I press the main floor button once more. Nothing. I press another button. Nothing. I press the open doors button. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
"Crap," I mutter to myself. I run my hands through my hair. "We're fuckin' stuck!" I bang on the elevator door, but end up hurting my hand. Alex reaches for my arm to calm me down, and we exchange awkward eye contact before I turn my head back to the buttons again.
I take deep breaths, my heart pouding. Alex furrows his eyebrows. "Are you alright?"
"No, I'm not fucking alright! We're trapped inside and we're gonna die!"
"Leah, it's not a problem, we're not going to die. Let's just call the front desk..." Alex stops. "Are you afraid of elevators?"
I cross my arms. "No," I say roughly. "I'm claustrophobic, that's all."
He chuckles and mutters something underneath his breath. I don't bother asking what he said. "How about you sit down and have a drink a' water, and I'll get this thing working again, shall we?"
I smile quite grimly and I grab the water bottle I left in my bag, and sit down, sipping it slowly to make the water last longer in case I need to sustain for a few days. Then a thought occurs to me. "How'd you know I had water in my bag?"
Alex looks a bit suprised, and sheepish. "Good guess."
I raise an eyebrow.
Alex shift his weight to his other leg. "Everybody has water in their bags..."
I cross my arms.
"I may have checked your bag to make sure you weren't paparazzi," he mumbles, and turns away from me to the elevator, and calls the front desk through the speakerphone on the side.
I shake my head and drink more water, taking deeper breaths. I'm going to be okay. He'll get it sorted out. "How long will it be?"
He turns to me. "How long will what be?"
"The wait," I say slowly.
Alex rolls his eyes at my sarcasm. "I dunno, an hour?"
"An HOUR?" I stand up. "You said you'd get this sorted out!"
"I am!" Alex says, holding his hands out in front of him as if I was going to hurt him; defense. "Jesus, Leah, are you psychotic or something?"
Not gonna lie, that stung. I don't have anything to say back. My back slides down the elevator wall until I sit back in the corner, fiddling awkwardly with my luggage strap. Not even twenty minutes with my idol and already I've managed to get him to hate me.
"I-I didn't mean it like that," Alex stammers. "Sorry."
I ignore him. Best to wait the hour in silence. This wasn't how i imagined ever meeting him.
He opens his mouth a few times but closes it, not really sure what to say to me. He finally gets on the line with the front desk and I hear them say they've got people on it, and bleh bleh bleh, sorry Mr. Turner. If it was me calling it wouldnt have been such a rush.
Alex ends up sitting down, on the opposite side of the elevator doors, not talking either. It's about forty minutes in when I offer him some water, but he refuses.
"How are you holding up?" Alex asks, quietly, avoiding eye contact.
"Dandy," I say.
"Listen, Leah..." Alex begins. "I give my best apologies, I'm still nervous this all wasn't a hoax. You have to understand that I've seen crazy...fans...and these situations don't usually happen unless...."
"Oh, so now you don't believe me?" I turn to him. "I showed you ma fuckin room key!"
Alex scooches over in front of me. "Maybe they did say 404, though...and you might've stole one of our room keys. After all, I can't get a hold of Jamie. Have you taken him somewhere?"
I blink. I smile. "Ah yes. Right after my serial murder spree, I stopped and found Jamie, bought him a coffee, and lured him into my FUCKING lair where I tied him up, then made it to my pimp's meth lab to buy some drugs, and get a copy of the exact room key I had traced the location of through Jamie's key, brought it back here and took a shower just to lure you into the bathroom and find me FUCKING NAKED so that we could have hot, steamy sex that i apparently thought would happen."
Alex has a mix between horror and amusment and guilt written across his face. I think I made him uncomfortable too when I added the last bit.
The elevator doors open and two workers stand right beside the doors; looking like they heard the conversation. Whoops. I see actual paprazzi and camera men. I stand up, twist the lid off my water bottle and splash the water onto Alex and drench him completely.
"Oh, and Happy New Years!" I add, storming out of the elevator and out of the hotel completely.
The paprazzi got it all on film.