Fraternizing (45 page)

“I slipped her a
little something extra,” Belkins said, smiling.

These guys were
definitely a little wilder than my crew back home. We sat around talking,
Belkins stuffing large amounts of money in the form of tips into Jossie’s
pants. The dreaded beer buzz was starting to hit me as I went to work on my
third pitcher.

“I’ve never
tested this theory. I wonder if I can get an extra beer if I tip more back
home?”

“Don’t let this
asshole fool you. Jossie is his girlfriend!” Douglas yelled out over the music,
ribbing Belkins.

“So we were going
to get in here tonight regardless?”

“No,” Miles
answered. “Big Pete wants to be paid.”

“Gotcha.”

“Hey, Jossie’s
friends are coming in to chill until she gets off,” Belkins said, nodding his
head in the direction of the entrance to the VIP area.

Three tall, thin,
Latinas strutted over to our table, wearing tight fitting dresses that left
very little to the imagination and high heels that screamed,
fuck me
. Their thick, long, flowing hair
draped their shoulders, hitting just right against the light caramel color of
their skin.

“Who’s the new
guy?” one of the girls asked as they stopped just in front of us.

“This is
Sergeant. Alex Cruz. He’s in town for work.”

“Another military
guy. Love it,” the girl said, puckering her lips and smiling. She threw out her
hand, introducing herself. “It’s nice to meet you, Sergeant. Alex. I’m
Jazlene.”

I took her hand
and shook it, not trying to be rude. The other two girls immediately took to
Douglas and Miles. I watched them for a bit, noticing that Miles was very
comfortable with this girl who didn’t appear to be his wife. They all stood,
making their way out to the dance floor where they easily mixed in with the
crowd, groping and kissing much like I had done with Cassie the first time I
ever saw her. Jossie dropped off more pitchers of beer, stopping to chat with
Jazlene for a bit. I drank it, trying to hide my loneliness with drunkenness. Belkins
followed Jossie off somewhere, leaving me alone with Jazlene.

She moved to the
chair directly beside me, her much too short dress riding up even further. I
continued drinking, bobbing my head to the beat of
Promiscuous Girl—
how fucking fitting.

“So how long are
you in town for, Alex?” 

“Until Tuesday. I’m
here for a work seminar.”

“Ugh. That’s no
fun.” Her eyes lowered as she sat her hand on my thigh. “I can show you a good
time while you’re here.” Her hand slowly moved upwards. I looked down at my
thigh, then back into her eyes; hunger and lust riddled in them. She bit her
wine colored lips, silently begging me to take her off somewhere and fuck her
senseless.

“I need to go to
the bathroom,” I said, removing her hand as I sat my pitcher down on the table.
I got up and let the room stop spinning, then walked off in the direction of
the bathroom. I wasn’t sure what I was thinking coming out to this club, but I
quickly realized that this was not the scene I wanted to be in, especially not
with Cassie clear across the country. I tossed some water on my face, feeling
the heat begin to creep into my body with the settling of the overabundance of
beer. I walked out, pushing my way through people as the club seemed to be
filling up even more. When I reached the table, Jazlene was still sitting
there, looking bored. Her eyes landed on me, instantly igniting the lust that filled
them just before I stepped away.

“You want to get
out of here? My apartment would be so much more fun than this place.” The smile
she gave was just as intoxicating as the beer I’d been drinking all night, but
I wasn’t interested.

“I’ll pass,” I
said, standing up and walking out to Douglas. He was the only one of the three
that I could find.

“Hey, man. I’m
gonna go.”

“Everything
alright?”

“Yeah. I just
want to get back and sleep. Long day.”

“Alright. You
need a ride?”

“Naw. Stay and
enjoy yourself. I’ll get a taxi.”

He nodded his
head, and I turned and walked out. I took a taxi back to the base, dragging
myself to my room and crashing on the bed. I had every intention of calling
Cassie, but the exhaustion from the day and the alcohol flowing through my veins
inhibited that, leaving me passed out, still fully clothed.

When I awoke the
next morning, I had a headache from hell and a missed call from Cassie. I
called her back, trying hard to lie still so as not to make my pounding head
worse.

“Hello,” she said.
Her voice was enough to take a slice of the ache away.

“Hey, good
morning,” I said slowly with a hefty dose of grog.

“Morning? It’s
almost noon. I was wondering what was going on with you. When did you get in?”

“Um….” I looked
at the clock sitting on the nightstand. “I got back kind of early. I left the
club.”

“Then why the
hell are you so tired?”

“I drank way too
much, and I didn’t get any sleep the night before.”

She went silent. I
could hear her breathing, but no words came out of her mouth.

“You there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,”
she said, the anger in her voice easily distinguishable.
 

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Did
those guys have any females around?”

I wasn’t going to
lie to her. “Yeah. And that was when I checked out.” She went silent again. “Cassie,
there were girls there, one hit on me, and I left. Honest to God. I made that
fucking mistake once. I’m not making it again.”

“Alright. Anyway,
what are you doing today?”

“Sleeping. I have
a fucking hangover and all I want to do is sleep. What about you?”

“Dalton is taking
me back to the pool. It’s like one-ten here.”

“Did you give him
my message?”

“No. Completely
unnecessary.”

“It’s necessary. But,
I’ll check it out when I get back.”

“Have a good day
of sleep. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

As soon as I hung
up with her, I lolled to the bathroom, then climbed back into bed and went back
to sleep. I didn’t want to eat, see daylight, or anything else. I just wanted
to sleep, in a shroud of darkness, thinking about nothing, since thinking hurt
too much. Never again would I drink beer the way I did the night before. It
wasn’t meant to be consumed
like that—not for me
anyway. I slept until ten that night, when I woke up and finally left the room
to grab something to eat. The sticky, night air, fireflies flying all around
me, mosquitos looming with them, had me hurrying to get back to my room. Florida
was definitely not for me, and I was on serious countdown mode to get my ass
back on a plane that would take me back to the dry heat of the Mojave Desert.

Monday morning, I
woke feeling so much better. I dressed in my uniform and left for the meeting
room, where I was handed a binder as I walked in, taking my seat at my assigned
spot next to Belkins.

“Hey, man. What
happened to you Saturday? You okay?”

“Yeah. I was just
too wasted. And that chick was up to no good. I have a fucking girlfriend back
home.”

“Ahhhh. Gotcha. We
thought something was wrong with you.”

I shook my head,
turning in my seat as two middle aged men walked in, beginning the presentation
on a new aircraft based radio system for joint services. The presentation was
informative, teaching a few things that aren’t normally covered in regular Comm
School, but I couldn’t get too in depth with it. My mind was elsewhere. I never
thought that I would long for Twentynine so badly, but I was. That shithole
with all of its sand, bushes, blazing heat, had one thing that sunny Florida
and all of its pristine beaches just didn’t have.

Cassie.

When the class
was over, Belkins turned to me as I was gathering all of my brochures and
binder materials, reaching out his hand for a shake.

“I hope if you
come back to Florida, you look me up.”

“Oh, for sure. Thanks
for showing me a good time.”

I said my
goodbyes to Miles and Douglas,
then
headed back to my
room to pack up. I had an early flight in the morning, and I couldn’t wait to
get on that plane and get my ass back to California.

Halfway through
packing, I picked up the phone and called Cassie, needing to hear her voice.

“Hey you,” she
answered, the tone of her voice sweet and excited, making me long for her even
more.

“I’m all done
here. I’ll be on a plane early in the morning. Coming back for you.”

“Can’t wait to
have you
come,
” she said with
emphasis on the ‘come’ part.

I laughed,
feeling like I could go to town on her and never stop. This
three
day
separation was killing me, but thankfully, it was just about over.

“I have a long
flight and a layover in Phoenix. It’ll probably be kind of late by the time I
land.”

“No worries. Just
get your ass back here to me. And bring that delicious cock with you. I think
I’m hungry now.”

“Fuck, Cassie. You
can’t say shit like that to me while I’m on a different coast and can’t do
anything about it.”

“Well, hurry up
and come home.”

“I’m working on
it. Let me go to sleep so I can wake up and be on a plane because as early as I
have to be up, I won’t remember much of my morning.”

She laughed
again.

“Alright. Have a
good night. See you soon, Sergeant.”

“Bye.”

I hung up the
phone and quickly packed away the rest of my stuff before jumping in the
shower. The stickiness in the air and the fact that I wanted to cut out the
morning routine had me hurrying to get myself to bed. I would be back in
Twentynine by tomorrow evening, and I had never been so thrilled. I couldn’t
believe my heart was stuck in that fucking place, but it was. It was firmly
planted, and needed to get back as soon as possible.

Chapter 28

Cassie

Alex’s TAD trip seemed to drag.

It
felt as if he was gone forever, but when I woke up this morning and met Dalton
down at the chow hall, he reminded me that Alex would be back by this evening. Those
words were like music to my ears. I didn’t think a few days apart would be that
hard, but it turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Thankfully,
Dalton was around because I avoided Angelica like the plague.

I
walked into the classroom, excited and ready for the day. Although this course
was coming to an end--and that alone brought astronomical amounts of sadness--
I knew Alex would be coming back, so I pushed that little cloud of misery out
of mind and focused on his arrival.

We
filed into the room, Jensen standing before the class with a roster in his
hands.

“Alright.
It looks like Headquarters Marine Corps has finally assigned you to your first
duty stations. Remember that preference sheet you filled out at the beginning
of this course? Disregard that because some of you will be happy with whatever
they gave you, and some of you will not.”

My
breathing picked up as he began reading off names with unit and location. I had
been dreading this day for a while. Alex had told me not to worry about it, and
I’d tried not to give it any further thought, but the reality of it all still
followed me. And now, here it was.

“Private
Allen, Eighth Radio Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.”

Allen’s
face soured. He obviously wasn’t too happy with his duty assignment.

“Private,
Bane, Eighth Radio Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.”

“Private
First Class, Banuelos, Eighth Radio Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.”

“Private
First Class, Bennett.” He called my name, and I froze; my throat went dry and
my hands began to sweat. I didn’t want to hear my assignment, but I was too
anxious to tune him out. Time seemed to stand still as I stood there, looking
ahead but unable to truly take anything in. My heart beat with ferocious vigor,
awaiting the news that would either make me a happy girl or rip me to shreds.

“Eighth
Radio Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.”

My
breath stopped, and my blood ran cold. I wanted to erase what had just happened
and make something else come out of Jensen’s mouth. Did he really just say that
I would be sent to the other side of the country, away from Alex, to go and
work in a unit with none other than the idiot known as Allen? I tuned out the
rest of what he
said,
for fear that I would burst into
tears if I listened to anymore. I mentally chided myself, making me focus on
the here and now and figure out a way to make things work with Alex. If I was
this upset about leaving, I could only imagine what the news would be like for
him. I didn’t even want to think about it. It hurt all over again to think
about what it would do to him.

When
I finally tuned back in to the classroom, Jensen was already at R.

“Private
First Class, Ruiz, MWSS-374, Twentynine Palms, California.”

Envy
shot through me as Angelica received word that she would be staying put in
Twentynine, the place that I couldn’t wait to get away from when I‘d first
arrived.
The place that had stolen my heart.
The place that held Alex.

“Eighth
Comm has quite a few people leaving, so that’s why so many of you got assigned
there. Go out to your new units and kick ass. You are well trained, and you
should serve your units well,” Jensen said, shutting the binder that held that
goddamned roster. “We still have some things to cover for your final exam that
will be coming up soon. You all graduate next week, so we have to make sure you
pass the big test before shipping you off to some unit where you’ll be expected
to perform.”