"God DAMN!" I thought as I walked into the on-campus gym. It was freezing outside. Snow was falling down so hard you could barely see one foot in front of you. It was a total white-out. I was on the softball team and had ventured out in the snow storm to work out a little bit. Being cooped up in my dorm could only be stood for so long and I was sick of staring at my Sociology text book.
There were only two other people in the gym as I arrived. One girl was one I knew who frequented the gym but didn't play sports, and she was on the bikes. The other was a boy I had seen around quite often on campus. I noticed that he was wearing GMU baseball sweatpants and their regulation practice shirts. Interesting, I thought. He was lifting weights at the moment.
I walked over to the treadmill and put my headphones in, turning on my phone for some music. I stretched a bit and then began to jog at a warm-up pace. After about five minutes of jogging I watched the one girl leave, so that it was only the baseball player and I in the gym. I glanced over at him and noticed that he was looking at me so I smiled and then went back to working out.
I had jogged for twenty minutes when all of a sudden, the room went completely black. The treadmill quit working and I stumbled a bit, and almost fell because of the sudden cease of motion. Laughing, I pulled the headphones out of my ears just in time to hear a thud and a deep voice cussing at a dumbbell.
"You OK?" I asked in the general direction of where the guy had been before. Like I said it was pitch black in the room, there were no windows to speak of and the heavy metal doors were closed.
I heard a deep chuckle and then the guy responded, "Yeah I'm fine, just kicked the damn weight as I was walking". I smiled to myself, I liked his voice.
"I can't see a damn thing," I said, as much to myself as to him. I heard that chuckle again and he agreed. I then saw the light of a cell phone flick on and walk in my direction. I hit the button on mine as well and went to meet him in the middle of the room.
"I'm Gauge," he said as we met up in the middle. I replied that my name was Erin. We both turned towards the heavy doors and went to go outside. There was only one problem, they wouldn't open.
"What the fuck?" Gauge asked as he shoved hard on both doors. Neither budged. They were apparently locked, and the lock was on the other side of the door. "Well that's spectacular," he said with a smile that I could see from the cell phone lights. I laughed softly and slid down to sit next to the door.
"Do you have the campus phone numbers?" he asked and I shook my head in response, I'd never had any reason to call campus before. We both tried calling several friends, none of which answered. It was eleven PM and because of the blizzard chances were everyone was catching up on lost sleep.
We sat there chatting idly as we tried to figure out a way to get out of the dark room. "So you play baseball?" I questioned him and he answered that he was the starting catcher for the varsity team. I was impressed. I was only 18, a freshman, and I too was also the starting catcher for the varsity softball team. I found myself really enjoying his company as we sat there confined together. We had found out that both of us were single as well.
We talked for two hours and learned a lot about each other. After time I found myself yawning and my eyelids growing heavy. It was nearly 1:30 AM! My phone had died and his was dangerously close to it. He dialed a friend's number and while it was ringing his phone died too. Well, we were truly trapped now. I yawned again and shifted against the hard wall of the gym.
"You OK?" he asked in a soft voice and I smiled.
"Just a bit uncomfortable, I'm not used to using a wall as a pillow" I answered, laughing. He shifted closer to me until our shoulders touched, as well as our thighs and feet.
"Use me as a pillow if you'd like," he said softly, placing an arm around my shoulders. I hesitated and then slid down to rest my head on his shoulder. This made my position exponentially more comfortable. The last thing I remembered was him brushing a kiss across my temple and telling me to go to sleep, and I did.
Some time later, I was startled awake by a flood of light throughout the room. Glancing at the clock on the wall confirmed that it was after 6:00 AM. We heard a voice in the hallway and began to call out and soon someone had let us out of the gym. Gauge took my hand in his as we walked. We had found out that we lived in the same dorm, on the same floor. The snow had slowed overnight but was still coming down. There was already nearly three feet on the ground.