As The Pages Burn

Chapter 5

The drive back to Lucas' two-bedroom apartment in downtown Los Angeles was quite eventful, as was expected. Angela was almost completely back to her old confident self and was beaming with a light he hadn't seen in her since they were children. She looked absolutely radiant, and so damn beautiful that looking at her for too long made him forget how to breathe properly. They arrived at his apartment building a while later, and Lucas parked his car in the underground parking lot, then took Angela's trunk out of the backseat and guided her toward the elevator, where he pressed the button to the fifth floor.

As they walked down the hallway toward his door, Angela couldn't help but be in awe at the modern theme of the building's interior, all white walls and aluminum doors. They finally arrived at Lucas' door and he unlocked and opened it, turning on the lights as they ventured into the apartment. Simplicity seemed to be the main theme of the apartment, she noticed as she surveyed her surroundings. There were only a few paintings along the walls in the entrance and living room, nothing much else. The kitchen had the most beautiful dark wooden cabinets she'd ever seen, a huge silver fridge, and an equally impressive silver stove and oven. She walked into the living room and saw that he had two plush white leather couches with a beautiful glass coffee table in front of them. Everything was polished to perfection, it seemed. A 40-inch plasma TV was fastened to the wall with brackets. There was a dark wooden display cabinet right underneath it, containing a Blu-Ray player, various gaming consoles and quite a lot of CD's, DVDs and games.

"See anything you like?" Lucas suddenly asked behind her, making her jump. He laughed. "Sorry, I guess I should have knocked first."

Angela blushed. "You have a really beautiful home, Lucas."

Lucas grinned. "Well, thank you, I'm glad you think so. I guess it was a good thing I cleaned it the other day, then. Would you like to see your room?"

"That would be nice of you, yes," Angela said, smiling shyly.

Lucas took her hand and led her to the room, allowing her to freshen up while he did the same.

Angela closed the door behind her and turned around so she could look at the room in silence. She realized, with a bit of unease, that it was the exact replica of what she had told Lucas a little over a decade ago she wanted her room to look like when she was an adult. She gulped as she looked at the decor, all pink and feminine and soft. She loved it but felt like she'd been transported to another lifetime where all her problems had solved themselves and tomorrow always was a better day. The bed looked almost too soft with its plush pink and purple flowered duvet and the similarly plush pillows. She realized that even the vanity and the dresser were wooden painted a soft pink color.

In the drawer of the vanity, much to her chagrin, she found a sparkly purple vibrator, still wrapped up in its packaging. She sighed exasperated and put it back where she'd found it. Angela shook off her unwarranted thoughts as she started unpacking and went to the adjoining bathroom. To her horror, she also noticed that there was a door opposite hers in the bathroom, which almost definitely led to Lucas' bedroom. She slapped herself mentally, scolding herself for not having asked him for any details about the set up. She found an empty cabinet above the double sink and put her toiletries in it, then got undressed and eyed herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror next to a gorgeous shower; she didn't look too bad anymore, most of her bruises had faded to yellow marks, but her scars would never go away. She shrugged and got into the shower, learning that the water pressure was perfect.

She scrubbed herself briskly, as if she could scrub away her entire past with only a bit of body wash and a loofah. She was also quite surprised and pleased to see that her bleeding had stopped; most women she'd heard of who'd had miscarriages, bled for weeks on end, not days. After she'd thoroughly washed each part of her body twice, she got out of the shower and wrapped a luxuriously thick towel around her body, then headed into the room and closed the door behind her. She put quite a bit of effort into her hairr, drying it completely before flat ironing it, then she put on a pair of denim cut-offs and a teal V-neck shirt. She gave herself a quick once-over in the vanity mirror before exiting her room and sitting in the living room. She felt nervous for some reason she couldn't quite explain and decided to watch something on TV.