2Two Strangers Locked Inside A Convenience Store at 3am
by deadkitty1
She couldn't believe this was happening in the middle of her essay due early at 8 in the morning! So what if she was procrastinating by marathoning a Korean drama? So what if she spent most of the week researching boybands than finding out an opening statement to the meaning behind the metaphor about a flower. She didn't care. It's only during crunch time when her conscience begins working did that essay look deathly urgent tonight. Unfortunately, it's also during this time when mother nature decides to give her a visit.
One Midol should do it. One pill to take care of these annoying cramps and then a straight race back three blocks to the dorm to finish her super hard essay.
She must have passed the aisle two or three times by now as her anxious steps slow down to carefully assess that she didn't miss it. How hard is it to find one damn pill box? Oh and the squeezing pain in her stomach isn't helping. Her patience crashes and just as she makes up her mind to poke for customer service, the lights flicker off. Darkness spreads through the entire store as a frustrated sigh bursts out from her lips. The rundown convenience store chooses only this time to break down its electricity?! It was just her luck.
She digs around her purse until she finds her phone to use as a flashlight to search these damn shelves. The blue box soon comes into view. With a small smile of victory, she snatches the pills and heads towards the register to pay for them. She flashes her phone directly on the counter trying to alert any sleeping workers but find no one there.
"This is so annoying," she mutters under her breath.
She has literally no time to waste on these people. She shoves her twenty on the counter with a note on what she's buying. Too bad she didn't get change. She could have used it for some needed lunch after the headache she'll have in the morning class. Everything keeps putting down her mood. Slapping down the money, she struts to the automatic door that refuses her like the useless ghosts by the register. More angry than annoyed, she pitches a growl against the darkness, not caring about her manners anymore.
"Will someone get over here and open the damn door?!"
A faint light on the left corner slowly makes its way to the pissed off chick. It' a dude who also has his phone out, but it's apparent by his bulky winter jacket and dark beanie that he's not one of the employees. They stare at one another in confusion, trying to figure out what exactly is going on. When it became too awkward and the silence too deafening, the girl's loud mouth erupts.
"Are we the only ones here? Where is everyone?!"
She squints her eyes and slowly studies his outfit to decide if he might be one of those hidden murderers who get a sick kick making young beautiful girls like her suffer a painful death. It would be some ironic twist of faith. At least she bought some painkillers. It should put some ease on the torture.
The guy backs away from her harsh stare down to shrug cluelessly at her response. She scares him and she's too loud when the silence tells them to whisper.
After labeling him as a harmless druggie, she shifts on her right leg and crosses her arms against her chest. "When you were here, did you happen to see an employee around? Or anything weird for that matter?"
He subconsciously matches her body language by absorbing her confidence.
"I actually asked one of them to help me with something just a few minutes ago," he answers smartly.
"Few minutes ago?" she scoffs, not believing him for one minute.
"Okay, maybe like a lot of minutes, but one of them should know I'm still here and they should come back."
The girl throws her arms out and the guy flinches back from almost getting hit in the face.
"Come back? Come back?! Where did they go in the first place?! Why would they even leave?"
His shrug to her question only infuriates her more. She takes out her phone and taps the buttons on the screen quickly.
"Who are you calling?" he asks curiously.
"Your mother," she snarkly adds but corrects herself once the dunderhead apparently has no clue what she meant, "The police. Who else?!"
She turns around before she gets the urge to whack the buffoon across the head with her phone. He watches as her stern attire magnitudes to crazy as the call suddenly seems to have taken a turn for the worst. He's glad he wasn't the one at the other end of the conversation because she looks close to murdering the operator. Exhausted at arguing over the phone for more than 15 minutes, she hangs up as the irritated scowl on her face deepens the wrinkles on her forehead. She swipes a water bottle in view and digs out a pill from the box she just bought. She then makes it towards the counter only to slump down against the hard cold floor in a depressing heap. Taking the hint that she might want to be alone, he stays where he's at, standing and rocking himself back & forth from boredom. He could have gone on for the entire hour but the girl has had enough with people annoying her.
"Sit down," she hisses the order.
The guy swallows his nerves as he takes a seat within a good distance of the homicidal chick. He barely gets himself comfortable before the girl interrupts him once again.
"We're gonna be stuck here for a while. A long, long while."
"I know. I heard you on the phone."
The girl rolls her eyes and turns to face the loser. "Really? How can you just sit there and not feel anything? We are stuck here. Stuck in this godforsaken convenience store for who knows how long because we live in some small-ass crappy town that has the nearest available police station located up in the mountains somewhere! How can you be all jolly calm Roger about this?!"
He turns his eyes to meet hers while sporting a small smile her way. His gaze straightens her posture in an instance as his lofty voice carries to her ears.
"You need to chill. Getting angry isn't gonna solve the problem. We're stuck here so we might as well just wait it out and hope for the best."
"Easy for you to say," the girl growls but suddenly breaks eye contact, "You're not the one that needs to write an essay in the next 7 hours before it's due."
"No, I'm not."
She grins at pulling the string of sympathy from the chump.
He laughs as he continues, "I just need to print mine out."
Her eyes almost fall out of her sockets from shock as she stares daggers back at the nerd. "Wait! You mean you have an essay due too? What class?"
"English Comp I"
"What teacher?"
"Lowe."
"But that's my class and I've never seen you there!"
"Probably a different time. Mine is the night class."
"Oh..."
The girl slowly backs down on the ground as she realized she almost mid-towered him during her mini-interrogation. She may have overlooked the significance of their meeting and somehow the cramps in her stomach were getting weaker by the minute. The pill is taking effect and her grouchy mood is dissipating along with it.
She's being too hard on the guy. He might be her only ticket to a good grade on her already barely passing English class.
Flustered, she starts to plead her situation. "Um... So... When we get out of here, would you mind if I took a look at your essay? Not to copy or anything. I wouldn't never do that. I just think looking at your essay can get me an idea on how to start mine."
Her eyes peek at him from the corner as he contemplates for an answer. After a good minute of silence, she caves and goes off.
"Please, please, please! I need all the help I can get! I'm literally close to passing this class! This essay can change that! I need help. I'll do anything. Anything!"
He issues a severe head nod before prying the hysterical girl away form his right arm she's tugging on.
"Oh thank you so so so much! You are my life savior!"
The guy flashes the girl a look of disgust at entering his personal bubble and once again she's locked a tight grip on his poor arm. Seeing his expression, she hears his message loud and clear as she lets go and apologizes.
"Sorry. Got too excited."
After readjusting herself a good foot away from the recently mauled man, he flashes her an exasperate look before concentrating on a corner of the store in an empty gaze. The girl can see him dive deep inside his head and it's almost like she's nonexistent in the room. The penchant for keeping up the silence is not one of her strong suits. She needs to talk or she'll explode.
"Hey," she said very softly. She clears her throat loudly just to make extra sure his attention is caught.
"So, what brings you here in the middle of the night?"
The guy takes a slow breath, remembering the loud-mouth student he happens to be stuck with.
"Uh. I was here for this," he pulls out a small bear with a heart that indicated sale item from the Valentine's Day bin. "How 'bout you?"
Her cheeks heat up as she slowly takes out her cramp killer pills. "Here. Women stuff."
He nods in understanding as his expression makes her smile in relief. He exchanges her smile as they sit there in a sort of awkward smiling competition.
"If you want, I'm sure we can find some heat packets around here somewhere. I'm sure it'll help. It helps my sister," he suggests.
Her grin widens as she leans in closer to him. "You gotta sister?"
"Older one. She had her baby a few days ago."
"Congratulations!"
"Thanks."
The gratitude never makes it pass his eyes. The boy slips back into his thoughts as the wrinkles double on his forehead.
"Is something wrong?" she asks in concern.
"Huh? No! Well..." his eyes flicker as an annoyed pout graces his lips from his conflicting thoughts. Something is definitely bothering him and she figured it's the same thing he was thinking about when he spaced out earlier.
He roughly grazes the back of his neck as he finds his words. "Well it's just my sister decided that I'm the godfather of the baby and I guess I don't know how to react to that. I'm happy, sure. Just not as much as I thought I should be."
The girl pats him on the back as she lends a hand to see the bear up close. He hands it to her, watching her observe it closely.
"You gonna give the kid a toy bear?"
"Well she's a girl. Girls like bears."
He points it out as a fact which makes it hard to argue. Almost.
"She'll be too little to even play with it and no offense to this store, but who knows how many germs this thing has by just people grabbing it and stuff. No way you're giving this to a newborn child. Here's what you should do: you should get her a card."
He laughs at her reasoning. "She can't read."
"Oh but she will! It'll be an awesome gift for her when she's older and for your sister too!"
"A card, huh?" he sighs as he stand up and begins to walk over to return the bear in the clearance bin and begins to stroll over to the card section of the store. "You mean one of those crappy hallmark cards that I gotta put money in so it's says Hey! I'm your lousy uncle who really doesn't know how babies work so here's $20 to show I care."
"Ha ha ha. Very funny," she discretely scorns. "Not like that. Write something more like: Hey! I'm your awesome cool uncle who's still in college figuring stuff out and I'm gonna make mistakes and give you the wrong food and even mess up your diaper, but I'm gonna do all that because I'm your uncle and I love you!"
He gives her a good long look as he absorbs her words.
"What? No good?"
"No! That was hell-a-corny!" he bursts out laughing but continues to search for a good card.
"You see why I need help on my essay now? I cannot write."
He shakes his head as a full smile finally reaches his eyes. "No. It was actually pretty good.
The girl can feel the pride radiate as his smile grows. He's pretty cute when he's not frowning so much and those dimples are to die for. Just as he sinks back into his frown, she looks up at him and touches his forearm to get his attention.
"Hey. Don't worry about it. You're gonna be a great uncle and godfather."
"Thanks."
His mood has uplifted and her heart begins doing a jog on a treadmill without her permission. She suddenly babbles to cover up the surge of feelings raining down on her. It must be those dang hormones.
"I-I'm sure your sister is feeling the same thing you are. You know, like being a new mother and all. Just the pressure of it and-and taking care of this little life thing that needs and wants everything. It... It must be hard. Like imagine the stress, sleepless nights, worrying about every little thing around the corner even inside the house just because anything can kill the kid or something."
He likes the way she obviously wants to help him and her constant talking is actually nice. It's cute.
"Yeah well, this is actually her second kid, so it might be easier."
Her brain does a rewind. Second kid? She slaps herself on the forehead in embarrassment. The boy laughs as she tries to recover from her mistake while he offers to change the subject.
"How 'bout you? Any siblings?"
"Me? Oh. None."
"Single child." He gives her a smart grin, "No wonder you got such a temper. You must be used to getting what you want."
The girl frowns at the assumption. "I am not spoiled."
"I wasn't saying it like that. I meant you gotta strong personality and it helps you get what you want," he corrects after noticing her anger might make a comeback.
She accepts his reasoning for now since it's way to late to argue otherwise.
"Yeah. I guess I'm used to it. I just learned that people aren't mind readers and I say what I want to get what's mine."
He nods in acknowledgment as he finishes writing a message on the card. She tilts her head wanting a closer look at what he's writing and he gladly hands it to her. Her laughter makes him feel like it was worth it as she continues to deliberately keep the card away from him.
"No. No. NO! Are you serious? You're really gonna give this to her?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"Because! It was as you said. Hell-a-corny!"
"And I also said it was pretty good. I like it."
"Riiiight."
She laughs as she goes to retrieve him a new card, but he grabs her arm to stop her.
"No! I'm serious. It was really good. My sister will love it."
"Okay." She murmurs if only so he'll remove his hand from hers so she'll stop being red in the face. As if to cover up the color from rising to her cheeks she resorts to teasing, "You know, this is blatant plagiarism!"
He shrugs indifferent. "You didn't copyright. Plus I'm the one with the finished essay, remember?"
"Yes you are."
She hands the card back as he pockets it in his jacket. Feeling the itch of her conscience tugging in the deep recess of her mind, she prods him.
"Hey. You're gonna pay for that, right?"
"I will when those guys come to get us out."
She watches him closely, unsure of whether he's telling the truth or not. Her strong sense of justice will not allow this to happen. He clears his throat under her judging stare as he explains himself, "Well, they should really give us the things we're buying for free since they trapped us in this store and we didn't burn it down trying to get out."
The girl pouts as she heads over to the counter to add more to the note.
"What're you doing?"
"Writing the store for them to charge the $20 for your card, my pills, and water bottle."
"Oh cool! Can I get more stuff? I'm sorta hungry."
She knocks him on the arm but not before a teasing grin marks her face. He fixes his jacket as he sighs in defeat.
"Okay! Next thing you know, you'll be springing the cuffs on me."
"I would if I had any."
"You mean you own a pair?" he exclaims loudly
"No, I was kidding!" she defends and stares in distress at marking herself as a potential BSDM mate.
They sit in silence for the time being, letting the comfortable air settle on the casual mood fallen on the couple. The girl offers some of her water and he accepts as she cringes in joy at somehow gaining an indirect kiss with the handsome stranger. As the minutes tick on by, the girl notices more and more how the cold outside trickles inside like a disease, gradually casting their warm breaths into a cold fog. It's officially been an hour. She knows the police station was far, but it's just plain ridiculous how slow they are. She already checked in a while ago and the sleet that appeared out of nowhere made moving on the roads a hazard, especially at night. These tiny events keep adding to her rising blood pressure as her brain lists one catastrophe after another. She needs to call them one more time to light some heat on their asses.
"Damn, it's cold!" the boy remarks as he peers over to her side.
She nods but was too busy trying to warm up her fingers.
"You wanna check to see if we can find some blankets around here?" he suggests.
She shakes her head stubbornly, unable to move her limbs even if she wanted to.
"I don't wanna pay for more stuff. Besides, I'm not cold."
"Uh huh."
He looks down at the delusional chick, wondering how to solve this particular situation. He taps his fingers on his arm, then eyes the freezing creature once more. This really won't do. He'd rather not deal with a pneumonia induced patient when he definitely lacked proper medical skills to cure her.
"Here. How about we just spoon while we wait?"
"What!?"
Her mouth hangs open as she takes one big scoot back away from the man before her. She regrets it immediately as the comfort of her warmth leaves. The offer is crazy. They have clearly crossed a boundary in their otherwise peaceful friendship.
A cough lunges out of his throat as she snaps back to him for a brief second.
"Just to get warm. I promise not to feel you up or anything," he negotiates.
"And what if you do?!" she still can't get over what he said and was hoping to find a way out of it.
"You can elbow me in the stomach."
She wants to say no, would give anything to say no, but it's freezing! Also a tiny part of her maybe wants to be in his arms just this once. If he was gonna try anything, he would have done it earlier when she had her guard down and not now. For tonight, she'll go through what would otherwise be an never on a first date for her. She gives him a look that screams bloody murder, meaning it as a threat and he takes it in with a gentle smile. He's far too considerate to her. As she makes her way to sit in front of him, she has a last minute change of heart and becomes uncomfortable once again.
"You know what, maybe not-"
She didn't get to finish as he gently brings her to him with warmth fully entangling them in all at once. They both sigh in relief from leaving the cold, then laugh at their awkward positioning. It really is a better place from where she was sitting earlier, but the girl can't find it in her to lean back and embrace the whole moment. That would be pushing it.
"You okay?" he asks since he senses her hesitating.
"Y-yeah."
"You still cold?"
"No."
"Then why you still rubbing your fingers?"
"Because my fingers are cold."
The whole conversation seems funny to him, but he didn't want to push the issue too much because the girl looks close to running away if he so much as says the wrong thing. He just breathes in the cold air mixed in the scent of her shampoo. Funny that she uses the same one as him. He almost cracks a joke about them using the same shampoo that gets rid of dandruff when she speaks out abruptly.
"I have my period!"
"I know."
Silence ensues once more and he can't quite understand what she's getting at. Again she interrupts the stillness and his thoughts.
"Aren't you disgusted or something sitting near me?"
"No. Not really. I have a sister, so I kinda know how it works."
It's interesting how such a strong woman like her became insecure from such a simple thing like that. It's sorta sexy.
"Yeah, but most guys would," she answers softly.
He exhales out in dislike for those few guys she mentioned.
"It's not like you can help it. It happens to all girls."
"Yeah. Yeah it does, doesn't it?"
Her shoulders that were stiff a moment ago relax and with time, she eventually eases her back against him and into his pleasing arms. They stay like that for a while, strangely feeling at ease. The sound of their synchronized breathing and his embrace slowly circling around her makes it seem so right. He didn't once try to cope a feel nor do some lame sexual joke which was good because she would hate to have to leave his warmth right now just to punch him in the stomach. She'd hate for the police to get there and arrive at a scene of a crime instead of a rescue.
She snuggles closer and leans her head to the side as he observes her profile up close. Her nose is surprisingly cute and he has the urge to follow the line of her forehead down to her soft kissable lips. The air of her breath floats into his view as it cascades around her in a sort of heavenly picture of perfection. The girl floats away in dreamland unaware of the boy's silent worship of her beauty. Without warning, the girl is brought back by a sound of a curse and the involuntary movement of her pillow leaving her head. Confusion and hurt crosses her face, but she masks it with concern.
"Sorry. Was I crushing you?"
"No. Uh," his face flushes pink and she watches him more closely.
"What's wrong?"
She moves forward and he stops her.
"Just give me a good minute or so for this to go away."
"To go away?"
The girl wonders what on Earth he could be talking about when she sees him twist his jacket down as if to hide something. Then she sees it. Shock flashes through her eyes and an equal blush rises to her cheeks also. Not wasting a second, she eases back into his arms, even with the useless attempts of the boy trying to push her away.
"Hey, you're a guy. You can't help it that I'm hot and very attractive. Besides, every guy gets them. Trust me. I know. I have read tons of stuff about it through the jungles of the Internet."
The conflicted guy doesn't know whether to squeeze her in a tight hug or clunk himself on the head against the counter so he can knock himself unconscious. All he can do is laugh out his embarrassment and she cannot help wanting to hear his laughter again.
"And it's not like every time a guy gets them, he wants to immediately bone. I think we've gotten pass that primitive section of our history," she informs him.
"You mean cavemen?"
"No. I mean 2014."
The guy tries to hold back his chuckle as he tightens his embrace. She leans back, happy she has made him lose his insecurity like he did with her. For the moment the mood shifts. No words are exchanged as the two fall fast asleep in each others arms. Their breaths linger on each others skin, but instead of being tickled away, both lean closer for the contact. Eventually their standstill in time comes to an end as the police comes to the rescue. They get the low-down from the cops who heard from the owners of the store that they locked up quickly after receiving news of car accident from their son way downtown which luckily no one got hurt. It's hard to place the blame on the store owners when they were the only ones working and there was no one available to take care of the store.
After being released from their solitary confinement, it's weird to go back to what they were doing before everything else happened. The couple share a few awkward words as the boy kindly offers to give the girl a ride back to her dorm. She accepts while they converse in short clipped conversations until they arrive to the dormitory. The sleet shines like diamonds in the remaining moonlight. There's no way school will open tomorrow with the current weather still falling drop after drop of snowflakes. Even though she didn't want to let the night end, the girl thanks her knight-in-shining-snow before heading back home.
"Well, it sure was an interesting night," he remarks, unable to wipe the addicted grin off his face.
"Having you there made it bearable. Truly," she smiles in return, "I'll come over tomorrow... uh well, technically today for help with the essay. You know, if you don't mind."
"Yeah! No. I mean... I'll wait up for you."
"Get some sleep first."
"You too."
She looks back at his eyes as she tries her hardest to commit it to memory.
"So I guess this is goodbye."
"Yeah."
She touches the handle of the door, ready to leave the car but gets stopped by the guy. He exits then turns to her side to open the door for her. The cackle from her lips raises his heart rate as he looks upon her with awe.
"Being a gentleman, I see."
"One tries. I can walk you to your dorm if you want."
"Nah! I don't wanna keep you up. It's already pretty late."
"Okay."
Instead of heading back home, the girl steps towards the boy as he finds himself puffing his chest out with each tap of her foot on the floor.
"Your dorm is that way," he gestures behind her.
"I know."
"So what's up?"
She takes one big exhale then offers her hand and he instinctively puts his hand in hers. He's shocked by how cold her hands are and watches as she grasps both her hands around his right hand to breathe some warmth back in her frozen fingers. Even when both her hands return to the right temperature, she didn't want to let go. He pulls his hand out of her grasp as she hides her disappointment with a smile.
"Sorry, I was just..."
"Sssh."
He reaches up and clutches her chin up to face him. Their eyes meet and for the first time, they can read each others minds. In a slow descent, he inches closer and closer to her face only to linger in wait. She bites her bottom lip in anticipation, expecting the eventual outcome. When her short-term patience breaks, she opens one eye to see him just watching her frustration. She scoffs in his face and was about to argue when he opens his mouth first.
"Remember how you said that if you want something, you go get it?"
"Yeah."
"But what if I want something? Can I just get it too?"
"Sure."
"Okay."
Then he dives in as she squeals in surprise at the sudden kiss. She returns the sentiment with a kiss of her own as a small devious smile graces her lips. Their arms envelop around each other as the slow dance of snow blankets the sidewalk. The two blink back to reality in a daze as they struggle to string words together because it is without a doubt a fitting end to a rather weird predicament at being locked inside a convenience store until 3am.