The Trench

Chapter 18 - Claustrophobia

"I have a fun idea." Austin looks over his menu at me with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Are you allergic to anything?"

He squints his eyes at me wondering where this is going but replies that he isn't, skepticism spread all over his face.

"We each pick four different items we think the other person would like. Then the other person picks a number between one and twenty and that's your meal." I smile at him waiting for a response as he thinks it over.

"A sense of fun and adventure, I like it. You're on." He grins and goes back to his menu, this time with a new purpose and I do the same.

After several minutes we both have our dinners picked. "So what's it going to be?" He asks me, folding his hands in front of him on the table.

"Four." I say confidently. I hope he at least picked something good.

"Congratulations, sunshine. You win a Pizza Margherita." He says and smiles warmly at me.

"Yay, pizza!" I say a little too loudly and several patrons turn and give me a scolding look. I cover my mouth with my hands trying not to laugh, but Austin laughs out loud sending more stares our way.

I love his laugh.

"I pick eleven."

I glance at the menu to see which one eleven would be. "You get the Italian Marinated Sirloin Steak."

"Oh, yum. I'll never turn down steak." Austin closes his eyes and rubs his stomach dramatically and I giggle.

"I figured that one was a safe bet. You're lucky you didn't pick any lower, you'd get fish." I tease him as he scrunches his nose. I don't tell him, but if he would have chosen the number with fish I would have gave him steak anyways. I wouldn't do that to anyone.

So we talked.

And talked.

And talked so much we barely had time to eat anything. But who was I kidding, there's always time for pizza.

We talked about our childhoods. I told him about our family farm and he told me what it was like growing up in the city. He told me embarrassing stories about his siblings when they were little and I shared memories of me and my brother. Time passed so quickly before we knew it, it was past 9 already. We went outside and waited for our valet before heading home.

Now we're on the highway heading home and I can feel my eyelids getting heavy. Riding in a car is like putting a baby in the car, I fall asleep every time.

"I'm sorry about earlier today." Austin's voice pulls me from my grogginess and I turn to look at him. He's staring at the road, hands gripping the steering wheel with a strange look on his face.

"What about today?" I ask, tugging at the hem of his suit jacket I'm wearing. While standing at the valet pickup Austin gave me his jacket since the wind was brisk. It was such a sweet gesture. I laughed when I put it on because it almost reached the hem on my dress it was so big.

"The rock climbing incident. I feel really bad." He glances over at me and I could tell he actually means it.

"It's not your fault, it's mine. The whole 'physics date' idea was adorable; honestly, I should have told you I was scared of heights. I already told you I didn't want to ruin our date, but I think also I wanted to challenge myself. Which I obviously shouldn't." I laugh at my misfortunes and he gives me a small smile.

"Actually, a funny story about heights. A few years ago I was talked into going up into the Arch in St. Louis, we had just left the zoo and my boyfriend at the time and our friend wanted to go. It was January, so it got dark early and if you go up at night you can see all of the city lights. And looking back it was gorgeous, but getting up there was an adventure itself." I chuckle recalling the memory.

"I can laugh about it now, but in addition to being scared of heights I'm also incredibly claustrophobic." He turns and looks at me with a raised eyebrow before I continue.

"So going up in this thing, you get in a little egg shaped elevator. It has no windows except the tiny window in the door. But as you go up, all you can see is the metal of the elevator shaft. I think there's a tiny ladder in there in case anything happens, but it's a very tight squeeze from what I saw.

"So imagine me, scared of heights and small spaces, being cramped in a small space with no windows going 630 feet in the air. I freaked the fuck out." I start laughing and Austin joins in with me. "It was a lot like the panic attack I had today, but worse because I felt like there wasn't any oxygen. My boyfriend kept trying to hug me and that made it worse and our friend told him to go to the other end of the elevator and leave me alone."

"Kind of like how I tried to rub your back to comfort you and you panicked more." Austin recalls and I nod.

"Exactly."

"I'm sorry." He apologizes again and I just smile, closing my eyes. I feel his fingers wrap in between mine and he gives my hand a squeeze as I drift off to sleep.

-

"Wake up, sunshine." I feel Austin rubbing my hand to wake me up. I open my eyes, confused for a moment before I gather my surroundings. We're in the apartment parking lot, I glance at my phone and it's already after 11. After our talk about today I slept the entire way back to Bangor.

"Ah, she lives." He gives me a small smile before getting out of the car and going around to the back to get our bags.

I'm stretching my arms as much as I can in the small space when I hear a phone vibrating. Instinctively I grab my phone and look at the screen and I realize it's not mine.

Austin's phone is in between the seats in the cup holder and I glance at the screen quickly before it goes off.

Val.

I jump at the sound of my door opening and Austin reaches in to help me out. I step outside and the wind hits me making my legs shake despite still having Austin's jacket on.

"Your phone was ringing." I said as I grab my phone from the seat and wrap his jacket closer around me.

He frowns and reaches over my seat to grab his phone. He turns the screen on illuminating his face in the dark and studies the screen for a second before turning it back off and shoving it in his pocket.

"It was just my mother; I'll call her back in the morning." He smiles and picks both of our bags off the pavement and heads towards the apartments.

No one puts their parents in their phone with their first names. I think suspiciously as I follow him upstairs.