`` the world still t u r n s., naaate.

[noelle murray]

“Aah, you have got to be kidding me.” The blonde made her way through the lobby with her cellphone tightly pressed to her ear and her bag in the other hand. A late lecture had just ended and she was on her way back to her dorm room to get some peace and quiet for once, something that she hadn’t enjoyed for the past weeks. Not only had the parties been going on non-stop, she also had a bunch of exams to study for so late nights and minimum sleep was a given. “Well, just tell him that you have to go. He’ll understand, trust me.” At the top of it all, her best friend from Texas called her with a need for help and consolation, she had just broken up with her boyfriend and her boss was being a real jackass. Noelle always did her best to be there for her friends, even if it was over the phone and not in person.

“Honey, I really have to go now, okay? I’ll call you tomorrow.” With those words, she quickly hanged up and walked towards the stairway. Halfway there she stopped and looked down at the floor beneath her. Oh great, someone had vomit just in front of the stairs. Disgusting. She heaved a deep sigh and went to the elevator instead. She didn’t really like using due to prior incidents. While looking around, she pushed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive. As the elevator doors opened a few seconds later, a bunch of other students left the tiny space inside. Probably on their way to a party, but Noelle couldn’t be bothered by their smiling and excited faces, she just wanted to get to her dorm room and go to sleep.

As she entered the elevator she really hoped that no one else would join her, the last thing she wanted was having awkward silence between herself and some complete stranger.

[nathanael scott]

NATHANAEL WASN’T FEELING THE “SCENE”. Was it him or did it feel like they were about to take over the building? He couldn’t help but feel silly for thinking this way – in fact, he didn’t even tell this to Jason, who would no doubt say Nate was overthinking things. But he still couldn’t shake off that feeling as he threw a glance at the two said subjects by the study table doing anything but study. Whatever. He was going to try and not let it bother him. No way would he move out of the building.

“Hey, hold up!” he called as he caught sight of the elevator doors closing. His hand slammed against the doors to cause them to open again automatically and Nate stepped inside without really seeing the girl who was already in the elevator. It was when the elevator doors closed and he caught a whiff of that girl’s perfume that he turned his head slowly to look at her.

Hell no. This could not be happening. He gaped at her speechlessly. Was she stalking him? Didn’t make sense; they hadn’t seen each other for nearly more than two years. He licked his suddenly dry lips.

“Hi, Noelle.”

[noelle murray]

Darn it, of course someone had to make it just before the elevator doors closed. She sighed a bit to herself and stared into the wall on her right, just to ignore whoever just entered the elevator. Her mind was elsewhere for a few seconds, mostly in things such as school and other strenuous things, and it wasn’t until she heard her name that she paid attention to the guy that had entered the elevator, and what she saw wasn’t something she ever thought she would see.

“Nate…” she said, obviously shocked to find him in the same elevator as her. Hell, even at the same school as her. This wasn’t something she expected in a million years. A few seconds went by with an awkward silence that Noelle wasn’t too keen on breaking. Not only was she still astonished but somehow she couldn’t find any suitable words to say that wouldn't come off as rude. Not to him at least. “What… are you doing here?” The question sounded very stupid, but it was the best she could come up with. On the other hand, she had plenty of things to tell him, but it wouldn’t sound too good if the first thing she did was to make a big fight. Although; he did deserve it.

As she waited for his answer, the lights started to go on and off. “Shit” she exclaimed as the elevator started to tumble a bit, and then stopped. “Not again, please, not again” she begged to herself as she waited for any kind of movement from the elevator, but nothing happened.

[nathanael scott]

HE FELT LIKE HE LOST HIS VOICE. For some reason. God, this girl shouldn’t affect him anymore. He didn’t even see her for so long! And he was the one who caused their breakup in the first place. He should be indifferent to see her here. But the only thought that took over his brain was that she might be on the same floor as he was. As though the same building wasn’t terrible enough. He swallowed and forced a smile on his face that ended up looking like a grimace.

“I’m… a junior here,” he said awkwardly. WHAT WAS SHE DOING IN MAHATTAN? Nate was losing his mind. Okay, he had to act normal. Pretend nothing was wrong. That they didn’t break up – or even better yet, they never dated. If there was one thing Nate hated more than the “scene”, it was confrontations. That topped his list every time. Nate looked at her… or rather the space above her head. “Film major. And… you?”

Before she could answer him, the elevator started doing its Breakdown Dance. Fantastic, could the situation go any worse? He reached across her and jabbed the alarm button several times. Come on… Before he could say – or think – anything else, the elevator was plunged into darkness.

[noelle murray]

“This is freaking unbelievable” Noelle complained, both at the unreliable elevator and at the situation they were currently in. As if it wasn’t horrible enough to be trapped, she had to be trapped with him out of all people. She nodded a bit to what he just said, awkwardly of course and with a small uncomfortable forced smile. “Uh…Business major” she answered and avoided to look at him.

It felt like hours had gone by, but with a glance at her cell-phone that she held in her hand, Noelle learned that it had only been five minutes so far. Hopefully someone would help them out soon, and she could leave this mess behind. “So…” she uttered, struggling to find something to say, but it was hard. Really hard. “Too bad there isn’t a head cheerleader here to make your stay more comfortable.” Even if she meant it with every bone in her body, it came out very sarcastically and rightfully so. She grinned a bit and once again avoided to look at him more than she had to.

Although she basically hated him, she couldn’t deny that he looked more handsome than ever when she peeped at him for a few seconds. If he only was half as considerate and caring as he was good looking, he’d be a real dream guy. She sighed heavily as another minute went by, how long would they actually have to stay here?

[nathanael scott]

NATE FELT SEMI-INSULTED. Sure, he felt like complaining himself. Goddamned elevator. Did it have to break down that often? He wished his dorm was on the first floor; that way he would just keep taking the stairs. Sure, the stairs were occupied with smokers and all, but he would rather take his chances than having to spend time stuck on the elevator. Though Nate was here only for one week, he felt as though he had wasted his youth here. Ridiculous, yes, but it went to show how retarded the elevator was. It broke down so often that people don’t even blink an eye when the alarm was sounded. Which would mean no one would come and rescue them.

Which would mean he would be stuck with Noelle until the elevator started working again. Right. One time he waited close to three hours. This situation was looking really, really bad.

He knew it. She just had to drag out their past. “Yeah, I shouldn’t have told her to wait for me at my dorm,” he snapped through gritted teeth. Not that Nate didn’t feel bad. He did. He didn’t know what had possessed him to make out with Heather D-Cups of all girls (Heather was a bit of a turn off for him really). When Noelle broke up with him, he had felt a mixture of relief and… loss. But that was years ago.

[noelle murray]

Noelle shook her head and rolled her eyes as he replied to her previous comment. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?” She stated the fact more than she asked him. It wasn’t the good unbelievable, and she really hoped he understood it, although she doubted that he was so stupid that he’d actually believe she’d have anything good to say about him after everything they had been through. In some odd way, Noelle wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he actually had a cheerleader waiting for him at his dorm; it just seemed that he was capable to do something like that. “Well, I’ve got to give you credit for at least having her waiting at your dorm, instead of making out with her in front of your girlfriend.” Raising her eyebrow, she looked at him with a smirk on her raspberry red lips.

She didn’t want to come across as a dweller, but it was hard not to bring up their past when he was standing in front of her all of a sudden. “How long is this gonna take?” She exclaimed and sighed heavily once again, and made her best to point out that this was the last place on earth she wanted to be right now. “Of course, you just happened to be here when this piece of shit broke down. It’s like you planned it or something.” she snapped with a frown, trying to lay the blame on him. She actually felt kind of bad after that comment, she never behaved like this otherwise and she was surprised he could still bring out these emotions from her. “I’m sorry, this is just so…Overwhelming.” True, it was overwhelming and also very frustrating to be honest. “No offence, but you’re like the last person on earth I wanted to be trapped with in an elevator.”

[nathanael scott]

AT THIS POINT, HE WAS PISSED OFF. What was wrong with her? They haven’t seen each other for two years and that was the first thing she could think of to say to him? Jesus, what was it about her that attracted him in the first place? He must be sick in the head. Either that or she changed so much that she was no longer that carefree, cheerful girl he used to know. For some reason, he felt extremely guilty at that thought. As though, he had been the cause of it. But that was ridiculous, right?

“Yeah sure,” he retorted, “I planned this so I could get stuck in the goddamned elevator with the person I least wanted – or expected – to see.” Nate knew he was being childish but what else could he say!? He wasn’t about to stand there and let her throw abuse at him. Even if it might have been his fault then, but what passed was past. Nate glared at her even though he wasn’t a hundred percent sure if she was right next to him. Shitty lights. “You’re not exactly who I want to see either.” There was a long pause before he spoke again. “But… you look well.”

[noelle murray]

“But… you look well.”

“Yeah, you too…I guess” she replied, struggling to see basically anything in the now dark elevator. “This is ridiculous” she uttered and snorted quietly. “Okay, let’s just… Stay friends for now until we get out of this hell hole. The last thing we need is a fight.” Although she was the one bringing it all up again, she now tried not to think of the past and instead just focus on getting them out of there. She opened her cell-phone and tried to get a signal, without any luck. “Aah, of course this wasn’t supposed to work either. Just to make things worse” she complained, feeling that her bad mood would last for days if they didn’t get help soon.

“How long does it usually take before they come to help?” She asked Nate in the nicest way she possibly could while trying to figure out an idea to get out of there, or get any sort of attention from someone. An odd feeling suddenly came rushing back. When she was nine, her sisters looked her into their closet, lost the key and couldn’t find another one until their mother came home two hours later. That accident had made her sort of afraid of small areas, and well, the elevator wasn’t exactly super big. She gasped a bit while trying to calm herself down, they were going to get out. Sometime. At this moment, she was actually glad Nate was there; it was better than to be alone. She had trust him once before, and in a way she felt safe when he was around.

[nathanael scott]

HE SNORTED ABOUT THEM PRETENDING to be friends and quickly disguised it with a cough. The elevator was briefly lit for a second from Noelle’s mobile phone and he took the chance to look at her slightly panicked face. He leaned against the elevator and shook his head. Looked like this was the first time Noelle got stuck in the elevator. It was then it came to him that his ex-girlfriend was somewhat claustrophobic. He grimaced. “It… depends on how many people are waiting for the elevator.” He didn’t tell her that some of the students of the building gave up taking the frequently faulty elevator anymore because it wasted too much time if it got stuck.

Nate scooted closer to her and, with a slight moment’s of hesitation, put his arm around her shoulders. He rubbed her shoulder in what he hoped was a soothing way. It would be horrible if she thought he was coming onto her. “Do you… want to sit?” He figured sitting might do them a lot better, even though he doubted anyone cleaned the elevator. But it could take a long time before anyone came to their rescue.

[noelle murray]

His answer didn’t really calm her down since she assumed that a very small part of the students used the elevator, and especially not now when they just had gone out to party. Of course, it wasn’t all of the students, but she guessed it was a majority that had gone partying for the evening. “Oh god I hope there’s a bunch of students coming in that wants to use the elevator.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then took a deep breath. “It’s not like we can run out of oxygen though? Right?” She remembered all of the movies she had seen where people ran out of oxygen and suffocated.

It would have been easy to believe that Noelle would have instinctively moved away from Nate as he moved closer, but she didn’t. She reacted a bit when he put his arm around her shoulder, but let it be. As he asked her if they should sit down, she nodded and looked down to the floor as if she expected to see anything. Of course she didn’t, so she just sat down without caring if it was dirty or not. As she slowly calmed down she started to see the irony in the situation, and she couldn’t help but laugh. It was a very nervous laugh, but still a laugh. “Nate…Don’t you think this is so ironic? That out of 6 billion people on this planet, we were the two to get stuck here.” She said in a composed voice as she shook her head a bit.

[nathanael scott]

HE HATED TO TELL HER IT WASN’T LIKELY so he didn’t say anything. It had been early when he reached the dorm building, not to mention he overheard someone talking about a party, which could very well end the next morning. Maybe his cellphone had signal. Nate flipped it open. Nope. “Don’t worry,” he said unconvincingly, “we’re not going to die in the elevator.” He hesitated for a while, then decided to lie. “I managed to text someone. He’s probably on his way to get us help.

“I hate to disappoint you,” he added dryly, “but our building is not that large enough to house one billion people.” Nate didn’t say anything for a long time, wondering if he should rake up their past and do the explanation he never did about Heather D-Cups. They did have a lot of time on their hands right now (shit, he would have to stay up late to finish that paper) and would probably get to that eventually, but if things went wrong, he was going to be dead. Maybe he should do it in a runabout way. Get her to bring it up.

“So,” Nate said casually, “you dating anyone now?”

[noelle murray]

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to die in the elevator.”

“Yeah? How do you know that? Maybe this was our fate. Meant to be you know.” If there was one thing Noelle was an expert at, it was to get worried over small, meaningless things. She also had a talent for blowing things out of proportion and make them seem bigger and worse than they really are. “Seriously? That’s great.” She said with a deep sigh of relief as he told her that someone was probably on his way to help them. For a moment, she didn’t even worry because she felt like things would get sorted out anyways, sooner or later.

“Haha, oh my god you’re so funny Nate” she replied ironically to his comment about one billion people in their house. “You know what I mean.” Rolling her eyes, she started to pick up the disgusting smell from the elevator. “Don’t they ever clean in here? It smells like a bunch of cats died here or something.” She waved her hand in front of her nose so she wouldn’t have to smell it. Noelle shrugged her shoulders to his other question and felt it probably was the wrong occasion to ask those things, but she answered, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. “No, not really.” Was her short answer. She didn’t really want to discuss those things now. “What about you?”

[nathanael scott]

HAVING HER IN SUCH CLOSE PROXIMITY was starting to drive him nuts. His mind was giving him a walkthrough of his relationship with Noelle from the first day they met to their unforgettable breakup and he didn’t really need that now. The last thing he wanted was to cause some scene with Noelle when someone did come to rescue them. He did have plans to stay in the building till he graduated and he didn’t doubt that she did, too. If he really came onto her… it would make things stranger than they already were.

What a nightmare.

He needed to get out, soon. “It’s not like anyone wants to pay for a cleaner,” he commented distractedly. “Besides, what’s the point of doing it if not everyone is going to ride the elevator?” The problem here was probably to fix the goddamned elevator.

Nate cringed at her next question, even though he had already half-expected it. For once, he was grateful for the darkness, because Noelle then wouldn’t be able to see the look on his face. “No, not really,” he echoed her answer, unsure whether Rachel was his girlfriend or not.

[noelle murray]

“Good point” she pointed out at his comment about cleaning the elevator. If, and when, they got out of that place she would personally make sure the elevator was either closed down or fixed, either way she’d be happy. This was one of those situations that you couldn’t do anything but to roll your thumbs and wait until the help arrived. The fact that she couldn’t come up with anything suitable to say didn’t really help either, the only thing she had on her mind was a mental picture of him and Heather kissing. Euwh, gross. To be honest, Noelle didn’t really know that something that happened over two years ago still hurt like hell and it drove her nuts. It wasn’t like she still had feelings for him, so she should’ve been able to move on by now. In some way, she had. It wasn’t like thoughts about what could have been still kept her up at night, but on a few occasions her mind had wandered to Nate and well…She didn’t like it at all.

Maybe it was just better to ask him straight out about it for once? She hadn’t actually asked him why he did what he did, they just had a huge fight and then they didn’t speak to each other again. Maybe an explanation was all she needed to move on and forgive him? God knows she wanted to anyways. “Hey Nate…” She doubted for a few seconds. Hopefully this wouldn’t start a fight between the two of them because frankly, it was the last thing she needed right now. “…Since we have a lot of time on our hands…” probably too much time. “…I want to know why you did what you did.” Her voice was a bit stronger than before and more confident as well. “You know, so I can finally forgive you. I guess you deserve it after all this time.”