The lift stops and we collectively look to the doors. Nothing happens. There is silence for a moment and then… everyone starts talking at once.
‘Are we stuck?’ Jemma’s voice is high and frightened.
‘What’s going on?’ Salma shouts from the back.
‘Oh god, no!’ Harry yells as Milo sighs loudly.
‘I don’t have time for this!’ complains Mack as I let out a silly little scream. Everyone looks to me, their faces a mix of sheeny fear. Am I supposed to be in charge here? What do I do?
OK, I’m a professional. I’m here as the official publicist of Milo fucking Samuels and a little thing like a broken lift with six people crammed inside is not going to faze me.
‘Shit,’ Milo mutters, pulling a phone out of his back pocket and looking down at the caller ID. ‘Katies is ringing me! It looks like she’s tried a few times.’
Somewhere in the melee, I catch Mack asking, ‘Katies?Like plural Katie?’ But I’m too struck with terror to respond.
Katiezzz! If she’s calling, it means I’m in trouble. She’s supposed to be resting at home. Does she know about me being late? Does she know I got Milo lost? Does she know we’re trapped in a lift?
I suck in my breath, suddenly very afraid, and the gum lodges itself in my throat. I start to choke, looking up frantically at Harry. He frowns, then whacks me on the back, forcing the gum to fly out. I watch in slow motion as it soars through the air, landing smack bang in the middle of… Milo’s beautiful hair.
Oh fuck.
Oblivious, he’s still staring at his phone, as Katiezzz’ name flashes angrily. Harry and I exchange a wide-eyed look of pure horror as Jemma starts wailing loudly on the other side of the lift.
‘I don’t like small spaces!’ she cries. ‘Where’s the call for help button? What are we going to do?’ Milo slides his phone away, turning to Jemma and stroking a soothing hand across her back.
‘It’ll be OK,’ he tells her so nicely as she looks up at him, fear obvious across her features.
Harry and I are still staring at each other with a different kind of terror. What are we going to do about the gum inMilo’s hair? Can we pretend we know nothing? Do we tell him and hope he doesn’t go mad? Suddenly Harry’s face lights up. Reaching into his backpack, he carefully pulls out a tiny pair of nail scissors.
What the fuck is…? Oh my god, he’s surely not suggesting… he thinks we shouldcut the gum out! Can we…? Dare I? Is it actually possible? I examine Milo’s beautiful hair. It’s close to my face in this small space, as he continues to comfort my sister. Itisquite long, he might not even notice if we remove a chunk? I subtly retrieve the tiny scissors from Harry and lean closer to Milo. He smells delicious.
Am I really going to try this? I glance again at Harry who gives me an encouraging nod. ‘Do it!’ he mouths and I sigh quietly.
Feeling like a ninja, I reach up and snip at the gum… missing entirely. The small sound gets Milo’s attention, though, and he turns to me, his eyebrows knitted together.
‘What—’ he begins, and then my incredible, brilliant, helpful sister throws up all over the floor at Milo’s feet.
‘Oh my god!’ Jemma groans, as Milo turns back to her. ‘I’m so sorry!’ She’s mortified, but Milo looks like he’s trying not to laugh.
‘It’s OK!’ he’s saying, far more generously than I would be. And – while he’s distracted by the pooling sick around his trainers and Salma’s screaming with horror and Mack’s moaning with disgust – I reach up and confidently snip off the offending blob of gum-tangled hair.
Harry gives me a mini-high five, just as – to a collectivesigh of relief from the lift’s occupants – the doors open. The smell of vomit wafts out to an area where… oh shit… waits Katiezzz.
She’s outside the doors, and her face is absolute thunder.
Fuck.
She takes in the scene before her. Milo surrounded by the lot of us, his shoes covered in Jemma’s sick. Jemma, soaked in sweat, pale, shivery, with tits on the verge of bursting from their restraints. Harry and I beside him, holding a clump of Milo’s hair tangled with gum. I mean…? At least Salma is in one piece and behaving herself.
‘What. The. Fuck,’ Katiezzz says after a moment, and I clear my throat.
‘Hey, um, Katies! What are you doing here?’ I begin, as Harry kindly retrieves the hair clump from my hand.
‘Are you fuckingserious?’ she asks, looking unbelievably so. ‘They told me you’d turned up late, then disappeared off somewhere with Milo. His car has been waiting outside for thirty minutes. I thought you’d kidnapped him! I was going to call the police!’
I gape at her as Mack pushes through the group from the back. He looks clammy and miserable. ‘I’m out of here,’ he snaps, stomping off.
‘Er, bye, Mack!’ Salma calls after him.
