Falling Up

35. Freed

Kain was the first one to move as he stretched his legs against the floor and gracefully leaned his hand against the elevator wall to push himself into a standing position. Grabbing his backpack from the floor, he swung it onto his shoulders before holding his hand out to Riley.

Placing her hand in his, he pulled her off the floor effortlessly. She could have sworn she heard a slight growl escape Jason's lips as her hand touched Kains, but she shrugged it off, leaning down to grab her backpack off the floor.

Her hands reached over to grab the pile of books stacked in the corner before Kain stopped her. "I've got these," he said, easily lifting the enormous pile of books into his muscular arms.

As she stepped out of the elevator, a sense of relief filled her, feeling the coolness of the hallway dissipate the stuffiness of the elevator. But the feeling was momentary, and she was engulfed in a bear hug, with Jason wrapping his strong arms around her.

The elevator worker stood up from the floor panel as Kain exited the elevator. "There you go, guys. Sorry for the wait. We'll get this repaired as soon as we can," said the older man as he placed out-of-order tape across the outside of the elevator. He proceeded to quickly pick up his tools and hurried off to the doorway leading to the stairwell, clearly in a rush to get somewhere.

"I was so worried." Jason finally released Riley from his death grip.

"I'm sorry. We couldn't get any signal and I accidentally left my phone at the coffee shop. But how did you know I was here?"

Jason ran his hand through his hair. A typical Jason move that Riley swore was going to leave him with hair loss in his old age.

"When you didn't show up and most of the campus had cleared out, I went and asked in the office. They mentioned a few people were tapped in the elevator and knowing your luck, it had to be you," he smirked.

"But you didn't know for sure?"

"You weren't anywhere else," Jason shrugged as if it was the obvious thing to do to stand around an elevator for hours waiting for her.

Kain walked over, standing next to them with the pile of books in his arm, interrupting the conversation between Riley and Jason. "I'll take care of these."

"Thanks Kain," said Riley, to which Jason moved in closer, putting his arm around Riley's shoulder and pulling her next to him. Kain smiled at her for the first time ever, then disappeared down the hallway and around the corner to the classroom they were supposed to be dropped off at.

It was dark outside as the moonlight shone through the large windows plastered across the walls of the hallway. Jason and Riley's tapping of shoes was the only noise in the now deserted building. There was an eerie feeling to the building this late at night and a shiver went down Riley's back at the sense that someone was watching her. She turned into the darkened hallway only to be met with the empty length of the building and the silence around them turning back around and continuing down the staircase and out onto the ground floor of the building.

As they approached the building's entrance, there was a security guard waiting for them and he pushed open the door for them as they exited into the cool night air.

"Thanks for waiting for me," said Riley, to which she heard Jason scoff as if it were merely expected of him before they finally took their seats inside of the car.

Jason turned on the engine, then reached forward, turning on the heater and sending a blast of warm air into the car. Riley sighed in relief, putting her hands up to the vent to warm them up after walking through the chilly evening of the campus.

"So, do you want to tell me what you were doing with Kain in that elevator?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Riley tilted her head in confusion. "Umm.. returning some books?" The words came out more like a question than a statement.