After being casted to the sea, thrown off the cruise ship she was on by her own boyfriend, what Zeda thought was her biggest problem turns out to be only the beginning. She's rescued by a foreign man, Lucas, & his two friends Johnny & Winwin. Togeth...
Everything was going well, until Lucas's birthday six months after I returned to Changsha. About a month after our year anniversary of meeting that fateful day.
He started acting strange and slowly growing distant after that day. I tried my hardest to fight the worries away, thinking it was just my old habits relapsing, but I could never fully shake off the feeling. Something was wrong.
Nothing unfortunate happened, everything was normal. We went to his favorite restaurant and then went over to Johnny's to pregame before we went out for the night.
There was a look in his eye that was unmistakable, while also unexplainable.
After he would laugh, his smile would quickly fade and his eyes would fall to the floor or off in the distance, and when things were mellow, he would set his eyes on something and stay fixated on it endlessly, as if he was zoning out in thought. This would continue to happen from then on.
We seemingly had a good night, an amazing night. If it weren't for my sensitivity and intuition I wouldn't have even picked up on his energy.
He would also have nightmares often, and would wake up shouting, 'No!', 'I'm sorry', and 'Please forgive me'. He would never tell me anything about them, always brushing it off with an "I don't remember."
But aside from these little things, everything was good ... so good.
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I managed to again bury it, not say a word and not express it.
'Everything is fine.' I would tell myself over and over again. I felt like I was crazy. I didn't want to ruin things by starting arguments about seemingly nothing.
A month after that was my birthday, and I could only feel the tension getting thicker. Everything was building up. Something was going to burst.
We invited everyone over for lunch and each person that showed up brought a gift for me. I had never seen so many in my life. I felt so special and so spoiled. I had never had so many friends. People who cared about me and loved me. Their presence was the best gift I could ask for despite what might be inside the colorful and decorated boxes.
The day was perfect until Hua suggested we go out. It wasn't her asking that brought things down, it was Lucas' response.
After everyone agreed, Lucas put a hand on my arm.
"Zeda, I know it's your birthday but I'm not feeling well. I think I'm going to stay home for this one."
He was so polite about it and sounded believable, but I knew deep down it was something else. Some other reason that wasn't a sickness.
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