To Love a Soldier

by Sophie Monroe

  As soon as the car was in park we put our game faces on. The timer was running because John was going to be calling in a few hours. Mandy headed to her designated store, and she sent me to Build-a-Bear. We met back in the second floor main entrance.

  “Liz, I sent you down there for one specific item. One item,” Mandy said, pointing a finger in the air. “Why are you walking towards me with a large bag?”

  “You sound like my boyfriend now!” I shouted across the crowd. I thought I could get a laugh or two, but nothing. People were just too self-absorbed and just downright unfriendly.

  Opening the bag for Mandy to see, she shook her head. I showed her the not one, but stuffed two bears, each wearing full outfits. Of course, one was wearing the outfit she had asked me to get. She pulled out two cute onesies and smiled.

  “Can you believe he or she is going to fit in this?”

  “I’m still trying to get used to the fact that you and my brother are going to be parents,” I said shaking my head.

  We made our way to the exit, but not before making a pit stop at Twists for cinnamon-sugar pretzel bites. I called my mom on the ride home to see how things were at the house and update on Brady. In turn, she kept pressing me about Mandy, but I did my best to play stupid. Mandy needed a couple hours to get a hold of John before we let her know, and I managed to get off the phone without letting on to anything.

  When we finally got back to Mandy’s we started prepping for John to call. She texted him the importance of him using Skype to call her because she needed to show him something. I couldn’t wait to see his face. Since Mandy and I had this ball busting thing going on, I played it off earlier to make her sweat knowing he was going to be ecstatic.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Video Call

  Mandy

  Liz and I had been sitting around shooting the shit for a few hours, waiting for John to call me. It was getting closer. I had my little props ready, Liz was ready, and all we needed was my baby daddy. I was still nervous about his reaction, especially after that stupid dream I’d had, but Liz was reassuring and I trusted she knew John best.

  My laptop was logged in and sitting on the coffee table. I got all dolled up because I wanted to look my best for him, especially since I essentially was about to tell him that he was going to be seeing me for the rest of his life. The laptop started to ring and I threw the lid open to see if it was John calling, finally. Liz stepped off-screen and was ready to do her part.

  I centered the camera on me and hit the accept button. A few seconds later, John showed up on my screen. He was topless and it immediately made my mind go into the gutter. I smiled big.

  “It’s so good to see you, handsome!” I said, unable to control my excitement by the simple sight of him.

  “Hey, babe, you, too. I got ready for you, since you texted me you had something to show me over video.” He winked, and then slowly started lowering his camera, exposing his bare navel and continuing down. “This soldier wants to salute you.”

  “No, no, wait!” I tried yelling before he went any further.

  “Ewww, John, stop!” Liz yelled from the sidelines.

  The picture went wild. We heard all sorts of booms and bangs on the other end. John had gotten embarrassed when he heard Liz and fumbled his phone until it went bouncing across the floor. Liz took a seat next to me and we watched as John mumbled something while picking up his phone. The camera came into focus on his face, beet red.

  “You didn’t see, um, anything, did you?” he asked, clearly directing the question to Liz.

  “No,” she answered immediately. “Gah, luckily I looked away in time, perv!”

  “Hey, that’s not fair,” he tried to justify. “I was told from my sexy woman to be sure to video call her so she could ‘show’ me something,” he said, using air quotes.

  “You know I’d send you a teasing pic first, right?” I asked, blowing him a kiss.

  “Oh my God! All right, just stop. Both of you!” Liz snapped. “Actually, John, I have something to show you.”

  “What’s wrong, Liz? I thought you weren’t hurt?”

  “Relax, she’s fine,” I told him, while Liz grabbed her prop.

  Liz came back into view with clothes and a bear. She showed them to the camera and John looked confused. “Still playing with bears, Sis?” He shook his head.

  “No, but check out the little army fatigues,” Liz said to him. “Aren’t they cool?”

  “Yeah, actually they are pretty cool. It would be even cooler if you could fit a real baby in them.” He smiled.

  Liz scooted aside and I came into the screen.

  “Yeah, you could maybe fit a real small baby in them.” I smiled big at him. “And Liz thinks that her little nephew would fit in them, but in the event that you have a girl with me, we could always go with something like this pink onesie,” I said, holding up the tiny, pink onesie I had bought.

  We watched as John went back and forth between multiple facial expressions. He looked at first like it was a joke he found humorous, then he looked confused, then possibly concerned, then he looked panicked. Liz and I both started laughing.

  “You following, soldier?” I asked.

  “Oh, you poor lost puppy,” Liz interrupted. “Does she have to spell it out for you?”

  “Oh my God, I think I get it,” he yelled. “You’re pregnant, Mandy! You’re going to make me a father!”

  “Yes!” I was overwhelmed with joy at being able to finally tell him. “You sort of had something to do with making you a father but, still, yes,” I said, nodding and smiling.

  “This is the best news I think I’ve ever heard!” he said, beaming.

  “And I’m going to be an aunt,” Liz said, letting the happy tears fall.

  “Holy shit, fellas!” John yelled, turning his head to his door. “Get in here! I’m going to be a father!”

  Seconds later, his door flung open and about four of who had to be his fellow Marines rushed in, yelling in excitement. The audio was messy with all the noise, but the room was obviously filled with excitement. ‘Congratulations, brother;’‘that’s awesome;’ and even a ‘great job.’ I’m still not sure what exactly was meant by great job, as if John had worked real hard to do this… however, this was only at first.

  The room quickly turned to humor and we hearing things like ‘Oh bro, what the fuck?’ and ‘you fucking called us in here and your balls are hanging’ and ‘you dirty fucker, you were spanking and splashing on your screen and you call us in here? What the fuck!’ and so on. It quickly cleared out when they realized he was sitting there naked! He turned his attention back to me.

  “I’m sorry, I got so excited,” he said, grinning ear to ear. “I had to yell it to the world.”

  “It’s quite all right, handsome,” I reassured him. “I’m real glad you had the reaction you did.”

  Liz smacked me on the back of my shoulder, as if she had known 100% that it was going to go well.

  “Listen, brother,” Liz said. “I’m heading out of here, so you two freaks can do whatever it is, and I’m going to go tell Mom, if that’s okay with you?”

  “Does she somehow, in some way, already know?” he asked.

  “Duh, her Spidey senses picked up on it in minutes. We only just took the test yesterday to confirm, though, so she doesn’t know. She only suspects,” Liz told him.

  “What do you mean, we?” John asked.

  “Relax, we were both there. I didn’t take any test,” Liz said.

  “Listen, go ahead and tell Mom in person, please.”

  “You got it,” Liz said, grabbing her coat and keys and running out the door. She ran back in and gave me a hug, telling John she loved him before running back out again.

  “Wow, I’ve never seen her like that,” I said. “She’s pretty excited to tell Lisa.”

  John laughed. “Babe, this is seriously the best news I’ve ever gotten. I love you so much and I can’t wait to get home to you!”

  �
��I can’t wait, either,” I said. “But you need to put a shirt on because, between these hormones surging and seeing your hot-ass body there, I’m getting pretty horny.”

  “I have a better idea,” he said. “Take your laptop upstairs and I’ll call you back in two or three minutes, okay?”

  “Sure, but why do I have to hang up the call? I can just leave us connected.”

  “Because I have to call my mom and tell her the news,” he said, laughing. “Liz always tries to get to her first with big news and I always take the wind out of her sails for fun.”

  “Oh, you’re such a dick. You just completely set her up for that, didn’t you?”

  “Sure did. Now hang up and I’ll call you back in a few.”

  I did what he asked and waited for him in my bed. I took the liberty of removing some clothes so I would be in just my bra and panties for his call. True to his word, about two and a half minutes later, my computer rang. It was him calling back.

  I answered, and he came up on the screen. His gorgeous face stared right at me. I was getting horny. I pulled down my screen to show him my bra.

  “Babe, I’m doing a three way Skype with my mom. She wants to say congratulations to you,” he said.

  Holy fuck! I tossed my computer to the side and grabbed my blanket to cover myself. I was mortified. “John!”

  He just started laughing. “I’m just fucking with you. Get back on screen.”

  “I’m going to get you back, you dick!”

  After seeing his face, though, I began to melt again and immediately forgave him for his horrible trick.

  “Let me see you, babe.” I moved the computer down to the end of my bed and lay down in front of it. I spread my legs open for him. “I wish I could be in your pussy right now.”

  He repositioned his camera so that I had a full frontal of him as he sat there stroking his hard cock.

  “I love how wet you get for me. I love how you fucking taste.” I could watch him stroking himself for hours. “Rub your clit for me. I want to see your face while you get off.”

  Moving my hands over my chest, past my navel until I reached my clit, I did my best to make it a show for him. Taking two fingers, I slowly began working slow circles around my already aroused clit. Part of me wanted to feel embarrassed, but it was John.

  “That’s it, babe. I wish I had those perfect tits in my face so I could suck them. You’re so fucking perfect.”

  “I wish you were here fucking me. Just how I like it, hard and fast. I love when you’re inside me.” I began rubbing faster. I wanted him here to fuck me so bad. I wasn’t kidding earlier when I was talking to Liz about being horny. Damn hormones!

  “Fuck, babe. You look so good. I’m gonna cum. Think of me fucking that perfect pussy.”

  I wanted to close my eyes and visualize it, but I didn’t want to take my eyes away from his. I focused on him and his movements and that was enough to send me into an intense orgasm. His pace picked up at the sight of me. Watching him come left me feeling satisfied but empty.

  Afterwards, we both felt slightly awkward, but we managed to laugh it off. We stayed on the call for another 30 minutes, just talking. He couldn’t be more thrilled with the news and I felt the same way!

  “Mandy, I still can’t believe I’m going to be a dad,” he said, looking like he was trying to hold back tears.

  “Believe it, handsome.” I panned the camera down and rubbed my belly. “Just know that the baby’s name won’t be John, Jr.”

  “Why?” he asked. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing really. It’s just that I had some names to go over with you, and besides it’s a pretty ugly name if she’s a girl.”

  John laughed. “Oh right, I had just assumed it would be a boy.”

  “It?” I raised one eyebrow at my camera.

  “Sorry. Not it. The baby. The boy or girl,” John backpedaled.

  “I’m just fucking with you.” My phone gave me a text notification. I read it. “Ha ha. You’re such a douche.”

  “What?” he asked. “What did I do?”

  “Nothing. I got a text from your sister, and she asked me to read it aloud to you. Apparently she got home to tell your mom the news and was derailed.”

  John laughed. “I told you, I love doing that to her.”

  “Well, it wasn’t very nice, but I’ll admit it was funny.”

  “Babe, I need to get going,” John said, frowning. “I have to go take a beating by these clowns.” He pointed towards his door to the soldiers on the other side.

  “Okay. When can I hear from you again?”

  “Soon, I hope.” His expression dropped. “My unit is being moved tomorrow to another location.”

  “So… what does that mean?”

  “I don’t know yet. It’ll be fine. Once we are settled in and secure, I’ll call you.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.” He nodded. “I love you, Mandy.”

  I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This was so hard. I just wanted him with me. I didn’t trust in his trying to assure me everything was fine.

  “I love you, too, John.” I put my lips close to the camera and kissed the air. I longed for his lips to touch mine, but this would have to do. “Please be safe!”

  “Hey, EC,” he said, winking. “I had a good time.”

  I couldn’t laugh. I was too anxious. “Me, too. Call me as soon as you can.”

  “I will, babe. Bye, Mandy.” His hand reached forward to end the call.

  “Bye, handsome.”

  The call ended and I stared at myself in my own screen. My single tear had made it almost to my chin before being pushed off by a waterfall of following tears. I just kept staring at myself, wishing it was him in front of me. I smacked the laptop screen shut and went into the bathroom to throw cold water on my face. I felt tired and really had no motivation to do anything more. I wished I could just sleep until he came home.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Pushing Forward

  Liz

  It had been two weeks since the Mike incident and things were slowly calming down and life was getting back to normal. The crime scene was finally clean and the police had cleared out. I had gone back to work a few days before and spent most of my evenings playing catch up with my schoolwork. Brady only spent a few days in the hospital before he was discharged. The stabbing was not nearly as bad as the amount of blood had led everyone to believe. No vital organs were lacerated and several stitches later, he was like a new man, just a new man in a lot of pain. He was spending his every free minute with me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He helped me get through this horrible time, along with Mandy.

  My mom was there for me, too, but sometimes, things are different with close friends. I talked to John once after the night Mandy and I called him to break the news. He said his unit had been deployed to another country, and he was going to be out of touch for a while. I didn’t like the sound of it, but it was normal to hear news like that over the years. My only fear was that it was going to affect him coming home when he’d planned to.

  I was also been a little worried about Mandy. She had been such a mess because she couldn’t talk to John. I understood where she was coming from, but at the same time, I’d been living like this for so long that it was almost normal. It was just the lifestyle of being in a military family.

  Between work and school, I seriously needed a night to do something else. I had sent Mandy three text messages the night before to see if she wanted to go to the movies with Brady and me tonight. By now, it was mid-morning and I still hadn’t heard back from her. I was becoming concerned, but then again, she could have just been sleeping.

  “See you later. I love you!” my mom yelled, as she was heading out the front door.

  “Bye, Mom. Love you, too.”

  I was so happy for her. I had noticed a huge change since she’d found out that Mandy was definitely pregnant. She seemed genuinely happy. Nothing would ever fill the void left by my
dad, but she was really looking forward to becoming a Nana.

  Picking up my phone, I sent a text to Brady.

  Sexy bitch. I’m almost ready so pick me up when you’re ready.

  He replied, I hate when you call me that. I’m a man! Be there in 20.

  See you then. Xoxo

  I put my speaker phone on and dialed Mandy, so I could finish getting ready. She was supposed to be working the day shift, so I figured if she was sleeping in that she’d need to be up by now. It rang four times before she finally picked up.

  “Hey, Liz. What’s up?” she asked.

  “What’s shakin,’ baby momma? Did I wake you?”

  “Sort of,” she mumbled. “I was up late.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, everything’s good. I went to bed at a decent time, but then I had some freaky dreams and couldn’t go back to sleep after.”

  “Mandy, he’s fine,” I said with confidence. “He’s been doing what he does for years. He knows what he’s doing and so do his buddies.”

  “I don’t even want to talk about it.” She sounded upset.

  “All right. So I’ve been texting you to see if you want to go out with Brady and me tonight.”

  “I’d go with Brady if you stayed home,” she laughed.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’ve been pretty horny lately and you’d just get in the way.”

  “You’re such a bitch. I swear!”

  “Whateves,” she threw at me. “I don’t know. I’ll let you know how I feel about being a third wheel later.”

  “It’s not like that with us, is it?” I asked.

  “No, you guys are pretty good with that. It’s just that when I do things like go out to dinner, or to a movie, or almost anything, it just makes me more depressed, wishing I was doing it with John.”