Yours, Forever

t w e n t y s i x

It was dark out, but the lights in the spacious backyard shined brightly into the night. With a hand in his pocket, he leisurely walked down the long garden path towards the pergola next to the illuminated pool.

He took a seat in front of the fire that had already been started, bringing his phone up to his face. Even though it was cold outside, he could feel the warmth of the fire on his skin. He needed a break from his nosy family who seemed to not want to leave him alone. The phone rang until a face he had been missing appeared on the screen.

"Xavier!" Aurora's eyes lit up as she gave her boyfriend a happy smile. Seeing her smile naturally made him smile as well. "I'm drinking a smoothie."

She brought a mason jar up to her face, grinning like a child. His smile widened as he watched her pose with the smoothie next to her face, not knowing that he could barely see anything since her house was dark. The light from the phone illuminated her face and he quickly took a screenshot.

She grinned cheekily as she heard the shutter of the camera. Both their phones' camera rolls were slowly starting to fill up with photos of each other. Some of the photos consisted of Aurora falling asleep during their FaceTime calls on the nights they couldn't be together, which happened more often than you would think.

"Hey sweetheart," His eyes softened as he watched her climb the stairs in the dark. He chuckled when she yelled out a curse from stubbing her toe into the steps. "Are you alright?"

Aurora grunted in pain. "Yes. No. Maybe. I really have no depth perception in the dark."

Since both her hands were occupied— using her right hand to hold the phone up to her face and her left to hold her smoothie, Xavier could imagine her using her elbow to feel her way to her room.

A sudden noise behind him caused him to turn around. Eyeing the bush suspiciously, he already knew what was going on behind him. He turned back to his phone where Aurora was turning on the fairy lights in her childhood room, switching from color to color until she was satisfied with a purple-pink. Before he could speak, he heard the thumping sound of glass on wood as well as crumbling and static.

She not so gracefully moved the phone around until she finally appeared in the frame with her phone propped up against a tissue box.

"Finally settled?" He asked teasingly, causing her to roll her eyes. "How was dinner?"

"It was really good," She began to clip the front of hair back, one on each side, to stop her hair in the front from falling into her smoothie. "Did you see those photos I sent you?"

"I did," Xavier had gotten photos during dinner of the whole table of food that her parents and grandma had spent the whole day making. "I've only seen that much food during Thanksgiving and Christmas."

She giggled, taking a sip of her strawberry banana smoothie. "I think grandma went a little overboard this year."

Aurora's grandmother really did go a bit overboard with the food, especially since Lunar New Year was such an important traditional holiday to them. It was a time where everyone and literally everyone, gathered. Even her extended family showed up from both sides of the family causing them to set up another table for the younger adults and children.

"The food looked great though," he admitted, rolling his eyes when he heard a sneeze behind him.

"Shut up or he'll hear us."

"You shut up. It's not like I can control when I have to fucking sneeze."

"Watch your language!"

"Sorry, ma."

"It did, didn't it," she raised her eyebrows teasingly. "How was your dinner?"

"It was good. Ma wants to meet you," he muttered. Before she could ask, he continued. "Stephanie saw us at the restaurant I took you for dinner the other day and this family just doesn't know how to keep their big mouths shut."