me away, and unfortunately, her shove coincided with one of those lurches and I went hurtling across the tiny room. This time, I managed to slam my knee and my left hip into the wall.
"Oops," said the girl, without any sympathy.
"You did that on purpose," I groaned.
"Let's just call it a happy accident."
I lurched back to my spot, having caught another rough spot. "Let's play Twenty Two Answers."
"You mean Twenty Questions?" She was looking at me suspiciously now.
"No, that's boring. Twenty Two Answers is like...a get to know you game."
"Why?" She drew the one word out into a long exasperated sigh.
"Do you have anything better to do?" She didn't respond. "Fine then, I'll go first. What's your favorite color?"
There was a pause, and I held my breath, hoping she would respond. "Green, but I also like blue. What about you?"
"Gold, because one day I'm going to have lots of it."
I could hear her eye roll in her question, "What's your lucky number?"
"Two," I answered.
"Eight, I've got the bigger one." She sounded self satisfied in her answer.
"Doesn't change the fact that I'm like three heads taller than you." I grinned, knowing this response would set her off. I was right.
"Oh Shut up, you Mister High and Mighty!!"
"Well, if I'm Mister, then you can be Missus." I nearly laughed when she started to say something else and choked, "Even?"
She didn't respond, unless you count more choking.
"Favorite Animal?" I asked, after a few more moments of her flustered choking.
"Zebras, unless you count bees." She managed to cough out in a wannabe nonchalant voice. I imagined her face was a tomatoey shade of red at the moment.
"I like lions, and also monkeys. They're like distant cousins of mine, I think."
"I wouldn't doubt it. How many siblings do you have?"
"Just Connor, but I've got like a bazillion cousins."
"Including, or excluding those monkeys?" She asked wryly.
"I've got a bazillion either way."
She laughed, and I felt something in my chest twist. I really wanted to hear that sound again. "I have a sister and two brother. My sister and I share the same mom, and my brothers share my dad. I grew up with my step mom, my mom picked up and left when I was just a few years old." She shrugged, like she couldn't care less. But it was obvious from her voice that she cared alot. "My Step mom is awesome though, so no loss there."
I slid my arm back around her shoulders, "Yeah, my dad runs some big corporation, the Hermes Express. It's a mail and delivery service. He's got all the time in the world for his job, but none for his kids." I knew I sounded bitter, but I just couldn't help it.
"Wait," The girl sat rigidly, like one of those rail spike things, staying super still until a train, or elevator lurch, comes along and shakes it up like a thing of koolaid, "You mean the Hermes Express? Your Travis Stoll? Like, the son of Hermes?"
I fidgeted uncomfortably, "Well, yes. So you have heard of me?"
"Of course! You're in that commercial, you know, the one where the little kid runs up to his dad and says 'Daddy, I need more diapers!' Then you walked in, as the older brother and say, 'Just order some with Hermes Express! Type in the code Olympus for a 15% discount!' Then the dad acts relieved and the mom walks in and is like, 'What would we do without such a wonderful son?' It was all over like everything for like, ever."
"Uh yeah, I'm in that one. But the discount was only 8%."
"I wonder if I could get a discount code for being stuck in an elevator with the head of the corporation's son for like five hours."
"NutBrain," I said.
"Well that was uncalled for."
"No, I mean, being stuck in an elevator code, only it's not for being stuck in an elevator, it's just a random code," I winced, realized there were probably better ways to word that.
"Oh..." She sounded confused.
I decided I could either go down with a sinking boat, or climb onto a different one. I chose the one that wasn't sinking, "So, what's your favorite candy bar?"
"Kit-Kats!" She said it so enthusiastically, like Kit-Kats ruled the world and she ruled alongside them.
"Well, Kit-Kat, I like Mars Bars. And my dad despises them, so I make a very valiant attempt to leave the wrappers lying around, everywhere. One time I filled the entire fridge with Mars Bars wrappers, when he opened it up for a snack, WHAM! They all crashed down around him. It was beautiful. He looked like a martian."
Kit-Kat laughed, I wasn't sure what part she was laughing at, but the fact that she was laughing was good enough for me.
We continued on, asking ridiculous questions, for several minutes. Finally, I asked the pressure question, "Single or taken?"
"Who would want to ask me out? I'm single as a Pringles and third wheeling while I mingle. The whole reason I'm here is because my roommate needs a chaperone."
"But you came in alone?"
"I wanted a Crepe, or an omelet, or whatever Bellerephone's Breakfast Buffet has to offer. My Roommate is eating from Poseidon's Pancake Place. She probably thinks I ditched her. What about you?" There was something in the question, but I couldn't tell what it was. I hoped it was hope. But then again, she could be hoping I was taken. Better to hope that the thing in her voice was despair, because she was certain I was taken. Or maybe she was in despair because she thought I was single? But how could you think a guy as hott as I am is still single? It's just not possible!
"Single, but still hotter than Apollo." I flashed a cheeky grin in her direction, but she couldn't see it.
"Oh," There it was again! That annoying incomprehensible tone!! "So what type of food do you like? Like, Italian, Thai...?"
"Kit-Kat, are you asking me out?"
"No!!" She swatted my arm, "I was just asking a question!"
"Well, in that case, American Chinese. I tried real Chinese food once and I didn't like it, Americans make Chinese food better than the Chinese do!"
"That's just because our Chinese food is stocked up with sugar, and sweetener, and artificial flavorings. We're-" Something made a loud Creak noise above us, and Kit-Kat jumped, not finishing whatever she had been about to say.
I looked up, for no reason really, as I couldn't see my nose, let alone eight feet away. Then, I was nearly blinded by a bright white light. At first, I thought I had died, and this was God's way of telling me I was a moron. Then, The light turned away and I saw a man's bearded and scarred face. After my whole, Aw Crud, that's not God. I should have pulled less pranks on the innocent, I managed to imagine a whole year of torture for myself in the thirty seconds before I realized that this was an elevator worker sticking his head through the emergency exit, and I wasn't dead. After a few more moments I realized that Kit-Kat was leaning against me. It took everything I had not to grin like a loon.
"Hey kids, ready to get out of here?" The man said in a gruff voice.
"Yes we are, very much," Kit-Kat said, jumping to her feet.
The Elevator man threw a rope ladder down through the emergency exit.
Kit-Kat reached for a rung, right as the elevator gave another shudder. Kit-Kat fell right into my lap. I grunted when my head slammed back into the wall, but my head was used to it by now.
We both managed to get on top of the elevator without much further ado. From there, we got to the next landing up, which was like five feet away.
I helped Kit-Kat up through the elevator doors at the top, which meant we both saw the sign at the same time, 'Welcome to floor twenty-two!' I gaped at it for a good five minutes before I felt a hand on my shoulder. A guy handed me a pen and a clipboard . I filled out the rather pointless survey, 'Was your Mechanic the right man for the job?' You tell me., 'How would you rate Hephaestus's Hardware Helpers?' What's up with the name? And so forth.
Right then, one of the Mechanics walked into the hallway, he was holding a bright blue digital alarm clock, with the numbers 22:22 blinking on the screen, and a bunch of dents all over, "This was jamming up the works. It's missing it's batteries and it's got got a name sharpied on it, Katie Gardener?"
Kit-Kat looked up from her clipboard and choked, "Where did you get that‽ That's mine!"
The Mechanic looked at her strangely, "Miss, I have to ask, did you sabotage yourself?"
Kit-Kat, sorry, Katie, shook her head slowly, staring at the greasy alarm clock like it was the devil itself.
Finally, after Kit-Kat meticulously filled out all three pages of the survey, were were allowed to leave, "So, Katie-Kat. Wanna take the stairs this time?"
Katie opened the door, "I have a feeling you and Miranda will get along famously."
"And when do I get to meet this Marvalous Miranda?"
"What about Thanksgiving Break?" Katie asked, looking down.
"It's a date. And how about a sooner one, too, to satisfy my patience."
Katie just laughed.
TODAY IS EPIC. IT'S THE 22ND OF FEBUARY 2022!!! AND THE EXACT MINUTE I POST THIS, IT'LL BE 10:22PM!! So, it'll be 22:22 of 2/22/22 and, I'm in the twenty second state at an altitude of two hundred twenty two And the word count is two thousand two hundred twenty two!!!!!!!!! So, I'm posting part 2 of my story which is 2222 words that I typed with 2 hands to my 222 followers at 22:22 of 2/22/22 in the 22 state while I'm 222 feet above sea level and on the 2 child's second bed in the 2 story of my house which hosts 2 2's on the mailbox which is in the 2 row in my neighborhood; and now you're reading this with 2 eyes!!!!!!! I LOVE LIFE!!!!!! HAPPY TWOSDAY!!!!
So how did you like that? I would say they were moving fast, but I've seen some that are like, oh, you spilled your sprite down my shirt, let's get married!!+fluff. So.... Idk. I was going to put in a part where Katie gets home and looks around for her alarm clock and finds it with elevator oil all over it, but.... Well, I had too keep it down to 2222 words. So... Hope you enjoyed it!!!
-Adamae!!