Casualties of Love (11 page)

Tyson sighed, throwing an arm over his eyes and wishing he was too tired to dwell on it so frickin’ much. He was just about to drift off to sleep again, when his computer chirped. Someone was calling him on Skype. He had missed a bunch of calls while in the military hospital.
Probably my parents
, he thought, when he looked at the time. They tried to catch up with him at least once a week. Reaching over, he scooped up the laptop and clicked on the icon to answer the call. It took a few seconds for the connection to make. The voice and video coming through his machine weren’t what he expected.

Chapter 8

              “What’s up, chickie?”

              “Hey, you! Not much, what’s up with you?” Jessica asked her friend, Kendall Greene.

They were in line for food. Kendall was a fellow Whiskey though she was a higher rank than Jessica. Greene had been on the job for almost ten years. She was on her way to E-7 rank and seemed to be in no rush to get out of the armed forces. She’d done several tours and, as she told Jessica, had been very blessed to make it home each time. Greene had been married, but the military life had not been a benefit to her relationship.  She and her husband had split up about three years ago. At 35, Kendall was still a looker and not hurting for attention, though she was conservative in being receptive.

              “Same here; nada. Bored to tears the last few days. No action, but that’s a good thing for the boys at the front, you know.”

              “Yeah, I know.” Jessica moved up in the serving queue.

              “You been out a lot the last few weeks, haven’t you?”             

              “Yeah, some. But it’s all good,” Jessica replied.

              “Good deal. You doing lunch in here? I’m up for some company if you are.”

              “Yeah, that would be great,” Jessica said.

              The two ladies selected an empty spot and sat their food and drinks down. Greene flopped in her chair with the usual flare and Jessica laughed. Kendall always seemed on the verge of passing out, though she had more stamina than anyone Jessica knew. She was tireless in the field.

Greene picked up her soda and screwed the top off. After a long swallow, she trained her blue-green eyes on Jessica.

              “What?” Jessica asked warily.

              “USMA, huh?” Kendall asked.

“Yes,” Jessica admitted on a stifled groan.

“How far did you get?”

“Few months into my firstie year.”

“Damn. You were almost done. You could be an officer right now.”

              Jessica rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah, but don’t go trying to dig into it too much, ok.”

              “Alright, I leave you your secrets,” Kendall said waving her hand. “But, tell me this. Did you forfeiting your commission have anything to do with that officer you’ve been spending so much time with?”

              “Not that much time,” Jessica defended.

              “Honey, please,” Kendall said with a roll of her eyes. “That much time, and yes people notice. Now answer the question. Was he the reason you left the Academy?”

              “In a way,” Jessica answered slowly.

              “You guys were an item?”

              “Yes,” Jessica said.

              “Serious?”

              Jessica hesitated, but answered, “Yeah.”

              Kendall just nodded, though she looked at Jessica curiously. Jessica braced for more questions, but Greene just dug into her food.

              “He’s a handsome one, I’ll give you that. Gotta love tall, buff, and oozing sexy,” Kendall said after a moment. She brushed back a stray strand of her light blonde hair.

              “Yeah, he is that.” Jessica was quite for a while, and then she confessed. “I was the one that messed it up.”

              “You trying to get it back in Afghanistan? This is a tough place for re-upping a relationship.”

              Jessica nodded at her friend. It certainly wasn’t ideal.

              “I don’t know, Kendall. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want him. But, it’s been six years. Maybe it’s not possible...or the best idea. I know I hurt him. Plus, he told me he moved on.”              “Girlfriend? Wife?”

              “Not that I can tell.”

              “You didn’t ask, Jessica?”

              “No,” she admitted with a shrug. She hadn’t asked, and she couldn’t even lie like she hadn’t thought about it...
before
they had sex. “Tyson’s not that guy. He’s not a cheater.”

              “You better be careful,” Kendall gave her a pointed look.

              “I’ll...try.”

Kendall nodded and shifted to another topic. While she was talking, Jessica couldn’t help but wonder about Tyson’s life back in the States. If he’d moved on, what was going on between them might be on of those “what happens in Afghanistan, stays in Afghanistan” type things. If it was, she wasn’t sure she even had the right to be disappointed in that.
Damn.
She needed to tell him why she’d walked away from him.  Then maybe she could ask about everything else. Yeah, she needed to tell him, but she was too big a chicken shit to get it done.

Chapter 9

“I have to go,” Tyson said.

              “Why?”

              “There’s someone at my door,” he replied as the knocking continued.
              “Tell them to come back later. Don’t you think this is important?”

              Tyson didn’t answer that.

              “We’ll talk later.”  The door to his room was opening. He really needed to start locking the damn thing. Tyson went about closing down his computer with a quickness that threatened to shame him.

“Tyson wait...”

He heard the annoyed shout, but followed through on ending the connection. He looked up to find Marcus looking at him with a raised brow and a knowing expression. No doubt he’d recognized the voice.

“What?” Tyson groused. Marcus shook his head.

“Not a damned thing, man.”

“Don’t start,” Tyson said.

“With what? I haven’t said anything. All I did was walk into the room.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Tyson said.

“You’re a mind reader, now? You don’t know shit about what I’m thinking,” Marcus said as he moved into the room.

“See, there the fuck you go! Attitude. Just say it,” Tyson said.

“Fine. You’re an idiot!”

“You don’t know anything about it!” Tyson shouted back at Marcus.

“The hell! Tell me that wasn’t...”

“Hey! Are you two fighting?”

Jessica’s head appeared in the crack in the doorway. They both clamped their mouths shut. Jessica looked between the two of them, her body partially hidden behind the door.

“No.” Tyson and Marcus growled out at the same time.

She shrugged and walked into the room.

“Ok. Well, that’s good I guess. I don’t think you should eat on an angry stomach and I brought you food.”

“Yeah?” Tyson asked.

“Yes. Your favorite. Or at least it used to be.”

She’d brought him a bacon double cheeseburger with all the fixings plus jalapeno peppers. It was still his favorite.

“You remembered,” he said.

“At the rate you used to put them away, forgetting was unlikely,” she said deadpan. Tyson smiled and looked at her thoughtfully for a few seconds.

“Hey. I’ll leave you guys to it,” Marcus said. Tyson knew Marcus was annoyed with him. From behind Jessica and out of her line of sight, Marcus gave him a hard look.

“If you go, he’ll just eat yours too,” Jessica said as she dug into the bag for another hamburger.

“You brought me food?” Marcus asked in surprise. Jessica turned toward him.

“Yeah. I didn’t know what you liked, but I figured you’re a guy so the more meat the better.”

“Thanks,” Marcus said a little bashfully. He took the offered burger.

Tyson thought Jessica might be well on her way to endearing herself to Jones.

“You’re welcome,” she said. Jessica set drinks down on the table in his room. She missed the other look that passed between Tyson and Marcus, too. “You boys enjoy. I have to get back to work.”

“You’re not eating?” Tyson asked.

“No. I just wanted to bring you two some dinner.” She walked forward and kissed Tyson on the cheek. “Eat...and no more fighting,” she said with a look and a tone that bordered on motherly. 

She left, and Tyson and Marcus ate in silence. Tyson waited, though. He knew Jones wouldn’t leave it alone.

“I like her,” Marcus said. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Leave it Marcus,” Tyson warned.

He was ignored.

“Don’t start something you can’t or won’t finish,” Marcus said. “I don’t know what happened between you two, but she doesn’t deserve that.”

“I’m not playing games, here, Marcus. I assure you.”

“I don’t think you know cat shit about what you’re doing, Ty. You think I don’t know who you were talking to? Think I don’t know you hung up on her because you thought Jessica might be at the door? Tell her, Tyson. You told her you moved on. Tell her the rest.”

Chapter 10

“I have to get out of here.”

Marcus Jones got up and paced around his room again. He’d said those same words at least three times in the past few hours. He was bored out of his damned mind. It had been five weeks since the attack and, idiot that he apparently was, he was ready to get back in the field. Why? To get is ass shot at some more, he supposed. It wouldn’t make sense to normal people, but he was ready to go back to war. Even that would be better than sitting around thinking about shit he couldn’t change.

He’d already wandered around post. He’d talked to everybody he knew, visited Collins and some of the other boys, and flirted with all the GI chicks he had run across...even the less that lovely ones. Hell, he had already done all of that twice today and it was barely late afternoon. So, he was back in his room and his mind kept drifting to his teammate, Lassiter.

He and Lassiter hadn’t always gotten along. The very first time they’d met the two of them had almost come to blows. Both arrogant and hotheaded, they’d rubbed each other the wrong way from the jump. Nobody seemed to understand it. Tyson ordered them to squash it, but they just didn’t mix at all. If it wasn’t his mouth setting Lassiter off, it was the other way around. It had gone on for almost two months and had come to a head in the weirdest way. They’d been sitting around talking shit at each other and Marcus had finally told Kellan Lassiter what he thought his problem truly was.

“Why don’t you quit fucking around and get the heart of your problem, Lassiter. You don’t like me because I’m Black. I’m Black, and I’m higher ranked than your lily-white ass and you can’t stand it. You can’t stand Black people.”

“What?” Lassiter had asked.

“You’re a fucking racist,” Marcus had said in Lassie’s face.

“Fuck you! I am not a racist. I
can’t
be a racist,” Lassiter had replied with a stupid grin that Marcus hadn’t understood. It had pissed Marcus off.

“What? You got Black friends.” Marcus had snorted after that comment. “If you say some shit like some of your best friends are Black, I’m gonna hit you in your goddamn mouth.”

“Yeah, try it ass hole. Lieutenant or not, I’ll kick your ass from here to the front of this post. My best friend
is
Black and she’s my wife!”

That had given Marcus pause.

“Say what?”

“That’s right, idiot. My wife is Black, and so is my kid. At least he’s Black to everybody that’s stuck on color. So, fuck you with the racist bullshit.” Lassiter gave Marcus a nasty look. “You wanna know why I dont’ like you? I don’t like you ‘cause your ass is arrogant and entitled. I know your old man is an L-T-C?  I bet you got your commission and your rank handed to you on a silver-effing platter.”

“Yeah, well, you’d lose,” Marcus had grumbled under his breath.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Lassiter had asked.

“
Lt. Colonel
Jones has never done a damn thing for me. Ever. He barely even acknowledges my ass. I have his last name only because my mama gave it to me and he wasn’t there to stop her. So, fuck
you
with the entitled shit. I had to bust my ass to get here just like everybody else. I don’t even know that dude.” Marcus had backed off from Lassiter. Talking about his father was not something he had ever enjoyed, and it sure as hell wasn’t something he’d expected to talk to Lassiter about.
              “Yeah?”

“Yeah. He left my pregnant mother to fend for herself. Told her it wasn’t fair to stick around with being gone all the time, married to the military. Truth was, he already had a family.”

“Fucking shit, man,” Lassiter had said. “Hey, look, I didn’t know. So, my bad.”

“Whatever,” Marcus has replied.

“Look, Jones. I don’t want any trouble with you. I guess now I know better. You’re just an arrogant ass. Nothing to do with your old man’s rank,” Lassiter was smirking at him, and Marcus shook he head at the man.

“Yeah, and I guess you’re not racist. You’re just a jerk?”

“That’s right,” Lassie had replied.

They had laughed it off and been friends ever since. Lassiter had told Marcus some time later that he didn’t speak to his father either. Apparently while Lassiter wasn’t a racist his dad was. He hadn’t approved of Lassiter’s relationship and subsequent marriage to his wife, Terri. Lassie had said he had not spoken with the man in years. He’d met Terri his senior year in high school and had fallen for her instantly. As soon as he had graduated he’d enlisted and the next year he’d asked Terri to marry him. Lassie had said he and his father hadn’t spoken more than two words to each other since the old man had told him he would never accept his marriage to
that
girl. Luckily her family had fully supported them, though Lassiter had joked that Terri’s dad didn’t readily take to him dragging his youngest daughter out of town for the military life.