The Gravity of Love (6 page)

"Yes, that is very true. But you are
his best friend. So I thought you could answer me a few things."

"You can't ask your boyfriend these
few things?"

"No! I can't ask him or he'll know I'm
wondering. I don't want him to know, so you can't tell him."

"What Candice? What do you want? I
really am tired and I'd like a few minutes before driving home."

Candice licked her lips slowly, debating
upon her next words.

"Harrison took me to a fancy
restaurant yesterday. For the second time, and we've only been dating for two
and a half weeks. I know from talk that when he dates, he dates certain women a
certain way depending on how he really feels about them. And I was wondering
if you could tell me what that means. What he feels about me."

Flip flop, flip flop. Molly put her hand
over the top of her stomach to try and settle it. Her head seemed dizzy enough
while she tried to think of what to tell him big pain of annoyance that looked
like a million bucks, even still dressed in her art smock, her blond hair done
up in a haphazard bun, a white dot on the tip on her nose and a blue and red
smudge on her cheekbone. Two fancy dinners after only two weeks of dating? She did
know Harrison's moves. And she did know that what he was doing with Candice was
a great sign that he really liked her and was taking her seriously. He didn't
have much money and hated spending it on someone he was wasting time on. Was he
not wasting time on Candice Greybill? Was he serious about this woman?

Molly swallowed hard and nodded. "It
means...it means you're doing good together. He's not just fooling
around." She whispered, her eyes downcast.

Candice smiled brilliantly, showing off
teeth that were whiter than the white paint on her face. "Oh...oh good,
I'm so glad! I really like this guy after all. He's great, isn't he? Now I know
why you were friends with him so long. How many years were you two friends?
Seven, eight years?"

Molly laughed. "No. Twenty-four
years."

"Wow! And you're what...thirty
five?"

It was a low blow, purposely aimed at her
that took the breath from her lungs momentarily. "I'm the same age as
Harrison. We've known each other since we were four."

"Wow. So you're only twenty-eight? I
never would have guessed. Huh...well okay, you get back to your nap. I have to
go out to the field I'm coaching cheerleading now. Harrison's going to pick
me up after and we're going on a great date he says it's a surprise. Oh, do I
have any paint on my face?" Candice asked, taking off her smock and
rubbing her face. A mistake, seeing that undried paint from her smock had
transferred to her fingers and then to her face, making her cheeks color with
green and yellow, a strange combination that even clowns shouldn't try.

But Molly just smiled sweetly, Candice's
words still floating around harshly in her head. "Nope, not at all."
She lied with a shake of her head, then closed her eyes and listened until
Candice finally retreated out of the classroom and to where ever the next place
she had to go was.

_______________________________________________________________________

She had promised herself that she wouldn't
let Candice's relationship with Harrison get to her again. It was part of her
new life changing situation to let Harrison be Harrison and not get
frustrated or jealous. Yet there was a pain deep in her chest that drove her
wild. An ache, dull and deep, yet sharp and right on the surface. Her belly
felt constricted, clenched as if it was on strike and giving a warning. Her
head felt dizzy, like her brain was shrinking, yet as if her skull was
overfilled with cotton. And it all hurt. All of it. Enough that she had made
Marty drive, only to get out five miles before they reached home so she could
walk the rest of the way car sickness hadn't helped her condition and she was
hoping the fresh Nevada air would. After all, her body was making such a fuss
over nothing. Really, what did it matter if Harrison was getting serious? If he
was falling for exmodelart teacher cheerleading coach beauty queen Miss
California

2000 Candy Grey? Why would she care? Even
if he was married, they'd remain close friends. They had promised blood
oaths. Swore on their lives they'd stick together or they'd burn in hell. So
why was her mind making her doubt Harrison's loyalty even still? Why was there
that nagging voice that kept telling her Harrison would rather leave her and
pay the consequences of burning in hell before sticking around just for her?

With a sigh from a heavy heart, she entered
the old rickety elevator of their apartment. Usually she hated and refused to
get on for multiple reasons instead, she usually opted for the stairs. But
this wasn't usually. Harrison was getting serious over a woman a woman she
hated. This was definitely not unusually, for Harrison getting serious over
anyone had never happened before. And her body had never took such a beating
for him.

"Not Usually." She whispered,
pressing the third button and watching the shaky doors slowly close with a
hollow thud, closing out the world beyond. That part felt good for thirty
seconds, she'd have a space losed off from everyone else.

The elevator went upwards, slowly,
creaking, giving off eery sounds that she had always hated. Her mind flashed to
the Disney World ride of Tower of Terror and imagined the elevator flying down
the chute to her death. She looked at the buttons the floors only went up to
six. Not nearly as dramatic as the movies. Why would the haunted elevator even
bother?

Because of this, she convinced herself that
she was safe. Yet it was a fleeting thought, so soon the elevator raced past
the third floor and went up to the top, then screeched to a stop forceful
enough that she crammed her body in the corner and hung on tight. The doors
flew open and stuck that way.

Her breath came only in small gasps. The
floor up here was freezing cold, despite the fact that it was only a not too
cold October. But it was cold enough to make her skin prick with goosebumps
through her purple light windbreaker.

The floor was also pitch black she had
heard of this place. It was no longer rented out but closed off instead. The
builders weren't the smartest the elevator was the only way out. There was a
fire and the only escape had been this elevator. Luckily, no one had been
killed, but there were serious burns the two men that were home at the time
had managed to jam the elevator doors closed to protect from the fire and had
waited there until the fire department had come. After that, instead of
investing in getting the apartment redone and build a fire escape, they had
made sure the floor was sturdy enough to safely stand so that the floors below
would be safe, and then they had shut this level down.

Which meant that some of the walls were
still marked with the black tattoos that the fire had left behind. It looked
eerie here, especially against all the cobwebs and such against it. No one had
lived here for over ten years. And thanks to the lazy attendant, there was no
way out for Molly. Not with the freaky elevator stuck.

This had happened once before to her when
she had first gotten the place. She was frightened of small, dark places, but
there had been rats and bats up here at the time, so she had been forced to
stay in the elevator and close the doors after about an hour or so, she was
in hysterics.

Harrison, who was supposed to be showing
her around town that day, had found her that way, on the edge of
unconsciousness and scared out of her wits. He had known she must have been
stuck up there and had to call the fire company to get her down which had
taken longer than forever for someone like Molly.

But this time, no one would find her like
that. She'd stay calm and she'd get out.

She got out her cell phone, already knowing
she couldn't call and that there would be no bars for a signal, but looking
anyway. Once this fact was confirmed, she pressed the back button on it, which
made

light shine from the flashlight indicator
at the top. There, that was something, at least.

She looked around, but the light actually
made it scarier than the dark had. Which was a good thing, considering that her
battery was low.

After trying to pry off the wood from the
windows and failing, she looked around the floor one more time. Not finding any
other ways of escape, she returned to the elevator and started trying to pry
the carpet from the floor. By the time she had ripped up about two feet, her
fingertips were sore and bleeding slightly. But she had found what she working
for a square of the elevator floor had been cut out by the firefighters. When
it was replaced, they had put a latch on it so if the elevator got stuck again,
the firefighters would be able to get to the people inside easier and faster.
Harrison had escaped this way, using heavy duty working gloves to shimmy down
the sharp elevator lines. Even with those gloves, the line had torn through to
his skin. She didn't have anything to protect her hands, so escaping down the
lines was useless, even though all power to the elevator had shut off by itself
to make it safe in at least that way. The power wouldn't be returning for at
least a week when the companies came.

"Well this sucks." She growled,
leaving the latch door open and standing up, walking around it. Because of the
cold, she tried to shut the doors but found it impossible. They were jammed
open.

Zipping her windbreaker a little higher and
tucking her chin and mouth inside to make it warmer, she checked her watch. In
ten minutes she was supposed to be meeting Marty, Joe and Harrison at a
restaurant for a late lunch or early dinner. It wasn't good now they'd all be
gone by now. Unless...

Harrison was known to be late to most
everything but work. Would he still come? But even if he did, how would he know
that she was here? Over half the time he took the stairs too. Five or six times
to be stuck up here over the years was enough to gamble with the elevator only
when he had time to spare.

She hadn't seen his truck outside the
apartment, and he had to come home to feed his dog Jake and take him out for a
run over a block or too.

Either way, he'd find her. He always did
when she managed to get herself in difficult positions, despite the fact that
she hated it had to be him. After one of these 'wonderful rescues of the damsel
in distress' he'd gloat and act like her own personal super hero that she just
had to have because she was quite helpless quite often.

After a half hour of being stranded up
there, she was starting to think that she'd willing let him gloat around if he
wanted to if only he'd come...

_______________________________________________________________________

Molly looked at her watch. Forty five
minutes late to the restaurant and she still wasn't sure of Harrison's
whereabouts, only that he wasn't here. She had already debated taking her
clothes and making a rope of it to try to get to another level but not only
was the material of her clothes too slippery to have knots that would keep, but
she only wore a pair of jeans and a tank top with a windbreaker over top not
much to go on.

While waiting, she even had a debate with
herself over the pros and cons of having hair like Repunzel. It must suck to
comb out all the time, but it sure would come in handy at strange times like
this. After all, if she was Repunzel, she wouldn't be sitting in the corner of
a broken elevator, shaking from the cold and listening to the high squeak
noises of either mouse or bat, perhaps both. She sat as still as possible after
a while, paranoia setting in as her mind played tricks on her making her
think that the elevator was slowly sinking and would soon crash to the ground.

But she was calm, and that was the
important thing. She refused to let her situation get the best of her and leave
her with the worst this time. This time would be different. She'd survive this
in one piece if only someone would come and lend her a hand...

_______________________________________________________________________

Harrison came strolling in the apartment
building, the blue fur of an Australian dog leading the way.

Jake hated the stairs. He'd go up them if
his fur was soaked and wanted to me home as quickly as possible which
required breaking away from his master and running up the stairs. But on a
sunny day such as this, he wanted to go the lazy way, despite the fact that
Harrison was so late to dinner. He was sure Molly would give him quite the
mouthful when he arrived at the restaurant an hour late.

"Jake, that elevator takes five
minutes just to go down, let alone go up. You hate when it creaks, remember?
And what if it happens to get stuck? I'll be able to get out, but the hell with
you. And then Molly would freak out more on me because I'd have to save your
sorry behind, which should only take an hour..."

Harrison looked down at the dog that was
staring back at him with mismatched eyes that looked at him as if saying,
'aren't you wasting more time arguing with your dog instead of just doing what
little that I ask?'

Which ended up sealing the deal.
"Fine, fine." He groaned, pressing the down button at the elevator
doors. It didn't work. He stood there for a few minutes, yet still nothing
happened.