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Moore’s
excited demeanor was infectious as he drove me down to the processing center
downtown. I had always liked my recruiter for his laid-back attitude and great
sense of humor. There were several recruiters in the office where Sergeant
Moore worked, and I felt pretty damn lucky that I hadn’t been recruited by any
of them. I didn’t need much selling though, since I’d already made my mind up
about joining long before I stepped into their office at the mall. I figured
that I should probably choose the guy who resembled a used care salesman the
least, so Sergeant Moore was my guy.
    “I wish they would
let me drive you guys around in the Charger,” he said with a shake of his head.
He weaved in and out of traffic in his ‘government car,’ the Chevy Malibu that
he drove whenever he had work-related errands to run. “This car is for
bitches.”
    “What, powder blue
isn’t your color?” I jabbed, laughing.
    “No, and thank you
for proving my point. Plus, it has this pesky little MPH blocker that knocks
you down if you try to go more than sixty-five.”
    “That’s some
bullshit. But I can’t really complain, I don’t even have a car.”
    Sergeant Moore
smirked. “Yeah, just do me a favor talk to me before you let some idiot
salesman sell you a brand new car with ‘great military rates.’ I’m so sick of
seeing young Marines making stupid fucking decisions.”
    I chuckled at his
passion for the topic. “Will do, Sergeant. I probably won’t need a car for a
while, though.”
    “That won’t stop
you from being dumb and buying one anyway.”
    I laughed and
looked out the window. I was grateful for Sergeant Moore’s shit talking. It
kept me from think about my dad. Or Ellie. I wondered if my text had woken her
up this morning and if she’d replied. I clenched my fist in my lap and tried to
stop that ‘crazy-train’ of thought before it went off the rails. I couldn’t
help it though. The closer I got to leaving the more I thought about what
– or who – I was leaving
behind.
    Ellie had been
there for me when my mom was sick, and stuck by me through the worst parts of
my life when she finally passed. I understood why she wanted stability so
badly, because she was my stability.
I knew that no matter where I went or what I did, I would always be able to go
back to her. I had never tried to sleep with her because I knew it would ruin
what we had. I had always considered her to be more like family than anything
else, especially since her parents practically adopted me when they saw the shitty
job my dad was doing.
    I chewed it over
in my mind. I knew it made sense that I loved her, but I didn’t want to even
consider what kind of love it was
turning out to be. That was just another distraction that I didn’t need for the
next three months.
    “Take off that
undershirt.”
    I jolted, not sure
if I had missed part of the conversation while I was thinking about that other
nonsense. “What?”
    “I said, take off
the undershirt,” Sergeant Moore repeated. “The DI’s are gonna be screaming at everyone to make sure they only have one shirt on before they
get on the bus. You might as well ditch it now so you don’t have to do it
then.”
    I narrowed my eyes
at him slightly, but did as I was told. “That’s really weird. Why would they
care if I have an undershirt on?”
    “I don’t remember,
and I never cared to ask. You should get out of the habit of asking ‘why’ now,
too. You’ll get yourself slayed for that shit.”
    “Oh, thanks.”
    He chuckled. “I
try to prepare all of my guys as best as I can. If you work your ass off, maybe
you’ll get Honor Recruit. That looks great on me, so you should do that.”
    I wrinkled my brow
and wished that I had used more of the car ride to ask questions instead of
think about Ellie and things that could never be. I saw the building looming
ahead and knew I was out of time for that. Sergeant Moore pulled into the lot
and found a spot in the back. We got