I was about to say something to him when Newsome’s voice came bellowing through the corridor. He stridently walked over to where we were, his face stiff, eyes low, yelling, “Private Allen, Private First Class Bennett, over here! Now!”
I turned and walked his way, meeting him halfway. I swallowed hard, afraid of whatever was to come. This day was horrible, and it seemed to be getting worse and worse.
“What the fuck was that bullshit I just heard?”
Allen stood quiet, staring Newsome in the face like he was ready for battle. He looked like he had lost it, much more so than any other time I had seen him go crazy.
“Don’t look at me like you’re fuckin’ crazy, Allen. Answer my fuckin’ question.”
“You heard whatever you heard, Sergeant,” he lowly grumbled, not talking his eyes away from Newsome’s. The look was scaring me.
“Devil Dog, you’ve lost your motherfuckin’ mind. I know female Marines in Eighth Comm that will fuckin’ destroy you. That shit you just said is grounds for sexual harassment, and I won’t fuckin’ tolerate it. Especially not from one of my students. Go stand-by in Gunny Chavez’s office right the fuck now. He’ll decide if this shit goes up to First Sergeant.” Newsome’s face was nearly touching Allen’s—deep red, and full of rage. His finger looked as if it would poke Allen’s eyeball out, and to say that I would be glad to see it happen would have been an understatement.
Allen didn’t say a word. He glared at Newsome for a minute longer. Newsome wasn’t moving...wasn’t blinking...
“Jump if you feel froggy, Marine,” Newsome growled.
For a second, I wasn’t sure if he was even breathing. As angry and volatile as Allen came across, Newsome looked ready to kill him should he make one wrong move. I glanced around and found most of the students’ eyes trained on us, taking in the tense, albeit entertaining scene. Allen finally tore away from the stare down and turned away, walking down the hall that would take him to the upper administrative offices. I had never seen that side of him and it worried me, but Newsome wasn’t afraid. I was sure if Allen went completely stupid, he’d be thinking twice after Newsome was finished with him.
“Bennett, stand-by. You will be called in for your statement about this.”
I nodded, not knowing exactly what to say. He turned and followed the same path that Allen took, finally bringing air back to my lungs, and blood back to my veins. The whole thing happened so fast, and now a shit storm was brewing, leaving me feeling light headed.
“Whoa! That was some serious shit. You okay?” Dalton asked, coming up behind me.
“Not really,” I said, choking back a sob. When my clear thinking mind finally came back to me, fear set in as I realized that it was certainly going to get back to Alex.
“Hey, he’s gone. He’s probably going to get a serious punishment, and then maybe you won’t have to PCS with him.”
“I know. I don’t care about that though.”
“Ohhhh. You’re thinking about Alex.”
I nodded my head, wiping away the loose tear that had managed to escape.
“He’s going to find out about it. You might as well be the one to tell him. Call him.”
“I won’t reach him. He’s a on a plane, on his way back here.”
“So leave him a voicemail and he will hear it when he gets off. You need to be the one to tell him, Cassie.”
“He’s a loose cannon, Dalton. If I tell him that, he won’t even think. He’ll just react and come straight up here. Jeopardizing everything.”
“Cassie, I listened to you when you said not to tell him what had been going on with you and Allen. Now, this—this will surely get to him, and he’s going to be even more pissed. I think it’s better if you tell him. Just leave him a voicemail and discuss it with him once he’s off the plane.”
Dalton was right. I needed to call and let Alex know what was going on, but inside, I didn’t want to. I knew how angry he would be, and I didn’t want to deal with that. I wanted everything to go back to before Allen ever opened his mouth in that courtyard. I wanted to take it all back and re-do it, leaving Allen out of the equation as Dalton went on with his excitement about his new unit and I wallowed in self-pity for mine. All of that seemed so much more enjoyable than what we were faced with now, and the thought of calling Alex and telling him what had taken place, in front of numerous students, made me sick with worry.
“I can’t do that right now, I—“
“Cassie, stop,” he said, raising his voice and drawing attention to us. He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from all of the prying eyes fixed on us. “You need to seriously shut up and listen to me. You do not want Alex to hear this shit from anyone but you. Look at everyone out here. This is going to be the talk of school for days to come. Don’t let Alex hear about it through the fucking grapevine, Cassie. What’s wrong with you?”
I stared at him, completely understanding what he was saying, and agreeing with it, but unable to bring myself to actually do it. The one thing Alex had told me before he left was to stay away from everyone else stay out of trouble. I was in the middle of a big heaping mess of it.
“Call him, Cassie. Go over there by that bush, and call him.”
As much as I wanted to slap Dalton in that moment and tell him to fuck off, I didn’t. Rationality hit me and made me realize that he was absolutely right in everything he was saying and that delaying the inevitable would only make things worse. I stepped away from him, over to the bush like he said, and dialed Alex’s number--knowing he wouldn’t answer-- and readying myself for the voicemail that was sure to set him off.
Chapter 29
Alex
Touching down at Palm Springs International Airport put a smile full of anticipation on my face. I never thought I’d be so fucking happy to look out the window and see the sparse, brown desert laid out before me, but I was. I was excited to be back, and sitting in my seat waiting for everyone to gather their shit and get off the plane was starting to piss me off. The drive back to Twentynine would be another hour or so, but the sooner I was back in my truck and on the road, the better.
I hauled ass out of the terminal, and thankfully, since I carried on my bag, I made my way out to my truck and hopped in, finally powering on my phone. Numerous missed calls, texts, and voicemail notifications buzzed as it finally came back to life. The two newest voicemails were coming from Cassie and Newsome. Whatever Newsome wanted could wait. I plugged the phone into the auxiliary and tapped Cassie’s message, driving off in the direction that would take me back to her.
When her message started, the tone in her voice and the thick lump in her throat I could hear her trying to speaking around froze me.
“Hey, Alex… I um—um, I really need to tell you about something that happened here today—um, it’s pretty serious.”
Every word that came out of her mouth struck fear into me. I wasn’t sure what had happened, and with a million mangled thoughts jumping around in my head, I couldn’t get a clear enough mind to even remotely try and pinpoint one thing over the other. I tried calling her back, but her phone went straight to voicemail. I called again and again, frantically trying to reach her. I finally remembered that Newsome had left me a message, so I tapped on his, hoping it had something to do with Cassie so I could put my ill feelings away.
“Hey. Man. Just letting you know that you’ll have to go in and see First Sergeant O’Hara first thing tomorrow morning. Had to report a sexual harassment incident between Private Allen and Pfc. Bennett—“