Chapter 25
Jennie
With one last glance at my reddened cheek, she stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door behind her, giving me privacy and the space to collect my thoughts. Lisa's bathroom was ten times the size of my own. I didn't expect any less. She made good money, and she didn't mind spending it, too.
I hopped off the counter and looked in the mirror to see how swollen my cheek had gotten. My fingertips brushed against my skin, and I winced as I traced the reddened area. After getting pushed around for so long by my father, you would think that I would have gotten used to it, but how does one get used to being abused by their own father?
The woman staring back at me in the mirror wasn't me. It couldn't be. She was so pathetic, and she looked crazed like someone who ran away from a psychiatric asylum. My hair was sticking up from every direction, some sticking to my face from the sweat and my face. I looked horrible, bare, and I felt naked without anything to cover up my blemishes or those dark bags underneath my eyes. I stripped out of my clothes and walked over to the glass doors of her walk-in shower. Extravagant, I thought, as I turned on the shower-head and was downed in a waterfall type of fall of water.
I let the water fall over my skin, my muscles, and the steam that formed from the heat aided in slowly calming me down. My arm had a bruise that was beginning to bloom from when my father held onto it, and all I could do was stare at it as silent tears fell out of me. Why? I still didn't know why he had suddenly changed. My father was never like this. He never cared enough to tell me good morning or remember my birthday.
Yet that night changed everything. That night, something inside of him switched, and it made him ugly and evil.
I stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel that was hung on the rack, and knowing that it was Lisa's, made me hold it tighter around my body. I could smell the faint smell of oranges, and that bitter zesty smell had me smiling against my will. I stepped out of the bathroom, and on her bed, there were clothes folded on the duvet.
Her room was as lovely as the rest of her house. The entire decor of her bedroom was simple, yet I knew nothing was simple about Lisa. The colours were all neutral, beige, white, and light grey. The bed frame was Armida grey wood, with matching coloured nightstands on either side of her massive bed. The floors were white limestone like the rest of her estate, but a grand, cream coloured carpet underneath the bed. The window on the right side of the bed was closed, and the white drapes were tucked onto the sides, revealing her backyard. I went to where the clothes she left out were, pulled on the dark green long-sleeved shirt that reached right at the middle of my thighs, and put on the boxers that she laid out.
I had to fold the top over and tuck it in so that it wouldn't fall. I ran a hand through my hair and used the back of the towel to dry it off before hanging the towel back on the rack. I tossed the clothes in the hamper and stepped out of her bedroom altogether. I took the stairs down, and the smell of fresh mozzarella, basil, and sweet tomatoes filled my nose once I reached the kitchen. Lisa's back was to me as she gracefully moved around the kitchen.
She was in a low-hanging black pyjama pants that did absolutely nothing to hide her muscular body underneath, with a matching black V-neck shirt that accentuated her back muscles and her chest. She spun around, and I felt the heat of her eyes scan me from the top of my wet dog hair to the bottom of my bare feet.
I felt nervous underneath her scrutinising gaze, and I tried hard not to look her in the eyes, but it couldn't be helped. Then, our eyes met magnetically, and the energy between us changed. I was breathless and at a loss for words as we shared this intimate moment. If I could close my eyes and allow myself to imagine that we were some sweet couple, who would take turns cooking dinner for each other, and sometimes I'm in her clothes, and she'd tease me about how I look better in them, then we laugh it off, I would, but I can't.
