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He saw the email, had read the email, had texted Felice about the email to ask if she knew what building had the type of elevators being maintained, he saw the email. He, however, lost all memory of said email until he found himself trapped in a dark elevator with a stranger he’d never met, seen, and couldn’t see because of the lack of light in the elevator.
You know, he’d thought so much about his scenario, about how he’d crawl to the bottom of the elevator, like that one episode from criminal minds, and try to hijack his way out of the elevator, being praised for his ingenuity and intelligence for this rest of his university career, maybe it’d follow him afterwards and he’ll get job offers for being so smart, a big fuck you to his mother who told him literature was going to do nothing for him.
But no. This is so much different, the elevator is not stuck, just turned off, and he and the other unfortunate student trapped in the elevator must have had a temporary loss of brain function to remember the maintenance email sent to every student just earlier that day.
“Ah, fuck” he heard the stranger mumble.
Now, Wilhelm is by no means an extrovert, he does not speak to strangers in elevators, but maybe it’s the fact that he can’t see the face of the stranger, or the fact that he might never see said student again after this that made him more relaxed.
“Yeah, fuck indeed, I totally forgot about the maintenance schedule” He said trying to joke a little. His therapist did say to try to speak more to people.
“This sucks, I had somewhere to be, people to see, shows to binge” the stranger sighed, clearly also trying to make light of this situation.
“I get that, nowhere in my schedule was, ‘get stuck in an elevator on a Friday afternoon, just before your last lecture of the week’, I should sue”
“You should” the stranger said chuckling lightly. This is the point where Wilhelm realized he should try to maybe get to know this stranger, vaguely remembering that the maintenance was supposed to last about 2 hours today, before the full-on fixing on Saturday. He’s going to be here a while --or at least until someone realizes people got on the elevator close to the maintenance time.
“Umm” he began, “we’re probably going to be here a while, so umm…” he trailed off, gosh this is awful, he thought, he’s never leaving his dorm room again.
“What, you wanna play 20 questions?” the stranger started jokingly, but the silence must’ve clued him in, “you’re serious, aren’t you?” said stranger asked incredulously.
Wilhelm shrugged before he realized the stranger couldn’t see him, “yeah, I mean, we’ve got no reception, no light, there not much we can do, but you don’t have to if you don’t wanna, I mean we’re strangers, and I’ve been referring to you as ‘the stranger’ in my mind this whole time and-”
“It’s ok” The stranger said laughing lightly, “we can play 20 questions if you want to”
“Good, cause I really wanna stop calling you the stranger in my head, so uh, what’s your name?” Wilhelm almost cringed to death at how juvenile that sounded, he was 19 for christ’s sake. He sat on the floor trying to get comfortable, he could hear the stranger sit as well.
“I’m Simon, What’s yo- I can’t do this” The stran-Simon broke out in laugher, “This is so awkward, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know I said we could but like let’s just have a convo without the questions format yeah?”
Wilhelm was so glad it was too dark for Simon to see his face and how red it had become. Hopefully, he doesn’t suddenly feel the need to turn on his phone’s flashlight “Yeah, makes sense, But my name is Wilhelm, uh, what are you studying?”
“I’m a Music major, yeah, I know, quite useless”
“I think I might have you beat the in that aspect, I’m a literature major” Wilhelm joked. It’s okay to laugh the pain away sometimes Wilhelm thought.
“Yeah, nevermind, you win” Simon chuckled, Wilhelm ignored the thought of how attractive that laugh sounded, “But honestly though, Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve just done something more substantial, so if music doesn’t work out, I’ll have a soft landing, but I’m trying to channel my inner Rachel and go all in, you know?”
Wilhelm wished he knew who the fuck Rachel was, “uh, I actually don’t, am I supposed to know who Rachel is?”
The gasp that came as a response to that question was way too dramatic for a music major.
“What, what?!”
“You haven’t seen glee?”
“Is that a show-”
“Blasphemy! Oh my god”
Wilhelm was a little scared, to be frank, he hadn’t seen someone be more into a show than Felice was when she was into criminal minds, although he couldn’t fault her, he also wants to get married to Matthew Grey Gubler.
“Is it that good?”
“Oh, absolutely not, it’s so fucking shitty”
Ok, now he’s confused.
“It’s bad? You seem into it”
“That’s because I am”
“Ok, I’m lost” he laughed, “explain?”
“It’s just so bad, it’s almost ridiculously good, I can’t believe you haven’t seen it, you’re probably a straight white male, no offense, I didn’t get a good look at you when you entered”
Wilhelm splurted in mock indignation, “all offense actually, I’m not that basic”
He could feel the raised eyebrow, but he made no comment to that.
“Anyways, you should see it, as soon as we get released from our temporary prison anyways”
“Yeah, and I understand what you mean about the whole soft landing thing, I feel like there’s nothing I can do with lit asides from teaching or like becoming a writer, and I don’t really want to do any of that, but, I’m not interested enough in anything else, so kinda fucked”
“I’m sure there’s something you must like out of literature”
Wilhelm thought about it, he does like rowing but it’s probably too late to join any team to play professionally, and besides, nothing he does will compare to his doctor of a brother.
“I don’t know, I’m still figuring things out I guess”
“That’s fine, I didn’t even really decide on Music until my ex kept pushing me toward it”
Wilhelm couldn’t tell if that was good my ex told me, or a bad one “And that’s a good thing?”
“Yeah, he was really sweet about it, couldn’t have actually had the courage to without his encouragement”
Wilhelm shouldn’t have been as surprised at the pronoun, especially after the glee comment, but he was.
“Oh, that good then” He didn’t know why he was being so strange about it. “So um, do you live on campus?”
“No, I live in an apartment with said ex, and another one of our friends, I bet it must be nicer than living on campus”
“Ok, you gotta know why that sounds weird” Wilhelm joked, hoping he wasn’t being offensive.
“Yeah” Simon chuckled, “realized it after I said it, but, it’s not as weird as it sounds I promise, we were best friends before, and it didn’t end badly, just realized we were better off as friends than together you know. Do you live on campus?”
“Yeah, it’s not great”
Wilhelm felt so happy he was able to make Simon, still ‘the stranger’, laugh. He likes that laugh. It made him feel comfortable around Simon.
“Why?”
“It’s mostly due to the fact that my cousin lives on the same hall as me, and he’s so fucking obnoxious”
“Family problems? Sounds interesting”
“Not really, he’s just so, I don’t know, like weird?” Wilhelm chuckled.
“Very eloquent for a lit major”
“Oh, fuck you”
Simon laughs, and Wilhelm swoons, oh no, he’s developing a crush for someone and he doesn’t even know what they look like.
“So what shows do you watch, since you’ve been living under a rock apparently?”
“Ha ha, very funny, I’m watching scream queens right now”
“So you do have some culture”
“Oh shut it” Wilhelm playfully said.
“It’s really good, and you have to know that the ‘killer’ is the-”
“Ahh, no spoilers, I haven’t gotten that far!” Wilhelm said as he blocked his ears.
He imagined Simon raised both hands in mock as he said, “my bad”
“Yeah, you should feel bad”
“Ok, Mona Lisa, you got any siblings”
“I have one older brother, 5 years older, you?”
“Yeah, I have a sister a year older than I, she actually goes here as well”
“Do you like the fact that you both go to the same university, I know it can be kind of weird to school with relatives”
“Ah yes, the family drama,” Simon joked, “but no, I actually really like it, my sis, she has a trouble fitting, so I like that I’m there at least to be there for her when she needs it”
Wilhelm thought about how sweet that sounded, “you’re a great brother”
“Thanks” He could almost hear the blush.
...
They continued to talk for so long, Wilhelm lost track of how much time had exactly passed, but when he heard a beep that sounded like the elevator turning up again, he almost wished he could turn back time. It was so nice talking with Simon and after the awkward introductions, it was like talking with Felice, except Felice doesn’t make him blush as much, or laugh as much, he was royally fucked.
The lights turned up next, and he was almost scared to lift up his head since they had been sat on the floor this whole time. But he could hear Simon getting up, and it’d look weird if he stayed on the floor. He took 3 big breaths and stood up. He raised the courage to look at Simon, and his world stopped for a moment.
Now Wilhelm is not a vain person, but Simon was so good-looking. With his glowing skin and perfect head of hair, he could not not be dumbfounded. He saw Simon smile before he realized he had been staring for so long.
“You look nothing like I thought you did”
Wilhelm was confused, a little apprehensive, “That a good thing or?”
“Better”
“Oh” he blushed, “thanks” fuck, Wilhelm thought, he can see me blush now, “you, you too”
He could see Simon smirk, “I know”
He realized he could, like, leave as soon as the elevator doors open, but he didn’t want to yet, he just wanted to continue sitting on the floor, talking to Simon, and the fact that Simon hadn’t left yet must mean that he felt at least a little bit of the same way.
“Uh, I guess we can go soon, but like, do you wanna like, um, like” NO, he was blowing it, and he could see, finally, Simon laughing lightly (he looks even better than he sounds).
“Are you asking me out?”
Wilhelm’s eyes got so wide, they almost popped out of their sockets. “I mean, um, I think so?”
“You think so? Ever so eloquent Wille” he almost cried at the pet name, “But if you are asking, I might say yes” Simon shrugged.
“you might?” Wilhelm asked incredulously.
“Yeah, but only if you’re asking” he winked, and Wilhelm almost sunk back to the ground.
He almost dislocated his neck nodding vigorously, “yeah, I am absolutely asking”
Simon laughed again, “yeah, of course, give me your phone for a sec”
Wilhelm handed Simon his phone, and the elevator doors finally opened, he got his phone back, and Simon geared up to leave first, he turned back and sent him one more smirk before he left, “call me.”
He continued staring as his phone got filled with delayed texts and missed calls.
He continued to look until he got a new notification from a contact he definitely did no put in himself;
Simme <3
You definitely don’t look straight, but you’re still white and male, so my point still stands, our first date is definitely going to be a glee marathon.
He called Felice as he was heading back to his dorm.
“Wilhe, where have you been, no one could get ahold of you for so long?!”
“Long story, but I think I might have a boyfriend now”
The scream still rang in his ear, two weeks later.