I Guess I'm Stuck With You

Chapter 5: In Which They Get Unstuck In an Elevator

2:43 PM

Hurt flashed through Jordan's eyes the moment I pulled away from his grip. The pain in them immediately made me feel guilty and I suddenly found myself very interested in my sneakers. I shifted from foot to foot silently for a good minute, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. Even though I had already pulled from his grasp, even though we were no longer mere inches apart, my heart still raced a mile per minute, and my cheeks were totally aflame. I looked up at Jordan hesitantly, who was looking anywhere at the elevator except my face, blush evident on his cheeks despite the red light which could only guise it so much.

"I'm sorry!" I blurt out, desperate to explain myself. I didn't mean for how I reacted to hurt him. He shakes his head, pushing his glasses up to his face.

"No, you don't have to explain yourself." he says, voice devoid of the emotion that had been there only minutes before, and I felt he walls I had put up begin to crack.

"Jordan, I-"

"Clearly it was a mistake, we were just still emotional." I shook my head. Crack.

"No, I-l"

"-And we were just thinking about our exes." Crack.

"Jordan-"the words died in my throat as soon as what he said registered.

Did he...had he really thought of it like that? Because I know I hadn't, in that moment, my senses had been filled with him and only him, thoughts of only Jordan when I stood in his arms...and what he was saying...had he been thinking of Lizzy when he had looked at me like that? Of Lizzy, when he held me close to him? Of Lizzy, when he looked at my lips? Crack upon crack upon crack, until-a sudden pause. Then shatter. My heart is effectively in pieces.

"Oh..." I mumble, fighting the strange feeling in my chest. "Y-yeah, yeah of course." I agree, trying to act as casual as he clearly was. Jordan looks at me carefully, quirking his head to the side. I shy away from his gaze, instead shifting it to his olive green bomber jacket. I gulp, trying to contain the emotions that were all bottled up inside of me.

      As if on cue, there was a shudder in the elevator, and the lights switched back to the bright fluorescent LED lights that had been on for the first hour of our containment. We both look up at the lights, surprised by the sudden switch from the dull light to sudden brightness. Then, the little phone in the compartment begins to ring. I stare at it for a moment, confused. It hadn't been working earlier, and yet now it was ringing. Jordan moves towards the elevator panel, opening the compartment and picking up the phone.

"Hello?" he asks. At the other end of the line, I could hear a pause before someone on the other end responded. What exactly, I couldn't quite make out. I fiddle with my sweater in silence as Jordan nods his head, sometimes saying something in response. After about two minutes, he gives a final response. "Ok thank you, bye," before he put the phone back in the compartment.

      "Well?" I ask expectantly.

"There was a problem when they were trying to fix the elevator. One of the lines snapped, but the safety was able to hold it, and they've been trying to fix it for the last couple hours. We'll be out soon apparently."

I breathe a sigh of relief. We were finally going to get out of here. And that also meant I would no longer be stuck with Jordan. And I don't know why but my stomach churned at the thought, a mixture of relief and disappointment. Even though we may have bonded in the elevator, when I pulled away from him, that effectively ruined any possible friendship between us.

"I guess we only have a few minutes left then..." I say, and Jordan nods slowly.

"Then we could all forget this ever happened." I swallowed, feeling a lump in my throat. I knew he was right. I knew that I would probably just go back to my friends, and he'd go back to his, and we would only ever have the briefest of interactions. But I didn't want that. Behind the idiotic, immature facade Jordan put up, there was something real and genuine. And I liked that side of him. I could see myself being friends with that side of him. It was this side that made me understand what Lizzy had seen in him in the first place.