Finding Elise

Chapter Thirty-one

    I woke up the next morning with a killer headache, the kind that comes from crying too much, even though I hadn't shed a tear. I managed to peel myself out of bed and head to the shower. I needed the heat of the water to clear away some of the fog and I realized that I had to confront Blaine. I hated confrontation with a passion, but I didn't see any other way to resolve this. I had heard too much and none of it sounded good. I also knew I couldn't avoid him forever, even though that sounded really appealing.

    I checked my phone, several texts and a couple of phone calls from Blaine wondering how I was doing. I still wasn't sure what I was going to say yet so I ignored them for now and headed out to the kitchen. Jackie was sitting at the table, eating cereal when I walked in.

    "Hey Elise." She said, looking up when I sat across from her. "Are you okay?"

    "Yeah." I said, not wanting to tell her what had happened yet. "I didn't feel very well last night so sleeping sucked."

    "Oh I'm sorry to hear that." Jackie said. "I hope you're feeling better. Is that why Blaine isn't here?"

    "Yeah." I gave a little smile, even though I felt like my insides were shattered glass and acting normal hurt.

    I ate as quickly as I could, wanting to escape back to the safety cocoon of my room. I huddled under my blankets again and read through the texts and listened to the messages Blaine sent. All of them asked how I was doing and if he could come over and see me yet.

    What would I say? I hadn't gone this long without seeing him and I missed his presence, but I also wanted him to suddenly find himself in excruciating pain. Like jamming his pinky toe on the leg of any table he passes for the rest of his life kind of pain.

    I didn't get the chance to make a decision though because the doorbell rang and I could hear Blaine's voice when Jackie answered the door before heading to work. I wrapped my blanket tighter around my body, hoping it would become a shield against whatever was going to happen. We were alone now.

    Blaine's smiling face appeared at the doorway. "Hi beautiful, how are you feeling?" He held up a container. "I brought you some soup."

    "Thanks. You can just leave it in the kitchen. I'm not very hungry."

    His eyebrows knitted together in concern. "Okay." He disappeared for a minute and then came back. "Are you still not feeling well?" He sat down on the edge of my bed.

    The mental image of him with a faceless girl flashed across my mind and made me feel like throwing up. I bolted off of my bed and into the bathroom.

    "I'll take that as a yes." I heard Blaine say.

   I didn't get sick, but took a few minutes to compose myself. I stared into the mirror and reminded myself of everything I had heard. It was not fair to me to torture myself like this. I needed to know the truth.

    I opened the door to see Blaine standing in front of me. He smiled. "I was getting worried about you."

    "I'm okay. False alarm." I said, moving past him to get out of the bathroom. I settled back onto my bed, fully aware of his eyes on me. He got up and closed my bedroom door before coming over and joining me on my bed.

    "Elise, you're acting weird. Are you sure everything is okay?"

    I sighed. "No. No, it's not." My body kept wanting to jump up and start running away so I wouldn't have to have this conversation, but I made myself stay and rip off the band-aid.