My space. I liked the sound of that. Mr. Cole would be gone for good in just a few short days and I needed a new place to call my own. If I could get over being jealous and crazy, this place might actually work for me. It was cute, and I liked how they had set it up for me.
I closed the door and froze.
“What in the…”
On the back of the closed door was a white poster with a unicorn covered in glitter. Below the unicorn in dark purple lettering and all caps read: YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!
I stood there frozen and with my mouth hanging open as I stared blankly at the offensive thing. It had to go. If I stayed, I was getting rid of that thing for sure. There were far too many glittery things in this room.
Yikes.
There was one door other than the main one and I had a feeling it didn’t lead to the bathroom. After sticking my head inside and pulling on the string hanging in front of my face, the light came on. I was right. There was no bathroom. The space was a tiny closet the size of a coffin.
I couldn’t keep the stupid grin off of my face. Now here was a closet that was more my size than the giant monstrosity I had now. I could fill this one up with my clothes and still have room to spare. It was going to get colder, perhaps I could fill the rest of the space with hoodies or sweaters and the floor with some fabulous knee-high boots. I didn’t have any knee-high boots, but I could see myself sporting some and looking fantastic in them. I needed to get a job to pay for all the crap I wanted.
With a sigh, I left the closet, closed the door and made my way towards the bed.
I picked up my bag off the floor and tossed it on the bed. The contents spilled out across the pretty comforter. I really needed to get a big bag that had a zipper on it. This one was black with thick, wide yellow straps. I think it was meant to be a beach bag for towels, sunscreen and whatnot. It was new, and I had no intentions of using it for a beach bag. It was my overnight bag. I had to buy a new one because the last one was left at Tyson’s when I spent the night with him. I had left it there with all my clothes inside it and never gone back to retrieve it. The next one I got would come with a damn zipper so my clothes wouldn’t spill out of it all the time.
Since I figured it would be more than likely that I moved in here, I decided to unpack my bag.
I dumped the bag upside down and everything fell onto the bed. Bra and panties, red and matching. Black cotton short-shorts with a matching tank top. They were covered in tiny white stars and were my pajamas. Two pairs of leggings. One black, one red. A black tank top with a green army tank on the chest. A red, short-sleeved t-shirt with a gold and black crown on the front. Two pairs of fuzzy socks. One black, the other one light blue. A hairbrush with a yellow handle. A tube of sparkly lip gloss (I liked sparkles when they came in my lip gloss!). A leather-bound journal and a black ink pen. And my toothbrush. I hadn’t packed any makeup, not that I had much. And I hadn’t brought a whole lot of clothing with me. I wasn’t sure I was staying more than a night at the moment. I wanted to be home when Mr. Cole came back from his trip so I could spend some time with him before he was gone for good. I could bring the rest of my stuff with me after he was gone.
I grabbed my pajamas and re-folded them. I piled my bra and undies on top with the black fuzzy socks and walked them over to the dresser. I clutched them to my chest as I opened the top drawer.
There were brand new fuzzy socks in there with the tags still on. Red, orange, yellow, green, leopard print, zebra striped, pink, white and purple. The animal prints were cute, and I immediately wanted to put on the black and white zebra striped ones. Someone really had been paying attention. And they’d probably gone through the bag I’d left at the big house.
I dropped the small pile into the empty side of the drawer and pushed it shut. Thankfully, there weren’t underthings in there too. That would be crossing a line.
Out of curiosity, and because I would be putting the rest of my clothes in there, I pulled open the second drawer. This one only had one thing in it and it was silky. Purple and silky. I pulled it out of the drawer and held it up in front of me for examination. It was a robe like the one Dash wore but longer. This robe would likely kiss the floor when I walked in it. I brought it closer to my face to read the tag. Silk, it was made of silk. Had Dash gotten this for me? How kind. And overly priced. I folded the piece of clothing carefully and put it back in the drawer. When I got some clothes hangers, I would hang it up in the closet. It wasn’t something I would normally wear but I think I might have to wear it anyways so there weren’t any hurt feelings. I wasn’t sure purple was even my color, but someone sure seemed to think it was.
I opened the next two drawers to see if there were any more surprises waiting for me and couldn’t tell if I was disappointed or relieved when there weren’t. The rest of my clothes went into the second drawer alongside the pretty robe.
My hairbrush, phone and charger, I put on top of the dresser. My now empty bag, I placed on the floor in the coffin sized closet. The journal and pen, I placed on an empty shelf on the bookshelf.
I had been writing in the journal since my mother’s death. I wrote about everything other than how I was feeling. I wrote about the books I read, the magic I learned, what I hoped to learn, any questions I had. But never about my feelings. Those had been too raw even for me to put down on paper. Maybe now I would be able to get it all out of me and in my journal.
I was sifting through the books on the shelves when there was a soft knock on the door.
“Are you coming down for dinner?” Damien called through the closed door.
I looked around the room frantically, searching for anything that would give me an excuse to not have to talk to Damien. I had never spoken to him before and he was kind of a dick.
He knocked again.
“Ariel?”
Shit.
There was no way out of this one.
After a quick glance at myself in the mirror above the dresser, I moved to the door. I opened it a crack and peeked out.
Damien looked down on me with a blank, emotionless face and bored eyes. The sleeves on his dress shirt had been rolled up and his arms were crossed over his chest.
He did not look impressed.
Well, two could play that game.