Alexia’s POV

I froze, my entire body tensing. I could already feel their eyes on me, boring a hole through me. 

Turning slowly on my heel, I gave myself a little time to regain my composure, putting a confused expression on my face. 

“W-who?” I winced at my stutter, knowing that it gave me away. 

“Don’t even give me that young lady,” my mother clipped, glaring for a second. “Who was that boy?” she reiterated, carefully enunciating each word. She folded her arms across her chest, and I felt a light sweat break out. 

“H-he’s the guy I tutor,” I murmured, my eyes unwilling to look at her. So instead they were focused on the ground, watching the hardwood planks gleam up at me as it reflected the light hanging from above. 

My mother let out an audible gasp. “Ze-Zhu!” she cried, and my eyes whipped to her, widened. She only used my Chinese name when she was really disappointed or really angry with me. “Are you talking about the one with the… F?” Her nose was wrinkled with distaste, and she spat out the letter F as if it was some diseased piece of food.

“Uh,” I dragged out, everything in me screaming to just not answer, and flee. Yet that notion was ridiculous at this point, and I’d be in even more trouble if I were to do that. Plus, where would I even go? I had no other home except for here. “Well, technically… he does, but not anymore! He’s pulled it up to a low C since I started tutoring him…” I murmured, even though I knew it was useless to even say that. A C to my parents is the same as an F. Hell, a B would be the same as an F to them. 

“Doesn’t matter,” she snapped. “You are no longer allowed to see that boy. To think that he,” she shook her head in disgust, “.. he kissed you. Him, kissing you.” My mother visibly shuddered, as if the thought of Colin giving me a quick kiss was the most horrifying thought she could conjure. I gulped. “It’s absolutely horrid, not to mention forbidden. What if Lee happened to be here? What would you do then Ze-Zhu?” Her eyes were glaring down me in disappointment and fury, as if I was a disgrace to the family. 

I could no longer meet her eyes, and cast them back down to the floor boards. “I don’t know,” I whispered, close to tears. I felt downright awful. I had never betrayed my parents like this before, and their words felt sharper than knives, digging deeper and deeper until it was a physical pain blossoming in my chest. 

“Well, I do. He would have dropped you like a sack of rocks, and you would have shamed this family for eternity. You have shamed this family. Cheating on such a brilliant and handsome young man with such idiotic scum.” The tone of my mother’s voice, clearly disapproving and harsh, is what broke me down. Tears started to drip, no matter how furiously I tried to hold them back. “You’re lucky that we won’t tell him,” my mother continued, and I blinked at her. For some reason, disappointment was running alongside the relief flooding through me. Had I wanted her to tell Lee? Some part of me knew that she would never tell him anyways, my parents were the ones who were so desperate to keep me locked into this marriage. 

“Why?” I asked, my voice soft and quiet. 

“But you are never to see that boy again, and you are not allowed to tutor him anymore,” my mother finished, disregarding my question as she gave me her final words. Then she stalked off, leaving me leaning against the door as my world crumbled around me. My dad held back for a second, giving me a sad look in his eyes, one that was both apologetic and downcast. Then he too walked away, silence blaring in my ears. 

I felt like the lowest of the low as I forced myself to move, deciding it was best to trudge up to my room and study. It was the only safe thing nowadays, the only thing I could do right. 

My mother really hit home with those words, and my mind was trapped in a swirling vortex of everything that had just happened. Each moment carefully being replayed in my mind, every feeling or thought that had crossed me during that time.

When I reached my room, I closed my door softly, locking it before going over to my desk. I flipped on the desk light and grabbed one of my textbooks from the ground. 

Then I went through and outlined a few chapters, some we had just covered and others we were soon to cover. I read through each chapter silently, writing down notes. It was an automatic sort of thing, I didn’t even have to think as I went through and continued to outline, answering all the review questions at the end of each chapter. I didn’t want to think. Thinking would cause me to have thoughts, which would trigger my feelings, and I couldn’t have that right now. Everything that I would be feeling would be negative, and I was one of those people who had a really hard time getting out of a slump. I didn’t understand how something bad could happen to someone, yet the next day they were bouncing on their feet, smiling and laughing. 

I would be in a mood for days, weeks, before I finally felt okay again to smile. At this crucial point in my life, I couldn’t do that. I needed to stay focused. 

So after I finished with one textbook, I moved onto another, then the next, until I had covered all of my subjects. My eyes flickered over to the clock, noting that it was a little past midnight. Yet I wasn’t tired. I was too scared to sleep. Scared to dream, or what my mind might produce while I wasn’t keeping a close eye on it. 

I heard somewhere that dreams are pulled from your subconscious thoughts, and I didn’t want to know what I thoughts I held underneath the conscious ones. 

I ended up working on my independent studies, touching up on my language and culture of my background. I continued to work, moving from subject to subject, before my clock was glaring a bright red 4:07am at me. 

My eyes were burning and heavy, my head pounding due to the immense amount of knowledge I had just tried to absorb. I couldn’t stop my eyelids from closing as my head rested on the desk, exhaustion pulling at me. 

I yawned, everything in my body giving out at once. I had never stayed up this late in fear of being too tired at school to stay awake. 

But at this point, I didn’t even care anymore. 

I just hoped I was too exhausted to dream.

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sorry it's so short, but THE SECRET IT OUT. her parents know oh god... but they won't tell Lee because they're selfish ._. let's face it - Alexia's only engaged bc her PARENTS want a part in Zhang Electronics, and want to feed off the wealth of Lee's family. they're so freaking greedy ughhh

but other than that, what do you think? Any predictions as to what will happen next? :3