The Tramp by Amber Riel (best novels of all time .txt) 📕

          “No,” the blonde said as if it were hard for her to comprehend.

          Raye nodded.  “Yesterday, he stood me up on our date.  I didn’t want to tell you guys when I got home and I feel bad because I didn’t feel like going to Shannon’s party which I need to apologize to her about….”

          “That’s horrible.”

          “How do you know that he has a girlfriend?” the older girl asked.

          “Because they’re both here and he’s hugging on her…. Kissing her and stuff…. I feel so stupid.”

          “You’re not stupid…. He’s an idiot,” the blonde replied.

          “Kaley’s right…. He is an idiot…. You’ll find someone a million times better than that jerk.”

          “Thanks, Kaley, and Abigail, but right now I feel like my heart is torn in a million little pieces.”

          The tramp walked down a sidewalk with green fields of grass on both sides.  He kind of tripped over his feet for a moment but quickly caught his balance.  He smiled and began walking.

          Raye sat back on the bench; tears worked their way down her cheeks as she kept crying.  “What am I going to do?”

          “Show him that you don’t need him,” Abigail replied.  “You said that he was here, right?”

          “Yea.”

          “Well, find a random guy and kiss him in front of Jack to show him that you’re better off without him.”

          Kaley kind of laughed.

          Raye looked over at Abigail like she had lost her mind.  “I can’t do that…. That’s insane.”

          “Show him what he’s missing…. He broke your heart he deserves it.”

          Raye shook her head.  “I don’t know.”

          “I dare you to do it,” Kaley replied.

          Raye’s eyes grew wide as she looked over at her friend with shock.

          “Double dog dare ya,” Abigail agreed.

          “Triple dog dare ya,” Kaley added.

          “You guys---”

          “Come on…. Just do it,” Abigail said.

          “No---”

          “Just this once,” Kaley replied.

          “No…. I’m not that….”

          “Please do it for us,” Kaley begged.

          Raye sighed as she noticed the tramp working his way down the path.  “Fine…. But just this once.”  She stood up and walked over to the tramp, grabbing his left hand, pulling him toward the way he had just walked from.

          Abigail and Kaley dropped their mouths, smiling.  “I can’t believe she’s going to actually do it,” Kaley spoke with surprise.

          “We need to see this,” Abigail agreed.  “Come on.”

          They both stood up, leaving their food on the bench and followed Raye who was dragging the tramp down the path toward the guy who had broken her heart.

          The tramp looked around in confusion as the random girl pulled him.

Raye stopped and looked over at Jack a guy with short black hair and dark skin tone who sat next to the bratty girl who the tramp had met the day before.  She took a deep breath and turned toward the tramp.  She couldn’t believe what she was preparing herself to do.  She wrapped her arms around the tramp’s neck.  She kind of bit her bottom lip, debating if it was a good idea or not.  She took another deep breath and then released it.  She closed her eyes and kissed the tramp.

          The tramp was surprised by the girl’s action but didn’t try to fight against it.

          Abigail and Kaley stood over by a tree and watched.  “She actually did it,” Kaley spoke, shocked and kind of laughed at the sight.

          Abigail smiled as well.  “Wow.”  She shook her head in amazement.  “I didn’t think she had it in her.”

          “Surprising…. Huh?”

          Abigail nodded.

          Raye pulled away from the tramp, feeling guilty and horrible.

          The tramp smiled.

          “I’m so sorry about that…. I’m not the kind of girl who does that.”

          The tramp leaned closer toward Raye.  He could tell that she was upset and bothered by something.

          “It’s just…. This guy just broke my heart and my two friends,” she said as she looked toward Abigail and Kaley, “told me to do it…. To kiss you in front of the jerk.”  Raye locked eyes with the tramp.  “I’m so sorry.”

          The tramp could feel Raye’s pain.  He was familiar with heartbreak and he knew the horrible feeling quite well.  He had felt that feeling a million different times.

          “That guy over there,” Raye continued as she pointed toward Jack and Jack’s girlfriend who weren’t even paying any attention toward them anyway, “didn’t even try to tell me he met someone else…. I had to find out the hard way.”  She began to cry.

          The tramp looked over at Jack and pointed to make sure it was the right guy.

          Raye nodded.

          The tramp held up his right pointer finger and kind of nodded.  He left Raye and walked over to Jack who was too busy hugging on his girlfriend to even realize that the tramp was there.  The tramp took his cane, looked at the tip of it then bopped Jack on the head with it.

          Jack slowly moved away from the girl and turned toward the tramp, standing up.

          The tramp looked up at Jack who wasn’t a small guy and realized that he was in over his head.  He kind of smiled, hoping that maybe Jack wouldn’t hit him back.  He kind of wiggled his body in a funny little kind of dance.

          “Did you just hit me?” Jack asked, anger growing in his deep voice.

          The tramp kept smiling.

          “YOU!” the girl screamed at the top of her lungs.

          The tramp looked over at the girl, dropping his mouth and losing his balance as he recognized her as the girl who tried to boss him around from the day before.

          Jack turned toward his girlfriend.  “You know him?” he asked, pointing at the tramp.

          “He’s the one who smacked me.”

          Jack turned back toward the tramp, ticked off.  “You smacked my girlfriend?”

          The tramp tried to smile, knowing what was going to happen.

          Jack went to punch the tramp but the tramp dodged the hit.  He went to go punch the tramp again from the other side but the tramp dodged the hit again.  He went to upper cut the tramp but the tramp moved the upper half of his body backwards, leaning back like in the Matrix without the slow motion.

          The tramp moved out of the way and kind of tripped Jack with his cane.  He kicked Jack to the ground from the back then ran, holding his hat on top of his head.

          Raye kind of laughed as she had watched the scene.

          The tramp worked his way over toward Raye and smiled.

          “I can’t believe you did that…. For me?”

          The tramp nodded.

          “Thank you.  Come with me to meet my friends…. Oh and I’m Edna by the way but my friends call me Raye.”

          The tramp’s smile grew with delight.

          Raye grabbed the tramp’s hand and pulled him over to Abigail and Kaley.

          Abigail and Kaley watched as Raye and the tramp walked over to them.  When the two arrived, the tramp smiled at the two girls and tipped his hat.  Abigail and Kaley just stared at the little fellow, confused.

          “You two should have seen it,” Raye said as she laughed.

          Abigail raised an eyebrow, watching the tramp.

          “He walked over to Jack, smacked him with his cane, and Jack went to go punch him a few times but he dodged the punches…. Tripped Jack and kicked him to the ground….”

          The tramp smiled bashfully as Raye spoke.

          “And he did it all for me.”  Raye looked at the tramp and smiled.

          “That’s great,” Abigail replied.

          “What’s his name?” Kaley asked, pointing toward the tramp.

          Raye looked at the tramp.  That had seemed to slip her mind.  She hadn’t thought about asking him what his name was.

          The tramp went to answer but didn’t reply.  He looked at Raye and shrugged.  It was as if he had amnesia and didn’t know who he was.

          “We’ll call him…. Charlie,” Raye replied as if she were naming a stray dog.

          “Really?” Abigail asked.

          “Yea…. Charlie…. It fits.”

          The tramp smiled at the sound of the name.  He couldn’t tell them if she was right or no but had liked it.

          “You’re not planning on keeping him now, are you?” Abigail asked, laughing.

          Kaley laughed as well.

          “Actually,” Raye began.

          Abigail and Kaley stopped laughing and stared at Raye with disbelief.  “Can we talk to you, Raye?” Abigail asked.

          “Yea over there,” Kaley agreed, pointing with her thumb toward the left.

          “Okay.”  Raye looked at the tramp and smiled.  “We’ll be right back.”

          The tramp nodded.

          The three girls walked a good distance away from the tramp.  They didn’t want him to hear what they had to say about him.

          The tramp began to look around as he waited for them to return.

          “Raye, you can’t be serious about letting that guy stay with us,” Abigail spoke in a hushed tone.

          “Yea,” Kaley agreed.  “You just met the guy.”

          Raye sighed and shook her head.

          “There’s no telling what he’s really thinking,” Abigail responded.

          Raye looked over toward the tramp and then back to her two dear friends.  “You can just tell by looking at him that he’s down on his luck….”

“That doesn’t mean anything.” “He could be a murderer,” Kaley replied.

          Raye shook her head and held out her hand toward the tramp.  She looked over at him.  “Does that look like a face of a psychotic murderer?”

          Abigail and Kaley looked over at the lonely tramp and examined his face.  “With that mustache?” Abigail asked.

          “Yea,” Abigail and Kaley agreed.

          “I’m sure he’s not that bad,” Raye replied, rather defensively.

          “He hit Jack with his cane,” Kaley answered.

          “So?”

          “That means he could be violent,” Abigail answered.

          “He’s a Gentle Man of Nerve…. Besides Jack deserved it after what he did to me.”

          “We can’t let him stay with us,” Kaley injected.

          “Come on you two.  Just give him a chance…. I want to do something for him because I feel so bad that I kissed him just to get Jack back for breaking my heart…. I owe him.”

          Abigail and Kaley looked at each other and sighed.  “Fine,” Abigail replied, giving in.  “But he gets just one chance.”

          Raye smiled and hugged her two friends.  “Thank you, you two.”

          The tramp stood as he waited for the three girls to return.  He swung his cane around and knocked the hat off of his head.  He caught the hat and looked around to see if someone else had knocked his hat off but no one else was around.  He smiled when he realized what had happened.  He placed his hat back on top of his head.

          The three girls walked back over to the Tramp.  Abigail sighed.  “Do you have a place to stay?” she asked the tramp.

          The tramp shook his head.

          “Would you like to stay with us until you can get back on your feet?”

          The tramp smiled and nodded.

          “Okay.  Come with us then.”