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Chapter Seventeen-Alone Time's Not Nice

El's POV

Fresh air. I needed fresh air. Now.

I was in a cold sweat from the nightmare I just had. Tony sat there, trying to comfort me.

"Excuse me," I quietly muttered before standing up and pushing past him. Steve was outside of my door, eavesdropping. We made awkward eye contact for a second before I pushed past him too. I was walking fast and I didn't plan on stopping.

There was a large sliding glass door that led out to a cement balcony. I rushed out, shutting the door behind me. It was a little chilly, but I didn't mind.

The cool air woke me up. I took a deep breath and sighed, trying to forget my nightmare. The air cleared my mind. It was surprising when nobody followed me outside. I was glad they didn't. Alone time was nice.

Time flew by as I stood out there, just thinking to myself about everything, yet nothing. A cold breeze went by and I shivered. It was getting cold out. A jacket sounds good right about now.

I turned to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I swallowed. It was locked. I put my foot against the wall and planted my other foot firmly on the ground. My hands wrapped around the handle, and I pulled, using all of my strength.

It still wouldn't budge. My teeth began chattering and I was shivering even more now. I read about people dying miserably from bad frostbite, or Pneumonia. I didn't want to chance it.

I banged on the door loudly and waited for about ten minutes. Nobody came, and it hasn't warmed up, either. It cooled down even more. Mother Nature is not on my side. Alone time didn't sound so sweet anymore.

I looked over to the balcony that was next to the balcony I was on. I can climb over there, right? I am pretty sure that that balcony was connected to Steve's room.

I walked over to the edge of the balcony and threw my leg over. When I looked down, I realized how high up I was. There were layers of balconies below me, too.

I threw my other leg over the edge of the balcony and gripped onto the railing as tight as I could. My knuckles were white because of how hard I was gripping it. The balcony next to me was farther away than I thought it was. About three feet.

I reached my hand out to the railing and grabbed it. My breathing hitched as I looked down. I leaned over and placed my other hand on the railing. Time seemed to freeze as my feet slipped off the balcony. I knew for a fact that impact with the ground would kill me. My heart was pounding, the ground wasn't slowing down. Suddenly, something in my gut started telling me I needed to stick my arm out. I complied and caught a railing, it nearly slipped my hand but thankfully I managed to tighten my grip just in time.

I'm sure my expression was one of bewilderment, considering the fact that I just caught myself with one hand on a balcony. Ignoring the lack of logic, I pulled myself up onto the balcony.

Relief filled me when I saw Steve lying in his bed. I began to bang on his window, my hands were going numb as well as my bare feet. It felt like I'd been pounding on the glass forever. There even seemed to be cracks forming.

I've already ruined one of Tony's paintings, I don't need to ruin any more of his property. Instead, I sat down outside of Steve's window, curling in on myself in hopes to warm up.

Probably an hour later, I heard the sliding door open, but my mind had been fogged by the cold, "Oh, gosh, What the heck happened?"

"Locked myself out, fell off the balcony..."

"Um... I need to get you inside," Steve said, before scooping me up and walking inside. I felt myself be carried, I knew we went upstairs, and then I was set on a couch.