Moving Forward

Nathan Patrick Griffin

Nathan's POV

Matilda moved in two days after I met her. I really liked her. She was nothing like my mom had been and she shared many of the same interests, the love of scary movies, good food, weight training, swimming, and so much more. She was truly interested in what I had to say, consulted me as she worked out the house rules and who would take care of what chores. With her living here, I did not feel so lonely or unimportant and I was almost certain that she had been feeling the same way. We had our quirks and faults like everyone else. The first thing I learned about Tilly, aka Attila the Hun, do not talk to her until you have dumped two cups of pitch black coffee down her gullet in the morning. Not only was she super cranky, she stumbled around like one of the Zombies from the movies we both loved. Kota and I made the mistake of laughing at her; it was that funny. Boy, that had been stupid on our part and she let us know it by knocking us both into the pool while we were fully dressed for school. We had to replace our phones and dry out our schoolbooks. She did help to pay for the new phones though and we did learn our lesson. Mornings and Tilly without coffee equaled avoid at all cost or prepare to be worm food. She likened it to my addiction to frozen pizzas, which I insisted on keeping a stockpile of them in the freezer even when she made dinner each night. It was nice to come home from working late at the diner and find dinner waiting for me, she never minded if the guys came with me.

She had a gift in storytelling and always made them entertaining, making us laugh. Shan said she could make a living as a comedian, that she was that good. She was not interested though. She suffered abuse as a child and the Ericsons had pulled her from her home and would have taken her in, but she had wanted to remain close to her grandmother who was in a nursing home. The eldest Mr. Ericson and his son had searched for a family that was willing to take her in that was close to her grandmother. They did not just go with the first family they found, they found the one that suited Tilly the best. While they were not Academy, she was quite happy with them and still considered them her family. The nursing home she worked at, both of her adopted parents lived there and she visited them every day and brought me to meet them. They insisted I call them Grandma and Grandpa, something I never had before. It was not until afterwards that she, Shan and Foxy told me the truth. Matilda Grace Andrews was my aunt; my father's adopted sister. My father had left home at seventeen and never talked to his parents again and the same with Tilly, he had already been drinking and getting in fights. My father was also an adopted child, but he was adopted at birth. He did not want a sibling, he thought he deserved to be an only child and took out his jealousy on Tilly. While they loved him, they viewed his departure with some relief. They found out about my existence about a year ago and asked Shan to find me and make sure that I was not being abused. None of them was pleased with my living arrangements, so they went looking for him and my mom. Tilly had legal guardianship of me; the Ericsons helped her get it. They also went a step further. The house is in a trust for me and my father had to send half his paycheck to me each week, he was required to pay the bills and support me until I was eighteen or finished college. There was also a restraining order against him; he was not allowed to come near me. It bothered me at first, but then I took in what they were saying. Tilly and I living together had been my choice; she would have allowed me to live elsewhere if I had really wanted to. Yes, she would still have become a part of my life and watched over me. The thing was I have been so jealous of my friends because they had blood family that was a part of their life. Kota had Erica and Jessica and Silas had his dad. Luke and North had Uncle while Victor had his grandfather and so on. Me, I had a mother who abandoned me and whenever he came home my father would beat the shit out of me. I wanted to have just one person who was mine, who loved and took care of me and Tilly was quite willing to be that person. The amazing part is that she needs me as much as I need her and she is not ashamed to admit it. She understands that I am more mature than most kids my age and accepts it, even uses it to her advantage. Not in a bad way or in a manner that is detrimental to my mental health, just so we are not taken advantage of. She calls me Nat, not Nathan or Nate. I am Nat, her nephew and her new partner in crime. We make most decisions together. Her reasoning is that I have a right to have a say in my life and that I will never learn all I need to know that comes with being an adult if I do not start learning it now. I am almost sixteen, that only gives me a few years before being a legal adult and I need to be prepared for when that happens. I will be going to college, I will need to know how to budget my money, keep my studies on track, plan out my homework and take on missions with my team.

Tilly made me feel that I was important and wanted, that she loves me. When we are having a spat, Tilly never beats me down emotionally or becomes physical. She firmly insists that we sit down and discuss it, that neither of us is allowed to get up until we can reach a compromise. That is a bit hard since we both can be pig headed at times. Case in point; me getting a car, I want to buy a new one and she wants me to drive an older model until I head off to college. She still has her first car and has North fixing it up for me; I agreed to look it over before I start looking at new ones. I was to go over there tonight to look it over with Shan and make my decision then.