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always strove to please their grandparents, where Randolph was considered the rebellious one.
    He smiled when he thought of Ross. It wasn’t that his brother was a weakling by any means. Ross was just very careful in choosing his battles and a fight with Julia Fuller was a battle no mortal person would want to take on. So in some things, Ross meekly gave in. Like his dating of Angela Douglass. Even after dating her for almost eight months, Ross hadn’t managed make it to first base yet. She was too dignified, too refined, too prim and proper and too damn restrained. Ross had even admitted she hadn’t allowed him to kiss her until they had dated for three months. Yet he continued to date her to keep their grandmother happy and off his back.
    Randolph noticed that he had walked from one end of the campus to the other while he’d been thinking, and yet he still wasn’t ready to go to his dorm room. After checking his watch and seeing it wasn’t yet seven o’clock, he made a quick decision to walk the two miles to where Ross shared a house with Noah Wainwright. Ross had lived on campus for four years and had decided that while in law school he wanted the freedom and privacy living off campus afforded. Their grandparents had agreed and his grandfather had helped to locate a two-bedroom house not far from Howard Law School. Ross had chosen Noah for a housemate, the two having met when Noah first came to Howard. They had remained best friends ever since.
    Pulling his jacket closer together to ward off the cool chill of the night air, Randolph began walking the two miles to where he knew his brother was probably at home studying.

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    Ross Fuller looked up from the huge textbook he was reading when he heard the solid knock on his bedroom door. “Yeah?”
    â€œIt’s me, Ross. You got a minute?”
    Ross closed the book and called back, “Yeah, Noah, come on in.” He watched as the door opened and his best friend, Noah Wainwright, stepped into the room.
    â€œYou still at it?” Noah asked Ross, indicating the book he held in his hand.
    â€œYeah, I still have a good twenty more pages to read tonight. What about you? Did you complete that paper you were working on?”
    â€œAs much as I plan on doing tonight. If I have to write anything else about property ownership I’m going to go nuts. It’s not like black folks own a whole lot of property anyway.”
    Ross smiled. “But we can dream can’t we?”
    â€œThe only thing I do these days is pray this damn war will be over before we graduate next year.”
    â€œIt will be. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out we have no business in ’Nam. I feel confident President Johnson is going to wise up to that fact so we can get the hell out of there. Those ‘Congs are crazy and don’t fight fair. Besides, I don’t fully support the reason why we’re there.”
    â€œWhich is the main reason I don’t want to go.”
    Ross nodded. They felt the same way, yet he knew if either of them got called to go, they wouldn’t hesitate to do so. They were Americans and they would defend their country or die trying. He glanced around his bedroom. “I would invite you to sit down, but as you can see I have no idea where the chair is. It’s probably over there under that huge stack of clothes.” He had yet to fold up the laundry he had washed two days ago.
    â€œI’m fine standing. I just need to talk to you about something.”
    Ross noted the serious expression on Noah’s face. “Okay. What is it?”
    â€œIt’s about Leigh.”
    Ross lifted a brow. Leigh Murdock was Noah’s girlfriend. “What about Leigh?”

    â€œI appreciate you letting her hang out here with me sometimes. It really means a lot.”
    Ross had an idea just how much it meant. Anyone who saw Noah and Leigh together knew how much in love they were.