A/N: There was a slight error with last week's chapter with the line breaks. It's fixed now.
Chapter 6: The Closet
I checked my watch. I had twenty minutes before the second train would leave. Muttering darkly to myself, I shoved my hands into my pockets and started walking away from the spilled juice in front of my locker.
I hated cleaning messes. Sure, I could make them like you wouldn't believe, (our kitchen never recovered from October 2006, let me tell you) but cleaning up? No, I hated it. Although Mom is extremely strict when it comes to our clean my room is, I've gotten into the habit of keeping it clean instead of doing mass tidy-ups.
I started to walk down the hallway, trying to remember why I decided to bring apple juice to school.
Eventually I made it to the Janitor's closet, just as our school's most popular Janitor, Janitor James, emerged from it pushing a trolley fulled with bright chemicals and mops and well... Janitor-y stuff.
"Hey," I said, using my best polite/I-want-something-from-you voice. I'd spoken to the Janitor a few times before, thanks to several after-school incidents and messes that I'd rather not talk about. "I sort of spilled some apple juice a couple of minutes ago near my locker, so I was wondering if I could get some stuff to clean it up with?"
Janitor James turned towards me. As far as Janitors go, he was decent; still fairly young with dirty blonde hair and a stocky build. His eyes crinkled as he looked at me.
"Really, Max." Yes, I'm on a first-name basis with the school Janitor. Please don't ask why or how. "You should learn that juice must go into your mouth, not all over the floor. It's not too difficult to understand."
"It wasn't my fault," I argued. "It fell out of my locker and the cap wasn't screwed on properly – "
"Well, don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually."
Never let someone else clean up after your own mess! My mom's words echoed in my head. I sighed as my upbringing overrode my laziness. "No, I'll do it. It's my fault anyways."
James' eyes crinkled even more. "I'm glad to see that not all kids your age all lazy buggers. Good on you." he handed me a cloth, some detergent and a bucket, as well as some spare keys to the closet. "I'm not going to be here when you come back, so just slide the keys under the door once you're done." Smiling faintly, I thanked him for being so nice and took the equipment. I walked back to my locker.
On my way back to my locker, I bumped into someone just as I turned a corner. His name is Alan, I think. He's known in the school for being a huge Math geek. I was mildly surprised to see him lurking around after school.
"Sorry," I said, sidestepping him.
"No worries," he replied, looking down at his shoes. They were Converse; surprisingly trendy for him. He noticed me glancing at my shoes and he smiled slightly. "I love these red Converse, they're the best shoes ever." he said, smiling faintly. As if he was in on some joke.
"What?" I asked, feeling a bit like a fish out of water. What just happened?
He shrugged mysteriously and strolled off in the opposite direction, grinning to himself.
Okay, that was weird. I tried to shake of the sense of foreshadowing and walked back to my locker. I cleaned up the apple juice pretty well, if I do say so myself. There's now a lovely shiny spot on the floor which I'm very proud of.
Things picked up again when I made it back to the closet door, putting the supplies away. I locked the closet just as I heard shoes squeal on the tiled floor – I whipped my head in the direction of the sound as saw, to my surprise, Fang sprinting at full speed down the hallway.
Of course. Life just hates me. Sometimes I feel like someone is pulling the strings with everything I do so that somehow I'll end up talking to Fang. But that's crazy, right?
He skidded to a halt just in front of me.
"What the hell – " I started to ask, knowing already that this wasn't going to end well at all.
" – I need you to hide me." He cut me off, gasping. When he looked at me I saw an unmistakable desperation in his eyes.
"Why?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. No way was he getting any help from me.
"No time to explain. Any plan?"
I sighed as I heard a second pair of footsteps a few hallways away from us. We had a minute at most. "Fine. But there are conditions." I said as I unlocked the door again. "Get in."
I smiled to myself slightly. Finally, I had a bargaining chip with him! I tried not to think of the all the implication of it – I could get him to leave me alone for a full week if I played my cards right. Hell freaking yes!
Fang stepped darted into the small space as the footsteps came closer. I heard a distinctly feminine person call out.
"Fang?" her voice was nasal and curious. In a couple of more seconds she would be be in our hallway.
I started to close the door from the outside when Fang's hand darted out and pulled me inside as well. The door slammed shut and we were in total darkness.
I'm in a closet with Fang.
Crapcrapcrap.
I backed away from him and gave an involuntary yelp as my hip hit a shelf. Fang's hand was instantly at my lips, cutting of my surprised squeak halfway through. He pushed with a bit too much force, sending my back painfully into the wall. On the bright side, by the time I get out of here, my skin will be a multicoloured rainbow by tomorrow morning.
"Shut up or she'll hear us," Fang whispered into my ear, so quietly could barely make out his words.
I tried fight off my repulsion to Fang touching me. But right now there were more pressing matters – the girl outside in the hallway.
We both held our breaths, trying to be as quiet as possible as those footsteps slowed just inches away from the door. My fingers unconsciously clutched the loose fabric of Fang's t-shirt as we both stood like rigid status, not daring to even move.
The footsteps stopped in front the door. "Fang?" a voice asked.
My fingers gripped the back of Fang's shirt tighter as we both stood in the dark, waiting to be caught. I could feel his heart pounding away in his chest. Why was he so scared of a stupid fan girl? The silence seemed to drag on forever as the girl on the other side tried to determine if there actually was anyone inside the storage supplies closet or not. She knows.
The seconds ticked by slowly and painfully, and finally, after I was convinced that the girl knew we hiding in the dark, she started to walk away again. Neither of us dared move. Once her footsteps faded away I could feel all of Fang's muscles relax as we both let out our breaths we didn't even know we were holding. It took me a second to realize that some time between Fang telling me to shut up and the girl stopping at the door, Fang had pushed his body against mine and both my arms were wrapped around him.
A split second after I noticed this, Fang's hand was away from my mouth – along with the rest of him.
"Single most terrifying moment of my life," I said, trying to sound unruffled by the whole experience. "I won't even flinch next time I watch a Saw movie."
Fang chuckled darkly. "I guess you want to know what just happened."
"Yeah, that would be good, Novia. So start talking or I'll just assume that this was all a plot to get me in a closet with you."
"Crazy fan-girl on the loose," he said stiffly. I tried to make out his expression and failed – I usually had really good night vision, but there was only enough light for me to make out his general shape – which was leaning against the wall opposite mine.
"I thought you could handle fangirls? You've had plenty of practice."
"No, this one's different. She's crazy crazy. Totally off her rocker. She tried to jump me in History."
"How did that work out for you?" The darkness seemed to press against my eyeballs as I tried to fight against it. I felt sort of naked. I had to trust Fang in this tiny space, which was impossible. Fang acted like he was totally comfortable though.
"It was so creepy. One minute I'm bending down over my schoolbag and the next moment I'm being spooned and there's a hand up my shirt."
I snorted. On the inside, I was thinking, that was an attractive snort. On the outside all I said was; "Wow, that's so creepy!"
"Oh, please. I bet that you secretly want to spoon me and put your hands up my shirt as well." he said, as if casually bantering with girls in dark small spaces was something he did every day.
"Ew!" I retorted. "Of course not!" I suddenly had a mental picture of me spooning Fang. I shuddered slightly.
"Ah, you're right." Fang agreed reasonably. "You'd want your hands in my pants."
"That depends. Do I get to hold a can of pepper spray?" I asked, trying to keep my voice innocent and curious.
Fang gasped. "You'd never be so cruel! I wouldn't be able to have sex for days after that!"
I rolled my eyes. "It's not like you're getting any action anyways." I mean, really, who would want to go for you?"
"Uh, just about everyone? Really, you're so uninformed, Ride." there was only slight indignation in his voice.
"Whatever. I still don't believe you're getting any. Let's face it, you're still in the closet."
"I'm not! Sure, I do occasionally turn a man gay – "
"No, dumbass, you're literally hiding in a closet, instead of facing up against a crazy fangirl that tried to a pull a rape-and-escape. That just screams cowardice." I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to avoid my instinct to protect my jugular against the enemy.
"I'm no dumba – wait, what the hell is a rape-and-escape?"
"It's when you assault someone and then run before they actually realise on to what just happened." I explained, using my best Are you really this slow? voice. "I saw it on TV."
Fang ignored my patronising voice. "You have a simply charming vocabulary, Ride. It's so pleasant to be around you."
"At least if anyone touches me I can work up enough nerve to hit them, unlike you."
Fang froze. There were footsteps again, with the occasional call of "Fang!" I knew that she was still a couple of minutes away from the closet, but if I yelled, she would definitely hear me.
This time I grinned evilly. Fang somehow picked up on my sudden mood change.
"Oh crap, what's your plan now?"
"Well, I was thinking that maybe it would be good for you to face your fears." I made a beeline for the door – ready to run out and kindly direct this creeper of a fan girl into the closet with Fang and lock the door.
Sweet revenge.
Just as my hand touched the doorknob Fang's arm snaked around my waist and pulled me back into the darkness. I struggled against him, trying to worm my way out. His grip was like iron; I could be trying get out of a steel rope for all the leeway Fang was giving me. Since when was he so strong? Usually I can out-muscle any guy. I never had any troubles with beanpoles like Fang!
"Let go!" I hissed as I tried again to get out, sending a few mad kicks flying, one hitting his shin. He didn't even gasp in pain.
"Nuh-uh," Fang replied and yanked me backwards, causing both to fall, Fang taking the brunt of our combinded weight. I heard an 'oof!' come from Fang as the air left his lungs. Grabbing the opportunity, I instantly rolled off him and sprinted for the door again, when Fang's leg hooked around my ankle and I went sprawling, I was a miracle that neither of us had hit any of the cleaning supplies yet. Well, I might've thrown a Windex bottle at him, but it didn't slow him down at all.
"Bastard!" I yelled as Fang's hands gripped my arms. Again.
"My heart bleeds," Fang replied coolly. "Now could you please just shut your face? It's not like I'm trying to kill you in here."
"How do I know that?"
"You would've died months ago if I wanted you dead."
"Oh wow, I feel so reassured." I stopped struggling as a new plan formed in my mind. There was one really easy way I could get out of Fang's grip of steel, and it would take next to no effort on my part. I grinned as I turned my head to where I guessed his face was.
I needed to surprise him enough so that he would let me go.
Gathering all the courage I could muster, I brought my lips to closer to his. Even with only the faint crack of light that came from underneath the door, I could see his surprised expression as my face came closer to his. His lips formed a slight '0' of surprise. The only sounds I could hear was the frantic pounding of my heart and Fang's jagged breathing. I tried hard not to think too much of what I was going to do next as I parted my lips slightly and closed that last distance between us.
A/N: I won't be able to post on Friday next week, unfortunately. I can either post on Thursday or Saturday. I guess I'll use reviews as an indicator to see when I should post... *review whoring*If you want something else of mine to read while you're waiting, try out Gravity. Hope you enjoy it.
This week's question: Who is your favourite FFN author?
This week's rec: Ten Ways to Know You're Alive by Kimsa Ki-Lurria. Screw Fax, Miggy is where it's at.
