The Ideal and the Real

The Elevator / Killing Time

Sunday wasn't really interesting. It flew by just like that. I'm still waiting for Lucas's reply, but it never came. Sigh. Why am I too attached to this guy anyway? He only talked to me because he was bored. He was probably waiting for his friends to talk to him or something.

I walked to the library by myself. No Lucas in sight. Maybe he was in class already. But it can't be. It's only 9:30. I wasn't in the mood to walk using the stairs, so I walked over to the elevator.

I heard a familiar voice behind me. It was Lucas.

"Jill! There you are... I gotta tell you my phone stopped working in the middle of last Saturday. When you called me, I was in the middle of washing my hands. I accidentally turned the knob the wrong way and burned myself. Then my phone dropped in the sink right after, when the water was running again. I'm sorry."

Oh. My assumptions were wrong. "It's okay. But how did you get home without contacting your parents to pick you up?"

"I just walked home. My work's only ten minutes away from it. Sometimes, I ride my bike when I feel like it."

Okay okay okay, Jill. Not everyone gets picked up by their parents after going somewhere. Not everyone's like you. "That's wonderful! Are you going to get it fixed soon?"

Lucas nodded. "It isn't really a big deal to me, because I don't use my phone that much anyway. If my laptop broke, then I'd get worried. Hey, do you want to use the elevator today? I think it would be a grand way to enter class."

The elevator was inviting us to step in. It looked really old from the inside. "I'm not so sure about this, Lucas. It looks really old. I'm scared it might not work, or even worse, get us stuck."

Lucas did an "I don't care" downward gesture using his arm. "Don't worry about it! This elevator works wonders. Other people used it before and haven't gotten stuck. No problem there! Let's go."

He let me enter it first. Then he did. My heart was beating frantically knowing that I'm in a small space with him.

Lucas scanned through the elevator buttons. "Now where's the one for floor three? Hmm..."

I pointed at where the button was. "Right there. Beside floor two. Duh." I smiled. "It's like you're looking for Sweden again. Remember that?"

He smiled back. "Of course I did! That was only a few days ago, in this library."

The elevator door was still open. We saw three people walk by.

"This elevator doesn't even work. It's not closing! I'm out."

Suddenly, the door closes as I was about to get out. Lucas pulled me away with much force from it. He awkwardly lets go of me. Then I hit a corner and felt too weak to stand. My head also hurt.

Lucas kneeled down beside me when the elevator started going up. "Are you okay?"

"No. I'm not. Let's not use this thing again! It's all your fault that I'm hurt!"

I blame myself for getting too attached to this guy. But I'm in love with everything about him.

"Well, again, I'm sorry! Can we make up? Please?" He offered his hand to me. "Here. I can help you get up."

I held his hand so I can stand again. Luckily, I did. But my legs still felt weak. Weak enough to accidentally lead me too close to him. He still hasn't let go. Our eyes were fixed on each other for a few seconds, but Lucas looked away and let go of my hand. Those seconds felt amazing.

Then I checked the time and saw that a minute passed. We were in here for a minute and we're still not on the third floor.

"Is this elevator actually going or no?" asked Lucas.

I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I don't operate this thing,"

We were awkward for the rest of the stay. Then the sound we've been waiting to hear was finally heard. The elevator DING.

Lucas jumped with excitement. "Ahh! I love you so much! I love that sound of joy. Now we're finally here! Let's run to class. C'mon Jill, the clock is ticking!" He knew he had to stay quiet because we were in a library.

He said I love you so much in that sentence like it was directed to me. I blushed. My New York watch was actually ticking, too. Maybe he heard it. Maybe he pays attention to the little details unlike every other guy does.

Lucas grabbed my arm lightly as we ran for our class. I didn't see the point of doing so; our class will start in 15 minutes. There's still time. He was probably excited to start already.

The door to our class was closed. "Aw man! I wish it was 10 already. Now what do we do?"

"I know! Use your pho-- oh wait. It doesn't work."

He sighed. "I don't know how to kill time without using my phone. I know how to manage it, but this time, I want to do the opposite."

"Use your laptop?"

He shook his head. "No. I can't set it up that quickly. It takes long to log in to the school's wifi."

I can picture a thought bubble with three dots above his head as he looked like he was thinking about it. "Lucas, remember what happened in the Centre? I hope you don't repeat the same mistake again. I heard this class lasts for a while."

Then I pictured a lightbulb above his head when he finally got the idea. "Oh. Right! I remember. I'm not feeling it quite yet, but I'll go anyway. Ya know, just to let the minutes pass by. Okay, I'll be right back. This time, I won't take long."

Yup, just as I expected. He headed straight to the bathroom nearby.

I decided to kill time myself by checking my phone and doing some photo editing on it.

Lucas walked out with a smile. "It wasn't that bad, but thanks for the advice. I killed some time! How many minutes do we have left?"

I checked my phone. "9:50... so ten minutes." Other people, mostly guys, were now waiting with us. There were only five girls in a crowd of about 30 people.

"Don't you need to do the time killing now? That way."

I realized I haven't been following my own advice. I did exactly what Lucas did five minutes ago. Honestly, I didn't regret it at all. I walked back to Lucas.

He was happy to see me. "Hi! I hope you're okay now. What's the time?"

"9:55." But then I realized Lucas didn't hear me. He was talking to someone else.

"Is the instructor here yet?" Lucas asked the guy beside him.

"No," the guy replied. "No sign of a grown-up anywhere."

"I'm looking forward to this class and want it to start immediately. I can't wait any longer. I did everything just to let time pass."

"Same. My friends and I were just at the coffee shop downstairs. You?"

Lucas smiled. "Oh, it's nothing really. Well, the highlight of my day so far is getting stuck in the elevator for a minute..."

With me. He was too shy to say it.

Then our instructor finally came. He looked quite young. The door was now open.

Lucas ended the conversation with the guy and looked back at me. "The time killing we did was worth it."

"Yes. Yes it was."

I caught his eyes focusing on my mouth, and then back to my own eyes. "Let's enter, shall we?"

I closed my eyes and nodded.

He was about to grab my arm again, but stopped from doing so because of the fairly large crowd. The result of this was just us awkwardly walking side by side.

Lucas acted strange this morning. Well, he always did, but this is a good kind of strange. One that makes me wonder if he likes me back. Does he? I really don't know.

Time to share my first class with him.