Side By Side

13

Warnings:
-Homophobia (usage F-slur)

Clay's POV

I had multiple classes before my shooting training. Everyone had a sergeant with them to make sure they wouldn't make a stupid mistake since that could mean death at this point if we shot wrongly. I walked to the place I had to be with my sergeant and I laid on the floor with one eye closed to focus on the target in front of me.

The sergeant didn't say anything while he observed my positioning. He moved to my other side and replaced my hand to a better position since it could slip away easily otherwise.

'This is your practice shot, take it slow. You don't need to answer because you're focused,' he told me with a quiet voice to not distract me a lot.

I closed my eye again and looked at the target with my other one, then pulling the trigger. The weapon shot back and hit my shoulder, but I knew that would happen. I was caught of guard and then looked in front of me, noticing that I hit the target.

'Well done, Clay! You can move on to the real test now. There's forty targets and you'll get a skill depending on how many you hit,' he explained.

I nodded and laid down again, focusing on the targets in the hope I'd be able to hit a lot of them.

~~~

The sergeant didn't tell me what skill I got, but I knew I hit at least thirty-two out of forty targets. He seemed really impressed with me since some of the others didn't even manage to hit fifteen of them.

They failed the test and had to redo all their classes about it, getting extra classes. If they failed those too, they weren't good enough and they would most likely have to leave the boot camp too.

~ A Week Later ~

After an exhausting week full of very intense physical training and a lot of classes, I was laying on my bed in the evening, feeling extremely tired.

I had countless classes about how other types of weapons and such worked. I was shown how grenade machines worked and a lot of other types of weapons and guns too. It interested me a lot and I had a lot of fun learning more about them or seeing how I needed to hold them.

The exercises we had were harder than ever before. Today, we walked for four hours through a river with a lot of stones. We had to swim with our uniforms through ice cold water and then continue walking for a while which was genuinely exhausting.

I was too tired to keep thinking and I closed my eyes as I curled up in my sleeping bag. My eyes kept automatically closing because I was so tired and I was about to fall asleep as I heard someone walk up to me. I realised it wasn't the sergeant because they always woke us up with a lot of noise.

'Clay,' the voice of one of the recruits whispered. He shook my body softly and grinned quietly after he called out my name. 'I have a question, okay?'

I mumbled quietly, not being able to open my eyes.

The recruit laughed shortly. 'I was wondering why you got bullied,' he chuckled.

I was too tired to realise this person wasn't being nice to me. His voice was vicious, like he was planning something mean. I didn't realise that he sounded vicious at all and mumbled softly as I turned around, groaning because I wanted to sleep.

'Did you get bullied for a reason you're hiding?' he grinned, shaking my body softly. 'Everyone here is listening, we all want to know the answer, NOW!'

I mumbled again, this time more annoyed. I was half asleep and I didn't want to wake up either, I just wanted to sleep because it was probably going to be an intense day tomorrow. All these days were completely filled with activities and I really needed my sleep.

'TELL ME!' the voice suddenly screamed which made me scared because I was so tired. 'Why did you get bullied? Answer me or I'll call the sergeant to send you away from this boot camp because you touched me!'

I closed my eyes again and curled up into a ball shape. I realised he was threatening me, but I didn't know why. I didn't have a filter anymore and sighed softly.

'I'm gay,' I mumbled with an unclear voice, rolling back to my back. The recruit laughed loudly and then walked off as I fell asleep right after that, not realising what I just said...

~~~

We woke up around six in the morning for once because we had our first class at seven today. Well, relaxed wasn't the right term. We had more shooting practice, classes about weapons and a few physical exercises after that.

I sat up in my sleeping bag and slowly stood up, walking outside to have some breakfast. I was the first one here and I sat down after going to the person who was preparing soup for everyone. I got a bowl of it and started drinking it slowly as one of the other recruits came here too.

⚠️ Homophobia (usage F-slur)

He glared at me and sat next to me, pushing me aside. 'Get out of here, you're not supposed to be here, dumbass. Just get out of our faces.'

I frowned and scooted away as the sergeants looked up in the distance. I felt uncomfortable and took a bite from some weird food in the soup. The recruit pushed me again and jumped up.

'You said it yourself last evening, dumb cunt!' he scoffed.

'YOU!' a sergeant screamed at the man next to me. 'COME WITH ME, NOW!'

'No, I'm not coming. I'm in the right here! Clay is a faggot, he admitted that he's gay when he was tired yesterday! IT'S DISGUSTING AND NOT ALLOWED!'

My face got completely red and my heart skipped a beat as I stood up too. Did I actually out myself? How could he have known this otherwise? I was breathless as I looked around me, trying to defend myself but there was no way of ever making this right again. 'No- I-,' I started. 'I-.'

The sergeant who was with me the most stood up too to walk to the other sergeant here and he looked from me to the man next to me.

'Faggots aren't allowed in the army, there's literally a rule for that!' the recruit yelled out. 'Send him away! If you're sending the others away from dropping a weapon, definitely send him away for lying and being gay!'

⚠️ Over

I felt tears fill my eyes as I looked at my feet, feeling really hopeless because I just felt my dream fading away more and more... 'I'm so sorry, sergeant,' I whispered as I looked at him.

Everyone was quiet and I tried my hardest to fight against the tears stinging in my eyes. I knew I had no other choice than leaving by myself and I turned around to go into the barrack. I rolled up my sleeping bag and stuffed it into my bag. I grabbed my bag after that and lifted it up to my shoulders.

I sniffed softly and looked around me, seeing all the recruits who weren't outside yet glare at me which caused me to feel even more upset. I knew this was it, I knew my dream was over here.

I walked back to the sergeant and put my bag down, taking off my weapon to lay it down on the grass.

'It was just my dream to be here,' I mumbled, feeling a tear roll down my face. 'I'm so sorry, sergeant. I will leave the boot camp right away, thank you for giving me the best weeks of my life.'

I saluted him and then walked off with tears rolling down my cheeks.

1327 words

Summary:
Clay outs himself and another recruit outs him to the sergeants