It's a Long Way Down

Story Submitted by Trey:

Vanessa and I were graduate students at the same university and I struck up a conversation with her in the cafeteria one day after classes.  She was very talkative, and I felt instantly at ease around her.  We had dinner together, she gave me her number, and we set up a first proper date, which we scheduled for a week later.

For the date, I planned on dinner, a walk around campus, and an additional idea of which I was especially proud.

The tallest building on campus had a small balcony atop it, and although I had never been there, I thought it would be fun and adventurous to climb up to it and take in the view.  The day of the date, I checked it out, and it just involved sneaking past a janitor station.  Easy.

Dinner and the walk went as planned, and when I told her my final idea, her eyes widened and she gave me an "Oooh."  This was going to be great.

We entered the building, took the elevator up as far as it would go, sneaked past the janitor station, slipped through an office, exited out the metal balcony door, closed it behind us, and there we were, out at the top.

The night was breezy, but warm.  We could see the city lights several miles off, and the whole campus stretched out beneath us.  As she looked out, I stood beside her, brushing her side gently.  She looked at me and I took her hand.  She smiled, and I was all ready for a kiss when she said, "We're not locked out, are we?"

I said, "I don't think so," and tried the door.  The locked door.  Well, shit.  I turned to her and said, "I'm sure we can probably bang on the door and a janitor will hear, or we can call up a friend, worst case.

She breathing quickened and she backed away from the edge.  "Oh no, oh God," she said, "We're stuck up here?"

I said, "We'll be fine.  Are you afraid of heights?"

"No!  How dare you!"

I was so surprised at her sudden shift in tone that I momentarily panicked.  Was the situation really as bad as all that?  I said to her, "Here, I'll knock on the door," and I banged on it.  After a minute, I pounded on it again.  No response.  Vanessa sank to the ground and rocked back and forth, saying, "Oh no, oh no..."

I asked, "Are you okay?  Do you need to use a bathroom?"

"No!" she yelled, "I just knew that this would happen!  Well, you're going to have a fight on your hands, you motherfucking piece of garbage."

I put the pieces together at once.  She must have thought that I planned it so that I could take advantage of her.  Nothing was further from the truth, but I could see how it looked from her eyes.  I backed away and said, "I'm not going to touch you."

"I'll kill you," she said, standing up, "I'll throw you off the roof, so help me God."

"Vanessa, I–"

"Off the motherfucking roof!" she yelled, then ran to the edge and screamed, "Help!  Someone!  Anyone!  Help me!"

The next thing I thought was that campus police would find us up there, she'd accuse me of something I hadn't done, and then I'd be in for it.  I pounded mercilessly on the door.  No answer.  She was screaming like a lunatic.  I did the only thing I could think to do, and that was sit down on the balcony floor, close my eyes, and try my best to relax.

The next thing I knew, it was dawn.  I had fallen asleep.  She was crumpled in a heap nearby, asleep herself.  I stood up as silently as I could and tapped on the door.

It flew open.  A very surprised-looking man in a suit and tie stood there, blinking at me.  I had no idea who he was, but I said, "I'm sorry, sir.  We just came up to take in the view and we got stuck up here."

He looked past me, at Vanessa, then pushed me aside and shook her awake.  He asked her, "You okay?"

Her eyes shot open and she smacked him in the chin.  He backed away from her as she scrambled to her feet.  She gave me a crazy look, glanced at him, then shoved past both of us, through the office, and out.  I followed her, as I was sure that the man in the suit would start asking me questions if I hung around any longer.

I made it out of the building without incident.  Vanessa was nowhere to be seen.  Whenever I saw her after that, we simply ignored each other.