by C. C. Brown
Back at the schoolhouse, I marched out to the formation without so much as looking in her direction. I hated that she had such a powerful effect on me with only the sight of her. We made our way in and Newsome started with the introductory chapter on radio communications in the Marine Corps. I sat in the back, plugging things into the computer while he and Jensen took over the class. I wasn’t in the mood to stand before students today, so being the head instructor, I shifted the lectures over to the guys, freeing myself up.
Before long, it was 1530, and time to release the class for the day. I had never been so thankful—thankful to get her out of my presence and thankful to find my bearings and get a hold of myself.
Hopefully.
"Tomorrow, at zero five thirty, you are to meet in front of the schoolhouse, in your PT gear. That means your green, unmarked t-shirt and green shorts. You will run your preliminary physical fitness test consisting of pull-ups, crunches, and a three mile run. You fail, and you will find yourself with extra workouts until we feel you are ready to run it again. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, Sergeant," the class yelled.
"Dismissed."
The class filed out, all too excited to leave for the day. I noticed Bennett and Ruiz straggling behind, so I motioned for Jensen to come and handle the one who wasn't driving me bat shit crazy.
"Follow me to my office please, Pfc. Bennett," I called out as I walked out of the classroom. She lagged a bit, but shortly after I heard her boots pounding the pavement as she strode behind me.
"Hey, Bennett," another voice called, making me slow my steps. I tried not to be obvious by turning around to see who it was, but I couldn't help myself. It was another male, and that annoyed the living shit out of me.
"I'll catch ya in a minute," she responded, never breaking her stride.
From my glance back, I noticed that it was some shithead student by the name of Pfc. Dalton. I recognized him from Smith's Data class. He was tall and slender, and looked harmless, but the fact the he was waiting for her just didn't sit well with me.
I made my way into my office, making sure to leave the door cracked open so as not to leave myself in another compromising situation.
"Take a seat," I ordered, motioning for her to sit in the chair directly beside my desk. "Let's not pretend that we don't know who each other is," I started, coming across much more harshly than I intended to. "We had a night at the bar that will never happen again."
She sat still, looking directly at me but never saying a word. Her big, doe-like eyes were making me lose my self-restraint, and I swallowed hard before continuing.
"I should have found out who you were before I ever made a move on you, and I apologize for that. But we have a job to do, and professionalism is paramount here, so as long as we know where we stand, and that those boundaries will never be crossed again, we should be good. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, Sergeant Cruz," she responded in that fair and delicate voice that made my cock twitch again.
"Good," I said, trying to keep my erection from bursting through my pants. I could preach to her about how that night was a mistake, but the reaction I had to her was telling me otherwise. "And please remember the Marine Corps order on fraternizing. We both stand to get in a world of fuckin' trouble if this ever gets out. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, Sergeant, I do." Her response and her expression weren't matching. She said she understood, but that lustful gaze she had trained on me told me that if she could, she'd lay down right here and let me fuck her until my name was all she could remember.
I needed to get her out of my office before I did something I’d regret.
"Good. Have a good evening. See you bright and early."
"See you in the morning."
She stood and walked out of the office. I followed behind, stopping at the door. I didn't want to tell her how much of a mistake Friday night was. I didn't want to spout out the Marine Corps rules and regulations to her. No, I wanted to pin her ass up against the wall and explore every inch of her enticing body.
Only I couldn't.
I couldn’t do anything that had been filtering through my head since Friday. As I stopped at the door, I heard Dalton greet her, further pissing me the fuck off.
"Is everything alright?" he asked her.
"Yeah. I just needed to fix some paperwork, that's all," she casually responded, putting me at ease.
"Cool. Well hey, pizza and Mortal Kombat in my room tonight. Classic style."
"Sweet. I'll be there. Did you tell Angelica?"
"Yeah. She already knows."
They were walking away from the building as the conversation continued and that was the last that I heard. I couldn't be more pissed. Dalton seemed to be worming his way into her, and their brief interaction, the smile he gave her when he saw her walking his way, was enough to put my irritation on overdrive. I walked back into the office, slammed the door, then threw myself into the preference sheets to send up to Admin in the morning.
Chapter 4
Cassie
"Ugh!" Angelica yelled, viciously shutting the door to our barracks room. She walked further in, ripping her cover from her head and tossing it onto her bed. I stood, watching her overly dramatic display. She got out of her cammies, leaving her green t-shirt on while throwing on a pair of gym shorts. I started to walk back to the bathroom when she stopped me.
"Yeah, thanks a ton, Cassie. Thanks to you, we'll practically have no life while we're stuck in this shit hole town for the next six weeks."
I was already frustrated enough with the way things had panned out, and her shit wasn't making things any easier.
"Excuse me?' I asked, deeply annoyed while moving closer to her. She had her arms folded across her chest, glaring at me. "If I remember correctly, that could have very easily been you in my shoes since you had no problem throwing yourself all over Sgt. Cruz that night to begin with."
"Yeah, well it wasn't me. And now, thanks to you, we get to be treated like kids while we sit around and do nothing here in this hot ass desert. Why'd you have to kiss him anyway?"
"I didn't kiss him. He kissed me. And besides, that's really none of your fucking business."
"It is now. Now that my life is being directly affected because of it." She pulled her ponytail holder out of her hair and undid her bun, roughly running her fingers through her lustrously long brown hair. "No one in that class knows why all of our club and bar privileges have been suddenly revoked except for me-- oh, and Sgt. Jensen-- since he practically threatened me and all." She rolled her eyes as she brushed past me into the bathroom to retrieve her hair brush.
"Threatened you?" I asked, moving closer into the bathroom.
"Yes. Threatened me." She stopped brushing her hair and looked at me through the mirror. "Basically, my baby career in the Marine Corps could be wrecked if I run my mouth." She started brushing her hair again. "He's hot as shit, but he's a dick. And I have a feeling Cruz is too."
Cruz being a dick had not crossed my mind.
"Whatever. There isn't anything to tell. We didn't know who the other was when we made out. Now that we know, it's nothing more than an awkward situation that we've acknowledged and moved on from."
"I sure hope so."
"It is," I bluntly responded with finality.
I brushed past her, moving to my wall locker to pull out some shorts and a t-shirt.
"Are you going to Dalton's room?" I asked while undressing.
"Yeah. I'll meet you over there."
Throwing my shirt over my head and stepping into my sandals, I walked out of the room, leaving Angelica to stew over whatever it was that Jensen had said to her. By the sound of things, he had come across much worse than Cruz had with me. He was an intense man, so I had no doubt that whatever he said, and however he said it, it was surely meant to scare her into submission.
I could only hope that it would work.
Music playing, Mortal Kombat flashing on the TV screen, and about s
ix other Marines hooting, hollering, and laughing was the scene that I walked into as I gently knocked and let myself into Dalton's barrack's room. He shared the room with another Private First Class from his Data class, and even though I didn't know the guy, he was friendly and welcomed me into the room while shoving a piece of pizza in my face.
"We've been waiting on you," Dalton yelled out, looking over his shoulder at me. That brief move caused him to lose focus on his game, and he lost with one quick move from his opponent.
He threw down the controller and hopped out of his chair.
"How are you?"
"I'm okay.
"Do you play? You want a turn?" he asked, grinning at me, obviously hoping I would take him up on the offer.
"No. I'm good. I came to watch."
"Alright. That's cool." He stopped and looked around the room. "Where is Ruiz?"
"She said she'd meet me here," I answered, shrugging my shoulders.
Dalton led me over to the TV area, moving one of the guys, and making room for me to sit down. The Mortal Kombat tournament was in full swing when one of the guys threw the controller to the ground and started shouting at the guy who had just beat him. I recognized him from our class--Private Allen. He was a large, burly guy with light brown hair and matching eyes. Even with my height he towered over me, and had the bulging muscles to complete his overly large and intimidating frame.
"Fuck this game. Fuck this school. Fuck those shitty ass instructors," he yelled, making the rest of us turn and look at him. "What?" he asked, looking unaware that he had said anything wrong.
"Cut him off, Pete," Dalton called out, making me turn my head in his direction. He looked at me as if I should have been aware.
"Is he drunk?"
"Yeah. He's been mixing, but I think he may have gotten started before he even got here."
I nodded my head, knowing full well that alcohol consumption or possession in the barracks was definitely not allowed. Dalton's roommate, who I learned was, in fact, Pete, took Allen, sat him down on one of the beds, and put a large jug of water in his hands, helping him gulp it down. It looked almost comical to find this overly large man sitting on the bed, being nursed back to sobriety by such a small and nerdy looking guy.
I stopped focusing on them and went back to the Mortal Kombat tournament, rooting on Dalton before having the controller shoved into my hands. I never played video games as a kid. I never owned anything like that, so I felt a bit out of place with all of the video game aficionados knowing every move, trick, and cheat that there was. Dalton instructed me on what to do, and before long I was holding my own in the tournament.
"Let me take on the pretty little girl," a half sober Allen barked as he made his way back over to where we were. He snatched the controller from the guy I was playing against and sat down in one of the empty chairs. The sinister look in his light brown eyes sent chills down my spine, but I straightened up, not wanting to show him that he was making me completely uncomfortable.
"Alright. Here's the deal," he said, speaking much too loud, and annoying me more than I already was. "If I win, you get to blow me, and if you win--" he paused, pondering what it was he wanted to say. "Yeah, if you win, you get to blow me." He laughed as if he had just told the world's funniest joke.
"How about if I win, I get to kick you in the nuts, and if you win, I still get to kick you in the nuts?" I smiled a bitchy smile at him, making him stop the obnoxious laughter that had erupted from him after offering up such an immature wager.
"Must be a lesbian," Allen quipped, turning in his chair.
"Nope. I like dick just as much as the next chick. I just don't think you have much, so I'm not even willing to go there with you."
The guys crooned, "Ooohhh," as I countered, pissing Allen off even further.
We started playing, and after going 1-1 on the two rounds we fought, somehow I managed to land a crushing blow on Allen's man, knocking him to the ground and securing a victory. I dropped the controller to the ground, cocky as ever, strutting around the space while the guy's high-fived me.
"Fuck this shit. I want a fucking rematch!" Allen yelled, staring in my direction. Raw anger radiated from his eyes as he stared at me, He was breathing hard while the bulging veins in his neck looked as if they would give way to the mounting pressure and burst. The look scared me, but I felt secure with the amount of other guys around me.
"Pete, help me get Allen to his room, please," Dalton called out, signaling for the scrawny guy to take one side of the rabid beast of a man who looked as if he was ready to attack on command.
Dalton and Pete grabbed him, and he didn't resist. Instead, he yelled things at me, in an attempt to frighten me even more.
"You'll pay, bitch. I want a rematch. I want a fucking rematch."
I sat down and sighed as they walked him out, thankful that he was out of the room and away from me. The few people who were left sat in silence, probably just as stunned as I was that someone could get that angry over a silly video game. Yes, he had been drinking, but to get to the point of threats just seemed a bit excessive.
I walked out of the room, ready to call it a night since we had an early morning awaiting us. Just as I turned left to head back to my room, Dalton came running after me, calling for me to slow down.
"Let me walk you back."
I turned and looked back at him.
"I'm just up the stairs. You don't need to walk me back."
"Yes I do. After Allen's little outburst, I feel the need to. I'm really sorry about that."
I didn't put up any more of an argument. He was right. Allen acted like a complete psycho in the room.
"What are you sorry about? That wasn't you talking like that."
"I know. But he was there, in my room. I've known him since bootcamp, and from what I gather he hates that women are in the Marine Corps. I'm not sure why he chose Communications since there are women in this field. He probably should have gone Infantry or something, where women aren't allowed."
"Yeah, well I don't care what his deal is. As long as he stays away from me, we'll be fine," I calmly replied, hoping I wouldn't have to deal with Allen very often.
"Well, thanks for coming. Sorry you were the only female. I thought Ruiz was going to come over."
"I thought so, too," I said, pulling out my key and unlocking the door to my room. I looked inside and found the room empty. Wherever Angelica went, she’d left me hanging for the night, probably still angry with whatever it was that Jensen had said to her earlier in the day.
"I guess I'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, ready to run," he replied much too enthusiastically.
"Don't remind me. I hate running," I said, making a face that made Dalton laugh hysterically.
"See you in the morning."
"Yeah. See ya."
I stepped into my room and shut the door behind me. Allen’s demeanor from earlier in the evening rattled my nerves a bit. I just wanted to fall asleep and forget about the fact that Angelica completely ditched me and that another Marine all but wanted to kick my ass over a stupid video game. This day was one that I couldn't wait to drift away from, in hopes of the next one being much, much better.
0445 came much too soon. My screeching alarm clock jolted me out of bed, making me painfully aware of what was awaiting me. The PFT had never been a favorite of mine. I always scored well, but the process was tortuous, and running long distances was not my strong suit.
I looked over to Angelica's bed to find her sound asleep. The noise of the alarm seemed to have had little effect on her. I made my way back to the bathroom and quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth, before pulling my hair back into my quintessential bun. By the time I made my way out of the bathroom, Angelica was up and moving about. We both got dressed in our PT gear, an awkward silence filling the room. The tension filling the space could have been sliced with a fingernail. I was a bit annoyed that she hadn't come by Dalton's room last night like she'd said, leaving me a
s the sole female in attendance.