Long Road Ch. 04

Author's Note: Again, there is a bit of flashbacks going on, some of the comments that I have read have figured out that this is multiple timelines running at the same time, there is a reason for this and it will soon end so please be a little more patient with me. One of the reasons that it takes me long to post one chapter after another is because I do ride across the country in my bike, so it takes me a little to get to a place where I can pull my laptop out and finish the details of the works before I submit them. Also, it seems like the days when you submit have a lot to do when your story gets published, for example Ch. 1 was submitted and published within two days, while Ch. 2 took about four days to publish.

To clarify some of the questions relating to timelines one part is in the very distant past, while the other part is in the more recent past. All of these events have already transpired, and I am afraid that I will disappoint one of the commenters in this chapter because they bravely made a prediction of the end of the story, and unfortunately you put your money on the wrong horse.

I am extremely grateful for the response to the story so far, thank you for the kind comments, thank you for the constructive criticism, and above all thank you for taking your time and reading the story. I will shamefully plug one of my favorite authors, StangStar06, his stories often keep me company as I ride across country (I am extremely lazy and often don't have time to read, so I downloaded one of those text to speech apps on my phone so I can listen to stories as I ride). His stories both served to inspire me to write my own, and helped me deal with a lot of the drama in my life. Hope he is reading this and knows that he helped a random stranger to find a way to deal with all the bs in his life.

Enjoy!

-aka_Mike

...

Needless to say we didn't get any laundry done, in fact Harper didn't even attempt the façade of doing laundry as she showed up wearing her exercise clothing and nothing more. No sooner had she walked in and closed the door behind her that she attacked me with her mouth. That kiss was both passionate and lustful; her need was only outmatched by my own. She reached inside my shorts and grabbed my half stiff member and broke the kiss to lower her mouth and wrap her lips around it.

"Ahhh," was all I could get out as her lips wrapped themselves around the head of my cock, her tongue rubbing the most sensitive areas.

"Leyva said you had the best cock she had ever put in her mouth," Harper said without removing my cock from her mouth, the vibrations of her talking driving more and more waves of pleasure to my brain, "and I gotta say that I want the whole taste of it." Her hand began pumping my cock as if she was trying to rip it from my body as her head bobbed up and down swallowing more and more of my cock each time. Before I knew it, I heard that distinctive sound of her gagging as her lips reached the base of my dick, "I fucking told her I could get it all" Harper triumphantly said, "Leyva said I wouldn't be able to take your entire dick into my mouth."

"Oh, fuck, I'm..." before I could finish Harper slowed her bobbing, increased the speed of her hand's movement, and pressed her lips tighter around my cock. Using her cheeks she created a suction that milked my cock completely of my semen; it almost felt like if she was using my dick as a straw to get to the cum in my balls.

"God, that's fucking delicious," she said as she continued to kiss my cock, making sure that not even a single drop of cum was wasted, my knees almost giving way. Once she was convinced that she had gotten every ounce that I could produce and my cock started deflating. She carefully returned my dick into my shorts, placed a soft kiss on my lips and whispered a thank you before she left me standing there, still trapped in bliss.

I waited for a few minutes to give Harper plenty of time to make it to her barracks before I left the laundry room myself, however an icy voice stopped me in my tracks. "Looks like you're doing much better, Soldier Medic."

"Roger, Drill Sergeant," I immediately replied, snapping into parade rest, DS Harris stepped out of the shadows with a lit cigarette in his hands.

"I got duty, tonight," he told me once he recognized that I was looking right at his cigarette, "and it's going to be a long night if I keep finding you assholes sneaking into the laundry room." He drew his pack of cigarettes and offered me one, "I did owe you one." I took it and enjoyed the flavor of the menthol as the first drag of smoke filled my lungs.

"Thanks, Drill Sergeant," I said, "and yes things are looking up."

"Is she still calling you?" I knew he meant Ann, my cheating ex-girlfriend. He had helped me out of that tail spin of depression, and along with DS Anderson they kept a constant eye on me. I knew that all three of us shared a deeper bond than just our military background; we all had been jilted by people that claimed to have loved us deeply. As I spent more time with them, I noticed how they each handled their histories very differently. While DS Harris remained distrusting of anyone's intentions behind their actions, the same way as I have reacted, DS Anderson simply became jaded.

"Haven't heard from her in a while," I replied, "there's even days when I can go through the hours without even thinking about her."

"Well I think Harper and Leyva have some part in that" he said with a smile, "it helps to get into uncomplicated relationships, 'best way to get over one woman is to get on top of another,' that's what my father told me." His smile turned into a slight chuckle.

"I don't know about uncomplicated," I started, "it's actually kind of weird. It's almost like they just pass me back and forth between each other, use me to try to outdo each other with me. Don't get me wrong I really don't mind being used like a toy, but their dynamic is odd."

"Man," he said as he put his cigarette out, "you're the first man I've ever heard bitch about having two women crazy over him. So crazy that they willingly share him..." he shook his head as he said this, laughing as he did. "Get your moronic ass back to your bunk, I'm going to do head count in 15 minutes."

The rest of the exams made the week extremely stressful. My time with Leyva and Harper was filled with sideways glances and bickering; sometimes the stress of the preparation got the best of us. But we all made it a habit to immediately make up with a sly kiss or a tender hand hold immediately after, it was almost as if we were growing our own unique relationship. In the back of my mind was the lingering feeling that we would soon head our separate ways after graduation, though that was still weeks away. I had guaranteed Airborne in my contract, this meant that unless I failed or injured myself during training, then my next stop after training would be Fort Benning, Georgia's paratrooper training. This, of course, led to its own "complications."

Turns out there were about 20 of us with stipulation in our contracts, and DS Anderson was the self-appointed "Airborne PT Instructor," which meant he ran us nearly to the ground every morning. Once that was done then an ungodly amount of push-ups and sit-ups and finished with a session of pull-ups before we headed out for breakfast chow. I was looking forward to the weekend when DS Harris walked into our bay.

"Drill Sergeant on the floor!" Someone screamed, both as a show of respect to our instructor and as a warning in case you were doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.

"You," he said as he pointed at me, "and you" when he pointed at Elvis, "you fuckheads come with me."

"What the fuck did you do this time?" Elvis asked, slight annoyance in his voice. His suspicions were justified, contrary to what you may believe about me based on what you've read so far, I was kind of a trouble maker. Well more of a sarcastic and cynical asshole that often said the wrong thing to the wrong person. Often with vast physical results that Elvis, as my assigned battle buddy, had to partake in. My latest stunt got us into a little heat with the Commander, even the Military Police was involved but after seeing the multiple smiles in every face after they respectively took a bite out of my ass, I knew we were alright.

That stunt was partially revenge against the other companies. There is a long standing tradition between companies: steal someone else's guidon. It happened to be our turn to lose our guidon, and of course it was somehow our fault that it was stolen. So we did what every normal offended group of people did: we planned to steal someone's guidon back. But being a firm believer of justice and not fully knowing who the guilty party that took ours was, I figured that it would only fair to steal everyone's guidon. The following day's formation saw each of our platoons with two separate guidons, except our own platoon; ours was still missing after all. I swear I saw the Senior Drill Sergeant almost had an aneurism when he came out of his office, his left eye twitched ever so slightly before he tore into one of the best tirades that I had ever heard. Until the one the following evening.

What caused that second tirade? Once you steal every company's guidon and display them as we did, there really isn't much more you could do to top that. But somehow, I figured out a way to: kidnapping. I know, it sounds terrible, but it is part of another long standing tradition. So eventually we found out who had taken our guidon, and that particular company got a little smarter and kept theirs locked after the first incident. So we brought back that ancient tradition that spanned since the Roman days: catch a sleeping guard. Their 2 o'clock fire guard was dead asleep when we snuck in, and it took us little less than a minute to spread the duct tape and cover one of the guard's mouths and tied him to a chair. By the time that we were wheeling the guy out less than five minutes had passed, it took us longer to take him from the second floor to our company than it did to tie him up. Again, next morning's formation saw the same Senior DS go on to an even bigger tirade, a long session of corporal punishment, and a long string of military police vehicles in the company area.

It could've been far more serious, looking back on it now that I am older I realize just how lucky I had been. Obviously, my recklessness scored me brownie points with the girls, and my academic standing showed that I was not a criminal, at least not anymore. So they gave me a break: administrative punishment, extra duty, and a status as a legend in training. DS Harris probably had the biggest laugh when he was supervising me during my extra duty, but eventually that ended. Now, for some reason I was called out by DS Harris and Elvis was obviously not happy with what might be headed out way.

"Dude," I began as we headed towards the company area, "I've been staying out of major trouble lately. I honestly don't know what this is all about."

"Relax, dumbasses," DS Harris said, "for the first time you're not in trouble. The Senior Drill wants to talk to you about something else."

"Yeah," I replied, "that doesn't make this feel any less than lambs walking into the slaughter."

"Look," DS Harris said, "Elvis, what is going to be said in that office is really personal, so keep your mouth shut. You've never given anyone reason to believe you would do otherwise that's why I picked you." He looked at me before continuing, "you just keep your cool about it. I don't think I've ever seen the Senior Drill take this shit so serious before."

"You're still not helping," I said, more nervous than angry or annoyed. This was starting to sound worse and worse. My sarcasm was often a tool to keep me at ease, my cynicism protected me like a shield. In silence, we walked together towards the office, a pit on my stomach beginning to form.

...

"So because of all the things you did before the Army," Angie said, "that's why you say you were so good at what you did?"

"Did I ever tell you how I got recruited?" We were making breakfast; somehow she felt that she needed to repay me for last night. I am never picky about my food, so long as I have a cup of strong black coffee beside me, I can eat just about everything.

"No, I really know very little about you. I mean you answer every question, but there is always there is unease when I ask you something, shit, whenever anyone asks you anything," she was cooking bacon in a pan and had waffles in the toaster. I could not remember when I bought those waffles, so I was a little frightened about how they would taste.

"I used to be in ROTC," she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I had never made it a secret about my sheer disgust with officers in the military, ROTC is a program designed to help people that were willing to go into the military to take a shortcut to becoming officers. "It was the only class I could take other than PE that would give me those credits. Ironically enough, I got kicked out because I was 'not military material' or so the instructors constantly said."

"Oh, I bet they are kicking themselves right about now, aren't they?" She laughed that melodic laugh of hers, immediately as soon as I heard it I just fell head over heels for her. Her eyes brightened little more, those green eyes that were already clear just made my entire world feel so much less empty.

"Well one of them killed himself because he got a student pregnant," I said, "but that's just what I heard. Goes to show you, right?" Again she laughed, it was far too soon for me to be feeling like this for this woman. "Anyway, in one of our mandatory trips, we got to play with weapons. I scored rather high so I was told that I would be in the shooting team, or whatever they called it back then. The Army, Marines, and the Navy recruiters were all there to watch and get their pick of the litter."

"You were stupid enough to turn down the Navy?" She laughed some more, again I have always made fun of Sailors, nothing out of spite, just the normal banter between brothers in uniforms that we all engage in. Fucking seamen with their multiple uniforms and their shiny poop decks...

"So, one day there was a riot in my school. I was a senior, so I really didn't give a shit about what they were bitching about, but because of that they locked down the school. I was literally walking around when the announcement came to get to a classroom or to go to the gym. I decided to go to the gym, but before I got there, the fucking SWAT team started clearing the area." I took a cigarette out and lit it, I knew she was not a fan of my unhealthy habits, but I wasn't about to quit anytime soon. "Those mother fuckers just walked in, leveled a shotgun to me, and fucking shot me in the stomach with one of those beanbag rounds."

"Are you sure?" She managed to say between fits of laughter, "are you sure that you didn't give them one of your usual lines that tend to piss authority figures off almost immediately?"

"I'm telling you," I said, almost defending myself, "all I did was walk around and I got shot. Then another SWAT fuck came up to me while I was rolling around the ground in pain, and fucking pepper sprayed me in the face. Just to make sure I couldn't do anything."

"Oh this is too fucking funny," she said as she took a drink from her own coffee. Cream and sugar in hers, three spoons of sugar and a splash of creamer, way to dilute the taste of coffee.

"So anyway," I said, a little playful venom in my voice, "there I was, struggling to regain my breath, face burning, and fucking handcuffed. They took us dirty criminals to the front of the school, had us on our knees. The Army recruiter walked by, saw me and gave me this 'what the fuck' look," another drag of my cigarette and another sip of my coffee. "I told him what I was doing, he went and talked to one of the officers, they uncuffed me and I went on my merry way. All I told him was, 'where do I sign?' and that was it."

"So," she began with what I learned was sarcasm in her voice, "if that had been the Navy guy..."

"Shut your face," I said as I kissed her. "Anyway, he asked me what I wanted to do; I told him I wanted to help people. Then he asked if I wanted to make extra money, then I should be Airborne. Off I went, as soon as I graduated high school, a Patriot that was scared of heights would jump out of planes for a living."

"You're crazy," she said as she kissed me again, "I think these waffles are about to go bad so we really should eat them. After, we got some things we need to finish from last night."

...

"I don't understand," I said to no one in particular.

"I have to leave," Harper said, unable to lift her eyes from the ground, "now that my father has passed, I have to take care of my brother. There is no one else, I am getting a compassionate discharge."

"But..."

"I know, things were going good. But let's face it, once we would graduate, we would go our separate ways, we would lose touch and everything we have shared would just become a great memory that will warm us in cold nights." Harper looked at DS Harris, who nodded silently, "please don't be angry with me." She reached out to touch me.

"Why would I be angry with you?" I took her hands, looked at the Senior Drill knowing that this was a violation of the regulations, but he simply looked away. "I honestly thought that things would actually look up for me, once in my life I was truly happy."

"You still have Leyva," Harper said, "she cares for you, but I think that even in her mind she knows that once she leaves and goes back, well you guys will have nothing else in common. She is a school teacher, you know? She is a Reservist, you are Active, the odds are that you would go separate ways as well. Just do me a favor?"

"Anything," I meekly replied.

"Please," she said with tears in her eyes, "please learn to forgive. Enjoy your time with Leyva, have fun and make memories, but don't make it harder than it already is for her. Or for me."

"Yeah," I replied, "I hope that things work out for you." I released her hands and made my way out of the office, Elvis trailing behind me. That would be the last time I would ever see Harper. I did learn that she eventually married someone in her hometown, her brother served as well and actually I ran into him years after. I held his hand as he succumbed from injuries from an IED that struck his convoy near Bagdad.

Leyva was always with me, she became a constant and welcomed companion. We often spoke of Harper, but eventually our conversations turned towards the inevitable: we would soon graduate and we would go our own ways. We made love every chance we got, often meeting in the laundry room throughout the week and spending as much time as possible during weekends. The Army had a way to help me avoid the awkward goodbye with her. It was a few weeks after Harper left and we had returned from our field training exercise when we finally talked.

"We have to report early to jump school," I told her as we lay in the hotel room bed during the last weekend we would spend together.

"DS Anderson told me," she replied, "all you guys are going to miss graduation."

"Yeah, we leave on Tuesday."

"No more laundry, I guess," she replied with a sadness to her voice. We both had made peace with the fact that we would go our separate ways, but it still did not make it easier.

"No," I replied, "no more laundry." That Tuesday, a few soldiers loaded a bus, with a certificate in their hands saying that they completed all the requirements to be called Medic. It was early in the afternoon, many smiling faces except one. As I looked towards the stairwell leading to the female barracks, I saw her.