Astrid Fraser has been looking for her soulmate since she received her soul mark at 10. After 18 years, she began thinking she'd never find him... until fate decided to step in.
Will he accept her knowing that she is different?
Will he accept her...
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I could hear the party raging on from where I sat in my bedroom, the door slightly ajar from when Yoongi forgot to latch it properly. After we'd arrived back home from the concert, each of the couples had broken off, heading for their rooms to freshen up before we celebrated Tae's birthday and the beginning of a new year.
It was fairly late at night, around 10.30pm and my poor daughter was so tired that she'd gone into grumpy territory. She was unhappy that we wouldn't let her stay up to celebrate her uncle's birthday or to see the new year come in. Sophie and I rarely fought, but tonight's bedtime had been filled with disagreements and angry words coming from my daughter. I was the bad parent, not letting her have any fun.
So far, my now 11 year old, hadn't had many of the puberty tantrums; however, based off her moods the last few months, I felt like it was coming. Sophie, who was normally such a happy and relaxed girl, had become a little more withdrawn and was starting to compare her body to those she saw in magazines. My little girl was growing up – changes were already starting to happen and I knew it wouldn't be long before she came to me with having her first period.
Yoongi and I had done the whole 'birds and bees' talk with her, which went over as well as you could imagine. I was so thankful my fiancé was patient and could talk to Sophie without being a blushing mess – out of all the guys in the household, he was the only one who I knew wouldn't get flustered and embarrassed talking about sex and puberty. We hadn't gone down that route of prohibiting her from having sex until she was a certain age; having a midwifery nurse as a grandmother figure and hearing the stories of young mothers had instilled Sophie with a healthy respect of the consequences from having unprotected sex. Instead, we'd just asked that she be careful. Surprising both of us, Soph said that she'd already decided that she wanted to wait until she met her soulmate before she went and lost her virginity; she was a hopeless romantic and wanted to only be with one person. Still, Yoongi and I made sure to give her all the facts, in case that plan changed.
"Attie, you in here?" I heard Jimin's voice call out from the doorway. He must've heard the small sniffle I'd let out because next thing I knew, he had perched himself on the bed beside me. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Unable to hold it in any longer, I flung myself into my best friend's side, my face buried into his neck. I barely registered his arms circling me as he held me in a tight embrace, comforting me with his gentle mutterings of 'it's ok', 'let it out' and 'I've got you'. I could feel his collar becoming damp from the tears that streamed down my face, but I couldn't find it in me to care much.
"What's going on?" he asked gently after I'd finally calmed down.
Hiccupping and sniffling, I unloaded all the feelings that had overwhelmed me. I spoke about feeling hurt that my daughter thought I was a mean parent, even how Sophie had gone on to say that she loved Yoongi more than me. I was open and honest with Jimin about all the stress I was feeling about planning the wedding while Yoongi and the other guys would be halfway across the globe. It was cathartic speaking out all the things that had me worried or stressed, things that I had kept to myself so I didn't burden Yoongi while the tour was going on.
