Fraternizing (37 page)

“I told her there
was no way that I was doing that.
That I would just have to
find a way to make it work.
That turned into an all-out assault. I
showed up to school the next day with a swollen, busted lip and a few bruises,
but the beatings continued. Whenever she got pissed at whatever it was that
pissed her off, it triggered her anger, sending her fists and defamatory words
flying my way. She didn’t even show up to my graduation. She refused because
she said it meant nothing since I wouldn’t be doing shit with myself
afterwards.”

Her voice was broken by the end
. How anyone could treat
another living soul, especially
their
own flesh and
blood, the way her mom had treated her was unreal to me. I had always heard
about shitty parents, but never with anyone that I personally knew.

“What the fuck
did that mean? You had a fucking scholarship lined up.”

“You aren’t
familiar with BYU are you?”

I shook my head. College
wasn’t a high priority for me when I was growing up.

“Well, BYU is a
highly religious school, and there are rules prohibiting pre-marital sex. You
could be kicked out of school for it. So, showing up pregnant wouldn’t have
been a good idea.”

I nodded my head.
That was news to me.

“So what happened
with Colton?” I asked, feeling like I could rip his balls off and shove them
down his throat if I ever got the chance to meet him.

“I was probably
three months along, getting closer to graduation when I told him. He was
surprised and looked sick, but said he loved me and would be there for
me and our baby
. I was excited since I had been having such
a rough go around with my mom. But the closer we inched towards graduation, the
more distant he became until he just stopped talking to me altogether. His mom
told me that she would file a restraining order if I didn’t stop harassing him.
I was shattered. He had been promising me so much, and to turn his back on me
like that really broke me. It tore me apart.”

I couldn’t take
anymore. I stood
up,
needing to walk as the blood felt
like it had stopped circulating through my body, leaving me completely
uncomfortable. I placed my hands on the sides of my face, rubbing as I tried to
allow of this to sink in.

“Where the fuck
is this guy now?”

She shrugged. “I
don’t know. He took a basketball scholarship to some school in Florida, and I
haven’t heard anything about him since.”

“And the baby?”

Her head lowered
as she began to speak. “After graduation, my mom told me I had to get a job and
pay my way, so I did. I got a job at a fast food restaurant, working full time
so that I could save enough money to get an apartment and take care of my baby.
Well, at six months, I was at work and I slipped in the back room, falling
hard. I thought I was okay and went back to work, but the cramping grew more
and more intense and I knew something was wrong. I went to the bathroom, hoping
that a quick splash of cold water on my face would help me, but then I saw
blood, and I knew everything was not okay.”

Those earlier
sniffles were turning to sobs, and I rushed back over to her, pulling her up to
her feet and into my arms. Her head was buried into my shoulder, my hands
running over the back of her head as she worked hard to speak again. She was
finally able to compose herself and started speaking.

“When I got to
the hospital, the doctors told me that I’d lost the baby. My mom was thrilled,
breaking my heart even more. I continued to work, but it never seemed like I
was getting ahead. Her pill popping continued, her alcohol use picked back up,
and whenever she would get into her world, she’d start harping on how I was
such a burden, and if I hadn’t been such a little whore, I could have been at
BYU learning something. I couldn’t take it anymore. After a few more fights
where I finally fought back, I decided it was time to join the military and get
the hell out.”

A smile finally
touched my lips. “So you decided to become a Devil Dog?”

“I did,” she
said. Her eyes were a glossy shade of green now, thanks to her tears. “I joined
the Corps, much to my mom’s dislike. She said I wasn’t strong enough for it and
that I wouldn’t make it past bootcamp. When I did, she said I wouldn’t make it
in the Marines because I was weak and didn’t have what it takes. Every day her
words haunt and push me to be better and do something for myself.”

I gently moved
the loose strands of hair from her face. “I’m glad you did. Even if us being
together is grounds for all sorts of horrible shit.”

“I know. I think
about that all the time, but I don’t want to be away from you.”

“And you won’t
be, not as long as I have any say in the matter.”

Disbelief
flittered through her eyes, seizing my breath. I knew she had every right to be
apprehensive, but not with me. I wanted her—no,
needed
her—to see that
I wasn’t like the rest of the pricks who had done her wrong.

“Hey, I am not
fucking Colton, or your shitty ass mom. I’m
Alex,
the
guy putting everything on the line in hopes that you will give yourself to me. I
will never treat you the way those assholes have treated you. You understand
that?”

She nodded her
head, shyly looking into my eyes.

I tilted her chin
up, placing a soft kiss on her lips. “I’d rather strap a suicide vest to my
body and let you hit the trigger before I ever do what those two selfish
assholes have done to you.”

I kissed her
again, this time hard and passionate, hoping she could feel what I was trying
to tell her. Both of my hands held tightly to her face, encasing her beautiful
features as I allowed my mouth to pour out my
deep seated
feelings for her. She held firmly to my ass, squeezing tightly as the kiss
intensified. When we finally pulled apart, both of us were breathing hard and
staring at one another.

“You mean the
fucking world to me. You better know that.”

“I do.” She
finally smiled, still holding on to my ass.
 

Chapter 22

Cassie

Pouring my heart
out to Alex, on the beach, next to a brimming fire, was definitely not what I
had in mind for my getaway trip. Some of the things I’d just shared with him
were things that my own friends didn’t know. The fact that they came pouring
out of my mouth like water somewhat frightened me. I had reached a very
critical point in my budding relationship with him, one that I swore I wouldn’t
get to so easily again, and the fact that it happened at warp speed shell
shocked me. But it also laid some of my demons to rest. Holding that info
inside for so long had done some things to me
;
had
hardened me even when I came across as easy going and upbeat. Alex had just
wriggled it out of me without much effort, and it showed me that what we had
truly was worth working for.

After he kissed
me a few more times, telling me everything would be okay and that I was safe
with him, he pulled graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows out of his bag.
I was interested in seeing what else he had stuffed into that bag, but he
wouldn’t show me, telling me that I would find out in due time.

I sat on his lap,
a couple of marshmallows on the skewer over the fire. Alex had the crackers and
chocolate waiting for me, and after burning them just right, he took them and
completed the s’more. The gooey goodness was a scrumptious treat after such a
traumatic and emotionally honest session. My past was nothing to be proud of,
but Alex made me feel like it didn’t matter. Like I was walking on clouds and
that none of it had ever happened.

I finished my
s’more,
then
twisted around to trace Alex’s lips with
some of the residual chocolate left on my fingers. He tried to lick it off
before I could, our tongues bumping into the other as we fought over the sweet
treat. He fingered my hips, lingering on my tattoo.

“What’s the
significance of this?”

I stopped his
fingers, holding them in place before removing his hand and straddling him,
peering into those warm, golden eyes.

“I got this
tattoo of a very pretty butterfly I saw flying one day. It was at a
park—one of the rare days that I was ever taken to play. My mom’s
boyfriend—one of the many who used and abused her over the
years—took me to play one day. At the time, I thought he was the greatest
guy ever because he was doing something that no one else seemed to do with me. I
watched that butterfly all day.
 
The
freedom it possessed to fly anywhere it wanted to, whenever it wanted to. It
was like a faraway dream for me, and one that I couldn’t see myself ever
getting the chance to follow. But when I enlisted in the Corps, I went and got
that tattoo. It’s a constant reminder that I’m free and that I’m chasing my own
dreams.”

He gazed into my
eyes, his lip curving just a bit. “That’s fucking beautiful.”

“You know so much
about me, and I know nothing about you. Tell me all about Alex.”

“What do you want
to know? I joined the Corps at eighteen, and according to the Marine Corps, I’m
now in a morally corrupt relationship with one of my students.”

I hit his chest. “You
know what I mean.
Your family, your background.
I want
to know.”

“Okay,” he said,
rubbing his chest where I had hit him. “I honestly shouldn’t be in the Corps. I
should be locked up somewhere because, as a kid, that’s exactly where I was
headed.”

He shifted me on
his lap, making us both more comfortable as he geared up to tell his story. “I’m
the oldest of two. My dad has been locked up since forever, and it left my mom
and my grandma to raise us. I was a shitty kid with too many anger issues, and
I fought—a lot. I’d fight kids just for looking at me wrong. I got
suspended from school quite a few times, and then my luck caught up with me.”

Something dark
went off in his eyes as he swallowed hard, gearing up for what I thought was
sure to be heavy. “Some fucking guy who my sister, Adriana, was dating put his
hands on her. When she told me, I promised to just teach him a lesson. So I met
him at a park, ready to kick his ass. Only, once I started hitting him, I
couldn’t stop. He fell to the ground, and I just kept kicking and kicking until
he was throwing up blood. His left eye was swollen shut, and he was grasping
for air.

“The cops pulled
up shortly after, arresting me while the ambulance took him away. I later found
out that he was okay, just a couple
of
broken ribs, a
broken nose, and a shut eye, but the judge didn’t go easy on me. I was put in
juvenile detention for sixty days and ordered to complete one hundred and fifty
hours of community service along with anger management therapy.”

He stopped and
closed his eyes, gripping tighter around my waist.

“The sheriff that
took me in for community service also kind of served as a mentor, and told me
that I needed to straighten my shit out and get my life in order before I
became an adult and ended up in prison. He talked to me about the Marine Corps,
said he’d served eight years before getting out and thought the discipline and
structure would be good for me. I looked up to him, so I let him take me to see
a recruiter and the rest is history.”

A couple of tears
fell from my eyes. I knew that the Corps was stitched into the fabric that was
Alex. But how it came to be was surprising, and even a bit scary.

“Do you regret
what you did to that guy?”

“I don’t regret
defending my sister, but I do regret letting it go that far. I lost my mind. I
couldn’t even see straight.”

“And what about
your mom? Your grandma?”

“They were
heartbroken, but while my mom was fighting to get me out of juvie and on house
arrest, my grandma was telling her to leave me in there. She said I needed to
truly learn my lesson or I’d end up like my dad. She couldn’t have been more
right.”

“I see now why
your loyalty and love for the Corps is so deep—so strong. It saved you.”

“It did.”

I stroked his arm
for a minute, silently signaling to him that while his past was a bit
devastating, I was still there with him.

“So what’s the
deal with Evelyn? I know you didn’t think I forgot about that.”

“Of course not. You
females never forget about juicy gossip,” he joked, moving a few strands of
hair behind my ear. “Evelyn and I met when I was stationed on the east coast. She
was a nice girl, and after running into her a few times, we finally decided to
go on a date. Things were going well, but then I was sent back to the west
coast and we had to make a choice. She decided to move with me, and after a
while here, we decided to get married. She was the doting wife, taking care of
home, dinners made, laundry cleaned. She was everything I thought a wife was
supposed to be, but I later found out that while I was off in Iraq on my third
combat deployment, she had been sleeping with another Marine, spending my money
to build a new life with this dude, then had the nerve to accuse me of cheating
on her.”

“We were about
three weeks from coming home and out on our last mission.
 
I was sidetracked and depressed...so much
so that when the ambush hit us, I couldn’t even think straight. By the time I
was able to fire my weapon, three of my brothers had already been killed. Another
three died in the ensuing firefight.”

He leaned back
and pointed to his memorial tattoo. “These are the six that we lost that day.”

“I hope you don’t
feel responsible for that,” I said softly, unsure of his lingering feelings on
the situation.

“At first I did. But
after getting home, therapy, and divorcing Evelyn, I was finally able to reconcile
myself with what had happened.” He blew out a deep breath,
then
rubbed the back of his head. “So this is where Castillo comes in.”