For Richer or For Poorer

Chapter 4: New Beginnings

For a split second, I wondered if Aunty Vera would care about me leaving the house without asking. It wasn't like she was up, and it was only next door. Nathan said that she was like family to him, so I guessed it was cool.

       I picked my shoes up from the door and made my way out into the hall. The house was was way too quiet for comfort. Each footstep felt like it left an echo effect too loud against the marble floors.

        When I got through the maze of stairs, I snuck out through the back door. Nathan met me halfway, appearing out of nowhere by the long patio deck.

         "Hey," Nathan waved.

        "Hey."

       The light turned on from our movement, allowing me to see him up close and personal. Nathan was taller than he seemed from his balcony. He had a sort of lanky build, with a surprisingly coordinated stride to his walk.

      Nathan stared at me like he was thinking the same thing; that I looked different than he expected.

        "Nice to meet you...uh, I never actually got your name."

         I smiled as a thought occurred to me. Since I was sent here to discover myself, why not do it my own way? Tay (or Tay-tay as my dad liked to call me) had to be left in New York. If I was really going to reinvent myself—here in this strikingly different place—it made no sense to do it as Tay, an antisocial chick with a with a chip on her shoulder.

  "Jade." I replied. It wasn't technically a lie. Jade really was one of my names.

Jade was adventurous, Jade was...nice apparently.

"Pretty name," he smiled back, leading the way to his pool, "was that your mom's favorite gem stone?"

The real story to my name was that my parents couldn't agree on which name fit me best, so they gave me both. I thought it was lazy compromise, but there was nothing I could do to change it.

"No, um, my dad named me."

I never talked about my mom, ever, and I wouldn't start tonight.

"Oh, well he picked a good name. I thought you looked like a Jade, but I didn't want to assume." He chuckled.

It was a lame joke, but I found myself smiling at it nonetheless. Nathan seemed proud of himself to have broken the ice so quickly.

        "My dad named me too," he continued, "I'm sort of a junior, so he wasn't that original."

        "Sort of?"

        "Nathan Edward Walters III."

        The full government...

        His full name sounded exactly how his place looked: rich and pristine. I knew lots of Jr.s back at home, but I couldn't for the life of me think of a time I'd ever run into a third of his name. My cousin Deon was a Jr. He used to joke all the time about naming his future kid after him, but I highly doubted there would ever be a 'Deon Everett Evans the third' anywhere in his lineage.

      "Well you definitely look like a Nathan. I was assuming something way worse." I joked.

       Nathan gave me a look, "If you say Thor, I'll throw you into the pool."

       I stopped mid-step. We were just about to his wooded fence and I refused to take another step.

      "If you throw me in that pool, you'll have to fight me." I was only half playing. Nathan however, took me seriously.