Sarah herself was a little more ambiguous. She didn't much go in for the way people would try to put the entire military up for sainthood. She'd been in the Army long enough to see the good and the bad of both the institution and the people. To her, it was a job. True, it was a difficult job that had cost her a lot, but she still squirmed at the idea of being called a hero.
"Please, you've had maybe two beers," June said, recalling correctly. "Something's troubling you,"
Sarah just shrugged, taking another sip,
"And I think I've reached my limit of letting you drink in here without getting to the bottom of it," June said. There was firmness in her voice that Sarah hadn't really heard before. Still, Sarah was not much for spilling her troubles, even now. "You've been drinking here all week."
"I just like the scenery," Sarah said, trying to eye June hungrily. She hoped a diversion into a naked come-on would change the subject.
"Oh please," June said, not dissuaded for a moment."You didn't come in here looking for a fuck. There are gay bars for that. You came in here on a Tuesday morning looking to get hammered. And that's fine enough for an old retired goat like Jim, but you're young, attractive and a day away from being shipped out. So there's a reason behind it,"
"Maybe," Sarah said, "but I don't see how crying about it is going to help,"
"Ugh, you're such a guy." June rolled her eyes. "Talking things over with girlfriends can help, you know?"
"Girlfriend?" Sarah raised her eyes with a joking smile,
"Shut up, you know what I mean," June said. "You never know what problems I can help with. And I refuse to let you leave here feeling like you do."
"Well, let's see," Sarah said, to her surprise. She began feeling all of the emotions she'd been suppressing all week bubble up to the surface. She felt as though she needed to get them out before she began to actually cry, when she started talking, Sarah felt the words just spill out of her in a rush.
"I've had to live the last five years of my life terrified that someone would find out I'm gay or else I'd be discharged and not able to do the one thing I've ever been good at. Then, that bullshit ends and I get to come home and spend two carefree weeks in the arms of my girlfriend who I can finally be open with and it turns out she dumps me and was probably cheating on me. I ended up spending most of my leave moving my stuff out of her place.
"I'm about to go overseas for twelve months more. Which means another year of hard work and getting hassled by any douchebag with a hard-on. When that ends, I now have nothing much in the way of money, a job or a home to come back to.
Sarah paused to take a sip of her beer.
"And to top it all off, I haven't had sex in a year. An actual, solid year," Sarah said as a capper.
Her words hung in the air for a brief second before June broke the silence.
"Shit," June said in sympathy, "that sucks,"
"Yeah, tell me about it." Sarah nodded
The words held in the air for a second. Sarah saw June look to the picture above the bar. The one of her and her uncle and then saw a brief smile flash on June's face.
"That's not right." June said defiantly. "Not for you and especially not today,"
Sarah shrugged. She knew a lot of other vets had it worse than she did, even on today and she was already regretting her bout of self-pity.
"But there's nothing there we can't fix."
"Oh?" Sarah said with disbelief. "How are you going to fix all of that?"
Part 3
Start from the beginning
