The Thing about Falling ✓

Forty Nine • Just the Two of Us

Owen

With a click of the door, I'm locked in.

We're locked in.

I shot my head up at Athena, looking at her wide-eyed from one of the staff's computers and remembered what the seniors here told me about.

"You're fine with finishing up today? You seriously don't wanna come with us? It's game night. There's drinks." one of the senior staff asked me, slinging his car keys in one hand, and a stack of paper layouts on the other.

I shook my head and continued working on proofreading some of the articles already written by the others. As one of the newbies around here, it is my job to work on these before I get to write on my own.

Hopefully, this will get my mind off things.

"No thanks. I think I can handle one night alone here. You go ahead." I replied, smiling a bit to show my willingness to do this. 

I mean, I am willing to stay up late working on the articles and I love reading through what they wrote. I do enjoy reading and somehow, I was starting to enjoy writing on my own. This is good.

"Okay. Fine, then. Just, don't close the door. It locks on its own. If you ever get locked in, the janitor comes by early in the morning. Don't worry. You'll be fine either way." he said, before leaving me all alone in the staff room. 

I looked at Athena in horror, and it was just then that I realized how terrifying the locked door situation is. 

I didn't even know if I was still breathing or not. Either way, my chest beat hard, thumping and pounding as panic slowly rose up into my system. I am not prepared for this.

"Athena, what did you do?" I asked, as I shot my eyes back and forth at her, then at the door.

She gave me a weird look, her head cocking to the side, letting her messy curtain bangs shield her narrowed eyes, until she eventually seemed a bit annoyed at her hair and pulled them back behind her studded ears.

"I closed the door?" she said cautiously, as she looked back at the door and walked toward it, gripping the knob tight with a hand. Athena tried twisting and shaking it, but to her evident frustration and my immense horror, the door was still locked.

"Shit." she muttered, as she realized she can't do anything to get out. To get us both out.

"Can you call someone?" I asked, as I hastily finished up the last of the editing and proofreading I've done for a few articles, and grabbed my phone from my pocket.

I don't have a signal.

Fuck my life.

Athena seemed to be as horrified as I am, as she swung her backpack over her chest and opened it hurriedly, causing some of her things to fall out. A few pens, balls of scrap paper, her lipgloss, and candies fell out, and from the looks of the remnants inside her bag clutched under her arm in a full purple cast, she also had a few notebooks and her laptop in there.

"Fucking hell." she cursed under her breath as she bent down and scrambled to shove back her things carelessly inside her bag.

I stared at her as she fixed her things from behind one of the computers here in the staff room, and I was battling whether I should go help her or let her be.

Exes are not supposed to be friends, right? They're supposed to either get back together, be friends, or torment each other by becoming enemies.

Athena and I don't technically fit any of those. We're in the in-between.

Sighing, I shut down the computer and unlocked the brakes of my chair.