Fraternizing (30 page)

Alex had a small
shiner on his face. I wondered if something had happened at the bar, or if that
was a mark from Castillo because her anger at being turned away had spurred her
to violence. The thought alone made my blood boil. My inner bitch was ready to
pounce on her if she had dared to put her hands on him, and with that thought,
came more confusion.

Why did I care?

“This week’s test
is covering signal jamming as well as information from the two previous tests. This
one will be much more in depth, so you’ll want to make sure that you study
everything you have received thus far. Work in groups if you have to. A
seventy-two depends on it.”

Jensen’s voice
came blaring into my ears like a megaphone. And as I sat focusing on him, I
noticed that he, too, had a shiner on his face. I was beginning to put two and
two together. This was not Castillo’s doing. Jensen had found out about us, and
it appeared to have not gone over too well. Their house was divided.
Riley on Alex’s side, Jensen against.

My stomach
knotted. The guys all seemed so close. And for me to come in and destroy that
dynamic,
made me feel like the Yoko Ono to their brotherhood.
I had no desire to rip friendships apart. But for some reason, the idea that
Alex had gone to bat for me was exciting. My mind was grappling with his
stupidity at that bat and his defense of me. I wanted to let go of my hurt, but
then I didn’t.

“See you all in
the morning. Class dismissed.”

I stood, my eyes
lingering on Alex just a tad bit too long. Newsome walked over and caught me
staring, his eyebrows scrunching as he followed my line of sight. I quickly
gathered my things and walked out of the room, still feeling the heat of Alex’s
eyes boring into me.

“So how did you
do?” Dalton asked just as I stepped out of the building. He caught me off
guard, making me jump and hold my hand to my chest.

“Give me a little
space next time, will ya?”

“I’m sorry. Just
anxious to see how you did.” He smiled that charismatic smile, a sparkle going
off in his eyes.

“Ninety-seven
percent. I guess my break from Alex really did the trick.”

We both laughed,
but I felt the truth in those words. Since I had turned my focus away from him,
I was doing better, yet I found myself slowly being lured back in. The
magnetism he possessed washed away the hurt, even if it was being done with
slow, deliberate measure.

“So hey, I have
to run something by you because I need your advice.”

“
I
’m
all ears
.”

“Not here. It’s
Alex related,” I whispered, not wanting to bring any undue attention to us.

The doors shot
open and out walked the three instructors, looking like a
well
put
together and very cohesive unit. If there was friction between the
crew, no traces of it could be found by the naked eye.

Alex shifted his
eyes to me as they walked by and lowered them while slightly sucking on his
bottom lip. A slight throb could be felt between my legs. The looks he gave me
only made me want him even more. My immunity to him was being weakened, and he
knew it.

“Let’s find
somewhere to talk because if you two continue to eye fuck one another, I’m
going to need to get off.”

My eyes swerved
to Dalton who had lust written all over his face. I laughed at him as I hit his
shoulder. We walked through the students and made our way to the path that led
back to our barracks rooms. We chatted and made small talk until we reached the
barracks building.

“Want to come to
my room? Angelica might be in yours, and she’s an angry one right now.”

I laughed. “Yeah,
that works. What about Pete?”

“He’s at the gym.
He says he needs some muscle.”

We both erupted
with laughter. Pete was small and nerdy looking. Poor guy.

“I’ll see you in
a few.”

I jogged up the
stairs and quickly made my way to my room, unlocking the door and falling down
on my bed. As I sat up and unlaced my boots, my phone buzzed. I looked down to
find a message from Alex.

Alex: 97%. Not bad. I think this weekend
should be your reward for performing so well. And you always PERFORM well.

He was back to
his old tricks. Using innuendo to get me to pay attention to him. It wasn’t
fair. I was so powerless to it, and he knew it.

Me: Thank you! *
rolls
eyes*

I had to try and
remain composed. He didn’t need to know that his charm, his sex appeal, and his
words
has
such salacious effects on me and my body. As
far as he knew, I was still pissed and wanted to avoid him. That was half true,
but he didn’t need to know it.

Angelica walked
through the door, threw her things down on her bed and briskly walked past me
to the bathroom. She stood in front of the
mirror,
her
face mired with emptiness, and undid her bun, brushing away at her ultra-long
locks. I walked over to the area and stood in the frame, looking at her and
wondering what to say.

“What the fuck do
you want, Cassie?”

Her
aggressiveness put me on defense.

“I’m just coming
to see what’s got you so down. Don’t jump down my fucking throat.”

She turned and
glared at me. Her mouth shrinking with the tight scowl she rigidly held.

“I wouldn’t go
anywhere near your Cruz-cum filled throat,” she hissed.

I was taken
aback. I knew she could get down and dirty, but this was shocking, even for
her.

“What the fuck is
your problem?”

“Really? You want
to know what my problem is? My problem is you… and your fucking NCO of the
Quarter boyfriend. Because he can’t keep his dick out of you, my life is being
turned upside down.”

“First of all,
you don’t know shit—“

She cut me off.

“Oh cut that
bullshit. He pulled me in this morning and all but admitted to you two having
something, so the charade is over.”

She sat her brush
back down on the counter and turned around to face me, her arms folded over her
chest and a sinister grin spreading across her lips. If her words hadn’t
already backed me into a corner, it would have put me on high alert.

“You two are so
dumb. You’re fucking… for what?
These few weeks.
Then
what? You get orders somewhere, and he finds the next student to prey on? Damn,
Cassie, wake up. You’re falling for his game, and yes, he is a fucking player.”

“You don’t know
half of what you think you know, so I suggest you do what you were told and
shut your fucking trap before I let him know that you’ve had more to say. Somehow,
I think your career is important to you.”

“Whatever. The
sooner I’m away from you the better. I thought for sure after you found out who
he was, you’d use some common sense and stay away from him. But I see common
sense isn’t so common, and desperate bitches will do whatever they can to get
ahead.”

“Fuck you!” I
growled
,
my heart thumping like it was about to break
free from my chest. She had struck a chord, and there was no way I was about to
let her get away with it.

“No, fuck you,
Cassie. Now get the hell out of my way.”

She pushed me as
she walked by, and on instinct I lunged for her, grabbed her hair in my hand
and yanked her back to me. She turned around and punched me in the chin, a
swift upper cut that knocked my teeth together. I let loose, my hands balled up
into tightly wad fists, and started punching her anywhere I could. She
countered, punching me until we both fell to the floor, rolling over one
another while screaming obscenities.

My rage
escalated, not only because she had said some awful things to me
but
because she had been nothing but bitchy to me since our
very first night out and everything that had built up was now ready to explode.
In my wild arm swings, while she sat on top of me, I swiped at her face,
connecting and leaving three long lines on the side of her cheek. She stopped
and held her face, her eyes bulging as she took heavy, anger filled breaths. The
pause was just enough for me to buck her off of me, knocking her to the floor
and going after her again.

“You’re a fucking
bitch!” I yelled, my fists landing on her breasts… her arms… her face.

She held her arms
up, trying desperately to shield herself from my blows. She brought her knee
up, sending her bone into my ass and knocking me over.

“I can’t stand
bitches like you!” she yelled out.

Her hand grabbed
onto my hair, tugging fiercely as she pulled hair from my still well put
together bun. It hurt like hell coming from the tight confines of my ponytail
holder, and as she was yanking my head down, I grabbed her hair once again,
jerking and tugging just as hard as she had done to mine, if not harder.

Just as I was
tightening my grip on her, a strong set of hands wrapped around my midsection,
pulling me off of her. She still had my hair in her hands, and the ache from
the pull made me cry out in pain.

“Fuuucccckkkk!”

She finally let
go.

“What the hell is
going on in here?” Dalton’s familiar voice mixed with heavy breathing finally
brought me back.

I stood glaring
at Angelica, hard breaths shooting from my nose as my chest heaved in a
laborious manner. She was breathing equally hard, throwing her hand into her
hair and thrusting it back and out of her face.

“Ask your
dick-whipped friend over there,” she said, running her tongue over her lip that
now had blood coming out of it.

“You want another
busted lip? Keep running your mouth.”

Dalton stepped in
between us, looking like he had no clue what he would do should we decide to
charge one another again. The thought crossed my mind. I had been
wanting
to let loose on her ever since the initial PFT when
she tried to screw me. Everything from there had only escalated, and I was done
sitting by, taking her shit as she gave it.

“You two had
better knock this off before the duty comes up here. You’ll be in trouble for
sure.”

“Trouble seems to
follow this girl,” she said. “And his last name is Cruz.”

“Angelica, that’s
enough,” Dalton scolded.

Her eyes fixed
him, lowering into a wickedly low stare, hooded by her dark eyelashes. “Oh, you
already knew? I should have known.”

“You say one more
thing and he won’t be able to hold me off,” I warned. She had me so full of
rage,
I could take her on another round.

“Bring it bitch.”

“No one else is
throwing another punch, pulling anymore hair, or bitch slapping anyone.” Dalton
took a firm stand, asserting himself between both of us.

“Don’t worry
about it. I’ve left my mark. Her fucking boyfriend is going to wonder how she
got that fucking scratch on her forehead. I’m sure I’ll be done then. And so
will the two of you.”

She grabbed some
clothes and stormed out of the room. I was still breathing hard, adrenaline
gripping me as Dalton pulled me closer to him, taking my chin in his hand and
lifting my face to meet his gaze.

“What the hell
got into you two?” he asked, worry laced throughout his words.

I shook my head
and stepped away from him, walking to the bathroom to run some water over my
face. I took notice of the scratch on my forehead. I’d been in a couple of
fights in my life, but I was never the aggressor, and I usually never
retaliated the way I had done just now. I wasn’t sure where that overly aggressive
me came from, but I liked her.

I only wished
that she had been around a few years prior.

Looking into the
mirror, Dalton caught my eye. He leaned on the
frame
as he looked me over, probably wondering where this rabid beast had come from
since he had never seen even a glimpse of me in this state.

“I told you I was
sick of her. Today was just the final straw.”

“You can’t go
around getting into fights. You’ll get kicked out of school. What the hell,
Cassie?”

“I don’t need
your fucking lectures right now, Dalton. You have no idea what she said to me. And
anyway, it was self-defense. She made first contact, and I finished her ass
off.”

I walked past
him, throwing myself down on my bed. He followed behind, lifting my legs and
sitting down, placing them back down on his lap.

“And anyway,” I
continued, “
what
are you doing here?”

“You didn’t
answer my text. Pete has a few people in the room. Guess his gym plans got
cancelled.”

He studied me for
a bit before muttering, “So I guess she knows about you and Cruz?”

“She’s known. Or
at least knew something was up.”

“So what happened
today?”

“This morning
some Pfc. on duty came up here and told her to go and see Sgt. Cruz in the
secondary room. She went and came back a living mess. I can only imagine what
he must have said to her. Then, when she got back in here this afternoon, she
was full of all kinds of venom. She said some horrible shit that I was going to
let slide until she pushed me. I had to attack.”

Dalton laughed,
shutting his eyes and throwing his head back. Laughter in this situation seemed
completely out of place.

“What’s so
funny?” I asked.

He paused for a
second, wiping his eyes.

“Um, you. And
what I saw when I walked in here. That was seriously one of the best catfights
I have ever seen, and in my circle, I’ve seen quite a few.”

“I don’t even
know what to say to that,” I joked.

“It was hot. If
you two
would have
lost the shirts, it would have been
even hotter. Even for me.”

I playfully
kicked him. He knew how to bring me out of my funk and lighten the mood whenever
I got down.