Blame Me

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Elise

There was snow everywhere. As far as the eye could see, all surfaces had a thick layer of white on top of it that sparked in shades of purple and blue as the sun set. Tendrils of white air flew out of my mouth as I exhaled, staring out at the bustling city as the holidays approached. I was leaning out of the small balcony trying to get some fresh air after spending the whole day in the burning apartment.

Today was the day of the Christmas ball at Jace's father's house and there were still a few hours until it started. We were supposed to leave in half an hour to go the house early to get ready with Clair and Milly, as they both claimed to be horrible at getting ready for fancy events. I had a feeling that they were just lying to not have to get ready all by themselves.

"Elise, come inside before you get a cold," Grandpa's muffled voice traveled through the glass doors of the balcony.

I took in one last deep breath of the crisp frigid air before walking back into the toasty warm room.

"Have you got your stuff?" Grandpa asked as he took a seat on the couch, "We are due to leave in a bit,"

"I just have a few things left to pack," I responded, walking down the hallway to my room, which was a mess.

There were clothes strewn everywhere from earlier when I rummaged through my closet for something appropriate to wear. On my bed there was a huge tote bag filled with my pajamas, a spare outfit, a gazillion makeup and hair products, and toiletries. As we were supposed to stay at Jace's house overnight, I had to pack more than I would have thought necessary. But you never know what could happen in a day.

The only thing that I was still missing was my actual outfit that I was supposed to wear. It seemed even my fanciest of outfits paled in comparison to the outfits that Clair and Milly were planning to wear. I was also missing Dani, she had gone off to do somethings with her clothing line and was supposed to back a while ago.

I also had to pick out some jewelry for whatever I was going to wear, but I couldn't find the small box that I kept all of my jewelry in, hence the pulled back drawers and opened boxes along the floor. Maybe I put it in the back of the hallway closet, I thought. Well, it was a better guess than any.

The hallway closest was packed to the brim with random boxes and bags, all of which were piled one above the other like a game of Tetris. There was a box on the top shelf that had "Stuff" written across it. There was a shot that my box of accessories was in there, who knew?

As I began to pull the box out, I could feel the other contents of the top shelf being dragged along as well. Before I could stop and find a better way to take the box out, all of the boxes and bags came raining down. Luckily, I had moved out of the way before any of it could fall on my head.

"Elise? Is everything all right?" Grandpa yelled from the room over.

"Yeah! Everything's fine, I just dropped some stuff!" I hollered, picking up the objects and placing them back when something caught my eye.

There was a brown box bigger than the rest that was taped from the top. What grabbed my attention was what was written on the box. The words "Megan's Things" were scrawled along the side in loopy handwriting.

My mother's name made my heart skip a beat. Inside of that box was her stuff, the stuff that she left when she left. I stared at the writing for a moments, my hands shaking with the possibilities of all the things that were in the box, before I decided to open it. The tape that sealed the box was flimsy, like someone had opened the box before, and with ease I opened the flaps to see all of the remaining belongings of my mother's.