Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition Read Online Free Page A

long as we both could walk.
    We both started martial arts
together but Tony excelled drastically. He was a natural and he picked up on
everything to perfection. Because of our friendship our instructor never
allowed us to fight against each other in any tournaments. I was grateful for
that because Tony would have handed my butt to me easily.
    Tony has always been
considered attractive and he had a demeanor that just attracted attention from
those of the opposite sex. So to say he got a lot of play from the girls was an
understatement. The downside to all that sex appeal is that he started
experiencing sex early and didn’t have the maturity to handle it. So when his
parents separated he just took it to another level. Now his viewpoint towards
girls was extremely cold and uncaring. But he never pressured me to go his
route even though we were close. He would always tell me that if he could do it
all over again he would do it the way I was doing it now.
    Despite his shortcomings he
was extremely intelligent and never saw anything less than an A in any of his
classes. When they tell you never judge a book by its cover, Tony was the
definition of that warning. If you didn’t know him like I did, you would expect
him to be some athlete who didn’t find academics very important. That would be
an inaccurate assumption. He was all about the grades and even though we both
played football with some of the neighborhood kids, he didn’t try out for any
sports at school. He said he’d rather perfect his pimping than his punting.
Tony was a natural comedian and can you blame him? He was an African American
teenager with a Hispanic last name so he had to develop a thick skin and he
learned quickly how to give better than he got.
    I would often ask him why didn’t
he stop being such a player and he would answer, “I can’t help myself from
helping myself.” Even with all his faults he was a great friend and he never
judged me for my shortcomings and I owed it to him to give him that same
respect.
    “Hey, dude! You’re cutting it
close this morning, huh?” I said.
    “Aww, man, you know I got to
make an entrance.”
    “Yeah, whatever, Casanova.”
    “You mean blaca-nova.”
    We both laughed at his crack
on himself. Sarah heard Tony’s voice from her bedroom upstairs and came running
down the stairs screaming his name like an ’N Sync fan; eyes gleaming with
excitement.
    “Boy, move!”  She demanded,
shoving me out of the way. Before Tony could stop her she jumped in his arms; hugging
him tightly. 
    “Tony I missed you so much. Don’t
ever leave me like that again!”
    I could see he was getting
uncomfortable with her signs of affection, especially with my mom looking on.
He tried to break away but Sarah wouldn’t let go. The look on his face while my
mom gave him “the look” was priceless. I thought he was going to piss his
pants.
    “Okay, okay! Man, girl, give
me six feet! Whew!”
    He exhaled after she released
her grip but not before landing a big juicy kiss on his cheek.
    “So you’re kissing my baby
right in front of my face!” my mom protested.
    “No! No! Mrs. Storm, it wasn’t
me…it was…”
    “Are trying to say my
fifteen-year-old forced you?”
    “No!”
    “So you did kiss her?”
    “Oh no wait, please Mrs.
Storm!”
    My mom had the sternest look
on her face but Sarah and I knew she was teasing Tony. Tony didn’t and after
she stared at him with “the look” a little longer, he got so confused he
started blaming himself.
    Finally, none of us could hold
it in any longer and broke out laughing.
    “Aww, you guys are wrong!”
    “Dude, you fell for it, you
can’t blame us,” I said.
    “Stop teasing my baby!” warned
Sarah. “This is my future husband.”
    “Uhh, no I’m not!”
    “Please Tony, I’m fifteen now”
    “Yeah and you still got milk
behind your ears. I’m not ever getting married. So me being your ‘hubby’ is
slim to none.”
    “You say that now but we’re
going to the