Shades of You & I (An Interracial Romance)

Chapter 1

This chapter is dedicated to the girl who helped me to create this story, my wonderful cousin Cheyenne. Love you xoxo ❤️
Also,  big thanks to @leaetsandra for making my beautiful story cover!!❤️

(DISCLAIMER: Elwood is not a real place in New Jersey [that I know of]. This is a fictional town that I made up!)

Asia's POV

First things first.

I didn't want to move anywhere. Especially not to New Jersey. I was not a suburban kind of girl. If anything I'd be going to another city, like Miami or Chicago. Maybe even London, for Christ sakes. I wanted to be in the city where I spent my whole childhood in.

But no.

My father got a promotion and one thing lead to the other. His new job relocated him to a small town in New Jersey. Elwood, to be exact.

I begged and begged my parents to let me stay with my grandmother who lived in Manhattan. My grandma was more than happy to invite me into her humble abode but of course they said no.

"It's not that far from New York City, Asia," my mom tells me in a flat tone. "You can always visit."

"Yeah, plus I think this experience will be good for you." My dad adds.

"But I don't want to live in the suburbs. I want to be back in a city where there's so much more to do," I whine. "And besides, I'll be a minority in this new school. I did some research on this place and the majority of students are white."

My parents both paused, glancing at each other before my dad focused back on the road. Got em there. I was in the back seat of the car with my older brother Kyle, who was listening to his music loudly so he couldn't even hear our conversation. I bet he wouldn't even care, anyways.

"I'm more than sure you won't be. And if it does end up that way, at least you'll be expanding your horizons." My dad contradicted. Our eyes meet in the rear view mirror and he flashes me a smile that I don't reciprocate.

Right, father. I rolled my eyes, deciding not to reply. No matter what I said or how I said it I wasn't going to live back in New York City. There wasn't going to be a corner store on every block. No more convenient trains to get me where I needed to go. This was my new home and now I had to just get used it.

My mother is right, I can always visit friends and family but we all know it won't be the same. What does it even matter? Most of my old friends kind of forgot me before I even left.

As we passed the streets of my new town called Elwood, I realized it wasn't too bad looking. Pretty and manicured houses and lawns, nice cars and smooth roads played a huge role to this neighborhood. There were more trees than I liked, which meant bugs and spiders but you know once again I'd have to suck it up and invest in some OFF spray during those hot summer days. It was October, so all the trees were turning different colors, and the leaves were falling which looked so pretty.

The town had a quaint little downtown area with a bunch of little stores and boutiques, which was cool. It was the evening and I was surprised at how many people were out for a Sunday night. This place looked really peaceful, a definite change in scenery. It would help to get used to it and I'm hoping it'll be easy because at the end of the day I'm gonna be here for at least the next two years (at least that's what my dad says) until I go off to college.

When we got to our new home I was truly amazed by the size of it. It was nice and big with a spacious back yard and a drive way for the car. The garage was attached to the main house and there was a cobblestone walkway that lead to a big brown wooden door with a cool golden knocker that had a vicious looking lion embellished on it. I pushed open the door and stepped through the spacious front hall.