The wind whips through my drenched clothes, chilling me to the bone, but I urge myself to press on. The downpour has fortunately stopped. The chain on my bicycle grows ever quiet when I slow the tyres down to a halt to stare up at the extravagant skyscraper gloating at all of us measly peasants passing by. Its glamorous is something I am not very used to seeing daily.
Unlike Dominic, Jodie, and all the rest of the students in my high school, I am merely an average boy who has average-earning parents.
No, that is not entirely true. Being that she is a physician, my mum makes a lot of money and surprisingly my father's diner does fairly well with bringing income into the household. My mother just doesn't want to spoil us. She believes that it's going to quite literally spoil us and change our demeanour. She would rather save it for a rainy day or something of the sort.
As I'm crossing the clear street to get to the other side, where the hotel stands proudly on the pavement I get off the bike and push it the rest of the way. Getting closer to the entrance, I spot a few primly dressed people modelling in and out and one nicely dressed chap who is pacing up and down in a bit of a panic with a brown bag that looks like it's carrying a bottle of some sort of wine.
But the closer I look at said nicely dressed, that's when I realise that that's… Dominic?
The bright lights underneath the entrance illuminate him. He is dressed in a royal blue suit which I have to say makes him seem almost alien to me. I am so used to the whole hoodie and tracksuit trouser look that imagining him in anything other than that has never crossed my mind.
Even if he does look weird because seriously, he does look fucking weird, I have to say the trousers and dress shirt bring out a courteousness in him that I have never seen. To be truthful, it's not that bad. He looks… nice?
I get closer and closer and furrow my brows when he does not seem to notice my presence. With a frown, I drag out, "I'm here."
He immediately stops pacing and lets out a breath of relief.
"Finally!" he exclaims, taking my hand and pulling me along with him inside the hotel, causing me to drop my bicycle.
"Hey, my bike!" I yell, throwing my head over my shoulder to, fortunately, find the porter picking it up and giving me a thumbs up as if to gesture that he will look after it for the time being.
"I'm so late. What kind of impression will that leave on her parents? That I don't respect their time?" he rushes out, bashing the elevator's button so many times I'm afraid it's going to break. "Fucking elevator. C'mon, open up!"
I just stand there watching him weirdly and when people start staring from afar, as casually as possible, I push my hands down my jean jacket pockets and put some distance between myself and the raging Dominic as if to silently show them that he's not with me.
Once the elevator dings open, all the people inside pile out onto the ground floor and Dominic taps his foot impatiently as we wait.
Everyone has exited the elevator except for a couple who don't realise that they have reached their destination. The boyfriend is busy whispering sweet nothings in his girlfriend's ear, making her blush a deep crimson.
This amplifies Dominic's anger levels as I catch him clenching his hands into fists, and then and there he decides to pull the two out of their bubble of romance by clearing his throat loudly. This instantly causes the couple to break apart bashfully. The girlfriend stares at us widely. The boyfriend frowns in confusion. I produce a strained grin. Dominic glowers impatiently.
The one word that describes the tension simmering in the atmosphere is awkward. So awkward that it makes me glance from side to side, awaiting something else to happen. That something else is the doors slowly shutting, but before they can completely slide close, Dominic raises his arm between the doors, and they slide open again.
"Get. Out."
Those calmly uttered words almost bring them out of their little bubble of romance and with furrowed gazes they both make their way out slowly. Once they have left the elevator, Dominic rushes inside and I roll my eyes, but stroll in after him.
"Sorry," I yell out to the couple, sticking my head out of the elevator. They don't respond. I lift a shoulder, brushing the strange encounter off my mind.
He again smashes the button on the inside to close the door.
"Smashing the button doesn't make the doors close any faster," I say to him.
When he stares daggers at me, it's almost like the doors can feel the waves of anger and frustration radiating off him so this time they abide by his command almost instantly and slide shut.
We are both quiet for a while, as the music plays softly in the background. This causes me to bob my head and tap my foot on the floor rhythmically. Once I have caught on to the beat, I start drumming in the air, making the sounds with my mouth instead. In the back, Dominic is inhaling and exhaling loudly to repay the oxygen debt in his body.
"The tie," he suddenly exclaims, giving it to me.
I look at the silky, blue accessory in my hand and try to recall when back in my primary school we had to wear a uniform. Slowly, I begin to twist and turn and left and right and around and stuff and tug. Then we have ourselves a tie.
Wordlessly, I pass it over to him and avert my gaze back to the elevator doors, avoiding the other body reflecting onto it. I revert to looking at the numbers blinking bright above the elevator's doors, hoping that it will go faster than that. I do not want to be in this tiny enclosure with him.
I just want to get back home and bingewatch a Netflix series while stuffing my face hard with the junk Taylor and Yang Jin are going to buy.
"You're mad." He does not even have to ask me that question because it's a very apparent statement.
"What? No." I deadpan, smiling at his reflection stiffly. "Why would I be mad to leave my friend on our first ever sleepover?"
"That's what you're mad about?" he asks incredulously, arching his eyebrows in shock. "Wow, some people seriously need to get their priorities straight," he mutters to himself not so softly.
At his words, I spin around to face him fully, staring up at him venomously. "Well, unlike some people some of us have friends and if those people had them then they would understand the value of friendship. I can't just ditch her when we've made plans and that's something you need to learn."
"You're overreacting," he dismisses.
"You think this is overreacting?" I muse, crossing my arms over my chest as I glance up at him through hardened eyes. "Because I'll show you what overreacting is."
A sigh leaves his lips and he runs a hand through his neatly pushed back hair. "As soon as we get up to the top floor, you can leave and have your stupid sleepover."
"It's not stupid," I mumble grumpily, pouting.
Before I know it, the elevator stops abruptly and it rattles violently, causing me to stumble out of balance a bit, but as if reflexively, Dominic balances me with a steady hand on my waist.
As an added effect to that, I end up closer to him than intended. Just like the few other times this has happened, we hold each other's stare and my stomach dips, but that could be from the gravity's pull from this high above. I think I feel some acid travelling up my oesophagus and a nauseous feeling attacks me.
His eyes stab into me so fervently that I find it difficult to glance away. My breath thins. His calloused, certain hold on my waist tightens instead of loosening.
His hands feel dominating against my drenched jacket and just… there. I mean, I expect that from someone like him. His persona gives that away. It would certainly be very peculiar for me if he didn't hold me with a certain dominance in his touch. It's just that I can't see it being submissive in any way, can't see it being hesitant. It's precise and concise
With the number of times that this has happened to us, I don't know if fate is just mixing up a big pot of hilarity for themselves or if the world just enjoys doing this to confuse me.
My hands get clammy on him and I'm afraid that with the short distance between us, he is going to hear my heart drumming loudly and out of control. What the hell is happening to me? Why am I reacting like this? Why am I focused on the warm exhaled hair hitting the top of my forehead?
"What's happening?" he whispers, still maintaining intense eye contact.
I gulp from the piercing stare. "I think… t-the elevator—"
"No, I mean, what's happening? Between us," he corrects me, his hands now circling over my lower back to press pointedly into my back dimples as if to make a point. "This has been happening way too many times for it to be a coincidence now."
Again, I gulp, my eyes enlarging a bit from what he's suggesting.
"I've tried to dismiss the last few times, but I need to know. What's happening?"
What's happening?
I mean, the last few times I had to dismiss it because they were mistakes. He pulled me too hard and I fell on top of him accidentally. There was nothing to address about that then. It would seem quite strange of me to want to bring it up and address it like it was something worth addressing. It was not. So, I decided to let it go, pushing it to the back of my mind.
Then it happened again the other time we were practising the whole meetcute thing. I mean, that time, I may be wrong, but I think we were about to kiss. I don't know who leaned in first, it was probably Dominic since I don't have the balls to do that, but maybe we were just caught up in the moment. So, I decided that it too should be buried away, far away to even be considered.
Now this is happening… whatever this is. What's happening?
My face drops when the realisation hits me. Dominic has feelings for a girl. A girl who was once my friend.
When I realise what we're doing, I blink myself out of the daze. Clearing my throat, I awkwardly step backwards out of his hold on me, letting my hands slip away from grasping onto his lean shoulders.
An indecipherable emotion passes through his eyes, but before I know it it's gone and has been killed by expressionlessness.
"Thanks," I say slowly, jutting my bottom lip out from the discomfort in the atmosphere.
He shrugs, averting his gaze away from mine.
"Um… why did… the elevator stop?" I ask him to break the tense atmosphere.
He looks over at the buttons and begins to press the button taking us to the top floor, but still, nothing happens. We remain hanging a few feet from the ground. Literally. After plummeting that button which still does not help, he resorts to the red, emergency button which doesn't exactly do anything either. He continues to press the button until some static crackles from the speaker.
"Hello?" he pauses, waiting for a response. There isn't one. Just more static. "Hello? Can anybody hear me? We're stuck in an elevator."
My eyes widen at his words. I'm stuck in an elevator. With Dominic? Oh, hell no!
I move forward and start bashing the button, which is supposed to open the doors, but it, of course, doesn't work. Dominic is still trying to get someone on the emergency line, but the only thing answering him is static.
I'm not staying in this elevator with him. I have a sleepover that I have to go back to. If I don't return, how will that make Taylor feel? Most probably more furious at me.
Ominously, he turns to me and says, "I don't think anyone is coming for us."
Optimistically, I answer with a nervous smile, "Nonsense."
* * *
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-eight bottles of beer—"
"Will you please shut the fuck up?" Dominic roars, throwing poisonous daggers at me. "And get away from those buttons. What if you're slowing the fixing process down? We'll be stuck in here forever."
His neutral façade breaks and I start seeing panic in his eyes as he glances around him.
Boredom started sinking in a few seconds ago and I began to play with the emergency button of the elevator. It continues to spurt out even more static. We haven't gotten a response, but I'm sure that the people are fixing the elevator.
"Mate, what's up with you?" I ask, both bemused and worried. "You've been snapping at me every chance you get. You usually snap at me a lot, but now you've just taken it to a whole new level."
"Oh, I don't know," he starts with sarcasm in his tone, "maybe it has something to do with a certain, stupid, immature fuck-wit who's singing ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall while we're stuck in here for God knows how long."
"No, I know it's not that," I answer.
Laying back into the elevator's wall coolly, I note that his tone suggests that he wants to turn this into one big argument. I really don't want to get into an argument with him. It's going to use up all the oxygen in here. I don't want to suffocate to death. So that he can remain calm, I shift away from the buttons and sit down across from him, cross-legged and watching him suspiciously.
"You know how I know that, young Dominic?"
"I'm sure you're gonna tell me."
"You're right, I am." I nod with a tiny grin on my face. "I know that, because… I think you're just scared."
"Scared of what?"
The smile on my face enlarges and I teasingly sing, "L.O.V.E."
He stares at me unimpressed.
"Love. I'm talking about love."
"Don't be stupid," he deadpans, but I know that he is.
Of course, he wouldn't admit it. The way he's acting so frantic about going on this date proves to me how nervous he is about opening his heart out to someone else. He has never done this before and it scares him.
I know because I see myself in him. A boy who knows absolutely nothing about love and was afraid of rejection. Someone who may be willing to date boys but is just as afraid to show anyone that sort of vulnerability. With the many times I've seen people suffering from heartbreak, I don't think I want that. Yang Jin was once moody for one whole month, because of some girl called Annie.
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the—"
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," he mutters into my song and hastily gets up from the floor. "Hold this real quick."
Hesitantly, I take the bottle from his awaiting hand and watch him questionably. "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting us out of here," he states and places his hands on either side of the elevator's doors. "I don't think I can spend another second stuck in here with you."
"Thanks, I appreciate that," I respond, sarcasm stained sweetly onto my words. "Now, I know I shouldn't think twice before eating you if we're stuck in here for a much longer period."
"Precisely my point."
"You know, you're weird, Dominic."
He groans loudly as he tries to pry the doors open. Huffing tiredly, he throws his head over his shoulder and quirks an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"I mean, not so long ago, you were asking me "what's happening" and now you're ready to get as far away from me as possible. You're a funny guy." I chuckle mirthlessly, shaking my head.
He stares at me for the longest time ever and I almost feel my stomach twisting in itself. The fervency in his gaze is only seen when he has his hands wrapped around my waist.
It makes me repeat his question in my head. What is happening between us? I never thought about it before, but now that he has brought it up, what is happening? Did he actually try to kiss me that one day at the park? Before, I would have answered no to this question, but not tonight. I think the relationship between us has bordered past platonic without us even doing anything.
"Yeah, well I think I was a little bit delirious. The air circulation in here is bad," he states dismissively.
Okay, never mind.
"Right," I drawl out.
After a few more seconds of his gaze lingering on my face and my gaze seeking to understand what he's thinking about at this very moment, he turns away and continues to do what he was doing before. Thoughtfully, I gnaw on the inside of the bottom of my lip and watch his back as he flexes to try and get the elevator door open. Thoughtfully I wonder why we are going around in circles. We both know that something is up, it is so blatantly obvious that even a child would be able to pick up on it.
Except none of us is willing to speak up about it. He won't. I sure as hell won't.
Focusing my gaze on my phone, I check if there's any signal, but there isn't. I think I'll just play some Candy Crush to drown out his presence.