Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2: ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀsᴛ ᴅᴀʏ...

|ᴊᴀᴄᴇ ᴄᴀʀsᴏɴ|

People say 'time passes by as the blink of an eye', but for me it was the longest week of my entire 28 years of living. That being said, it has been a week since Nathan and Ashton pulled out that heroic stunt for me, the effects of which we had to face as we were basically given a 'Green Vieene' (working in off time), Captain's orders. He wasn't satisfied yet, so he gave us the entire fucking pile of reports to be dealt with. I was dead...

To say I was furious would be an understatement, but somewhere in my heart, I do actually feel awful, not because they acted the way they did, but because I felt like I should've been the one smashing Frank's face...

Hey! I got punished for nothing.

Finally, it's a release for me from all this hassle. After an entire week of sleepless nights and sweat breaking hard work. I crave for relief, even if its just for a month. I have been done with all my packing and waiting in the alley, almost ready to leave when my gaze catches Sergeant Mark along with Sergeant Prescott walking towards me. The sounds of their heavy footsteps clicking in the hallway as they near me. It's times like these, that I wish an invisibility cloak could have done me a lot better. It's not that they are like Frank or anything but both of them are extreme narsissts, another reason why I have only Nathan and Ashton by my side and not many people around here.

"Hey, Lieutenant Carson what are you doing in here? Quite desperate to get away, are we?" Sergeant Prescott is the first one to speak, with an amused expression gracing his light bearded face.

"We're leaving in about an hour, so I guess I'm waiting for..." I am cut off by Mark.

"Dude we're not leaving till another 4 hours"

My eyes widen. Come again?

"What?" I ask, my mouth all of a sudden feeling dry.

He continues with a malevolent glint in his pale blue eyes "Yeah, it's true, do you even check the time properly?" he asks in mocking disappointment. But Ashton told me we're leaving at 9 that's the reason I got up at 5 to pack up all of my stuff. But then again I didn't see anyone along the corridors with their belongings and also a few officers and staff passing by gave me oddly weirded looks. God! I can't believe this! That motherfucker made me stand out here alone like a desperate doofus!

He is not getting away this time!

"Anyways that's not why we came here. They're having a match on the field and both of your guys are participating, so aren't you joining?" asks Mark with a slight rise in his left eyebrow, perplexed that I am still here. "Yeah I know about that, you guys head up there. I'll catch up with you" I lie and with a dismissive nod, they walk away.

I can't believe nobody told me about this, not even Nathan. They have a lot of explaining to do when I get there. But first, I have to keep my bags back in my room before anyone else sees me.

Very often, in times like these, I wonder, Why am I even friends with those pieces of shits?!

After placing all my stuff back neatly ready, I walk over to the field, where I see most of the Officers and Cadets  there along with staff but Captain and Major Hardy are know where to be seen. The entire crowd is gathered in a circle surrounding the field and the participants. These types of matches are very often held before departure as a sign of parting in good and cheerful spirit. From the corner of my eye I spot Ashton preparing himself with warm up exercises.

It's a soccer match, much to my surprise both Nathan and Ashton are in opposite teams. Now this is gonna be good. I wish I should've known it beforehand so that I could've too joined them, those idiots knew I enjoyed soccer. Seriously anything that happens after the match is not my fault, those fuckers have it coming!

I momentarily plan my sweet revenge while the match starts. Shrugging off my slightly sinister thoughts, I focus my attention back on the field. It'll be fun watching them play or try to play. I've known both of them for around 3 and a half years now and I'm pretty sure that they are no good in soccer. Specializing techniques, muscular strength and marksmanship are something that they're quite well at but soccer?

Nah! Not so much.

The match opens with Corporal Jones pitching the ball towards Sergeant Carl, who protects the ball with all his body defenses and just as more opponents come closer, he passes it on to Joel. Joel plays well, his running skills have gotten exceptionally well since last time that he tripped over his feet thrice, he is able to dodge away from the opponents and has won a touchdown for Ashton's team. I watch with slight amusement as he starts teasing Nathan, who's desperately trying to hold in his annoyance. I laugh at their childish behavior.

Just as the ball is pitched again, I feel a slight movement beside me. On turning to my left I am left short of words. Right next to me sits Lieutenant Alexis. Just when her gaze falls on mine, she gives me one of those full heart melting smiles. I return it back, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't look away from her angelic face. She has the perfect silky blonde hair tied up into a full bun that accentuates her sharp cut jawline, pink full lips, tall and slim figure with a lightly tanned skin color. When I had arrived here, right after my training ended, for a few trail sessions and tests, we had actually been good friends for quite sometime before we drifted off.

A minute later, she breaks the silence. "Hey, so I heard you got into trouble with Frank?" the tilt in her eyebrow shows pure concern rather than just plain curiosity. This puts me in jeopardy.

Now how do I explain that without sounding like a loser?

"It's fine if you don't wanna talk about it, I'm sorry" she quickly adds, her bright blue eyes boring into mine. And those eyes, damn... Looking into them feels like staring into the reflection of a beautiful ocean that captures you and, makes you want to drown into the very depth of it.

Without wasting much time I reply "No. It was nothing much just Ashton and Nathan got into a fight with him" she thinks about it for a second with a soft nod of understanding and asks "Ooh, and why did they call you then?" exactly the question I've been avoiding to answer 'Nathan and Ashton got into the fight for me because I was too ignorant to act upon the fact that Frank was being a real pain in my ass' this would make a perfect answer but I couldn't tell her that.

"It's a long story" It's all I could say to save myself from further embarrassment. "It's good that he learned a lesson, people like him need reminders" she says smiling warmly. We both sit in the comfortable silence that envelops us, watching the game among the loud cheers on the crowded field. It's half time when she looks at me and says "I'll take my leave then, it was good to talk to you Lieutenant Carson, I wish to see you again sometime though".

"Sure we'll catch up for drinks next time." I offer immediately taking in on the opportunity.

"Sounds good" she replies, soft pink lips stretched into a gorgeous smile that lights up her face, her blond hairs sticking out of her beautiful messy bun as she leaves.

By the time she walks away, it's almost noon. Soon the surrounding air becomes warm, the sun shines ever so brightly with the beautiful sunflowers swaying around the leftover corners of the field to the rhythm of air.

Alexis became one of my good friends after I joined the army as a Cadet. She and I were paired together at the beginning of our first year. She was incredibly good-looking, hardworking, kind, sincere and damn I'd be lying if I didn't add HOT to that equation, I was infatuated by her. But when I actually got balls to ask her about that, she was shifted to another department. Our interactions became quite less and soon we were busy in our growing lives, it had led to the point where we hardly met. So seeing her today almost brings a smile to my lips.

Soon the match ends in front of me, with me not paying a single attention to it. Everyone starts dispersing, probably getting ready to head off. It's now almost noon, time to get back home. I stood at the corner of the field waiting for my champions, but what I saw ... Well ... Let's just say it was far from that, there stood Ashton yelling at Nathan about something I couldn't quite make out, and Nathan being the occasionally hot headed guy, his patience was wearing thin each growing second, so I walk towards them. "So who won?" I ask playfully testing the waters.

"Isn't that obvious? My team!" Nathan beams proudly, his pale gray eyes gleaming with excitement. "It wasn't a fair match" replies Ashton, pressing an ice bag to his cheek. "What happened to your face?" I ask resisting the urge to laugh at the purplish bruise that was forming on his left cheek bone.

"Why don't you ask this goat fart?" he says pointing to Nathan, who raises an eyebrow at the pathetic insult. I let out a chuckle at his choice of words, he always had the talent of creating these sorts of slang. "Nothing much happened, he just got a mild hit on his cheek" Nathan defends, folding his arms along his chest.

"'Mild hit' is that what you fucking call it? Cause as far as I know you did this on purpose you ... stupid... st-stinky tuna fish!" he glares at Nathan as I suppress a laugh "And yeah, he has been yelling at me since then" he says to me, bored.

"Yelling at you? You did it on purpose so that our team would lose its most efficient player and yours would win" Ash grumbles, even I chuckle at the idea of him being efficient to the team.

"Excuse me 'efficient player'?, come on man who are you kidding? Did you even score a touchdown, Mr Efficient player?" Nathan mocks while Ash narrows his eyes at him in an attempt to glare.

"Come on guys quit fighting over it, let's head back! We're running late!" I say to stop their so called argument. Thankfully both of them agree without much effort from my side. Sometimes these two can be the most annoying people to deal with.

Soon we're on our way back to home in our reserved cargo military plane. Unfortunately, the petty feud between the two is yet to be settled, each time I would try to take a nap I'd be woken up by their yelling.

"I wasn't even ready to play but you forced me out to come, saying it would be a good souvenir for us" Nathan mumbles. "But I don't remember me telling you to give me a souvenir on my goddamned face!" at this point both Nathan and I let out an involuntary chuckle.

"Laugh all you guys want, but the fact is that you guys didn't play fair and it was our team who should've won not yours" he says with a shit eating pout face.

"And just so you know I'm not talking to you both so good luck!" he says childishly, turning his face away from us. "And as if we'd die if you won't" Nathan replies with sarcasm, that makes me snort. "You guys are horrible, I was willing to let go and forgive you, but now don't even think of it." he grunts. The pointed look on his face is exactly like that of a teenage hormonal girl on her period. Just then I feel a buzz from the pocket of my trousers, I remove my phone and check, it's a message from mom.

Mom,

Hey, just wanted to inform you that upon your return we're having a family dinner, be there tomorrow.

Annoyance fills me upon reading it as my expression sours, but I couldn't let that hamper my mood. "...you guys just go to hell!" Ash says, annoyed. "Come on now are you tired? You were the one to start it in the first place and also with you sticking your ass around we already are in hell" chuckles Nathan while earning a death glare from Ash.

Not even a minute later. "I wonder when this bruise will fade away from my handsome face" Ash touches the now green spot on his face.

"'Handsome face, efficient player' Man! You've got a lot of misunderstandings about yourself. I suggest you should try to look in a mirror, if not anything all your doubts will surely fade away" Nathan scoffs.

"I'm just gonna go somewhere else" mutters Ash angrily as he starts getting up.

"Come on stop whining over it now, What will it take for you guys to stop?" I say clearly annoyed with this now.

"Now since you're asking for it. I wouldn't mind..." he states with a slight hopeful tone.

"How about an ice-cream sundae treat?" I ask cutting him off before his thoughts take an expensive turn. And like I suspected, his eyes glint with a childlike excitement "Are you serious?" he asks with a grin on his stupid face. "Sure, anything to keep your rattling mouth shut" I say instead. "Hey, What did I do to be left out from ice cream?" Nathan whines.

These hungry pigs!

"You won the match right?" I ask rubbing my sleepy face, to which he happily replies "Yes".

"That's enough treat to last you for a month" I state, his expression falls while Ash silently gives him a triumphant look. "Hey. That's not fair" he argues with a glare. "Okay... fine 2 ice cream sundaes on me." I finally give up for my precious sleep and just then I see a similar shit eating grin on his face while Ash looks mildly disappointed.

Seriously I work with children...

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I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out!! 😆

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