Read Online On the Edge of Humanity by S. B. Alexander - Free Book Online

friendly gesture.
    “Hey,” he said. “You never told me your name.”
    As Ben kept talking, I kept walking—still ignoring him. He grabbed me by the arm and whirled me around in the middle of the hallway. I looked around to see all the kids staring at us. At that moment, I thought, Not again— another new school, another bully . Why couldn’t I catch a break? I didn’t get a chance to say anything to him. Sam showed up the moment Ben had touched my arm.
    “You have a problem, buddy?” Sam blurted out.
    “Who the hell are you?” Ben countered.
    At the time, Ben stood a head taller than Sam, but that didn’t matter. Sam fought off men bigger than Ben.
    “Don’t lay a hand on her again!” Sam had shouted.
    “And what if I do? You going to stop me?” Ben’s pale face had glowed bright red.
    “Sam, don’t do this,” I had pleaded.
    “Is this your boyfriend?” Ben had asked as he looked between Sam and me.
    When Ben blurted out the word boyfriend , Sam threw the first punch. Ever since that first day of high school in the ninth grade, Sam and Ben have been best friends.
    The cab driver turned onto Ash Street. The road wasn’t plowed yet and the tall ash trees covered the road, creating a tunnel. As I stared out the window, I remembered Ben bragging that the white ash trees were the reason the players of the Black Sox chose this neighborhood. They felt connected by the energy the trees released. The players thought it was a superstitious sign because baseball bats were made from the timber of the ash tree. They felt the trees were their four-leaf clover.
    The cab parked in front of twenty-two Ash Street.
    “Twenty-five dollars,” the cabby demanded.
    Sam handed the cabby forty dollars. “Just give me a ten back.”
    The cab driver handed Sam two five-dollar bills. “Thanks, man.”
    “No problem,” Sam replied.
    We both slid out.
    As the cab sped off down the street, Sam stood on the sidewalk and scanned the neighborhood. I walked up the snow-covered walkway, wanting to get inside and out of the cold. As I reached for the doorbell Sam’s footsteps clobbered on the wood panels beneath him. I had my finger inches from the button when the door opened.
    Ben’s full lips parted and a radiant white smile greeted us. Unlike the ninth grade, his hair was no longer red. It had changed to a cinnamon color with red streaks through the top, as if he had it professionally highlighted. His sideburns were neatly trimmed, and like Sam he had dimpled cheeks that made the girls at school giddy when he walked by.
    “Hey there.” Ben sidled to the left. As I stepped over the threshold, he bent over and gave me a bear hug.
    “Ow. My ribs, please?”
    “Sorry,” Ben whispered.
    Sam had one foot inside the door when the crunch of tires rolling over the snow-covered street broke the quiet of the morning air. I caught a glimpse of the nose of an SUV. Shit! Then the SUV came into full view, complete with blue and red lights on top. My heart dropped to my knees. While it wasn’t a black SUV, it still conjured up a picture of a jail cell. How’d they know we were here?
    Sam pushed me deeper into the house. We both jumped into the living room, which was located to the right of the front door. The bay window had no curtains. We were on display like mannequins in a high-end clothes store.
    Sam moved to one side of the window, out of view. I stood against the wall on the other side while Ben’s dog Lucy trotted in and started barking. She was a small dog and looked like either a Shih Tzu or Maltese. She had big brown eyes and reminded me of an Ewok from Star Wars . I bent down to pet her in the hope she would stop barking.
    Sam gasped. His expression was frozen as if he had seen a ghost.
    “What’s wrong?”
    He shook his head as if he didn’t want to tell me.
    “Sam, tell me!”
    He put his finger to his lips and the doorbell rang.
    My heartbeat shifted into gear and went from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds.