Military Love » Harry Styles

chapter nine

"Today is going to be a very basic day." His roaring voice practically shoving his words down our throats. "Push-ups, swimming and at least we're going to bust up the trustworthy you have in each other." As the words left his mouth, the ten people in his group already wondered what he meant with the last thing.

"But, first things first, I'm glad to inform you that in four weeks' time, a winter ball will be held in the big hall." He sighed, showing that actually, he wasn't too keen to 'inform us'.

"This however, is not meant to party or get drunk. It's meant to bring us all together and celebrate" again a deep sigh left his mouth and I bit my lower lip, frustrated by his behaviour. "that by that time you're already half way there."

A pale hand raised not very high up in the air, shy but still keen to ask a question. Our sergeant nodded with no emotion and the voice I recognised started to speak slowly.

"But last year there wasn't such thing as a winter ball?" I recognised the voice as Melissa's.

"That's right Melissa, but the boss thought it was a splendid idea." He said sarcastically, clearly not happy about the boss' idea. I snorted, trying to hold in my laugh, slightly amused seeing Sergeant pissed. I received a dark glare from the man and looked away.

"Let's start!" He yelled at us, trying to recollect our attention because Melissa and Agnes gave me an approving look and smirked. Over the past days, I had grown closer with Melissa and Agnes, as we could have late night chats and I knew that soon I could trust them with my darkest secrets.

If we would have met each other out of this boot camp, I am not so sure the three of us would've given each other a second glance. However, the circumstances of this camp pressured us all to conform and adapt. In the end, this caused us to create a close bond, which I was rather thankful for. 

My thoughts wandered off to the thought of being able to send my mom a letter in the near future. Although I am a fully grown adult, I created a fairly close relationship with her due to the trauma that engulfed us seemingly years ago. Pushing the sadness associated with my dad's loss away, I walked off and followed the rest, being the last one from my group to walk away to the training field.

I felt footsteps getting dangerously close as I slowed my pace, glancing backwards seeing who was creeping up behind. I was surprised to Sergeant Styles, and I slightly rolled my eyes. I immediately regretted my decision, as my confidence of earlier ebbed away by being in his mere presence. "Yeah" he whispered in my ear. "Keep rolling your eyes darling."

--

'I want to be an air force ranger' The whole group beamed out as the sweat drops slowly made their way down or burning hot faces. 'I want to be an air force ranger'. They all shouted out again as the Sergeant repeated the sentence again.

This is what he calls, a basic day. I'm not surprised really, I shouldn't be anyways. I'm at a military boot camp what would actually still surprise me. While we ran, we ran in precision and we ran together. 

Rows of 3, all after each other, forming a long line of sweated faces and sad harmony in our voices. I cooed along softly to the melody which was sung for us and which we had to repeat a few seconds later, as we ran on.

We could only jump aside when a few men dressed in their dress blues signalled a few tanks to come their way, and after we had passed them we came across a fallen tree which, seemed, not a big job to jump over.

But me being me I overestimated myself and my foot tangled into one of the thick largest branches. I sighed and stood up, moving up my pace, trying to get back into my row of three.

Melissa and Agnes, the other two in my row were breathing heavily, trying to support their lungs with enough oxygen. Which was hardly possible at this speed. I had hardly spoken to them yesterday.

"I think I'm going to die" I moaned as I turned my face them. Big glasses covered her face, and as she looked back into my direction I recognised her as Melissa.

"Yeah" Agnes paused. "before you're going to cry me a river, would you mind telling me why you are really here?" She asked still confused about me being in this military boot camp. Melissa nodded in agreement, probably because she was also excited to know what's the story about my being in this odd camp.

"I needed to get away from my previous life for a little bit." I lied, marching on. I didn't lie about the whole thing, but most of it was a lie. I indeed needed to get away, but that wasn't the only reason, there were many more, and even some of them I still had to discover. Agnes and Melissa nodded, as their brows were tightly scrunched together and collecting all the sweat from their foreheads. They did not ask any further, as they probably felt this was a sensitive topic. 

"Let's go soldiers!" Someone yelled closer to my ear than I would like. At the exact same time, I realised we trailed behind the group of men and woman. "Move! Move! Move!" He yelled now straight into my ear, seemingly almost causing ear damage.

"My grandmother runs faster than that!" He screamed again, making me angry. He didn't have the right to judge me. I thought back about my dad, did he had to go through all of this? Daily? Only to serve his country? And he got thanked by dying?

I moaned in pain as a shot of bothering shot through my right ankle, making me hop up and down. The same ankle as yesterday, making me realise this wasn't just an ordinary injury.

"You better pull yourself together fast or otherwise you're never going to make it to the final test." He yelled and I looked at him. Whilst I was bending over forward, Melissa and Agnes stopped too to try to see if they could help me. Sergeant Styles ordered them to continue, whilst he trailed back to me.

He did not look exhausted in the least sense, not even tired. He just looked... normal? There was no sweat on his cheeks, whilst I felt like I was swimming in my own. His forearm showed his exposed and bulging veins. I followed his hands with my eyes as he used them to push back his curls.

"Maybe I shouldn't have signed up" I admitted to him in a sudden burst of honesty. Something in this man did not allow me to lie to him, even though he might sometimes be so cruel to him. There was a kindness deep inside of him, something that sometimes shone through when she needed it most.

Even though I did not lie, I also knew I did want to make it through this boot camp. Mainly because I wanted to prove something, but what I am not quite sure. But if I said that, I would surrender myself to him, which was something I would not allow myself to do.

"Well you bought yourself quite a challenge" he looked deeply into my eyes and ran off to the rest of the group. He did not order me to join him, but I ran after him anyways.

--

The veins in his neck bawled out as he stamped his feet in the dirty ground, making us all slight cough as the dusty air moved upwards to our noses and mouths. 

"This" he stopped his tracks right in front of me, gave me a glance and walked on continuing speaking. "morning has been an easy day for you." He grinned. His dress blues was dusty from the dry grounds. It hadn't rained ever since my and my encounter with my Sergeant in the shed, where he comforted me and took care of me. Well, if it rains it pours I guess. 

"Because what is coming next" a big smirk appeared on his face, he seemed almost too happy to see us break our bodies down until we couldn't handle the pressure anymore.

"Is going to be new, exciting and of course, not as easy as what we've just done." He clapped in his two big dirty hands, gaining our attention back to his face. My eyes tried to wander over his body.

"But first, it's time for lunch." I made my way over to Agnes and Melissa, who seemed both almost to fall down from tiredness. I decided to go quickly to my room first, before starting lunch.

I walked back to the building, which wasn't far away from the building with all the bunk beds. There were almost no people outside, probably all enjoying their meal. I looked at my chest, where the heart-shaped necklace bungled.

I traced my finger over it, but immediately regretting it as I realised my fingers were dirty from dirt and it was now on my necklace. "I'll finish this for you" I whispered to myself. "I'll do this for you dad."