Chapter 6
Stuck

I don't know what I will feel since we're stuck here in this room. Everyone knows that the rooms in the second floor of this building are off limit yet I still went, and Dale still went. Jiggling the doorknob, Dale is shouting, his voice echoing inside the room loudly, trying to call for a help. This building is in the north side, which means that the windows of the classroom are facing the back of the school itself. The gym is located on the west side, and the freshmen and sophomore classes are located on the north-west, and the junior and senior classes are located in the south east side. There's one building that connects the building, each hallway leading to different hallway; the Freshman Hallway, the Sophomore Hallway, the Junior Hallway, and the Senior Hallway.

The room is big enough for us, but it feels like I'm being suffocated. Being in one room with Dale seems worse, and I know that I have to get out of here as soon as possible. The students must have gone out already, but there could be anyone, at least just a person, that is still inside the building.

Dale keeps yelling, shouting for any help, but help doesn't come. In fact a huge part of me has lost hope. It's a good thing that today's Friday, which means there's no class tomorrow. What's worse is that we'll have to wait for tomorrow to come. Janitors or the facility staffs are usually roaming around the building to clean the place up.

"This sucks," he says and I nearly roll my eyes at him but fight the urge to do so. Now is not the time to put all the blame on him. It's out of his control, but if he hasn't run here in the first place, this wouldn't have happened at all. Yep, still not his fault.

Slumping my back on the door, taking a seat on the ground, I heave up a sigh and feel frustrated. I'm stuck in a room with the person I'm infatuated with and I can't help but be annoyed by that fact. I'm trying to get out of his zone as far as possible, but it seems like time keeps messing us up and keeps putting us together.

I don't want to be tortured by this.

Finding a way to distract myself because I don't want my eyes meeting his, I fish my phone out of my pocket and unlock the screen, deciding to text Dustin. A bulb flashes just above my head, and I grin to myself. I text him: Stuck inside a room. Need help. Building B, second floor, last room at the second hallway. Please helpppppppp.

"Yes, we're saved!" I say, jumping up in delight. Dale looks at me, his brows furrowed and I show him my phone, jiggling it so he would realize what I just did. "Dustin will get here and help us, Rob."

His brows even furrowed more, if that's even possible, as he looks at me. His head tilts to the side, his arms crossing across his chest, and his face is not showing any emotions. In fact, when I look at him, he looks like a mannequin. "I'm not Dale to you?"

Confusion swims inside his eyes, and I'm sure in my eyes, too. I open my mouth only to shut it close again. I'm not sure how to answer him, and the words are stuck in my throat, never escaping my lips. I admit, I wasn't ready for the question, but it has me thinking, why did I call him Rob when usually I name him as Dale? I only call him that when I'm mad at him. I'm not mad at him. Annoyed, yes, but not mad.

"Are you angry at me?" he asks me, his eyes hard and jaw clenched as he looks at me. The sudden change of his mood has me thinking again, what did I do wrong now? I purse my lips, not really wanting to answer him. All I want to do is run away from here, from him. Cursing under my breath, I take a seat on the ground again, facing the door this time as I don't want to look at him anymore and see his angry face. I can feel his gaze burning the back of my head, and it makes my heart race. A part of wishes to comfort him, to go by his side and tell him that I'm not angry at him, but a huge part of me is protesting not to do so. "Beau." His tone has become different. My name rolls off his tongue like a sweet cotton ball, and my body freezes.

Looking at him over my shoulder, his eyes are sad, and his shoulders are sagged down. "I'm not."

"Then why call me by Rob and not Dale?" The question is really there. And to be honest, I still don't know the answer. "You always call me Dale, and when you're angry, you call me Rob or Robert."

"It's not really a big deal," I say, the lie slides off my tongue like a warm water cascading down my body. Of course it is a lie. It is a big deal for me and obviously for him. He takes a seat beside me, and I scoot far away from him, which makes him scoot closer to me until my shoulder bumps with the wall. "Really. I'm not angry at you, Dale. I'm just annoyed because we're stuck here for Pete's sake."

"I'm sorry," his apology is sincere, and it has me looking at him. He has a sad expression on his face, and in his eyes, I see how scared he is, but he blinks it away and now it's masked with something different. His eyes shine with something else that I can't quite point out, but if he doesn't want me to see it, then so be it. "So Dustin's going to be a hero and save us here?" His tone is almost sarcastic, but his face doesn't show that he's being sarcastic. In fact, he looks more curious instead.

I nod my head, smiling at the thought of Dusting being a hero and saving us. "Yes,"

Dale remains silent, and when I look at him, he has eyes trained on a distant, as if he's drowning in his own thoughts. My phone vibrates in my head, indicating that I've received a message from Dustin, but I can't seem to unlock my phone and view the message while Dale is just sitting beside me. It feels like I'm annoying him by opening the message and responding, and the last thing I want to happen is to annoy him.

So I don't reply. Instead, I grip the phone in my hand and ignore the message that I've received. I already know that Dustin is on his way to saving us, so we'll just have to wait before he comes barging in here and saving me from an utter despair.

"What's going on between you two?" Dale asks suddenly, turning his body to me. What's going on between me and Dustin? I really don't know. We're friends, and we obvious care for each other even though we've just met, and yeah, we're friends. That's what's going on. Nothing else, nothing more. His tone is laced with curiousness, but there's an edge to his voice. "I mean, you guys seem very close. Are you guys, like, exclusively dating?"

I wish, but I'd rather have that title with you. "No, we're not. Exclusively friends."

"But you guys have gone on a date," he pushes, trying to catch a glimpse of my eyes, which I hide by looking away. "At the theme park. You said that you wouldn't be able to join us because family first, but we saw you there."

"Change of plans," I lie. "We went on a friendly date, and that's it."

He doesn't seem convinced by my statements, but he never pushes further. Instead he remains silent, and it's killing me. I wish he would say something, other than being silent, but to no avail, he doesn't voice out his thoughts. I was expecting some kind of warnings about dating Dustin, but he never says anything about it.

He's straight. He will never return your feelings.

I'm thinking like I've been fallen in love with him, but no, this is just an infatuation. Nothing else, nothing more. I'll get over it soon, and Dustin will help me. Instead of dwelling about my feelings, I think of a song that will lighten me up, and I remember the song my father used to sing when I was a little kid: Uptown Girl. The song plays inside my head beautifully, and I think back of the times where my father used to throw me into the air, and I felt like I was flying up high. I was overjoyed.

The shaking of the ground gets me out of my reverie and a smile makes its way into my face. Dustin is here, and he's ready to save me. Standing up, alerting Dale, I hear Dustin's voice calling my name out, and I feel my heart swell with happiness. Finally, we'll be getting out of here.

When I take a look over at the man who was at fault for this, I see Dale has a disappointed look on his face, but it has vanished as fast as it appeared, and now I'm not sure anymore if what I saw is just a figment of my imagination. More likely it's just my imagination because there's no reason for him to be disappointed, right?

Dustin yells my name at the top of his lungs, and a grin spreads across my lips as I shout that I'm just okay. Dale remains silent. "Step back!" Dustin says, and both Dale and I take a step back. The doorknob jingles, and there's a loud thud that jolts me up. Dustin keeps kicking the door, and the knob suddenly falls off, and Dustin busts the door open, revealing himself to be sweaty and looking exhausted. He immediately walks up to me, checking to see if I'm okay. "What happened?"

His eyes meet Dale's, and he never responds. Dale just shrugs, walking out of the room like nothing just happened, without even thanking Dustin for helping us out. I could have thought of that, but I didn't, and he didn't. My mind is not working when I'm around Dale, but that concern will be resolved soon.

My savior ignores Dale's attitude and smiles at me. He picks up my bag on the ground, being a gentleman and all, and winks at me. I roll my eyes playfully. "Seriously, what really happened?"

"Dale ran into the room and shut the door," I respond. "Not sure why though, but it looked like he was trying to get away from the fangirls that were trying to get into his pants." That's maybe the explanation about why I heard the huge pound of feet on the ground.

I notice that he's wearing a grey tank top, and it displays all his tattoos on sight, and I admire them. They really look good on him. Suddenly I have this urge to run the tip of my fingers across his tattooed skin and feel him up. I wonder if they would be smooth and soft under the pads of my fingers.

Shaking that thought away as I don't want my underwear constraining, he drapes his arm across my shoulder and my smile widens at the action. I feel like a girl, but I don't care. I could live with this every day and I'm not going to complain ever.

"You're going to the party later, right?" he asks.

"I am,"

"Cool," he grins, clapping me at the back and I push him away, chuckling. "So should I pick you up?"

"No need," I say, even though I want him to pick me up. I feel like I'm being clingy, and I don't want him to think that I'm being clingy. Maybe I'll have a free-Dustin day, and I'll make him miss me. Sounds like a plan. "Thank you for rescuing me, oh my hero, but I must go home to prepare." He chuckles, shaking his head. "I'm fine by my own. I'm used to it."

He stops walking. "You are?"

I wonder if I said anything wrong. But I only spoke the truth. I'm always on my own. Laughing, I brush away his question and do not answer it. "See you later, good boy."