First Time was at an Army party

Many years ago, I was part of an advance team coming back from Iraq well ahead of the main body. After touching down and given a "Welcome Home" celebration we were given a forty-eight hour pass and those that had family already there went with them but that left a large amount that did not behind and stuck in the barracks for the weekend.

At the time I was just a humble Private First Class, an E-3, very shy, a mere boy in uniform standing at a short 5'10", very thin at 130 pounds with a crew cut brown hair and eyes and constantly picked on and joked about by the rest for this. Everyone else smoked, drank, and, of course had sex except for me. At the time I was a virgin and tried to keep it a secret, waving off questions, but after being deployed for a year we were all pent up with testosterone. There were women in our unit, most were rather plain looking or married, and there was the prohibited sex, of course people broke it so much that there was large bowl of condoms in the battalion aid station.

The first morning back in the States I awoke and stepped outside the barracks and breathed in the clear air of Kansas the polar opposite of the sandy, shit stank, of Iraq and my first mission was to find a cheeseburger at the on base Burger King. No one was outside but me, in my civvies, it was an odd feeling, the clothes did not fit properly and of course neither did the shoes for my body had changed proportions being deployed and for a while it looked like a new born calf walking. Coming back to the barracks after a couple of hours I saw Sergeant Jeremiah stepping out. He was a tall, thin, black man with a bald head, but had muscles to his body. When he came out his eyes turned about and saw me and I do not know the reason why he called me over.

"I know you, you're the young guy right?" he asked.

"Yes, sergeant" replying trying to place my body in a "at ease position" to which he laughed and waved it down.

"Relax, man, we're back and off duty, call me Jeremiah. What are you doing right now?" Leaning forward at the waist towards me his dark eyes were on my paper bag of French fries and a half eaten Double Whooper, "Gotcha some Burger King?" pulling back, "I hear ya. Good choice but I bet it will go through you like hot grease," and laughed. A moment later a woman exited the barracks door behind him and slowly wrapped her arms around the sergeant's waist from behind and gave a gentle kiss to the neck.

"That was wonderful, baby" she said with a very faint voice. I did not know her, a black woman, and young, possibly early twenties compared to the sergeant that I think was thirty. The two talked for a moment, gave a kiss on the lips and she walked away and my face had a 'who was that?' Look with the eyes but it was not my place to ask, but the sergeant was wise and saw it, "She's a girl that's been waiting for me. Right now she's gotta go back to work. You know what a soldier first does when he gets back?"

"Cheeseburgers?" I replied.

He laughed, "True, but I was going to say 'pussy', but damn, I like you. Say, what are you doing tonight?"

In my mind it was flashing that all the things I could be doing but there were none. At that time there were no televisions, computers, or internet yet in the rooms because our personal possessions were in storage thus I shrugged, "I don't know."

"Cool, you want to help out on something?'

"Uh, sure."

"Cool, we're going to be having a party over at battalion tonight," Jeremiah said.

'Battalion?' I thought it was being remodeled at the moment. How are they going to have a party there? But apparently that was the point. He said that one of the rooms had been cleared of all the furniture thus it was large enough for a party. "But, what about the sergeant of the guard?" I asked. There was sergeant and usually one or two guys that would stay behind a desk all night answering phones and helping people access their rooms when they are locked out and sometimes, once in a blue moon, would inspect a room for contraband.

"Don't worry about him," Jeremiah said, "He's a friend of mine. Just be at 2200 hours at my room, 102, and help us."

Agreeing to this Jeremiah gave me a pat on the shoulder and he walked away leaving me to ponder what to do. I had the rest of the day to myself and spent it eating and of course Jeremiah was right and that stuff went right through me and later called my folks and promised them I would be home in a couple of weeks. Other than that I just waited and when it came time to meet the sergeant, changed into my desert dress uniform, for some reason my mind said, do it, I went downstairs and knocked on his door. Opening up he was surprised to see me in uniform but it was time, "Alright, my man, come on in."

He lived in a small room, no more than eight feet by ten feet and it was jammed to the gills with boxes of all sorts and it perplexed me where he could obtain all this in a day. Most of it was stereo equipment including CDs, subwoofers, and speakers and miles of cables and wires.

Looking at it all I asked him, "We're going to carry all of this?"

"Not all of it," Jeremiah replied, "But I have some more guys on their way to help."

He made no mention of my uniform but he wore loose fitting street clothes and sure enough five more guys showed up and each of us picked up as many boxes as we could and began the walk towards Battalion.

It was dark now, and the parking lot was empty except for one vehicle near the front. Going up the stairs to the building there was a desk off to the side where two guys were sitting rather bored. Jeremiah was the first through.

He and the sergeant on duty shook hands and I saw some money being exchanged but said nothing and went down a narrow corridor past the desk towards the back.

Walking behind Jeremiah he approached a set of double doors and pressed the bars and threw the doors open. This was it. A massive room that was normally used for battalion level briefings. The room's ceiling tiles had been removed to have wiring and pipes changed but fortunately the air conditioning unit was still operational if not sporadically. When we stepped through the doors Jeremiah turned about and began directing everyone where to place all of the boxes. I was carrying two coolers filled with CDs. Setting them down by Jeremiah whom asked me to go back to his room to get the ice and beers.

Going back I had the urge to avoid being seen. Getting into his room I could not handle all of the beer and ice all at once thus it took several trips and each and every time I kept worrying that I would be caught by someone. I did not know who, but someone, perhaps the surprise arrival of an officer and then the whole party would be in danger, but no officer ever presented themselves and the party was set up rather quickly. My task was to fill the coolers with ice and beer and move the cables off the floor and along the wall, trying to be helpful whenever necessary.

Jeremiah was distracted most of the time and when he saw me kicking some cables along the wall he called out to me, "You got all the beer?"

"Yeah," filled all the coolers" pointing at the brightly colored plastic containers beside the door.

Nodding "Good, good," he was satisfied and turned his head towards the speakers being put up around every corner of the room.

With nothing else to do I slowly, nervously, walked up to him, "Sergeant...Jeremiah, can I ask you something?"

"Sure thing," giving a wide smile that calmed me somewhat.

"Why are you doing this? This party I mean."

Quickly Jeremiah wrapped an arm around the back of my neck and pulled me in close, "That's my job, son. I organized basketball and football games but I couldn't do a party like this in Iraq, you know, the rules, but now that we're back, I want those that did not have a chance to get out and have some fun. Now myself, my family lives in Louisiana and I love my momma but I don't want to go home right now, it's personal, but you, why are you here?"

"I can't make it home and back in forty-eight hours," dipping my head in disappointment.

Jeremiah curled his arm and said, "No worries. I feel ya. Tonight you're gonna get to meet some people, some fine ladies and get to hang loose."

I sure hoped for it. Even though I could not drink it was still a nice chance to meet a girl. I did not bother to change my uniform. Jeremiah made no mention of it still and I hoped that there would be no officers, but then remembered that the only officers that came back with us were married thus were long gone by now.

As the minutes slowly ticked by everything was in place. According to the plan no one was allowed in until after 2200 hours, or ten o'clock and the doors closed at 2300 or 11. Looking at his watch constantly Jeremiah saw it tick closer to 10. The doors were closed to avoid any wandering eyes from seeing what was being done.

At the moment it was just us guys and I looked about and realized that all of the coolers had only beer, no water, Gatorade, hard liquor, just beer that he had bought in bulk and when it sank into my mind that we needed to correct this it turned ten o' clock and Jeremiah told me to unlock the doors. Pulling them open there were people already waiting there and seeing their faces I tried to smile but I was so shy that my cheeks turned beet red and I shied away.

The first people through were in civvies, or civilian clothing, and seeing me in uniform they were confused but Jeremiah beckoned them in then the next few people came in were also in uniform, some woodland camo others in desert, this was before the Velcro studded ACU uniform came out. It was against military regulations, but Jeremiah did not care and apparently neither did the people coming in wearing them. Sometime around ten-thirty the largest influx of people arrived and I could not see all of their faces then, at precisely eleven, the doors were closed and locked; no one was allowed in.

Walking towards a spot next to the stereo equipment Jeremiah took up a microphone and rapped his fingers to make sure that he could be heard, "Everyone!" their heads turned towards him, "I wanna thank you all for coming. I know that it's been very stressful coming back but let's not worry about that right now. Let's have some fun! Now remember, there are to be no cameras at all. No cell phones, no video cameras, we do not want anything that could be leaked about this."

He was holding people to their honor system, a rather tall order, but he did not sink to the point of searching everyone when they entered. Jeremiah went on, "And remember; what happens here...." thrusting his microphone towards the crowd.

"Stays here!" they finished.

The lights were dimmed significantly to the point that I could barely make out their faces unless they were nose to nose with me, even then they were strangers. I did not know most outside of my platoon and being so incredibly shy I sulked to a corner and waited as the first song came on.

It was a techno remix with a very rapid beat and the room echoed because of the acoustics that made my ears ache to the point I covered them with my hands and tried to find a safe place to wait it out. Being alone and seeing everyone have their fun I did not know why I was there any more. It was dark, the air was foul already with so many people crowded into this room, must have been beyond the occupancy limit, and people were coughing, spitting, cracking open beers and dancing rather freely.

Taking my hands off the ears they still rang but I started to walk through the dark crowd to keep myself occupied. With the dim lights Jeremiah had hooked up a strobe light that began kicking in with the music; when it reached a beat a blue light would flash for an instant illuminating the faces around me then have it disappear.

I did not have a watch so I could not tell how long the first song lasted but then it changed into an R&B.

Gently pushing through the crowd I was trying to keep busy, there were girls there having a good time but I could not force up enough courage to approach them and ask even a simple question or even to say 'hello.' I saw a couple kissing with the girl pressed against the wall and I shied away and kept going rather aimlessly and found the doors to the room when someone bumped in front of me and recoiled slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry" I said and a voice replied the same.

It was almost impossible to see the person's face when the lights slightly flared up as Jeremiah had the discs changed and I was able to see who it was, a pretty looking woman, in desert dress, with long strawberry blonde hair tied up in a bun behind her head and I could see a dark hair line that formed a zigzag pattern that went from the front of her hairline on the right and went to the back. I stood at 5'10" and her eyes were at my nose meaning she was 5"6" and very cheery announcing, "Hi, I'm Samantha," offering her hand to shake which I took.

"I'm Cole."

"Hi, Cole, you having fun?"

"Oh yes, lots" to tell the truth my ears were aching from the music, the heat was building up inside this room and I was nervous being hemmed in with so many in this place but in seeing Samantha I tried to stay focused on her. I did not mention that she was still in uniform and neither did she.

She asked, "How did you hear about this party?"

"Sergeant Jeremiah told me," I replied having to raise my voice a bit as the music came back on.

Jerking her head back towards him as Jeremiah stepped from around the stereo system then back towards me, "Yeah, he's a good guy. I enjoy his 'parties,'" she replied. After a moment the music started to lessen in volume thus I could hear better but people were still dancing and drinking all around us. We slowly migrated towards the closed doors to get some space. She looked up at my face, "What company are you with?"

"Bravo-Third platoon"

"Oh, that's a good one. I'm with HHC," meaning headquarters company.

"What do you do there?" I asked.

"Squad leader" she replied.

My body immediately tensed up to the flexibility of a plank of wood. Oh my god a sergeant. I am going to get smoked for breaking regulations but she seemed to notice and chuckled reaching out and gently placed long, slender, fingers on my left bicep, "Relax, you're cool. I'm here to relax. Try to picture me without this uniform and stripes."

My eyes widened to the size of saucers and again she tapped the same arm, "You're so bad," teasingly.

To my surprise she stuck around talking to me and the longer we went at it the more I became fascinated about her. She appeared to be older thus I attempted to calculate how the age, but it was not proper to ask a lady how old she was thus I tried to estimate. Knowing she was a buck sergeant, meaning three stripes, she must be in her mid-twenties that made her far older than me yet she almost did not look the part; she was cute showing youth with slightly plush cheeks but also serious determination in those eyes the way they looked straight at me, never shying away as though trying to read my mind.

In a flash an arm wrapped around my neck and pulled my body slightly then came a familiar voice, "You enjoying yourself, my man?"

'My man?' Never heard someone call me that and I had very few encounters with the sergeant before tonight but I guess helping out here, at this party made me a good guy in his eyes.

"Yes" I replied.

Jeremiah looked at Samantha and with his other hand pointed to my chin, "This man, here, he's a good guy. He helped set this up."

"Oh really?" Samantha replied inquisitively raising a thin eyebrow.

"Oh yeah," Jeremiah said, "He's a big help," and patted my chest so hard that it forced air out of my lungs making me cough. He was blowing my efforts out of proportion but then again maybe he was trying to make it appear better for Samantha.

"I'll be right back, guys excuse me," Samantha said. Turning about she walked towards the stereo system allowing me and Jeremiah a moment alone. Leaning into me he whispered, "She's a freak" pointing an index finger at her swaying figure slowly disappearing into the crowd.

"What do you mean?" I asked rather weakly and that caught him off guard that he pulled back slowly and had a shocked looked on his face. At the time, a freak was a person that was crazy, insane. In a way that was true but Jeremiah went on saying that she was a, "horny girl."

It was a far cry from my first impression of Samantha. She was a pretty woman, professional, and nice to talk with and above all a sergeant, but Jeremiah shattered that image of her having sex and I kept it all inside like everything else. When Samantha came back, a beer in hand, Jeremiah excused himself leaving us two alone.

The heat was building up in the room my forehead was growing beads of sweat that I quickly wiped away with the cuff of my blouse. A year in Iraq my body was well accustomed to the heat, yet all of the trapped body heat, odor, was stifling in this room was becoming too much and I wondered if the AC was working at all. Further compounding our problem there were no windows and the only way in or out were the double doors beside us. I had to tough it out. 'Come on' I thought, 'you've been through worse and this is your chance to meet someone.' For the next few minutes we kept talking asking where we were from and what we planned to do when we got to go on leave then, I don't remember how, but we wound up sitting on two of the coolers beside the doors that were now empty and used them as seats to ease the aching knees.

Samantha was very pleasant to talk to. I remember seeing her around but never long enough to talk to her but she was pretty as our conversation carried on I was rather surprised that she expressed interest in keeping up the conversation with me. She asked, "How do you know Jeremiah?"

He was not from my platoon so I did not know him well, "I met him this morning and he asked me if I could help." It was the truth. Then my tongue slipped as she took a sip of beer, "He's been talking about you."

Lowering her beer and swallowing she looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Oh really? When?"

"When you walked away and came back with the beer."

With an insisting voice she asked, "What did he say?"

I did not have the heart to call this woman a 'freak' as he put it. She was nice and talking to me and I did not want to spoil it so I immediately put a spin on it, "He says that you're a nice person to be with." It came out very cheesy and I kicked myself for not being better on the delivery for she immediately caught it.

"Oh really? Let me guess, he called me a 'freak'?"

Reluctantly I nodded, "Uh, yeah," replying hesitantly.

"Yeah, he's a good guy but does have a big mouth," leaning back enough to rest her head against the wall, "So, yeah, I did do it while over there," then slowly turned to look at me, "What about you?"

My mind was running a mile a minute. She was a sergeant and having sex? With who? That is what I was wondering constantly. Was it Jeremiah? She knew him and my thought process was broken when she imposed a question, "Cole, are you a virgin?" voice coming out as a tease.

Hesitantly I nodded. That must have been the firing pin for her whole attitude changed at a drop of a hat.

Her lips again formed a wide smile and out came a low, rolling, "Oh? Don't worry. I was a virgin once. We all were. You have to start somewhere, right?" leaning her abdomen towards me until it was inches away from me. My hands were trembling, skin turning white as my heart pumped blood hard into my head that I believe veins were showing. Was this going to be my first kiss? I did not expect it to be so forth coming. In high school it was a great day if a girl talked to me outside of class and smiled. Samantha leaned in, lips just inches apart, my eyes were wide in anticipation hers were nearly closed. This was going to be my first kiss and my heart was climbing into my throat.