Page 37 of So Not My Type

Ella remained frozen, her cheeks nearly stark white, her eyes unblinking.

The fear traveling Ella’s face made Sophie want to hug her, but she refrained this time. Instead, Sophie pressed her fingertips to Ella’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah… I, uh…” Ella patted herself and her gaze darted the room. “Was that an earthquake?”

It was definitely something, but an earthquake seemed unlikely. Sophie joined her co-workers, who were pressed up against the window. Her breath fogged the pane, as the scene unfolded. Nine floors below, chaos had erupted—billowed smoke, a gaggle of yelling onlookers, and honking halted traffic. Sophie squinted and leaned in, making out what looked like three or four collided cars, and a delivery truck that had slammed into their building.

“Oh my God…” Ella whispered, with her hands flattened against the glass. “I hope no one got hurt. Did anyone see what happened?”

A man ran down the sidewalk carrying a fire extinguisher, people paced like caged animals with phones glued to their ears. Panicked pedestrians pulled people from the cars, doors flung open, a woman’s scream reached them all the way on the ninth floor.

“Everyone all right?” Malcolm asked as he rounded the corner and joined his team at the window.

Sophie nodded as murmurs swirled the surrounding space.

“That guy must’ve come out of nowhere.”

“Should someone call 911?”

“Someone down there probably did.”

“Don’t want to overload the system.”

A piercing alarm cut through the conversation, and Sophie threw her hands over her ears. “Warning. Fire. Warning. Fire.” The speakers roared with the mechanical voice and the security lights flashed. Ella’s brows knitted so close together they almost became one, as she covered her ears and closed her eyes.

Sophie pulled Ella close to her, the deafening siren slicing at her eardrums. Beneath her palms, Ella trembled. “It’s going to be fine, okay? I got you,” Sophie whispered. The blinking lights didn’t engulf the entire room, but she didn’t know if they could still trigger a seizure. “We have earthquake and fire drills every quarter. It’s probably not even a real fire, more a precautionary measure.”

Ella kept her eyes closed and chewed her lower lip. “Okay.” The words sounded pushed out, with no level of confidence attached.

Within a few seconds, the office team emergency response snapped into order, fixing neon hats on their heads, and bellowing orders through a bullhorn. “Everyone needs to evacuate. This way please. Stay calm, move quick.”

Ella opened her eyes, fear filling her face. Her chest lifted in heavy breaths, and she slammed her left eye with her palm. It took Sophie a moment to recall an article she read about closing one eye during strobing lights to help stave off the trigger.

“Come on.” Sophie tugged Ella towards the desk as the team hurried to grab a few items and follow the line out the door. “We don’t know how long this will last. I’ll grab our laptops and backpacks and we can work from Starbucks or something until they let us back in.”

The calmness in Sophie’s tone was a bit of a farce, but it wasn’t the car-accident situation making her uneasy. Riding themetro alone since she was ten, she’d seen the most random things in the city, and little frazzled her. Accidents, drug use, fights, film crews, protests, unicycles. But seeing a normally poised Ella with a flushed face and fear-laced eyes tore through Sophie.

After shoving their belongings in a bag, Sophie led Ella to the door, and walked hip to hip with the other building mates down nine floors. Sophie carried both bags as Ella gripped the side of the railing with her free hand, still covering her eye with her other. The shuffling of workers filled the stairwell. Moans that people were being too cautious, some jokes that folks were getting out of a meeting they didn’t want to attend, and others wondering if people got hurt filled the cement echo chamber. The faintest sensation of claustrophobia took over as Sophie tried not to imagine what would happen if someone tripped.

Outside, Sophie inhaled a mist-filled breath and peeked at Ella, who blinked open her left eye. First responder sirens wailed in the background, and the emergency response team waved people away from the scene. “This way! Keep walking!”

Ella’s color slowly returned. She grabbed her backpack from Sophie and slung it over her shoulder. “Thanks for carrying this.”

The tone was too sheepish, and Sophie tried hard to push away the sympathy, but she couldn’t help it. Even before her epilepsy research rabbit hole, she knew flashing lights could trigger a seizure. Obviously, Ella was human and had feelings just like other people, and seeing her like this, obviously scared, fragile, and uncertain, made Sophie want to wrap a blanket around her and sit with her until she returned to her normal, feisty self.

After walking for a block, Sophie pointed across the street. “Let’s duck into that coffee shop by the lights.” She pushed the chirping signal, then scooted through the intersection.

Apparently, the entire building had the same thought as every coffee shop on the block had lines out the door.

“Keep walking?” Ella asked.

“Looks like it.”

They crossed the next street and headed closer to Belltown. The surrounding traffic was still gridlocked, but idle motors took over the honking. Ella’s braced shoulders returned to a less militant stance, but her smile was gone. “Are you sure you’re okay? Things like that freak me out, too.”

Ella’s chest lifted in an inhale. “I thought for a second I had a seizure.”

Huh?Sophie’s head cocked. “Really?”

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