Fraternizing (47 page)

“I—I didn’t
think it was worth telling you. You’d just lose your shit.”

“You’re goddamned
right I’d lose my shit!” I yelled, unable to contain the anger any longer. “That
fucking idiot is missing a screw or two, Cassie. Now something happens with
that dickhead, and I’m not there to take care of it. Newsome had to handle it,
and since he knows nothing about us, he handled it according to protocol which
involves higher ups.” I balled my fist and sent it slamming down onto the
steering wheel. “FUCK! I hate being out of control, and you took it away from
me.”

She sat silent on
the phone, her soft breaths my only indication that she was still there.

“Did they pull
you in for a statement?” I asked, trying to remove the anger and frustration
and from my voice.

“Yes—“

“
Who
did you speak to? What did you tell them?” I
interrupted, feeling more and more powerless with every answer she gave. I
looked down at my speedometer, realizing I was nearing ninety miles per hour,
and couldn’t give a fuck about slowing down.

“Newsome took it
to Gunny Chavez who took it to First Sergeant O’Hara. He just asked me what
happened, and I told him.”

“What did
happen?”

“We got our
orders read to us—“

“Wait, your orders
were read? No one fucking told me the orders were ready.”

“Yes. We got
them.”

A new level of
irritation was setting in. I had no idea the orders were ready. Now I felt
blindsided.

“Where are you
going?”

“Eighth Comm.”

“In fucking North
Carolina?”

“Yes.”

“This is
bullshit!”

“Alex, that’s not
the worst of it.”

Her words chilled
my spine. Whatever was coming next was definitely something that I didn’t need
to hear.

“Allen got sent
there, too. That’s how all of this shit got started.”

My throat caught
fire. It hurt to open my mouth. I couldn’t speak. My mind raged with thoughts
of her having to PCS with this jackass, after everything that she had been
through with him.

“Alex… Alex…”

“Yeah, I’m here,”
I said, finally able to speak after a few deep sighs. ”I need to know exactly
what that fucker said to you. Every spec of it.”

“He was pissed
about his assignment, so when Dalton told me out in the courtyard that he had
gotten Third L.A.R., Allen overheard it and flipped out.”

“What the fuck
did he say, Cassie?”

“I don’t remember
it word for word.”

“Try!”

She paused for a
second before speaking. “He said something about being pissed that Dalton got a
combat unit and he was being sent to Eighth Comm with a bunch of bitches.”

“Then what
happened?”

“Then I told him
he wasn’t good enough for infantry.”

“Why the fuck
would you say something to him?”

“I couldn’t hold
it in, Alex. He was inadvertently speaking to me when he said it, and after
everything else—“

“You tell me
right fucking now everything this dick has ever said to you. Since you were
trying to protect his ass before.”

“I wasn’t
protecting—“

“Yes, you were. I
want to know right now what he’s been saying to you. And don’t gloss over and
sugar coat shit. I. Need. To. Know. You understand that?”

She blew out a
deep breath.

“When I first met
him, he told me to blow him if he beat me in a video game. Then he told me I
need to know my fucking place and that females didn’t belong in the Corps. It’s
always something sexist and misogynistic. Today he told me he would stick his
dick down my throat to shut my mouth, or something like that. That’s when
Newsome stopped him.”

My heart sank. The
shit he had been saying to her was more than sexual
harassment,
it was a fucking death wish. My frustration only grew as I listened to it
because had I known that this shit was going on from the very beginning, I would
have put a stop to it then. Instead, his attacks seemed to have only escalated,
and now it was out of my fucking hands. I wanted to puke at the image of this
asshole trying to do anything to her. I’d put that motherfucker six feet under
before I ever let that happen.

“I’m gonna
fucking kill him.”

“No, you aren’t. It’s
not that serious. They’re just words.”

“That’s fucking
easy for you to say, Cassie. I’m trying to erase visual images of that
motherfucker trying to ram his dick down your throat, and it’s ripping me
apart. I’m telling you, once I get that asshole alone, I’m going to make sure
he can’t open his mouth to say another motherfucking word.”

“Alex—“

“And you. You
need to listen to me. You don’t talk about it, with anyone—not even
fucking Dalton. You understand that?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“No, Cassie. You
don’t talk about it. I don’t want anyone overhearing anything you say and
blowing it up any bigger than what it already is. I’m going to handle this shit
and move it along as quickly and quietly as possible. Act like it never
happened, you understand me?”

“Yes. Geez, I
understand you.”

“I’ll be home in
about ten minutes. Then I’m sending for you.”

“Do you
think—
“

“Be ready. Talk
to you soon. Bye”

I hung
up,
my fists feeling like weights had been placed inside of
them. I knew the second I got the
chance,
Allen was
going to be a dead man.

I couldn’t wait
to get face to face with him, and make that fantasy a reality.

Storming through
the front door, I stomped into the house, back to my bedroom and threw my bags
down on the floor, then promptly shut the door and walked back to the front. Riley
was up and off the couch, looking curiously at me.

“Welcome home,
man. What’s got you in such a huff?”

“You don’t
fucking know?”

He walked closer.
“No. What happened?”

“Fucking Newsome
filed a sexual harassment claim against Allen today because of some shit he
said to Cassie.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“Yeah, my
thoughts exactly. I’m going to fucking smash that motherfucker’s throat in. He
won’t be able to say anymore shit like that to her.”

“Like what? What
did he say?”

I stood, eyes
closed, fists tightly clenched, trying to contain my brewing anger.

I opened my eyes
and unclenched my fists. “I can’t even say it all, man, but he threatened to
shove his dick down her throat. I’ll cut that shit off before I let him do
anything to her.”

Riley walked over
to me and patted my shoulder, leaving his hand resting there and trying to calm
me down, but it really wasn’t working. He was only adding to my growing
frustration because the longer he held me up, the longer it was taking me to
get to Allen and beat him until he was unrecognizable.

“You’re not
leaving the house right now, Alex.”

I shoved his hand
off of me, stepping away before I took out my aggression on him.

“Fuck off,
Riley.”

“No. You need to
calm the fuck down. I’m sure they’ve got his ass on some sort of watched
restriction right now. You go up there, and you’ll blow the whole fucking lid
off of you and Cassie. No one knows right now, but you go defending her honor,
and the whole goddamned schoolhouse is going to know about it. Think, man.”

He poked me
forcefully in the head, pissing me off, but his words were much too rational
and made me stop and think for second. He was right. If I went storming up
there, way after the fact, it would definitely rouse suspicion. I hated how
right he was.
That alone made me want
to punch him.

I turned and
walked into the kitchen, grabbing
a water
and drinking
it down in one long gulp before throwing the bottle at the wall, watching it
fall to the ground.

“I’m only looking
out for you and Cassie, man.”

“There won’t be a
me and Cassie, dude. She got orders to fucking Lejeune. As of next week, she’ll
be on a fucking plane to the east coast, and I’ll be stuck here, wallowing in
this cesspool.”

He walked into
the kitchen, disbelief spread across his face.

“What the
fuck are
you saying? You’ve gone through all of
this—the hiding, the lying, the secrets—to just throw it all away
because she got orders to another base? What is wrong with you?”

“Don’t fucking
start—“

“No. You need to
listen. You’ve changed for this girl.” He walked closer to me, stopping just in
front of me. “You fucking love her, and I’ll be damned if I stand by and watch
you let her walk away because you aren’t going to be near each other. Wake the
fuck up,” he said, poking me in the chest.

“Back the fuck
up, Riley.”

“Punch me, Alex. Do
whatever you have to do to get the stupidity out of your fucking system. But
walking away from Cassie, that’s not happening. You’ve sucked me into this, and
I’m not putting my fucking career on the line to watch you throw it all away.”

I wanted to give
him what he wanted. I wanted to punch him, but I wanted to punch myself even
more. I didn’t know what to think, and everything that I did think was wrong. I
knew there was no way that I wanted to not have Cassie in my life, but thoughts
of her being on the opposite end of the country made me sick with worry. I’d
already fucked up on her, and even though it was an admitted mistake, I
couldn’t shake the idea that the distance would taint her mind and leave her
with no choice but to want to end things with me. I turned away from him and
grabbed a shot glass from the cupboard and the bottle of Jack.

“Grab me one,
too,” Riley said, stepping over to me.

I grabbed a
second glass and let him open the whiskey, pour the glasses full, then hand me
my glass. I threw it back and slammed the glass down on the counter, wincing at
the sting as it traveled down my throat.

“You need
another?” Riley asked, holding the bottle up. “I’ll drink all night with you if
this is what you need to bring some sanity back to your mind.”

“I’m good, man,”
I lowly answered, now feeling like my head was swirling from the sudden heat
filling my body, along with the stress and anxiety of everything that I had
been told today. “I need to call Cassie and let her know to just chill for the
night.”

I turned and
walked out of the kitchen, shutting my door behind me once I got into my room. There
wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to beat the shit out of Allen and be able to keep
her here with me. I was losing control. This situation came to mind before, and
we’d even discussed it, but the reality of her being sent off hurt much more
than the prospect of it. I wasn’t sure how I would come to grips with the impending
separation.

I called her,
needing to hear her voice one more time before I forced myself to sleep.

“Hey,” she said,
sounding very sweet, exactly what I needed at the moment.

“Hey. I needed to
hear your voice, and I’m sorry for going crazy on you earlier.”

“Don’t worry
about it. I figured you were just upset.”

“Yeah, but I
should have channeled that shit. Anyway, Riley talked some sense into me. I’m
not going up there. In fact, we both need to lay low for a bit and let all of
this blow over.”

“I agree.”

“I’ll be up there
early to see First Sergeant O’Hara. If they haven’t already removed him from
the class, I’m going to have it done.”

“Alex, don’t make
it any bigger than what it needs to be. We have a few more instructional days
and then we graduate. I’m good.”

“Well, somebody
is getting their orders changed. If they don’t get rid of his sorry ass, I’m
not letting you PCS with him.”

“Well, we’ll see
what happens. I’m honestly over it. I just want to move on.”

“I’ll let you
know what happens. How is your crazy ass roommate? You’ve got me all sorts of
worried about you.”

“She’s fine. We
avoid each other, and it works.”

“Good. Well, I’ll
let you get some sleep. I need some before I show up ready to break somebody in
half tomorrow.”

She laughed. Finally.
Her laugh was a remedy for all sorts of ailments, and right now, I needed a
hefty dose of it.

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

I hung up the
phone and lay there, staring at the ceiling and wondering how I would keep
myself under control when I finally did get the chance to look Allen in the
eye. Sleep didn’t come easily, so I took a long shower, jacking off to release
the rest of the stress that was still piled up inside of me,
then
finally laid down—ass naked, on top of the bedspread and under a
ferociously spinning ceiling fan. I needed any and everything to cool me down.