First Rival, First Floor

“What floor?” 

  “First floor.” 

I pressed the ‘one’ button, looking him up and down. Everything about him was just so…annoying. 

“Like what you see?”

“Ew, no. Anyone who's never seen you must be blessed.” I rolled my eyes, watching his eyes narrow. We’ve been in the same hotel for A WEEK! I don’t know if I can even be in the same state as him anymore, he is driving me CRAZY! 

“This elevator is taking a while, isn’t it?” He looked at me, then looked away quickly.

“That's the one thing we can agree on...” I watched the numbers change as the elevator went down, finally hitting one. “Finally...” I went up to the door, waiting for it to open.

“Uh…why isn’t it opening?” 

“You think I know the answer to everything that happens? No! It just isn’t opening.” 

Percy Kayson, my rival since the start of elementary school, out of ALL the people I could’ve been stuck with, I’m stuck in an elevator with him? 

“You know, if we tried really hard, I bet we could pry the door open.” Percy said, setting his swim bag down.

“I bet you're not used to trying hard.” I crossed my arms, rolling my eyes. “Anyway, elevator doors can be up to like, 700lbs.”

“Nuh uh.” Percy crossed his arms, my eyebrow raising.

“What do you mean ‘nuh uh!?’ I’m literally right.” 

“Dude, there's literally an emergency button why didn’t we press it before all this-” Percy pressed the button, the lights shutting off, the button becoming unusable.

“Great, now you broke everything.” I crossed my arms, scoffing. 

“Why do you blame everything on me?! It just went out at the same time!” Percy groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Why do you not think stuff through?!” I raised my voice, nearly screaming at him. 

“Just shut up!” He yelled back, his voice echoing through the elevator shaft. 

I backed up into the metal wall panel, taken aback by his aggressive tone. 

“I- sorry…I just really need to make it to the meet, it’s really important to me...” Percy lowered his voice, with a wistful tone.

“It’s- never mind. Let’s just make it out of here…” I looked away, crossing my arms. 

We shared an awkward yet thoughtful silence that was at least five minutes but felt like hours. I had never seen Percy so…introspective. 

“Listen, I have some ideas to get out, but it’ll need us to work together.” Percy explained, “It won’t take too long if we do it right.” 

“I’m listening...”

“So, my first idea was if we ran at the door hard enough, it would break through. My second idea was if we got something sharp enough, we could break the ceiling tile and crawl through-”

“I- woah. What did you just say?”

“I said my two ideas were-”

“I heard you; I just didn’t want to hear the rest. That was going to literally rot my brain just hearing you talk.” I interrupted, scoffing quietly. 

“That’s mean!” He crossed his arms. 

After listening to Percy’s plan, I wonder how in the world he came up with it. Could it work? Possibly. Is it realistic? No, not at all. Do I have to work with my rival, Percy Kayson? Yes, unfortunately. 

“Do you have anything sharp?”

“No, I’m not from Mississippi. I don’t just carry around a pocketknife or something like that.”

“That’s a shame. Anyways, what could we make sharp?” Percy looked in his swim backpack. 

“Dude- we’re not making anything sharp. We’ll get flagged at a metal detector.”

I really can’t tell if he’s serious or not.

“Well, what do you have in mind?!” Percy put his hands on his hips, “Exactly. Nothing.” 

I sighed, looking around. I’ve spent nearly sixteen years of my life with Percy, and he still can’t be serious. 

“You know, I thought you’d be serious for once in your life once you mentioned a ‘plan,’ but no. Of course you have to make everything into one big joke.” I slid onto the ground, resting my head on my knees. 

 Percy paused, opening his mouth to speak, but staying silent. He sat down on the ground, sighing softly. I glanced over to Percy, looking him up and down quickly.  

 “I’m sorry…” Percy said regretfully, “I’m just trying to lighten up the situation, make it more relaxing, you know?” He added.

Why do I feel bad for Percy? He’s meant to be my rival. 

   “I…I should be sorry. I’ve been the one that keeps talking so much crap to you, and you’re usually just trying to be nice…” I ran a hand through my hair.

Percy scooted closer to me, patting my back. 

“It’s fine Kade, I’ve definitely been rude to you.” He chuckled, pulling me into a side hug. 

“You know, you're not too bad, Percy.” I smiled.

Percy smiled back, making eye contact with me. “You’re not too bad either, Kade.” He said in a gentle tone. 

“Right, how are we going to get out of here? Seriously this time.” I got up, stretching my arms above my head. 

“Well, the cell service here sucks, so calling or texting someone won’t help…we could just spam the fire emergency button? This is still an emergency so it would probably work!” Percy got up, dusting his shirt off. He grabbed his swim bag, grabbing mine, tossing it to my feet. 

“Thanks.” I smiled softly and quickly, grabbing my bag, swinging it around my shoulder. “So, are you going to press it or...?”

Percy walked past me, beginning to press the button over and over. 

“Dude- what if you break it though?” I grabbed his hand, pushing it away. 

“That’s- actually a good point. I’ll stop.” Percy backed up, leaning against the elevator doors. 

Finally, he was going to drive me crazy and just ruin that whole moment…

“So, do we just wait it out now?” Percy asked.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I leaned on the other side of the elevator door, looking at Percy. 

“It would be crazy if, like, the door just opened right now.” He giggled.

“Dude, you’re making me worried now…” I pushed myself off the door, crossing my arms. 

Percy giggled, the doors opening behind him. I grabbed his arm, yanking him back into the elevator. Percy fell onto me, causing us to fall. Percy burst out laughing, sliding next to me. I got up quickly, cracking a smile. 

“Let’s go! We’re gonna be late!” I gave Percy a hand getting up, quickly running out of the elevator. “Thank you!”