The Calm Before The Storm

The Little Black Box

~Chloe~

We wait 5 minutes to see if the swelling will go down but, of course, it doesn't.

"We really should go to the hospital, Chloe," Max says, tugging on my jacket as a gesture to get up, "Can you walk?".

I shrug and hop up to my feet, putting a little weight on my ankle.

I recoil and wince, "Shit... it hurts like a bitch but...I think I can,".

"Don't force it then. I don't want you hurting yourself more," Max says, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, "Here, put some weight onto me,".

"Okay, but if we fall I'm blaming you," I say, doing as she said.

She struggles for a second, but manages to hold me up, "Ok, do you think you can make it to the elevator?".

I look up the small flight of stairs leading back up to the elevator and swallow hard, "Yeah... totally".

So after hobbling up the stairs, we finally make it up to the elevator and slip inside before it takes off.

"You good?" Max asks leaning me up against the hand rails.

"Yeah... just... out of breath," I mumble, wiping a small bit of sweat off my brow, "You?".

Max shrugs, "This is the most active I've been in weeks, so this is a pretty good workout".

I roll my eyes.

Suddenly, the elevator begins to move and instinctively grab Max's hand.

She looks up at me curiously. "Let me guess. You don't like elevators?" she says with this big smug ass grin.

I nod and blush furiously, "We got stuck in one remember?".

"Dude, we were in there for 10 minutes".

"Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life okay? And it didn't help when you started jumping up and down", I look down at her with a half-assed smirk, "You're enjoying this aren't you?".

She snickers and nods, "A little... but come on, it's not that scary".

I roll my eyes but then realize her devilish grin, "Max... what are you... oh... oh god, don't you even think about it, Caulfield! I swear I'm gonna-".

But she does it anyway. Max jumps once and the whole fucking elevator shakes.

I panic, shutting my eyes and gripping the handrails for dear life, "Shit, shit, shit!".

Max bursts into laughter, which she tries to smother when I flip her off again. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, but come on the ride's over," she says as she leads me out of the steel doors and out to the lobby.

I'm almost tempted to kiss the ground.

We wave to a couple of our early bird neighbors and head outside.

There's a thin layer of snow coating the ground, and more is falling. It's typical for December thankfully but still... snow is kind of a weird reminder for us.

"Careful, watch your- shit!" Max says, almost losing her grip on me when I slip on the slick sidewalk.

"I got it, I got it!" I say, even though I'm pretty sure I don't got it.

"Just... take it slow, okay?".

I nod and grip onto her shoulders as she leads through the small snowy parking lot. I can tell that Max is getting nervous, which usually isn't a good sign. The snow as thrown her off, probably reminding her of 'that' week.