Page 33 of Perfect Tragedy
I stand again feeling like I need to move.
The guys stand too.
Any other time I may laugh at this up and down dance we’re doing.
“How long?” I ask again.
“Four years active duty. Two years inactive,” Blake says softly as if speaking louder will startle me.
“We won’t even likely stay together either,” Jack adds.
“How long?” I ask again, gritting my teeth.
“Plus we could be deployed fast, I mean we really have no idea when or if that could happen. There’s no way to know,” Jack shrugs as if it’s no big deal.
But it is.
It’s a very big deal.
They have no idea the storm that’s brewing before them. They don’t understand what I’m asking. I vacillate between wanting to strangle them and demanding to know what they’re thinking. I want to hug them and beg them not to go. I want to cry and tell them I’m proud of their choice. I want to push them out of the treehouse and hurt them badly enough that they can’t go anywhere. Ever.
I laugh.
It bubbles up from somewhere deep and it bursts out of me before I can stifle it down.
I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t help it.
Jack takes a step toward me, concern furrowing his brow, “Sienna?”
“Don’t,” I hold a hand up stopping him in his tracks.
I move to the corner and face away from them trying to gain control of myself. I feel a sob rise in my throat and I hear a shoe scuff the floor. Whirling around, both of them freeze in place.
“How. long. until. you. leave.” I grit out. Which is what I’ve been asking all along.
I don’t need or want to know the specifics about when they’re in boot camp versus training versus when they’ll get stationed where and how. I’m not stupid. I already know the free time that they’ll have in-between all these things will be minimal. I know that they’ll basically live their life at the mercy of the military telling them where to go and when to be there.
I don’t need the details to know that everything is changing.
Everything has already changed.
They look at each other again and I know, I just know what they’re going to say. Because graduation is next month and I know, Iknowthey’re leaving afterward.
“We leave the day after graduation,” Blake says quietly, another bomb dropped in our small space.
I knew it. I nod. And I nod again.
“We signed up a couple months ago, so we have to report in a month.”
“Sienna, talk to us,” Blake pleads.
“What do you want me to say?” I ask spreading my arms out wide.
Jack takes a step toward me again but stops when I glare. He sighs and sounds desperate when he asks, “Tell us what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking…” I stop and look away, needing to take a deep breath before I continue. “I’m thinking that I’m angry that you’re just now telling me.”
They open their mouths, “Yes, but-”
