Ch.19 | Tears

Leo

3 months later..

"Drop and give me 30!" I yelled at the exhausted men in front of me.

I had been working them non stop since we returned to Oregon. They needed to be stronger.

What happened in Hawaii could never happen again. Several people died. All because my men were too weak to do a damn thing.

"Leo, Can I talk to you for a second?" I looked to see my father standing outside of the mess hall.

"We can talk later." I turned back to my men who had stopped to take a break.

"Now, Leo." My father ordered and I realized he wouldn't let me skip out on his talk again.

"Run a lap, then you can go have lunch." I ordered my men and some of them sighed in relief.

They acted like this was such hard work. Maybe that's my fault for not pushing them harder from the start.

"Let's get some lunch." My dad flashes me a quick smile as I approach him.

"You wanted to talk, not go on a lunch date." I crossed my arms.

"And I'm hungry. So grab some lunch with me and we'll talk." He waited for me to nod before heading into the brick building.

The smell of waffles and bacon hit me in seconds and my stomach began to growl.

I hadn't had much of an appetite since we've been back.

"2 breakfast platters." Dad ordered for the both of us and less then a minute later two steaming trays of waffles and bacon were handed to us.

We sat down at a close by table and devoured our food. We didn't bother to talk until every crumb was eaten.

Army men, right?

After a few more minutes of silence he finally spoke, "Leo, I know you're upset. But what you're doing isnt healthy, son."

I sighed,"I'm fine. I'm just doing my job as a Sergeant." I shrugged. If my boys couldn't handle it, then they shouldn't be on my fucking squad.

"You're working your squad into the ground. They're not sleeping or eating- Neither are. Your mother and I are worried." He placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't be. I'm fine." I smiled and attempted to get up but he held pushed me back down.

"When's the last time you saw her, Leo?" I knew who he was talking about. But it wasn't any of his goddamn business.

"Don't think that's any of your concern, Dad." I shook his hand off and stood, leaving my tray.

"Go see her." He called as I left the mess hall.

I wasn't ready to see her yet.

🤍

Amanda

"Amanda, I think you should go home and catch a few Z's." Nurse Melissa put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

This girl has red nail polish. She better get her hand off of me.

"I'm fine, Melissa." I smiled and grabbed my next patient's charts.

"Well, Legally, you have to go home. You've reached your limit in hours this week." Melissa handed me my time chart. I had apparently worked 47 hours this week.

"Shoot," I sighed and handed her the charts I had.

"I'll see you on Monday, Mandi." Melissa smiled and went off to treat our patients.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

Go home and read a magazine on House wives? Paint my nails? Get my hair done?

Sleep? Gross. Boring. Pass.

I looked at the time and decided I could stay a bit longer.

I headed down the patient wing and into room 205.

My favorite room in the hospital.

"Hey beautiful," I whispered and walked over to the hospital bed.

Her beautiful brown hair was sprawled out on her pillows. I was always jealous of it. My parents cursed me with blonde hair. It got stained from everything.

I sighed and looked down at her emotionless face. Her skin has gotten so pale. It was freaky.

"I think it's about time you stop worrying all of us. Please Riley." I felt my breath catch in my throat and hot tears begin pouring down my cheeks.

Riley had been my best friend for the last few months. Waking up everyday and not being able to talk to her has been grueling.

Not to mention, my hopeless romantic side is crying at the lack of details about her romance story with Leo.

Sleeping beauty needs to wake her ass up and finish it.