Higher Love // Jake Seresin

Chapter Eleven

Jake Seresin

To Jake's own amusement and distaste, he was running todays exercise with Rooster. He wasn't sure how the two of them got lumped together for this practice, but here they were. They were practicing a missile drop and flying a particular course. It had steep turns and dives. They had a time limit and needed to work together. Jake was flying way ahead of Rooster, who was trailing behind him.

"Clock's ticking," Jake said to Rooster over the radio. Not that he really cared, he was going to finish this assignment with or without Bradshaw. He flew too damn slow and careful, and Jake didn't have the patience. Which was how he ended up leaving Bradshaw so far behind already. Jake didn't feel like he needed a wingman anyway.

"I've got a question for you." Jake began, "What do you get when you cross a vacuum and a rooster?"

There was silence over the radio. Rooster obviously wasn't going to engage in these games, but that wasn't about to stop Jake. He imagined Bradshaw was probably rolling his eyes.

"A cock-sucker."

Jake laughed at his own joke as he continued heading toward the target. He thought it looked like Rooster had gained some speed, but not enough at this point to catch Jake. A few minutes later, Jake saw the target in site. He flew over it and dropped the missile. It landed inside the target and he whirled back around. He flew past Rooster so fast that Rooster had to take a hard left to avoid getting his wing taken off by Jake's jet.

Back on the ground at the flight line, Rooster approached Jake once he had landed. Jake had gotten back a few minutes before him. Cypher was standing there too, looking at the two of them. "You failed this exercise. Do you know why?" He asked.

"I hit the target." Jake said, "That doesn't sound like a fail to me."

"That may be, Lieutenant, but you left your wingman." Cypher said to Jake, glancing over at Rooster.

"He couldn't keep up." Jake replied with a shrug.

"Get back inside. Points will be updated this afternoon." Cypher told the two of them. He walked off, leaving them alone. Jake saw the next group going over to their jets, which included his sister, her WSO and Coyote.

"What the hell is your problem?" Rooster asked Jake.

"Oh, he speaks?" Jake asked, feigning surprise. That was the first time he had spoken all day to him. "It's not my fault you fly too slow. You should have kept up with me and maybe we would have gotten more points. Not that you seem to care about where you finish." He told Rooster.

"I fly like you're supposed to fly. You are like some bat out of hell and it's going to screw you over one day." Rooster said back to Jake.

Jake tilted his head. "Maybe you need to get laid. Take out some of this tension and brooding mood you've got built up." He said, turning to walk inside.

"I assure you, that's not a problem." Rooster replied, with a tone that Jake couldn't quite place.

Jake stopped walking, turning around slowly. He looked Rooster up and down. "Well, I pity the woman that lowers her standards to fuck you, Bradshaw." He told him. He walked off to go back inside. Something about the encounter didn't sit will with Jake, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He just shook his head, deciding not to worry about Bradshaw anymore than he had to.