Elevator
by: skyz
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or HSM.
A/N: The prompt was dark. And okay this is long. It could have been a one shot but it fits the theme of my supposed drabbles. And I say supposed because I can't quite manage just a few hundred words.
5.
The minute she stepped into the elevator he knew he was in trouble. It filled him with a sense of dread and he was of half a mind to leap out, but the doors had already closed.
He was stuck.
He sent her a quick look out of the corner of his eye and then just as quickly looked away. Nothing to see there, he reminded himself.
But that didn't stop him from looking.
"Must you stare at me?" she asked turning to look at him over the rims of her sunglasses.
It was past seven in the evening and she was wearing sunglasses, he thought in irritation.
"I thought I knew you," he muttered almost under his breath.
She continued to stare at him.
"Thought you knew me," she repeated as if he'd spoken in another language all together.
He scowled at her and reached out.
She jerked back reflectively as he snatched her sunglasses off her face.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? How dare you touch me," she seethed at him as she tried to grab her sunglasses back from him.
He grinned at her knowing it would only piss her off more. He stuck the sunglasses through a belt loop on his jean's.
"Now that wasn't so hard was it, Sharpay?" he asked still grinning.
She glared at him.
"I don't know what you think you're doing, Chad," she spat out turning away from him. She turned her attention to the closed doors of the elevator.
"I thought you were gonna be a big star on Broadway," he couldn't help but remark. He'd expected to see her face plastered on posters all over town. To hear the gossip trickle back home in bits and pieces.
But there had been nothing.
"And I thought you were supposed to be some big famous basketball star," she retorted with a twisted smile.
He inclined his head in silent acknowledgment.
"Sometimes things don't work out the way you want," he admitted lowly. Thinking dimly of the blown knee that had taken his dreams away.
He glanced at her profile and saw the tense set of her clenched jaw. Maybe he wasn't the only one whose dreams had been torn apart and shattered.
"I'm acting," she stiffly said, breaking the silence.
"That's good," was all he could manage as bitterness filled him abruptly. Her dream hadn't been based on anything remotely physical as his had been.
Her dream couldn't be dashed unless she caused her own downfall. But then he remembered that her face wasn't plastered across Broadway.
Her dream wasn't panning out either.
The elevator shuddered and came to a rumbling halt as the lights flickered on and off and finally settled on off.
Darkness settled around them.
"Shit," he spat and fumbled in his pocket for his cell phone.
She beat him to it pulling out a lighter.
He wondered if the flame would be enough to freak out the sprinkler system. He glanced around for an emergency phone.
No luck.
"You smoke?" he found himself asking in surprise.
"My ex did," she muttered as she sighed and settled herself onto the floor.
He stared down at her surprised that she dared to sit on the dirty ground like a mere mortal.
"Ex?" he asked taking that tidbit and running with it. He settled down beside her a little closer than proper, but she held the light and he hated the dark.
"That's what I said," she snapped.
"Of all the elevators in all the world you had to walk into mine," he bemoaned with a dramatic tone.
She kept her face averted but if he squinted he thought he detected a hint of a smile.
"So...acting how's that going for you?" he asked a bit later when the silence got to him.
"Dreadful."
He heard the truth in her words and resisted making a snide comment.
"What about you? No basketball anymore?" She hadn't bothered to keep the snideness from her own tone however.
He rolled his eyes.
"Not with the way my knee aches when it rains or when it's cold. Or just in general."
"Then what do you do?" she asked with the barest hint of curiosity.
"A little of this and a little of that. A jack of all trades," he demurred.
He expected her to call him a shiftless bum.
She didn't and he was surprised at her tact.
"Did you ever suspect you'd end up here five years ago?" she asked at length. A quiet barely suppressed desperation to her words.
He felt it like a blow to the gut and sucked in a deep breath.
He shuddered thinking back on the past few years.
"Never," he admitted heavily. "I thought it'd come fast and easy. Fall into my lap."
"I knew it would take hard work and effort," Sharpay added.
"But it's hard," he inserted softly. "When your body gives out. When what you've got isn't quite good enough. Sucks."
"Yeah," she agreed. "For you."
He couldn't help the smile that tilted his lips upwards.
"Yeah. For me. I forgot you're a rich girl chasing the dragon."
"Are you implying I'm some sort of addict?" she asked and he was pleased to hear the playfulness beneath the harsh words.
"If the shoe fits..." he trailed off playfully.
"Five years from now where are you going to be?" she asked abruptly.
"Hopefully not stuck in Manhattan in a steaming elevator in the middle of summer."
She sent him a look that he barely caught as the flame from her lighter flickered and burned out.
"I mean...will you be who you wanted to be back in school? Will you have achieved what you wanted? Be married? Have kids? Unless you're married and have kids now."
He shrugged shifting closer so that their shoulders brushed against each other. He needed the contact to remind himself that this was real and that he wasn't lost and alone in the dark.
"No kids. No wife. I don't know. I hope so," he murmured dropping his head so that his chin rested against his chest and his arms rested against his raised knees.
"I'm going to be a star," she stated confidently.
He believed her.
"Five years from now..." he began before he could stop himself. "Let's meet back here. See how we've turned out."
"For what? Just to see if we've achieved success or grown up?" she asked doubtfully.
"Why not?"
"Next you'll be saying something like if you're not married in five years look me up."
He laughed a little.
"Well why not add that too. In five years we'll meet here again and see what's new with each other. If we're both single then why not?" he asked at large.
"Why not what? What are you talking about?" she demanded.
"Do pay attention, Sharpay," he chided. "Why not get married? Have kids. Date. Do the whole damn thing. So, five years from now, Sharpay will you marry me?"
He grinned into the darkness smug with the knowledge that he'd probably never see her again. She'd never agree to meeting him here again much less marry him.
"Five years, hmm? A lot can change," she mused.
"Right."
"And a lot can stay the same," she added. "Five years is a long time. I'm sure I'll be married and famous."
"Absolutely."
"And perfectly happy with my life."
"Wouldn't want it any other way," he added sarcastically.
"But if I'm not... Not saying I'll marry you, because seriously, that's just...wrong. But maybe a date wouldn't be out of the question. You'll need to have moved on from this "jack of all trades" deal you've got going on now."
His grin slipped slightly and his heart began to pound.
He didn't know what to say in response to that.
Luckily for him the lights flickered on a few seconds later.
He rose quickly to his feet and he offered her a hand.
He moved away from her while rubbing his eyes.
They both faced the doors and the elevator began it's sluggish descent.
He counted the floors slowly wondering why every skyscraper seemed to be at least twenty floors or more. They were on the eleventh.
At long last the elevator made it's way to the lobby and came to a none to gentle rest.
The doors slid open with a ping and he allowed Sharpay to precede him.
"It's a deal," he told her back.
He watched her pause then nod her head.
He followed her out through the revolver and out onto the crowded street.
He turned left and she turned right.
"Keep the glasses. A memento," she called out.
His fingers found the glasses still hanging from his belt loop and he grinned to himself.
Five years wouldn't be too long.