As Wednesday sneaked up on me and our project rolled on, I learned several things about my relationship with Axel. One: I worked well with Axel as long as my mood was stable. Two: When my mood was not stable I was prone to irritability and sudden outbursts. Three: When said outbursts occurred, Axel was prone to respond in his usual drone of passive-aggressive behavior.
We were in one of those patterns when Lisa cleared her throat and caught our attention. She was in front of the camera, tucked away in one of the alcoves in the hallway. The sun from the window highlighted her hair, and she wore a troubled expression.
"Do you guys need a minute, or...?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "I was under the impression I was doing you guys a favor."
I squirmed in my spot by the tripod. She was doing us a massive favor, it was true.
"Sorry," I muttered, kicking at the linoleum floor. I side-eyed Axel, raising my eyebrows expectantly. His face was sullen, but he responded as desired.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry," he said.
Lisa was basically the star student in my media class. She'd been hellbent on working with graphic design ever since she enrolled two years ago, and now she had several gigs on the side. Her passion was web design, and she was the absolute best at responsive design. Her mind was something else, and sometimes I wish we were better friends, just so I could pick her brain more often.
She smiled, a flash of white teeth and a single dimple. Lisa's eyes were a golden brown, and her hair was dyed an auburn color, styled in elegant braids. She wore a shirt the color of a sunset.
"Great!" She said. "Let's get this over with so I can get back to work. I'd hate to have William ruin my website."
"Oh yeah, you're with William, huh?" I said, scratching the back of my neck. "That must be... Rough."
She grinned again. She did that a lot, I'd noticed. It was like everything was a secret joke. "You could say that."
Axel prepared his questions, sullen look still pasted across his features. He'd been tense all week, which made zero sense to me. As far as I knew, he was just living his regular violent life. If anyone had a reason to be tense and moody, it was me.
Interviewing Lisa was a success, and it was obvious that her previous claims about being camera shy were a blatant lie. She was a natural with the Canon, and her words cast a rather pleasing light on the media department. I was considering dropping Kurt's interview portion dramatically.
Despite our flow, I couldn't focus fully. Despite Lisa's glowing smile, intelligent responses, and delightful nature, my brain was occupied. No matter what I did or thought, my mind always returned to that text. That text I'd received two days prior.
"Enjoy yourself while you can. You're dead meat."
A million questions bombarded my mind every time I revisited it. Who sent it? What did they mean? Was that last bit an actual threat? Death threats weren't unfamiliar territory for me - I wasn't the December High Dragons' nemesis for no reason - but they were usually harmless and closer to a joke. This wasn't. The message wasn't just disconcerting, it was ominous, and reeked of malicious intentions. Was this someone close to Lily? Had she told people about the way I treated her? Then again, no matter what I did to her, I found it hard to believe she would do that. Lily wasn't that type of girl.
Even if she did send her angry fans after me, was I in any position to blame her? I'd spent the last few weeks tucking that fateful night into a mental drawer, but that didn't change the fact that it had happened. Running away from it didn't mean things were okay.
The sudden memory sent a cold chill through my body, and I accidentally slammed my elbow into the tripod. It wobbled, tilted, and if it wasn't for Axel's reflexes, the $600 camera would have crashed to the floor.
Axel and Lisa gave me matching wide-eyed stares, Axel holding the Canon in his left hand.
"Are you okay, Nao?" Lisa asked. "You're a bit pale."
I nodded fervently. "Yes. Sorry. Just a bit out of it today."
"Need a break?"
"No. Let's do this."
There was a draft in the classroom, and I pulled my green flannel shirt closer, willing my tired brain to focus on the task at hand. It was several hours later, and I was in the classroom struggling with our footage. My laptop had decided to give out in the middle of rendering, so Axel and I had no choice but to move our work over to one of the school Macs. The plan had been to hightail out of there after the bell rang, but upon realizing how good Lisa's interview turned out, I'd become eager to edit it. I wanted to add the best clips to our master file and save us the hassle of doing it later. Unfortunately, said master file was growing larger and larger, and our editing software resented this.
"Stupid shit," I swore, slamming my fist against the side of the computer screen. "Why won't you save?"
Axel sat next to me, one leg resting on the ground, the other tapping a rhythm against the linoleum. We were the only ones left in the room at this point, and the silent hum of the computer was the only other sound. Axel was wearing Doc Martens today, and a knitted turtleneck sweater. His face was more battered than I'd ever seen it, which was a feat in and of itself. There was a rift in his lip, his nose appeared wonky, and his voice was strained - probably due to that massive bruise on his throat. How he prioritized fighting over being comfortable was an eternal mystery to me.
I swore again, sinking back into my seat. The program had stopped responding.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Axel said, breaking the frustrated silence. I turned to look at him.
"I thought we weren't supposed to ask each other about stuff like that," I grumbled.
"Huh?" Axel sent me a look that suggested I'd grown multiple heads and turned into an alien.
"Well, we—" I let out an annoyed sigh. Did I really have to explain this to him? "It wasn't said outright, but it was kind of implied? Right?"
Axel's bruised face stared back at me, quizzical. We sat like that for a while, staring at each other, both growing increasingly confused and exasperated.
Was I wrong? All those silences, the strained atmosphere, the unsaid words - a misunderstanding on my part? Something I'd cooked up in my imagination?
Anger rose within me. My impatience wasn't just about the computer anymore. Of course it wasn't. Frustration and nervousness were bubbling out of me, like a volcano just waiting to burst. I could practically feel the lava rising in my mind. Alright, Axel opened this can of worms. He'd best eat them, too.
"Like how we don't talk about Fort Violet," I said, feeling the dam burst. "Or why you fight, or how fucking weird it was that your dad came over like that. I thought we weren't supposed to talk about those things." I was facing him full-on now, words spilling out of me like a waterfall.
"You don't ask about how I'm doing, and I don't ask back. I don't mention the weird rumors, and you don't ask about my girlfriend. I don't interrogate you about the fact that you live in an empty ass apartment, all by yourself, and you don't ask why I show up dripping all over your doorstep." I paused, taking a shaky breath. "Am I wrong?"
Axel regarded me with calm, hazel eyes. His hair was pulled away from his face, a messy pile of black locks.
"Do you want to?" He asked, eyes never leaving mine. The computer hummed, forgotten on the table next to me.
"I... That's not what I..." I stuttered, gaze shifting to the floor. "That's not what I meant."
Click.
The sound broke through our tension. A stark contrast to the soft whirring from the computer and the quiet sounds of me and Axel shifting in our seats. The sound was loud, sharp, and abrasive. I whirled around, eyes landing on the door to our classroom. It was closed.
"What the fuck?" I muttered, rising from my seat and making my way to the door. Closing my fist around the handle, I pulled. It wouldn't budge.
"What's going on?" Axel inquired, the sound of him moving reached my ears as I pulled once again. All it did was complain as I ripped at the metal. The door was locked.
Now, in another school, this wouldn't mean much. Door closed? Just unlock it from the inside! Problem solved! However, this wasn't any other school. It was December High, and things never worked as you'd expect them to.
Three years ago December High spent part of its budget on new technology for the school's security system. For many years, thieves had been a problem, as the doors would open to anyone who wanted access. The principal tired of this, naturally (he'd lost a fine sum of cash the day someone stole a boatload of computers) so he invested in key card technology. This meant that all the doors were fitted with locks that responded only to key cards. Different cards opened different locks, and as such, only media students had access to the media department, and the same was true for the other departments.
I ran to my backpack and ripped it open, throwing things out as I came upon them. Card... Card... Card... Where was my card? The doors no longer had regular locks, so opening it from the inside was a no-go. I needed my card if we wanted to get home. My class had made a habit of leaving the door open as long as someone was inside it. It served as a signal that guests were welcome. Who in the world had closed and locked it?
"Aha!" I finally located my wallet, ripping it out of the nook it had been hiding in. I opened it, rifling through various credit cards and coupons. I noticed a bus card I thought I'd lost, but my key card was nowhere to be found.
"Did you find it?" Axel asked. He was still standing by the door.
"It's... It's gone," I mumbled, thoughts racing. But that's impossible. There was no way I could have left it at home. I used it to get in every day.
"Shit." I buried my face in my hands.
We were trapped.