Reach Out to Me

|Chapter 3|

The door to the apartment building buzzed and a man, old enough to be his grandpa, walked in, sporting a walking stick in his right hand. Elías suddenly realized how weird the situation must look to the guy. Frozen in place, Elías stared as the man hobbled towards him.

    "You doin' okay there, son?" the man kindly asked Elías, placing a calloused hand on Elías's shoulder. His eyes held a certain warmth that Elias hadn't felt in so long.

    "Yeah, I'm good." Elías awkwardly straightened his back and shifted his backpack.

    "Let me know if you need anything, okay? I'm in apartment 600." He gestured upwards.

    "Will do."

    The man smiled one last time reassuringly and then made his way towards the elevators at the end of the hall. Elías could hear the rhythmic thuds of the walking stick as he disappeared from his line of a sight.

    Elías sighed. What a day. He got himself together and began the long walk upstairs.  

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    The next evening, Elías pedalled furiously down Madison Street. The rain pelted his back, drenching his hoodie. The wind tunnelled around him, seeming to bring all the rain onto him. He cursed himself for losing his jacket. And not checking the Weather app before leaving for the day. That thing could have been a life saver.

    Elías saw a car speeding down the street next to him. His eyes widened as he saw a filthy puddle a few feet in front of him. He rapidly swerved to the left to avoid being splashed, but was too late. The car rushed past, spraying the dirty water onto his now soaking dark blue jeans.

Shit, Elías thought. Now everything was wet. He was tempted to just lay down on the wet pavement and give up on biking home. The ground looked so appealing especially because his legs felt like jelly from pedalling so fast.

But Elías's stomach grumbled for the fifth time that hour. He had stopped by Pete's to grab some groceries in hopes of waiting out the storm. But half an hour after buying his groceries and sitting on the benches near the exit, the cashier started eyeing him weirdly and he knew it was time to get out of the store.

Now the bag of groceries sat in the basket in front of him. He dropped his backpack on top of them so they wouldn't get wet. But with the wind blowing, Elías wasn't sure that they would stay dry for long.

After what seemed like forever, the apartment building came into view and Elías shoved his bike into the rack. He took out the soaking bag of groceries from under his bag and grimaced. All of the packages were soaked though he doubted anything was wet on the inside.

It was a walk of shame from the bike rack to the doors. For some reason, the building's architects decided to put the bike rack 30 feet away so Elías had to sprint to make it to the entrance, not that it mattered anyway; he was already soaked from head to toe.

A sudden wind gushed forth, lifting the hood off his head. He set down the groceries in his hand to pull down his hood only to see one of the lighter bags being blown away in the wind.

Elías dropped the remaining bags and ran off to catch it. That bag had his beloved Sour Patch in it. There was no way it was getting away from him now.

The bag landed a few yards away in the parking lot where an old yellow car was slowly pulling into. All thoughts of catching the bag left his mind as he watched London walk out of the car, toting a ratty old gym bag over her left shoulder. Elías's cheeks colored as he suddenly realized how he probably looked like a wet dog with his frizzy curls and soaking clothes.

London held her hands above her hair to try to shelter it from the rain, exposing a sliver of her skin as her shirt rose up. Elías couldn't help but glance at her toned abs. His eyes trailed over her long legs as he noticed the way her neon purple leggings hugged her the muscles in her legs. Her eyes met Elías's as she stepped out of the car.

"You need a hand there?" London smiled brightly despite the tumultuous weather around them.

"I'm good, thanks. Just caught the runaway bag." Elías reached down to pick up the wet bag, grimacing as he felt the wet plastic rub between his fingers.

Neither of them had an umbrella so the rain openly poured on them. Yet neither seemed to care; Elías because he was already soaking wet and couldn't feel the water droplets anymore and London... well, maybe she liked the rain.

"Are you heading back from the studio?" Elías asked as they speed walked towards the entrance.

"Yeah. I work there every weekday." London reached out to open the doors for Elías, who carried two bags of groceries through them. "Sometimes weekends. But that's only if someone wants a private session."

    "Cool." And that was the end of their conversation, Elías feared. He wanted to get to know London better, but all of his attempts failed because he couldn't carry a decent conversation. Maybe he could ask more about the class she taught.

London turned her head to face his as she held the door for him. Her eyes shined, as if all the light in the sky that had been chased by the storm had found its home in her eyes.

Elías blanked out and blurted whatever came to mind first, "Do you like the rain?"

He held his breath and waited until London awkwardly answered his question or commented on how dumb the question was. But the corners of her lips pulled upwards, revealing the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.

"No, no. I definitely like the sound, the rhythmic plops of water on a window. But being in the rain is not my thing. It messes with my hair." London held up strands of her hair that had begun to grow frizzy and out of place from her braid.

"Same." Elías pulled on one of the curls in his hair that he knew were beginning to poof around his head. It bounced back on top of his head.

They both laughed, shoulders shaking with mirth at their hair. Elías pressed the button for the elevator hesitantly, not wanting their conversation to end.

The wind howled outside and some branches outside began to hit the entrance, making loud thudding noises every couple of seconds. The elevator beeped and they stepped in. As the elevator groaned and started moving up, Elías thought of maybe asking her to hang out. Not as a date or anything, just a get-to-know-you-friendly-hangout-that-could-lead-to-a-date kinda thing. At least that's what he hoped for.

Elías gazed over to London who was checking something on her phone. He had never met anyone who was so confident in who they are. Seeing her so passionate about dance and teaching it to others made Elías want to do better and be more confident about who he was, embracing all the aspects of himself.

    "Do you want-" Elías started, but stopped as the lights began to flicker above them.

    "What...?" London stared up at the ceiling.

    Elías and London held on to the rails for support as the elevator shook and jerked to a stop. He felt the cool metal of the railing clutched in his sweaty hands and was suddenly aware of the small metal contraption that he was now stuck in. His mouth dried up and he grasped for a reason behind all of this as he tried to push away the sense of impending doom

    He took a few deep breaths and tried to think rationally. Elías tried to forget the plots of all of the horror movies he binge watched with his sister. His life was obviously not the plot for a horror movie so nothing like Into the Dark or Devil would happen to them.

But the conclusion that Elías came to was rather simple. The power went out because it was raining really hard so the elevator stopped. Help would come soon if they just called.

    Elías reached out to push the red emergency button, but felt his heart stop when he felt a cold and clammy hand attach itself to his hand, restricting the blood flow from his rapidly beating heart.