Beautiful Nightmare

[Aussie_Stace]

★ BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARE ★

The thunderstorm that covered the city was growing louder and louder, making the music from my iPod seem quieter and quieter. As I'd been walking I'd had to progressively turn it up, so that now, when I had finally reached the hotel, it was playing at maximum volume. Noise control wasn't my only complaint for the moment; I'd had to walk back to the hotel in the storm and by the time I'd got to the elevator in the hotel lobby, I was soaking wet.

Damn rain.

Why did it only ever rain when I didn't have an umbrella or some sort of waterproof jacket?

As I stepped into the elevator, I noticed another figure, a man stood over by the control. I pushed my hood down, a few strands of hair that had been left unprotected plastered themselves to the side of my face. Oh yes, very attractive.

'Which floor?' The stranger asked politely, his fingers hovering over the controls. There was an accent in his voice, definitely not the American twang I'd been hearing for the past few weeks. I could barely hear him over the music that was still blaring from my earphones, so I quickly turned the device off before answering.

'Fourteen please,' I answered, looking up at him. I recognised the man immediately. He was one of my favourite actors. Naturally, I turned into a nervous wreck, and became completely unable to do anything, but stare my shoes. Part of me wanted to ask for an autograph while a more dominant part of me decided not to embarrass myself. God knows the poor guy must get enough girls screaming in his face, he certainly didn't need me doing it in an elevator.

We ascended in a comfortable silence for about thirty seconds, until the elevator suddenly slammed violently to a halt, sending me flying into him. Although he managed to grab onto me, he couldn't keep us both upright. Meaning that we both toppled to the floor, with him landing on top of me. Now if you’ve ever seen any of his movies, you will know just how burly this man is. My wrist made a painful crunching noise as we landed. White hot pain flashed up my arm, bringing tears to my eyes. I had also lost the ability to breathe.

‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, getting off me and walking up to the elevator controls. He hadn’t realised how much pain I was in as he hadn’t made eye contact, the awkwardness of being on top of a complete stranger prompting him to keep his green-eyed gaze downcast.

‘Hello. Ummm…we’re stuck in this elevator,’ he spoke into the small square intercom.

‘The technician has been called, please wait for assistance,’ said an automated machine.

Oh great, so very helpful.

I pulled myself into a sitting position and lent against the wall opposite the doors, cradling my arm to my chest, hoping it’d sooth some of the pain. The main light had gone off as the elevator stopped, leaving the tiny room lit only by the glow of the buttons on the panel and the emergency lighting which gave the small area an eerie glow. The numbers above the doors indicated we were trapped in between floors.

‘Are you ok?’ he suddenly asked, sitting down next to me. I nodded even though the tears were threatening to spill over and flood the elevator. I would not cry! ‘What’s your name?’ he asked softly.

‘I’m Stacey. And I’m fine, thank you,’ I lied through my teeth, my voice choked with tears. I glanced up at him. He was looking back at me, concerned. I looked back down and sniffed unappealingly.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you Stacey. Are you sure you’re ok?’ He eyed my arm that I was cradling.

Embarrassed, I blushed and tried to tuck it my bad arm inside my jacket, despite the fact that there was no obvious signs of injury.

‘Yeah, don’t worry about it.’ I chewed on my lip, wanting a distraction. ‘How long do you think we’ll be stuck in here?’

‘No idea. My money’s on an hour though.’

He flashed a smile that caused his eyes to light up.

‘Ten says an hour and a half.’

‘Deal.’ I offered him my good hand and we shook on our ‘bet’. His large paw practically swallowed my tiny hand.

‘So where were you off to before getting stuck?’ I questioned, knowing that there was little else we could do other than talk. I wasn’t sure he would want to get to know me, but I definitely wanted to get to know him a little better.

‘Just back to my room, to get ready for a premier that I have to go to. How about you?’

He turned his body to face me and looked directly into my eyes, giving me his full attention.

‘Honestly?’ I asked. He nodded in anticipation. ‘I was actually going up to my room to get changed to go to your premier.’

I blushed at my admittance. Now completely unable to maintain eye contact any longer, I inspected my shoes for scuff marks. Actually I really did need to go shoe shopping sometime soon. They looked a disgrace.

‘Ah, so I’m stuck in an elevator with a crazed fan?’ Out of the corner of my eye I saw him smirk at me, causing me to blush even further.

‘Afraid so. This is probably all my fault, you know? I’ve got terrible luck.’

‘These things happen,’ he shrugged easily.

‘I know. I just wish they’d stop happening to me.’ I shifted slightly, pulling my hurt arm further towards me, holding it up with my other arm. I winced slightly as pain shot through, but I covered it up as quickly as I was able.

‘We should probably try and sling that up or something until we get out.’ He didn’t miss a trick.

Maybe it had something to do with being an actor and knew acting when it happened. Or maybe he was just observant to body language in general.

‘I don’t really have anything to use.’ I looked around helplessly. ‘I guess I could use my jacket, but it’s freezing it here and I’d have to somehow get it off…’ I trailed off into a mumble, thinking about the heat. Or the lack of. It really was quite cold. I was stuck in a tiny box with another person, male nonetheless, and only a small vent in the ceiling. Surely it should have been warmer.

‘Here.’ I looked back over to him to see he had taken off his brown leather jacket and was holding it out to me. I took it in one hand before looking blankly at him. I'd previously used a shirt to sling my little brother's arm when he fell off his bike when he was 9, but I wasn't sure how to do it on myself.

'Er...could you help me?'

He nodded and shuffled on his knees towards me, obviously unsure of how he was supposed to help. I gave him some instructions which he followed whilst trying to be as gentle as possible. When I was sufficiently tied up, he sat back, admiring his work.

‘Thank you,’ I said softly, smiling gratefully at him.

‘How bad’s the pain?’ he looked genuinely upset at the thought of me being in pain.

I give a one shouldered shrug. ‘It’s not bad, don’t worry about it.’

‘And just how much are you downplaying the pain?’ Although his tone wasn’t serious, I knew he was expecting a truthful answer.

I sighed. ‘Quite a lot.’ Once again, I found myself looking at my shoes. I had now shown myself to be a lying fan girl with a low pain treshold. Some impression I made. I took a deep breath before adjusting our makeshift sling. The pain was unbearable, however some part of my mind managed to register the fact that his jacket smelt good. Insanely good.

‘I wish there was something I cou…’

‘Stop!’ I laughed for the first time. ‘There’s nothing you can do. You’ve given me your jacket, even though you must be cold too, that’s enough. Don’t worry.’

He shook his head and chuckled. It was music to my ears. ‘You’re not American, are you?’ he said, in his Scottish burr.

I shook my head. ‘I’m actually from Australia.’

‘Wow,’ he said, nodding. ‘So what are you doing here then?’

‘I’ve been working for the past 5 years none stop, so that I could travel the world. I left Australia 6 weeks ago. My first stop was Ireland. Ended spending 2 glorious weeks there.’

He smiled. ‘Did you go to Scotland as well?’

I smiled back at him. ‘I did. It was breathtaking.’ A little like him really.

He opened his mouth, presumably to ask another question, but at that moment I made the mistake of shifting my weight ever so slightly. The pain made me whimper, a scarcely audible sound, however it was enough to of a noise to derail his thoughts and stop him from talking. For the third time or maybe fourth time since entering the elevator tears filled my eyes, only now I was unable to hold them back. I’d never been good with pain, but this was a joke. How much could one potential fracture hurt?’

To hide my tears, which were now sliding down my cheeks, I bowed my head and turned away from him.

‘Oh hey, hey come on darlin’, there’s no need to hide from me.’ He curled one strong arm around me across my hunched shoulders as his other hand moved my face. He softly nudged my chin, tilting my head up to make eye contact with him. ‘Please don’t cry.’

‘Sorry,’ I blubbered. ‘I’m not very good with pain.’

He tightened his grip on my shoulder briefly, giving them a quick squeeze before using his free hand to dry my tears. ‘No need to be sorry. We’ll be out of here soon enough and then I can take you to the hospital.’

Of their own accord, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ‘You don’t have to take me. Plus, you have a premier to attend. No one will know or care if I’m not there, but they’ll certainly notice your absence!’

‘Well, true, but I don’t feel right just leaving you wandering around injured.’

‘I’m in a city, not the outback. I won’t die if you leave me, I’ll just google the nearest hospital and walk there.’ I smiled at his sweetness, he really was a gentleman.

‘Walk?’ he asked, confused. ‘Why don’t you take a cab, it’ll be quicker!’

‘And expensive!’ I argued.

‘I’ll pay.’ His simple statement shocked me. I looked up at him, staring at his face to figure out his ulterior motive.

‘You don’t have to do that!’ I shook my head.

‘I know.’ Our eyes locked, each staring the other one into submission. No winner was found however as the normal lights flicked back on, the elevator shuddered down half a floor and the doors were slowly prised open. He stood up, reaching back down to offer his hand to assist me. I grasped his hand tightly, allowing him to pull me up. Again, my hand felt incredibly small in his his. In fact, now that we were standing side by side, all of me felt small although that wasn’t unusual. At five foot one, I could only just reach the overhead compartment on airlines.

On the other side of the door, was a rather worried looking mechanic of some sort, plus another familiar, a co-star in his latest movie. ‘I’ll be up in five,’ he smoothly as he walked out of the elevator, tugging me along with him.

His co-star nodded and wandered off down the hallway.

‘Erm, here’s your jacket,’ I mumbled, nerves suddenly returned to me. I reached to untie my jacket-made sling, but was stopped.

‘No, you keep it. It’s probably best you don’t move your arm around a whole lot,’ he rummaged around in his jeans pocket and pulled out a few bank notes.

‘No, I couldn’t possibly…’ I began. He pressed the notes into the palm of my hand and I automatically curled my fingers around them to stop them from falling.

‘Please sweetheart.’ His dazzling green eyes pleaded with me and found myself unable to utter a single word. I nodded dumbly instead.

‘Sorry I can’t come with you. But I do hope you can still make it to the premier, Stacey.’ Again, I was speechless. He gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. ‘It was nice meeting you.’

And with that, I watched him walk down the hallway toward the stairs.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Aussie_Stace

[TheBlonde]

Sorry for the delay. I had a church/family things the last few days.

[Aussie_Stace]

[Melodie]

Oh, Stace. That had me bawling! I loved the descriptive details and thoughts. I loved it, and thank you for sharing! One of these days I might put my own up if I find the courage.

[AbandonThought]

Awwww, very cute Stace!! I feel like you captured somebody's essence very well! He would be all sweet and worried about you! And he certainly wouldn't let you walk to the hospital!! Very nice story. Thanks!!

Steph

[mrs_one_two]

Stace... this was wonderful. You have a way with words, my dear!

(Oh and HAPPY DAY, this is my 500th post!!! WOOT!)

[Aussie_Stace]

I just wish I can write Real To Me like this

[Forbes girl]

Stace, that was delightful. I feel a fantasy coming on. A very sweet story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks sweetie for sharing this story with us.

~HUGS~ Kathy

[ladyfran]

Now that's a cute story Stace....That would be a good dream to have only if the elevator was stuck for a whole night!!

Frannie

[Aussie_Stace]

Maybe I should turn all my dreams into short stories!!