Phoenix

Chapter Two

I was feeling quite drained the next morning when I woke up. My body just felt...heavy, for some reason, as if I didn't get that much sleep, despite me actually having a decent amount. My arms felt like lead as my alarm went off, and it was a nightmare trying to even pull myself out of bed.

What the hell did I do last night?

Surely nothing of strenuous activity...right? I worked my normal shift at my job...then went on a date with a woman whose name I seriously couldn't think of...then I came home...fell asleep on the couch...woke up on the couch and went to bed.

So why the hell did I feel like I had been hit by a semi-truck?

I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair as I managed to drag myself to the bathroom, the light nearly blinding me as I turned my shower on to the hottest setting it could go on, and stripped down in the nude. And while my body was a mass of unblemished, caramel colored skin...there was, however, one single scar in the center of my chest, right above where my heart would be.

I shivered and yanked my hand away as a memory from the past threatened to resurface, and I honestly didn't want to deal with that personal trauma right before work. So with that thought in mind, I pulled my hair over my shoulder and stepped into the steaming shower, sighing in relief when the burning hot water cascaded over me.

Being as I was the Angel of Fire, and everything, the heat of the water was actually more like a warm blanket as it covered every inch of my skin, and, while I wish it would go hotter than this, I was content for now. I lifted my face into the stream and continued washing myself down until I was as clean as I could get, before I shut the water off and stepped out, pulling a bit of power to instantly dry myself.

After that, I stared at myself briefly in the mirror at my dark narrow eyes, and my long blond hair that descended to orange, then red at the tips. Women often wondered if I ever dyed my hair to get like this, and they were always surprised when I told them it was natural. Of course, most of them had taken it as a joke, thinking I was only saying that just to be funny when it was actually true. I didn't really ever do much with my hair, with the most drastic change being when I had cut it sometime in the 1800's. Now, the silky straight strands cascaded down my back, resting at the base of my spine. I wondered if I should cut it, but of course, I was too exhausted from work, or too broke to afford it. And god knew I couldn't do it myself, without it looking like some kindergartener got ahold of scissors and went to town.

Gosh, I had some severe ADHD.

I rolled my eyes and yanked my hair up in a very sloppy bun before I got dressed in that dreadful uniform my job made all its employees wear, making sure everything was in place and that I had my keys before I snatched my phone and began heading to work.

Traffic was, as always, horrible, but I was good with time, so I always was right where I needed to be, when I needed to be. And that made my boss happy, considering most of the other employees were, more often times than not, late for their shift by a few minutes or more.

"Phoenix, hey! How'd your date go last night?" A woman practically screeched as soon as I entered the employees "locker room".

I turned my eyes towards her as I walked over to my locker and opened it, setting my stuff inside before I turned to face her. And I wasn't going to lie, Tara was a beautiful Cuban woman, with rich dark skin, and black curly hair that she kept from her face with a tie. And to be honest, I probably would have dated her at some point, had she not been interested in only women.

Too bad...she was one of the few people here who was kind to me.

"Not very good," I spoke finally, deciding to answer her question after the little spiel in my head. "She got to talking about hair products and I sort of just...tuned her out." I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest, glancing at the door when one of our coworkers walked in. I paid him no mind as I clipped the store's keys to my belt and clipped my nametag in place. "I even forgot her name."