STUCK IN A LIFT WITH MY ENEMY *GONE WRONG* (WE ALMOST DIED)

The sun was shining through the gap in the curtains. Jamie had woken first and took those rare moments to gaze at the beauty that he gets to call his boyfriend. He loved getting to spend his mornings counting his many freckles, or listening to his sleepy mutters, or simply just appreciating the way that the sun shining on his face makes him seem almost angelic. A few minutes went by when he heard the other side of the bed creak, signalling that his lover had finally awoken.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Jamie teased, brushing away a few strands of caramel coloured hair that had strayed onto Mikey’s forehead. The latter chuckled sleepily, softly swatting Jamie’s hand away and sitting up to look at him properly.

“It’s meant to be a lovely day. We should do something.”

“Like an outside something? I don’t know, I have to film a video.”

“You can film a going outside vlog or something. I’ll hide out of frame.” Mikey joked while putting on his grey bunny slippers. He walked across the room to pick up his dressing gown and made his way to the kitchen, his boyfriend following closely behind him.

“I guess. Why don’t we have a picnic?” Jamie squeaked excitedly, almost spilling the water as he was pouring it into the kettle. Instead of answering verbally, Mikey searched through his cupboards to find food that was suitable. He piled it up neatly in a pyramid shape on the kitchen counter and smiled proudly at his placement of said food items.

“So I’m assuming that’s a ‘yes’ on the picnic front.” Jamie spoke into his coffee, a huge smile spread across his face. Mikey hummed in response, his attention captivated by the piece of toast he was buttering. Mikey truly loved these kind of mornings, the kitchen was bathed in a warm yellow hue from the sun that was streaming through the window, the room was silent apart from the sound of the kettle boiling and the knife scraping on Mikey’s toast, and they had managed to walk away from a heavy night out without a hangover that would ruin both of their days. Mikey loved the quiet, intimate moments in life; the ones that are spent with the most important people in your life, normally spent in a comfortable silence. While Jamie loved the quiet times in life, he found that too much silence makes him uncomfortable and will try to fill any silence with any topic that comes to mind.

“We can make some sandwiches to go with our picnic.” Jamie rushed to the fridge and pulled out all of the ingredients to make some sandwiches. Mikey chuckled softly, making himself a cup if green tea. He was trying to avoid consuming too much caffeine at the moment after he read an article about the dangers of the chemical. After he finished his cup of tea, he joined his boyfriend in making the sandwiches.

“I’ll make sweet sandwiches and you can make savoury sandwiches.” Jamie instructed, tearing open the bag that the bread was held in.

“How many sweet sandwiches can you think of? I can only think of one.”

“Let me guess. Nutella? Well, I can think of Nutella, Honey, Honey and banana, Nutella and banana, jam. See there’s loads.”

“I guess I stand corrected.” The pair were too lost in their own world to not notice the dark clouds that had hidden the sun. They put their sandwiches in the basket along with the rest of the food and headed towards the lift. Mikey lived in a fairly new building so the lifts were more reliable than they would be in an older building. Mikey lived on the 6^th floor so it was quite a long time in the lift. It took the couple a few minutes to realise that they had been in the lift for a lot longer than they normally are.

“We’ve been in this lift for a while, haven’t we?” Jamie asked, a nervous tone lacing his voice.

“Hang on, I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere since the 3^rd floor.” Mikey replied, mimicking the same nervous tone as his boyfriend, repeatedly pressing the emergency button. Nothing.

“I think there’s been a power cut.” Jamie laughed anxiously, sitting on the floor as he had a feeling they would have to be there for a while.

“Well, that’s ok, we should film it. We can title it ‘stuck in a lift with my enemy’.” Mikey joked, pulling the vlogging camera out of his backpack.

“That’s a pretty good idea.” Jamie kissed his boyfriend sweetly before turning on the camera.

“Hey guys, the worst thing happened to me today. I’m stuck in a lift with my worst enemy. Now to pass some time, were gonna be asking each other questions to see if we can find some mutual ground.” His voice was louder and more animated on camera than he speaks off camera. He did his best to avoid panning the camera onto Mikey, who, at the time, hadn’t revealed his face to his audience yet. They cycled through a generic game of 20 questions, trying their best to keep up appearances of their fake feud.

“So, do you have any pets?” Jamie asked halfway through the game.

“Yes, I have a snake named noodle. She was the only pet my landlord would allow.” After that question, they turned the camera off so they could take a break and try to call for help again.

“This video is gonna be so boring, darling.” Mikey chuckled, biting into a cheese and pickle sandwich.

“Don’t worry, it can all be fixed in editing.” Jamie replied, reaching into the picnic basket and pulling out a tube of Texas BBQ Pringles.

“Its been ages. Why has no one come for us yet? We’re going to die in here.”

“It’s only been 45 minutes, they’ll come.” Mikey spoke calmly, rubbing circles on his boyfriend’s back. Despite what he was saying, even Mikey was starting to feel a bit anxious. The sound of the thunder was muffled inside the large metal box but it could still be heard. He tried his best to stay calm as he knew that if he panicked, Jamie would panic twice as hard.

“Right we should finish the end of this boring video. It’s a good thing we brought the camera.” Mikey joked before getting back in character.

“What is your favourite food?” Mikey’s voice was monotone and bored. He did this in the hopes of sounding almost standoffish to play into their feud. He hated this feud, he hated being someone he’s not. Especially to his fans, whom he adores so much.

“Pizza. Specifically Hawaiian. Yes, I know, you can all unsubscribe now.” He chuckled at his own, unfunny joke.

“Ok, my turn. What is your biggest fear?” Jamie asked, painfully aware of how dull the current questions are.

“Being forced to not be true to myself.” Mikey replied, staring daggers into his boyfriend, although that wasn’t shown on camera. Sensing the hint, Jamie turned off the camera so they could talk about this response properly.

“No one’s forcing you to do anything, Mikey.” Jamie tried his best to keep his voice calm but it was failing him.

“Yes, well, I didn’t think we’d still be lying about it this far into our relationship. We’re thinking of living together and our fans still think we hate each other!” Tears were streaming down Mikey’s face as he admitted something he had wanted to since they had started dating.

“I thought you liked the exhilaration of sneaking around!” Jamie matched the same tone as Mikey, completely abandoning his attempts to remain calm.

“At first! It’s been 8 months, Jamie!” Jamie tried to argue but he couldn’t find the words to do so. He knew Mikey was right and he felt guilty that he hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t happy with their current arrangement.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been selfish. I should have put you first.” His voice was a lot softer now and some of the words were catching in the back of his throat. Mikey couldn’t bring himself to look at his lover and kept his eyes fixated on the ground, picking at a napkin. There was a tension in the room at this current moment, no one bringing themselves to speak to the other.

It must have been around 20 minutes that went by and they were still not talking to each other. They had now moved to opposite sides of the, surprisingly large, lift and were still avoiding any eye contact with the other. Mikey wanted to say something, to tell him that it didn’t bother him as much as that and he just over reacted but that would be a lie. Jamie also wanted to say something, so tell him that he is so much more important than the audience he as spent years aquiring and that he would give it all up in a heartbeat but that was also a lie. Both of them knew that trying to resolve the situation with more lies would just make it worse, so instead, they sat there in silence and allowed their own guilt to consume them.

Another 5 minutes or so went by when they say the lights in the lift turn back on again. They felt the lift descend to the ground floor and Jamie got out. He expected Mikey to get out as well but he didn’t. instead, he stayed in the lift and pushed the button for the 6^th floor. This display broke Jamie’s heart into pieces but he didn’t fight it. Instead, he left his boyfriend’s, or who he hopes is still his boyfriend, apartment building, stepping out into the cold dark street. It was even raining to set the mood and to mask the tears that were slipping down his cheeks violently.