Beauty

Chapter 6

 "You invited her to stay... What. are. you. thinking?" Michael asked his reflection in the mirror. "You think she's a psychopathic lying paparazzi demon... and you invited her to stay in your home! What the hell is your problem?" 

   He looked again at his reflection and saw a man who was angry, dazed, confused and defeated. He sighed, "You're losing it man." He confirmed to his reflection before turning away. 

   He sighed again. He knew it was not within his nature to let a beautiful young woman, or anyone for that matter, sleep in their car on an old country road especially when all of the rooms in this house, save for one, were empty. 

   She was dangerous and he knew it. Even if she was who she said she was or wasn't, if he gave her any of his heart, she was dangerous. He had been teetering on the edge when Lisa had left and he was afraid that one more heart break might send him over it. 'Not this time.' He promised himself. 

   He opened the closet. It had been Lisa's closet and she had left almost everything in it when she had stormed out. "Keep it," she had said, "I don't need any of those memories." She had, instead, left those memories to torture him. It had been a year and he hadn't been able to bring himself to look at them let alone throw them out. He did so now only out of necessity. 

   'You're doing it again.' Lisa's voice crept into his mind. 'You're putting everyone else ahead of me. Why am I not good enough?' 

   "She's a girl in need." He answered his thoughts. "And you left me. There's no need for you to be first anymore." He fought off the guilt as he picked out a pair of ripped jeans, a white shirt and a navy blue blazer for Callie to wear in the morning. Then he walked over to the dresser he had shared with Lisa and pulled out a white over sized night shirt. "I am done with you." He hissed at the air... at the last bit of Lisa he had been holding on to. He turned out the light and made his way up the stairs carrying Callie's clothes with him.