On thin ice

A night in nash

Amity's POV:

I closed the door behind me as I left to explore the rest of the hotel. I've heard a lot of good things about Hotel Fraye but I've never actually been here, until now. It's just as big and nice as the internet described it. It was currently 8:00 am and I was overdue for a coffee.

When we arrived to the venue where the competition was held, they gave us passes to wear around our necks. That allowed us access to everything in the hotel since they had a partner sponsorship with the company. That also meant free coffee which I wasn't upset about. I usually got a cold brew with 2 shots of expresso, which did nothing. This morning I unfortunately woke up with dark rings around my eyes. We love being sleep deprived!

I spent my entire night thinking about Luz which caused me to get little to no sleep. What a great way to start my day. I also cried but no one needs to know about that. What I needed was coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee. The only thought that should be on my mind.

The coffee bar in the hotel was on the main floor around the corner from the lobby. We were staying on the 6th floor so there was a small trip that needed to be made. I planned on leaving anyway. I'd much rather get coffee and explore Nashville than stay in a room with my mother for one more minute. She's been on my ass since we landed and I need a long break from her.

I walked down the hall towards the elevator. When I got there, I pressed on the down arrow and waited for the elevator door to open. I had slight anxiety about elevators because anything could happen. I'm not a pessimist but it's literally a box of steel waiting to kill someone.

After like a minute, the door finally opened and I noticed someone already on the elevator. Great, sharing space, my other favorite thing. The person smiled at me as I walked in. I didn't wanna be rude so I smiled back.

The door closed and started to go down. It seemed like the elevator was making a weird sound and was moving slow. I looked over to the person standing next to me and they just shrugged. Suddenly the elevator stopped on floor 3 but the door didn't open. Okay it's fine, it's probably a delay. I patiently waited for the door to open. I started drumming my fingers nervously on the metal bar behind me.

Don't panic amity. The door will open, soon. I think. Okay I hated tight spaces and not having an escape route. This was bad. I noticed my breathing started to get more and more staggered. I clutched my hand over my chest and tried to catch my breathe. I also felt tears building in my eyes. What if we were trapped? I needed to get out. Great, now I'm breaking down in front of a complete stranger.

"Hey I pressed the emergency button to try and get help", they said moving closer to me. "I can tell that you have an elevator fear. Just try to breathe in for 4, hold for 4, and exhale for 4", they spoke. It was hard to focus on them when the elevator felt like it was closing in. "You got this...uh...amity", they said looking down at my badge. I closed my eyes and listened to their voice.

I tried to steady my breathing and it kinda worked. "That's it. Breathe in. Now breathe out", they said. I took their advice and did the breathing exercise. I felt myself get a little calm but it still didn't help the fact that we were trapped. It did however help enough to allow me to speak. "Thanks...um", I said not knowing their name.

They weren't really wearing anything that had their name on it so I hadn't figured it out like they did with me. "Bowie", they said simply, holding their hand out for me to shake. I took it and gave a weak smile due to the fact that I was still catching my breath. We shook hands and then Bowie continued to distract me.

After a while it worked and eventually maintenance fixed the elevator. Fucking finally. From there I started to make small talk with Bowie. We even got coffee together which I was so grateful to consume. I got to learn a lot about them, like their pronouns and coming out story, their home life, work and hobbies, and other cool stuff.