Page 19 of Brighter Shades of Light
“Yeah, yeah.” He chucked a shirt at me that smelled like dirty underwear. “You coming or not?”
“Dude.” I knocked the shirt aside. “I’ll go out with you under one condition. You wash your nasty-ass laundry tomorrow.”
“Deal,” Tristen agreed, laughing. “Should we invite the others? It’d be cool to hang out with our unit without us all dying of exhaustion.”
Being so close to the commissioning class of other midshipmen had been unexpected but fucking amazing. The friendships I’d made over the past four years were unbelievable, and I suspected they’d last a lifetime. Maybe it was because we were all working toward the same goal and had bled, sweat, and helped each other up when one of us fell.
“Rachel might be busy with basketball,” I said, as I left Tristen’s room and entered mine. “We can still ask her, though! Keith and Marcus should be down. Those losers are probably binge watching Marvel movies or playing video games right now anyway.”
They were roommates and about as inseparable as me and Tristen.
“I’ll text them while you get dressed,” Tristen called from the other room.
I was a casualwear kind of guy. When I attended banquets or functions sponsored by the NROTC, unless they required us to wear our dress uniforms, I made an effort and wore something nice. Like a button-up shirt and slacks. But I was most comfortable in jeans and a tee.
After throwing on a clean shirt and stepping into my favorite jeans, I met Tristen in the living room. “They coming?”
“Yeah,” he answered, looking up from his phone. “Rachel is, too. They’re going to meet us at the usual bar.”
The usual barwas called Tonic, and we had started going there regularly last semester once we’d all turned twenty-one. Tonic was a little nicer than a dive bar. It wasn’t the most glamorous place on Main Street, but it was one of the cheapest and had a laidback atmosphere.
When Tristen and I got in my truck, I turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. It wouldn’t start. The thing was older than me, and while I’d tried to keep up with the maintenance, it felt like a losing battle. I had done some work on it myself, using what my dad had taught me plus stuff I learned in class, but the chances of it starting were always fifty-fifty. I tried again to start it, and it kept misfiring.
“We can take mine,” Tristen said, getting out of the truck and slamming the heavy door. Slamming it was the only way to fully close the damn thing.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He unlocked his Mustang. “Hop in.”
There were times when it was easy to forget how different Tristen and I were. He came from an upper-middleclass family. His older brother had just finished medical school and planned to become a surgeon. His dad was the prosecuting attorney for the city, and his mom owned a small house-designing business. They’d bought him the Mustang as a high school graduation present.
My truck was a hand-me-down from my dad, and it’d belonged to my grandpa before that.
But I knew I was fortunate to be where I was.
“Go to college and make something of yourself, boy,”Dad told me before coughing and knocking his glass of water off the side table in search of his oxygen.
I had grabbed the oxygen and placed it around his head, making sure it was in place before sitting back in the chair that I’d pulled as close as possible to the hospital bed. He hated the mask and had taken it off a lot, saying it bothered his nose. But in his final days, he had stopped complaining about it.
“That recruiting officer was impressed by your interview?”he asked, moving his gray eyes to me. He looked tired. So tired.
“Yes, sir,”I said.“He said I seemed to be a well-rounded young man who was personable and hardworking. He also said I was a fast runner and didn’t seem to tire easily.”
“Athleticism is important.”Dad coughed again.“Those Marine guys don’t want you to just be smart or strong. You have to be all that, plus have character. Show commitment.”He had reached with a shaking hand to touch my chest.“And have a good heart.”
I blinked back tears as the car window came back into focus.
My dad had been a hardworking man who’d never let our financial situation get the best of him. A smile had always been on his face, even when we were struggling. Even when he was fading away.
Losing him at seventeen, at a time when I was about to embark on a new part of my life and needed him most, had almost broken me. But he would’ve never wanted me to give up. So, I’d become even more determined. Stronger. Focused more on my studies.
“It’s busy tonight,” Tristen said, as he searched for a place to park.
Bars lined the street on both sides, lit up like beacons for the lonely-hearted. He found a spot farther down the road and parked. Out of the car, we advanced toward Tonic a few buildings down from us.
The end-of-summer weather felt great, even holding a little bit of a chill. Fall was just a few weeks away, and I was ready for the cool nights, crisp air, and changing leaves. A lot of people said spring or winter was their favorite time of year, but fall was mine. Maybe it was nostalgia. Dad had always gone all out for Halloween, finding pumpkins for us to carve and decorating the house. Even without much money, he made it special.
“You’re quiet all of a sudden.” Tristen cast a worried look my way.
