Love is Foreign

❦ Prologue ❦

Trigger warning: Eating Disorder ||

She came out of a bad break up. He cheated on her and begged for forgiveness but she refused and instinctively put up her walls, distrusting him immensely. She invested so much into their relationship. They had been together since their freshman year of high school. She found out one day by accident when hanging out at his house. She happened to drop her phone behind the bed and got on the floor to look for it. She emerged out not only with the cellular device, but finding condom wrappers and used condoms as well. It felt like she had been struck through her heart, but she kept her composure together and had a stony face when he came back from the shower.

When he got out, he smiled and kissed her cheek. "Hey, princess, what's with the long face?"

"How long was it?"

He looked at her in confusion. "How long was what?"

"This." She said as she threw a thong and condom wrappers at his chest. "So, how long?"

"I can expl-"

"How. Long." She locked eye contact and tried holding herself together.

He sighed. "3 years." He mumbled.

"Hm. That explains a lot." She said as she picked up her stuff.

"I promise I'll break up with her, I won't cheat on you again."

"It was a total of a year that you actually spent time with me and only me. You spent the rest of our 'relationship' sleeping around and dating," she gave a dry laugh, choking up a little bit. "I wasted four years on you while you screwed around." She rubbed her arm and looked down. "I changed myself for you, I dropped my life, got my priorities mixed up so I could be with you when you asked. I'm done, Christian. I'm so done with you." She stated, looking back up at him with a neutral expression.

"I love you," he replied quietly, his voice barely audible.

"You don't destroy the ones you love," she responded hastily.

"But you didn't know, so how could it-"

"It's called being faithful." She said, raising her voice and walking out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

Her whole body convulsed as she hugged her arms and tried to keep herself together. She just wanted to break down there and then. She wanted so much to believe that there was absolutely no possible way that a male should be able to control a girl's mind like this, to be able to control her. She didn't believe in letting someone in simply because of 'love'. Shenever realized she let her walls down for Christian. She didn't know when she let down her walls and enabled him to enter, enabled him to make her be so vulnerable. She ran a hand through her hair, feeling her heart pound hard against her chest. When she got home after an hour long of walking, she fell against her bed and let out loud sobs against her pillow. Christian was her first boyfriend, and it hurt a lot, ending it that way.

It made sense to her after she analyzed the details in her mind. After the first year of their relationship, he slowly started becoming distant towards her. He hung out less, talked less, paid attention less. It was only a matter of time before he disappeared completely from her life.

Her phone rang. "Yeah?"

"Where to this summer?"

"How about the Duke household?"

"We have to go somewhere, it's our last summer before college!"

"And?"

"And, what about Asia? You're gonna tell me what happened with Christian, it's like something crawled up your ass and died."

"Really? And how do you know it's about Christian?"

"Because I'm a magical fucking unicorn."

"Seriously, Cam, how?"

"Maybe because he's strutting around the mall with Brittany sucking his face," Aurora could feel the disgusted face Cameron was making. "so what happened?"

"More like what's happening." Aurora bit the inside of her cheek and took a deep breath. "Cam, we're going to Asia."

♡♡♡

[A/N: This whole dialogue will be in Chinese but will be kept to English for easier reading and writing]

He cursed under his breath as his mother scolded him.

"Ai-ya, why don't you have a girlfriend yet, my son?" his mother frowned worriedly.

"Ma," he replied. "I'm in the process of applying for college, you know I don't have time for such things!"

"I want a granddaughter soon."

"If I can't get a job, you can't get a granddaughter or a grandson."

"Nonsense. You will have a daughter." She replied sternly.

He sighed, knowing fully well that he won't win the argument. "Let me study hard and I will find a girlfriend." he responded, knowing this would satisfy her until the next day.

He walked out of her room, a string of English curses under his breath. I won't be able to do it, he thought. I won't be able to find a spouse. The family tree ends with me. Our family isn't rich enough to a girl want me or for me to go to America... He shook his head of the negative thoughts.

"Tyan," his mother called out.

"Yes?"

"We need food for tonight's dinner."

"Alright, ma."

He took the list and shrugged on a jacket. "It's so cold."

"Then hurry up and come back." she said simply.

"Yes, ma."

He left, his mind filling up with thoughts of hopelessness.