Lucas

I spun around in the old desk chair at the recruiting office and looked out the big windows that overlooked the strip mall parking lot. We hadn't had anyone in all day and I couldn't stare at the internet any longer. I watched as the cars puled in and out, bored out of my mind and waiting for the clock to tick down until I was free to leave for the day. My friend Hutch, short for his last name Hutchingson, and I decided we would pound the pavement for a little bit after work to get out and keep out PT up.

"Hutch. You ready to go yet?" I asked after changing in the small room in the back of the station. I grabbed the keys of my rental car so that I could throw my uniform in the backseat before we took off.

"Just a minute. Let me change." He turned off the computer and grabbed a backpack from under his desk. He was a few years older than I was, but was a Private, one rank below mine. I was still struggling with the idea that I'd be serving with men older than me, but time and experience would dictate who got to give who orders.

When we finally closed up the storefront, and headed north along the main highway, it was cold again outside and looking like it might rain. A little water wasn't going to stop us. "So when are you leaving?" he asked.

"End of August. How about you?" The traffic was getting a little thicker now that the day was coming to an end. We had to stop at a corner not too far from where we started to wait for a light.

"I'm here through September." The light switched and we started up again. "My girlfriend is going to come down in a week or so. I'm trying to talk her into moving with me, but she has to finish up a semester at college first." He smiled and I could tell he was genuinely optimistic about it. I shook my head a little. Every one who has been in the Marines knows how hard it is to keep relationships going when you were in different states. Being in the military added another layer to an already tough situation.

As a civilian, you can take a few days off work and go wherever you want. Things are different for us. You could be assigned duty. Duty for me meant that I was stuck at the barracks answering a phone all weekend. I couldn't just say, "No, I think that I'll just skip it this weekend." I knew better than to make plans. Long distance relationships are hard, but long distance relationships when you are in the military are even harder.

"That's cool," I said, knowing I didn't have to tell him how hard it was going to be. If he was already trying to move her closer, he knew.

"What 'bout you, man? You got a girlfriend." We were working pretty hard, running up a large hill into the suburban housing track.

"Working on it," I answered honestly. It earned me a chuckle. "I met this girl at the airport on the way here." Our feet were landing in step with each other, something that came natural after boot camp. "She was smoking hot, and got my attention right away. She had these black glasses that kept slipping down her nose," I smiled and sucked in a breath.

"Shit, you've got it bad," he teased.

"Yea, she got me. We spent a little time together before we had to leave again. I got her email address and we've been writing each other." We turned around a corner, making our way in a large circle around the general area of the station.

"Like letters and shit?" he asked. "Why the fuck don't you just call her?" I took a few paces to figure out how to explain it without sounding like a total chick.

"If we had exchanged phone numbers, then we would have texted each other. We would eventually get bored. You know as well as I do, we aren't living an exciting life right now," I looked at him and he nodded. There's nothing too fantastic about a strip mall office in a military town. "If we write letters, we have to think about what we are saying and telling each other. We have to make the effort to find time to sit down and actually put a bunch of real words together into a sentence. None of this "k" or "lol" shit. We have to actually talk. Talking is something we didn't have the luxury of. I was going one place and she was going the other."

His head nodded a few times, "You know? I think that's actually pretty fucking smart."

"Thanks, Hutch."

"You got game man. I think girls would love that." We both laughed, a little out of breath. I hadn't done it to play games with Bailey, but I'm glad Hutch could appreciate the way it was hopefully going to work out.

"Well, you got your girl coming here to see you. That's pretty impressive." If I was being honest, I was envious of that. I wanted to see her again. I wanted to watch her push those glasses up higher on her nose, and more than anything, I wanted another kiss.

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