Any Man Of Mine - sade meeks (top young adult novels txt) 📗

your most embarrassing moment was."

"Babe."

"Ran-ger. You asked." I turned towards him, hands on hips. "Besides, if you don't talk to me I'm going to go crazy just sitting here."

Ranger nodded his head towards the novel still on my lap. "Finish that already?"

"Yes, I was already most of the way done and you didn't give me time to grab another one or anything else. If you don't want to talk about your most embarrassing moment, talk to me about something else. Tell me something about when you were a kid."

Ranger looked away and I sighed. I was just about to resign myself to insanity by sheer boredom when he spoke.

"There isn't much to tell really. I've already told you about growing up in Newark and the time I spent in juvie. I lived with my grandmother in Miami during high school. That's when I met Tank."

"Really? I thought you two met in the service." This was an interesting turn of events. I might find out something more about Tank as well as about Ranger. He turned back to face me.

"No, we first met the first day of our sophomore year of high school." Ranger expelled a small gust of air that for anyone else might have been considered a rueful chuckle, a small sideways smile playing on his lips.

"Tell me about that day, please?" I asked him, playfully batting my eyelashes at him.

Ranger shifted in his seat a bit, and positioned himself so he could still watch for his quarry but wasn't facing completely away from me. "I was a stupid hotshot punk kid. Just out of juvie, settling into a new state, a new school. I wanted to prove how big a badass I was from the very beginning. I looked around my homeroom class and there was this huge mountain of a black guy sitting in the back of the room. I took his measure and realized even if I didn't win, I'd have earned some respect for taking him on. Stupid flawed teenage logic. Of course, I didn't really think I wouldn't win; after all, I was Mr. Big Bad Ass Carlos Manoso, the Cuban answer to LeRoy Brown. Tank, or rather Pierre as he was still known then, kicked my ass thirty ways to Sunday that afternoon when I came at him during lunch period. I gave him a fairly wide berth after that, as far as things go. We met up again when we were both in the Army and assigned to the same recruit squad several years later. That's when our friendship really began."

Ranger got quiet again and this time I let him. He was alert as ever but I suspected another part of his mind was adrift in memories. I tried to picture Ranger and Tank as teenagers. I was still having a hard time accomplishing that when Ranger spoke.

"So, Babe…tell me about one of your first days of school." He turned and flashed me his fifty-watt smile, which was still enough to dazzle me and numb my brain. I started speaking before I realized it.

"My first day of Junior High as a seventh grader is one I'll never forget thanks to Joyce Barnhart. My mother and Valerie had spent the two weeks before school started convincing me that as a young lady in junior high I needed to wear a dress to school. So I finally agreed and they picked out a really girly pink dress with lots of flounce and ruffles, matching pink tights and black patent leather Mary Janes. Honestly, I looked ridiculous." I rolled my eyes and cringed at the memory, then continued. "We were in the lunch line when Joyce Barnhart 'accidently' knocked into the back of me, sending not only her lunch tray of food all over the back of me, but causing me to drop my lunch tray so that the contents landed all over the front of my dress. Since Mom had already picked Valerie up for a dental appointment that day, they couldn't get a hold of her to bring me another outfit or take me home, so I had to spend the whole rest of the day covered in beef stew and salad dressing." With that, I turned to face out the passenger window. Damn Joyce. Ranger was very quiet and then I realized the SUV was shaking slightly. I looked over at him. The jerk was silently laughing at me. I gave him a death glare and pressed my lips together until they practically disappeared.

When he finally got himself under control again, he grinned at me. "I'm seeing a pattern here Babe. You wearing food."

I growled at him. JERK!

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Publication Date: 08-12-2011

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Dedication:
i want to thank everyone who supported me to keep going after my dreams..thank you