Differences (An Interracial Love Story)

Chapter 4

Troy had asked someone for directions since the GPS died. He was walking his dog and looked like he was in his late teens. Surprisingly, he didn't wear something that corresponded to the climate out tonight.

"Down there.... And to the left. And welcome to the neighborhood." He said, seeing the address on the scrap of paper. He thanked him and soon drove down to where he directed us to.

When we got there, we were stopped by a large black automatic gate that ran around the few acres of the house. It was definitely bigger than our old house. Much much bigger. The mainly yellow Florida looking house had brown shingles and beautiful marble colored windows. Small swaying palm trees and wild rose bushes were situated across the slightly overgrown green grasses.

I knew that I was going to like it here. It was a break from what we were accustomed with. With the way this new place was set up, it would've been like being in paradise.

"We're here! The Carters and the Thompson man is here!" Troy shouted into night sky, waking everyone else in the car. Nikki and my mom slughishly crawled out of the car, barely conscious.

"Nikki. Nadia. Naomi. Noah. Welcome to your new humble abode! Twelve shots of five hour energy and we are finally here! My hard work has surely payed off!" He announced, proudly.

At the same time, Nikki and my mom burst into more happy cheers. I think they seemed to forget that it was nighttime in a quiet seeming neighborhood. "Hey guys. I know you're all excited about the house and us getting here, but how about we be excited from inside the house. May I remind you that it is night time?" I said while swinging a few bags over my shoulder, consisting of my sleeping quadrants for the night.

In due time, everyone else caught on. "Oh oh! Right! Nae you are so right!" They realized, doing the same.

Troy looked between his phone and the keypad on the gate while putting in the code. Inside, we were welcomed to the beautiful sight of a two curled staircases going up to the second floor.

The inside was amazingly put together, as if Michelangelo created this masterpiece. The twinkling chandelier hung highly in the lobby perfectly lit a good amount of the house, allowing us to explore more if we wanted to.

Unfortunately, the time I didn't sleep during the trip hit me hard. Those bottles of energy drinks and endless Starbucks coffee surely didn't do me any justice now.

"Well... I'm going up to my room family of mine. Goodnight." I called to a bunch of people still adventuring through the house.

Walking through a long, dark hallway, I searched through the doors, carefully examining every one. There were 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms upstairs alone.

I wonder how much are downstairs.

During my examining, I found a pretty cool bedroom that had a bathroom connected to it.

'Haha! Nikki's gonna be so mad! Well the early bird does catches the worm.'

The bathroom was huge! It was like my room and Nikki's room put together. Wow! It was overall lighted by a natural sun window on the ceiling. There was a stand-in shower at the corner accompanied by an elegant ceramic bathtub that sat in the middle of the wall. A granite countertop sink stood underneath a large mirror, stretching across the entire wall.

After being blown away by the bathroom, I moved to the room. The room was simple - with it's tarnished, uncleaned wood floor, lavender colored walls, and ceiling fan, but still very impressive in size. Along the walls was a door that opened up to a walk-in closet. Dusty shelves yearned for a cleaning.

I closed the closet door and precisely cleaned the area in the room where I'd be sleeping for the night. Me being me; I knew I had alot of work to do in the morning.

***

Thanks to the help of the moving guys, we were able to unpack everything into the house within a couple hours. My mom and Troy worked on the downstairs while Nikki and I tidied up the upstairs. Boxes with labels were stacked in all rooms. Around 3 or so we had the house together at a record time.

Filth built up all over me after the long restless hours of raw unjustified cleaning.

Yay! I get to use my shower! My brain cheered, weirdly.

When I stepped in the shower, I soon realized why my thoughts were so happy. Being inside it after a long long trip was lemonade on a hot summer day. Refreshing. So very refreshing. Instead of the water falling from the regular shower head I was used to, it fell from above me like cooling rain.

I slipped on a pair of joggers and an oversized pullover before dropping down on my bed. My friends in Georgia start to come to mind. I had to see what was up with them between when I texted them during the road trip and now.

My phone took a little while to come on. When it did, it erupted into notification ringtones. Texts came in from my best friend, Paris, a couple ones from my school mates, and some from the other apps. I clicked on my contacts icon that automatically opened to an unknown number.

The number was listed underneath ur future bae?? and I thought it was the most adorable thing! I would've never thought that he liked me. I thought it was just a random act of flirting. I'm so stupid! The signs were right in front of me! One: he called me "adorable", two: he asked for my number, and three: he payed for my snacks.

Aww! Brandon! Such a sweetie!

Excitement ran through my heart and to my fingers as I quickly texted him. Everyone else would've had to wait. "Hey Brandon"

"Hey. Um.. Who's this?"

"Guess c;"

"Naomi? Aka my future bae?"

"lol yeah. It's me" I blushed when he said those words. It was so cute!

"Oh hey, cutie! Are you still in your trip?"

Just then, someone came ringing at the door. Putting down my phone on my pillow, I ran over to the window to see a family standing at the door patiently. Downstairs, I could hear my mom answer the door, "Hi. How are you? Oh yes. Sure, one minute."

"Kids? Baby? Please come to the door." She called nicely.

We grouped up together around my mom holding Noah on her side. "Guys. These are the.."

"Millers! Nice to meet you all! We just wanted to come over and formally welcome you guys to the neighborhood." Said the lady, holding a glass platter. Her blonde hair was short and curly. The makeup she had on was enough that it presented her face well. She wore a baby blue, polka dotted blouse, boot cut jeans and tan heels. She looked gorgeous for a family this size!

"Oh. Here you go! It's green bean casserole!" She handed me the platter. "And this is Sarah, Hannah, Anthony, Michael, my husband, Bill, and I'm Jennifer."

Oh gosh! They're so white! I exclaimed in my head. Not that I have a problem with them, but wow.They literally looked like a family right from those old shows on TV Land. The ones with the all American family that's always matching and being perfect.

The kids said their "hi" in unison while the dad waved with the biggest, most prefect smile. We, on the other hand, (all except my mom) stood in complete amazement.

"Oh, nice to meet you all! You have such a beautiful family. Well this is my oldest daughter, Nikki, my second oldest, Naomi, my son, Noah, and my husband, Troy." We did the same as well and the dads traded handshakes.

Mrs. Jennifer brought up the fact that her daughter, Hannah, was the same age as me. I took a quick glance at her features: similar, mostly, except she had her own thing about her. Instead of her hair being curly and either blonde or light brown (like everyone else's), she had dark brown hair and it was styled in a rebelish way (her hair parted to the side and a cute bang just above her eyebrow). She continued smiling at everyone then caught my eye after a moment, smiling casually at me.

I smiled back politely, focusing to my attention to my shoes now. Whilst all of the introductions and conversations, I noticed the older of the boys staring at me. Either me or Nikki, who was right behind me. Replying with an awkward smile, he looked down at his black converses.

The family and I said our goodbyes after they decided to go home. Immediately, everyone started talking about what just happened. All except for me. There was someone waiting for a text back upstairs.