Fraternizing (48 page)

First thing in
the morning, before the stars had even hidden themselves away, I got up and
went for a long run, hoping the still looming tension from the night before
would dissipate before heading in to work. After four miles, it was still
there, still loading me down. I jogged back home and immediately showered,
trying to think of pleasant thoughts where Cassie was concerned, to keep the
tension from growing. I hummed
Fall For
You
while I washed myself off, remembering the beautiful smile on her face
as I strummed the guitar on the beach, and she lowly hummed along. Those were
the moments I want to think about, not this bullshit festering between her and
Allen.

I knocked on
Riley’s door, calling out,
“
See ya later, man,” before
walking for the front door. He came darting out of his room, wearing just his
boxers. “I don’t need to see your shit first thing in the morning, Riley. I
have enough traumatizing shit going on in my head right now.”

“Fuck off,” he
joked, the goofy, awkward Riley back. “I just wanted to make sure you
remembered what I said last night.”

“I remember, man.
I’m going in to see First Sergeant O’Hara.”

“Alright. Don’t
do anything stupid, Alex.”

I flipped him off
and turned for the door, leaving with his words replaying over and over in my
head.

Standing in front
of First Sergeant’s door, I contemplated the different ways that I wanted to
approach this issue. I couldn’t give anything away that this was a personal
matter for me, but I also didn’t want this shit swept under the rug. I needed
to make sure that Allen got what he deserved, and at this point in time, it
would be better coming from the higher ups than it would be coming from me. I
knocked on the
door,
turning the knob and removing my
cover before stepping in after hearing O’Hara tell me to come in.

“Good morning,
First Sergeant.”

He stood and
walked over to shake my hand. “Morning, Sergeant, Cruz. Sorry to have to bring
you in so early to deal with this shit. Students, you just never what you’re
going to get.” He laughed, and I tried hard to join him, but I couldn’t force
more than a tight chuckle out.

“Anyway, Sgt.
Newsome came and reported an incident of sexual harassment between two of your
students. And I know you were TAD during all of this, but as the lead
instructor, I need to get your input.”

I nodded my head,
well aware of what had happened, and wanting to hurry up and get to what we
were going to do about Allen.

“Private Allen
and Private First Class Bennett were apparently given orders to the same duty
station. He expressed his dismay about it, to which she countered, and that’s
when the inappropriate sexual comment took place. Now, I asked Newsome for his
records, his PFT scores, his test scores, and I see a fine young Marine who
lost his mind for half a second. When I spoke to him, he was remorseful and
apologized profusely. I saw no reason to end this young man’s budding career
because he spoke before he thought.”

“First
Sergeant—“

“So, Sgt. Cruz,
as their instructor, I have to ask, have you seen anything in class that you
believe I need to know about before sitting down with Sgt. Major Thomas.”

“Actually, First
Sergeant, Private Allen was involved in a physical altercation in the barracks
one night, and I saw something very recently.”

“Yes. That
incident. What else have you seen?”

His lackadaisical
response to the altercation had my blood boiling.

“I had the
students pair up to work on radio systems, and Private Allen called for Pfc.
Bennett to be his partner. The look she gave was—“ I stopped and ran my
hand over my face. “It was more than not wanting to work with him. It almost
looked like fear.”

“Did you ask her
about it?”

“I did. She was a
bit hesitant to tell me what was going on. She just said it was an argument
they’d had, but I couldn’t get any more out of her.”

He sat back in
his seat, his arms folded across his chest as he exhaled harshly from his nose.

“Listen to me,
Cruz. The Marine Corps is knee deep in sexual harassment training, and we have
a goddamned zero tolerance policy. I won’t have this shit going on in my
company. I am going to scrape the bottom on this swamp and find out exactly
what the hell is going on here. So for today, Private Allen remains in your
class. You are to keep him and Pfc. Bennett apart. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, First
Sergeant.”

“Good to go.”

I turned for the
door, affixing my cover to my head before striding out of his office, down the
hall, and around the corner to mine. When I got inside, I quickly took out my
phone and texted Cassie, forewarning her that she would more than likely be
called in to speak again.

Me: Just a quick FYI, First Sergeant O’Hara
will probably be calling you in again. Tell him exactly what you told
me and nothing
more.

Me: Oh, and good morning, Blondie.

I didn’t get a
reply right away. I sat my phone down on the desk and placed my head in my
hands, wishing that none of this shit had happened and that it would hopefully
blow over quickly. The door squealed. I looked up, and my eyes met with
Jensen’s—cold and empty. He walked further in, sitting down at his desk
and not bothering to say a word to me. The longer I allowed the silence to
fester, the more agitated I grew, so I finally stood, walking over to where he
sat and said what was on my mind.

“I need to know
why you like Allen so much.”

He looked up at
me. “Why don’t you like him? He’s just like you and me, Alex. He’s young and
motivated. He wants to do well, and he loves the Corps. That was us when we
were in his shoes.”

“I was never like
Allen,” I snarled, taking offense to the comparison.

“Sure you were. You
just can’t see it now because you have your dick stuck up inside of his
competition.”

He was taunting
me, and if everything that had happened recently
wasn’t
stirring such a shit storm, I probably would have decked him.

“I just know you
better not be trying any underhanded shit where Pfc. Bennett is concerned. You
don’t like what I’m doing, that’s your fucking problem. But she is off limits.”

“I wouldn’t stoop
that low, Alex. I’m not you.” He grabbed something from his desk drawer then
stood and stalked over to the door, turning around to look at me with his hand
on the
door knob
. “Be honest with yourself. If you
weren’t fucking Allen’s target, none of this would be that big of a deal.”

“Fuck you,” I
growled, feeling self-control slowly slip away from me. My phone buzzed on the
desk, and I reached over to retrieve it.

“Your girl?” he
asked, smirking as stood there staring at me. “You go ahead and take care of
that while I get shit ready for our students who need their instructors to
prepare them for their final exams.”

He turned and
walked out of the office, leaving me there to fester in my own shit. A tiny
part of me felt like he was right; that at some point, I probably was Allen. I was
young and motivated, only I hadn’t preyed on females the way he did.

Or had I?

Was my way the
same thing, just done in a different manner? I hated my guilty conscience
because it made me re-evaluate myself. It made me look in the mirror and stare
at my glaring flaws. It made me see how far I had strayed.

I stared down at
the text from Cassie, finally allowing a smile to creep across my face.

Cassie: I’m ready.
And
good morning to you too, Sgt.

I put my phone
away,
hoping that what Cassie would have to tell First
Sergeant would remove our Allen problem once and for all. Like him or not, the
fact of the matter was that he was threatening and harassing Cassie, and
whether Jensen liked it or not, I would break his fucking fingers one at a time
to make sure she was protected.

I sat and
thought, long and hard, about everything—Allen, Cassie, Ruiz, Castillo,
Jensen,
Riley
. Good and bad was coming from all
directions, intertwining all of us in one big, mangled mess. Friendships had
grown while others had been severed. My heart grew and my mindset flipped. Through
it all, I couldn’t find the desire to regret any of it. It all made me think,
but not enough to feel remorseful.

Cassie Bennett
had come into my life for a reason. And Camp Lejeune or not, I wasn’t about to
let her go so easily.

Chapter 30

Cassie

I went to class just like any other day.

Shock hit me as I
stood in formation and saw Allen standing there. Were they not going to do
anything about him? I’d been warned when I mentioned joining the Marine Corps
that it was a boys club. If Allen got away with what he’d said to me, then I
knew it to be true.

We walked into
the classroom. Alex looking stellar and enticing as he always did. Jensen and
Newsome updated us on our standings for the challenge, and to my surprise, the
partner radio systems activity was factored in to our scores. I was still
sitting in first place, but Allen had made up ground, and was trailing behind
in a close second. I noticed the instructors making a concerted effort to keep us
as far away from one another as possible. Even though I didn’t sit near him,
they moved him even farther away, making sure that it would take an effort on
our parts to get to each other, and even then, Alex would not allow that to
happen.

I spent lunch
with Dalton, Lane, and Hutchins. Both of them had received orders to Camp
Pendleton, just different units. They were excited since they were now an
unofficial couple. It was nice to see them so happy.

After lunch,
Newsome escorted me down to First Sergeant O’Hara’s office. My stomach knotted
up, even though I was well aware that I was in the right and had nothing to
hide. Well, as far as the Allen situation was concerned. In other areas in my
life I had plenty to hide, and it was always on the forefront of my mind.

Newsome walked
with me, making awkward small talk, but really not having much to say. Just as
we approached First Sergeant’s door, he turned to me and said, “You just need
to tell him exactly what’s been going on. Don’t hide anything if you want your
problem fixed. You understand that?”

“Yes, Sergeant,”
I replied, feeling the weight of his words. I had more problems than he knew
about, and even though he wasn’t referring to my other problem, my guilty
conscience was playing tricks on me.

He knocked on the
door, listened for the okay from First Sergeant O’Hara, then opened the door
and led me in. I removed my cover from my head and nervously held it in my
hands, feeling overly intimidated by the bull of a man that was First Sergeant
O’Hara.

“Private First
Class Bennett is here, First Sergeant.”

“Thank you,
Sergeant Newsome. That’ll be all.”

Newsome nodded
his head and walked out, leaving the door partially open. First Sergeant O’Hara
signaled for me to take a seat.

“How are you this
afternoon, Pfc. Bennett?”

“I’m doing well,
First Sergeant.”

He sat up in his
chair, his stocky frame filling the seat. His dark, beady eyes stared down on
me as his face went tight. My stomach clenched, twisting and aching the longer
I sat in his presence.

“I spoke to your
lead instructor, Sergeant Cruz, and he seems to think there is more to the
sexual harassment claims that transpired yesterday. You do understand that the
Marine Corps is pushing hard to eradicate sexual harassment from our ranks, and
while we cannot scrape it all away, we are taking claims very seriously, and
will handle such occurrences with an iron fist.”

 
He sat up in his seat even more, those
dark eyes growing more and more threatening by the second. His arms rested on
the desk, his hands intertwined with one another as he stared into my soul.

“We also take
false accusations very seriously. I will not destroy a career without due
diligence. So what I am about to ask you, you need to think long and hard about
your answers. Do you understand me?” His voice was low and gruff, almost
accusing.

“Yes, First
Sergeant,” I said, putting on a show of confidence so as not to allow him the
pleasure of knowing that his intimidating techniques were working on me. I had
nothing to lie about, but he made it seem as if he could will a lie out of me.

“Alright then. How
did you first come in contact with Private Allen?”

I cleared my
throat, readying myself to dig through the filth that he had been shoveling my
way from the very beginning.