STARTING OVER
Angela stood in front of the mirror studying her appearance at 7am. She took in the lifeless waist length auburn hair, the paper white pale skin, and dark sunken sapphire eyes that once held fire, but now looked like they belonged to a ghost. “Dag nab it. I look like the Reaper had a love affair with a Will-o-Wisp.” Angela grumbled to herself.
It had been months since she had come home early from visiting her parents to walk in on her boyfriend Allen and best friend Jasmine getting cozy in her bed with nothing on but smiles and her expensive satin sheets. She threw the sheets away and kicked them out of her apartment and her life.
Angela prided herself on rarely swearing, but that night, sailors would have blushed at the profanity spewing from her lips as she tore into them and kicked them out into the hall in nothing more than what they were born with. She collected their things, opened the door enough to toss them on the ground at their feet, then quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. She watched them, through the peep hole as they scrambled to get their clothes and cover themselves. She could hear them arguing about how awful and unreasonable she was as they waited for the elevator. Once the elevator swallowed them and started to descend so she could no longer see or hear them she finally allowed herself to collapse into a puddle of tears and heartbreak.
She still couldn’t bring herself to sleep in her bedroom yet, but she preferred the couch anyway. She mainly got the bed for when Allen stayed over as she often fell asleep writing or watching movies her fluffy forest green 4 section modular couch. She though about selling it, but thought it too much effort for something she would end up buying again when she started dating someone else anyway.
Angela sighed heavily and decided it was time she started living her life again, and she wanted to start with a nice quiet breakfast at her favorite restaurant, The Pavilion. She lifted up the end couch cushion to store her blankets and pillow, she lifted up the center couch cushion to pull out the day pillows she hadn't used in months. "There. We're on our way back to normal." she said looking around and seeing the build up of dust on her coffee table and counters, "Maybe a quick clean before I leave." She muttered pulling her hair back into messy bun and rolling up her pajama sleeves.
An hour later she wiped sweat from her brow and put her floor polishing clothes in the washer and started a load of laundry. She went to her closet, pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and an oversized black and red sleeveless Tee with Roses, Wolves, and Skulls on the front, and then took a long bone thawing hot shower.
She did her make up in vibrant tones, black liner, and finished it off with a matte peach 24 hour lipstick. She pulled her hair into a top pony with her red curls cascading down to lightly brush her shoulders. “Almost presentable.” She commented smiling at herself in the mirror.
She was pulling on her black sneakers when her phone started shrilling the jaws theme song. She rolled her eyes, hit ignore, popped in her ear buds, and turned on her favorite eclectic music station on her phone app.
Allen had undoubtedly pocket dialed her while having relations with that woman again. It seemed to happen at least twice a week since they broke up. At first it would rip her heart to shreds hearing them going at it like she had meant nothing to either one of them, but eventually it helped her to move on and write some inventive crime scenes for her upcoming book. She eventually stopped picking up and was honestly thinking about blocking his number, but as he was her publishers assistant it was not something she could do without causing problems for her agent.
As Angela closed and locked the door behind her she thought about contacting her agent to set up a meeting she had been putting off for weeks, because she didn't want to talk to Allen. She had been on a roll and was ahead of schedule, but that could quickly change if she continued to avoid him much longer. She needed to see about getting what she had to the editor for review before she went on and ended up redoing everything past this point, because of a needed revision in the previous chapters.
"Ugh, why does starting over have to be so hard." Angela thought to herself taking a deep breath and stepping off the elevator on the first floor.
