It's been two weeks since I first started avoiding Keri. Everything has been going terribly for me. I can't focus on my grades. I can't focus on my friends. I can't focus on my family. I can't focus on soccer. I can't focus on everyday things because I always end up thinking about how I ruined my friendship with Keri. If I hadn't put her on that bed, we wouldn't be in this situation.
After the first week, Keri got the hint and started avoiding me too. I was so hurt, I didn't expect her to do that. I tried confronting Marina about it but Keri got beat up for that. Not seriously but Marina's friends pulled at her hair badly and slammed her into the wall a few times. Marina made me watch. I tried talking to Keri about it but she got beat up slightly worse than before. Marina somehow hacked into my phone and deleted Keri's contact from it. I didn't want to try anything else because I was worried that they would beat up Keri again.
Our class was on its way to a field trip. We were going to get some sort of 'work experience' in a business building which I think was stupid because not everyone wants to make a business when they grow up. Either way, I've learnt my lesson about speaking out when uncalled for because my actions hurt a lot of people. Maia you're thinking too much, focus on the scenery. I looked out through the window and there were lots of buildings. We must be close.
I was right, because soon after, the bus stopped. The teachers got all of us off and stood us outside in a line to register us. Then we had to wait for our tour guide who was slightly late. She was a tall, blonde bubbly woman and she was dressed very smartly. We all went inside the building that we were visiting and looked at the interior in awe. It was all so modern and fancy. I caught sight of Keri who was with Amelia, a dark skinned nerd with a short afro who I had noticed she had recently been hanging out with.
I frowned, because I wanted to be that girl. I looked away before I had a chance to see if Keri looked at me. I was so ashamed. In the first half of the day, we had the tour, but in the second half we got to wander about with our friends. Me and my friends went to the restrooms first. When I was by sink, I placed my phone above it and started washing my hands, Keri came out from one of the restrooms and also placed her phone above her sink, "Keri! I want-"
"Hey Maia!" That wretched little demon joined us by the sinks and grinned at me evilly, "I absolutely hate it when people break their promises," then she turned to Keri, "don't you?"
"Yes," Keri spoke through clenched teeth as she glared at me, "I do hate it," she turned off the tap and strutted out. Marina smiled triumphantly and flicked her hair in my face before following Keri in the same sassy manner. I stood there utterly humiliated before quickly walking out after them. I saw Keri walk into an elevator and I ran for my life to make it in. I slid through between the doors, only to find Keri in there. Alone.
"Yay, I made it!" I cheered meekly. Keri glared at me. I sighed, earning another glare from her. She reached into her pockets and a look of panic poured over her face. She quickly took off her bag and searched in there, "my phone! It's gone!" And that's when I remembered, "fuck! I left my phone in the restroom!"
"I don't care about your phone!" She gasped, "I left mine in there too!"
"See, you're not alone in all your problems."
"Oh shut up," she scoffed in disgust, "we need to go back!" Then she shoved me out of her way since I was in front of the buttons. She started pressing the 'down' button impatiently.
"You moron, that's not gonna work-" I was cut off by a huge bang resulting in a quick scream from Keri. We both fell to the floor from the impact and groaned in pain. Well I did, Keri looked around and started breathing really quickly. We soon realised that we were stuck. Keri tried not to cry and desperately held her hands in front of her mouth. I was really freaked out because neither of us had our phones and I had no idea how long we'd be here.
"Oh my god!" She yelped, "we're stuck in here!"
"We're not stuck in here," I tried to stay calm. One of us had to, "I'm sure it's just a minor malfunction and it will be fixed in a second. We'll be fine, I promise you."
"You can't just promise me something like that as if our lives aren't at risk."
"We won't die-"
"Yes we can. If we don't tell anyone we're stuck in the elevator, they won't know we're here. They will leave us here and starve to death. But we will die of thirst first if we don't die in a falling elevator."
"Keri this elevator won't fall-"
"You don't know that!" She yelled, "Maia you don't know that. So stop acting like you know everything thing for once, because your stubborn ass doesn't know anything right now!" She almost started crying but she steadied her breath. I looked at her. She was upset and panicked at the moment.
"Keri you need to take a deep breath, you're panicking and you're upset-"
"See? There you go again! Thinking you know it all. Maia just stop. Fucking stop, okay?"
"Keri-"
"NO! Just stop talking to me, okay? If we get out of this elevator, I don't want to speak to you ever again," she breathed heavily and quickly wiped her eyes before turning away from me. I looked at her and then I looked at my feet guiltily. I tried not to think about anything because I knew that would frustrate me more than I already was. I kept glancing over at Keri who was sitting away from me, braiding her hair, undoing it and re-braiding it over and over.
I lied down and closed my eyes. Neither of us could predict how long we'd be here but regardless of that I decided I could use a nap. From time to time I could hear Keri shuffling around to change her position into a more comfortable one. We sat in silence for what felt like ten minutes before I decided that now would be a good time to clear the air since Marina wasn't anywhere near. Keri seemed like she had calmed down so I cleared my throats and looked at Keri.
"Keri-"
"I don't want to talk to you-"
"No, shut the fuck up and let me speak, it's important," I stated bluntly, earning a surprised look from her, "that picture that Marina took of us, she never deleted it. She made me do whatever she told me to do otherwise she would post that picture. I didn't want to hurt you because everyone would think you're gay which you're not. She made me stop talking to you and a bunch of other things. The times you got beat up, that was because I tried to talk to Marina and then you about it. So I figured it would be best if we stopped being friends.
"I'm so so sorry for everything, I didn't mean for you to get hurt and I thought I could fix everything. Being stuck in this elevator has given me an opportunity to finally explain everything to you since I don't have Marina to be worried about," I finally breathed after blurting all of that out.
"Maia, I am gay," is all that Keri managed to say after a big pause of more silence.
"Sorry, what?" I questioned in disbelief. Did I just hear her correctly? She is gay? Do I have a shot with her? Oh yes. Meri is back in business. Yeah I made a ship name for us, get over it.
"Nothing," she shook her head and looked down.
"Have you literally forgotten that I am also infected with the gay?" Keri chuckled a little, I smiled triumphantly because it's the first time in a long time that I made her smile.
"I can't believe Marina would do that. That's a lie, it's not surprising for her. It's sweet that you cared but idiotic of you to try and solve it all on your own, of course you thought you knew everything," she shook her head again and finally looked at me.
"I'm sorry," I sighed.
"Yeah you should be, it's been so boring without you," she reached out and ruffled my hair.
"Same," I smiled and threw myself at her to aggressively hug her. We didn't let go for some time which wasn't bad. We lay next to each other staring at the ceiling of the elevator. This was good because there's better chances of survival in case of a falling elevator if we lie on our backs. We held hands for 'safety'.
Keri pulled out her lunch from her bag and sat up. "Do you have your lunch?"
"Yes. Luckily I do," I grinned and pulled out my lunch. We ate and then we lay back down. We rested but then our positions got uncomfortable so Keri sat up and I stood up to stretch. Mid-stretch, there was a faint sound of clanging metal. We froze in our spots and Keri slowly looked around.
"Maia oh my god," she whimpered quietly. We didn't move, scared that that would affect anything. There was another, louder clang of metal and before we could even get scared by that, the elevator dropped. The pressure flung our bodies around and it all happened so fast I didn't know what was going on. We landed with a loud thud throwing us to the walls. I felt a searing pain in my hip and I wailed so loudly. I was in so much pain that I couldn't see or hear anything.
I breathed heavily trying to focus on something other than my hip. I sobbed a little whilst breathing. I tried to sit up but I couldn't move my right leg. I started hyperventilating, "my leg, my leg!" I started wailing again because the pain came back. I breathed again and realised that I hadn't heard Keri. I opened my eyes and I instantly regretted it. She lay scrunched up by the corner and her head was bleeding. She was unconscious but her eyes were open, "Keri no-" I started sobbing because of my hip again. I banged the walls with my fist to somehow ease the pain.
Maia, you'll both be okay.