Military Love » Harry Styles

chapter twelve

The rain was still loud and clear, though I decided not to pay any attention to it. I was still sitting on the same place as I sat ten minutes before, ten minutes ago when the silence started; next to the pile of broken glass.

The thunder had died down, but the rain drops were still possible to hear against the supportive but dirty windows. I sighed, knowing that since the storm was over, I could leave this building once again. I hoped there was still some food left behind for me, but probably not.

My stomach groaned as it pleaded for food, but I ignored it, only counting on food at dinner, which was in five hours. The training would start again soon, so I expected the now silent Sergeant to say anything, any minute.

"We should better go" He mumbled and stood up without any more words leaving his mouth. He turned on his heels, his back facing me as he walked over to the creaking door. And as weird as it was, I counted the steps he took.

One, his massive feet covered in dirty shoes made way over the wooden floor. Two, his hands swayed along his broad torso. Three, he almost reached the door, since the room was rather small.

Four, his hand reached out for the doorknob. Five, he placed the foot who was left behind next to the other and turned the knob around without resting his eyes on mine any second and left the room.

The weird thing was, I had never counted someone's steps. And somehow it made me wonder why I did it. Probably because I was tired and I should catch some sleep soon, but then again it was impossible to sleep because training starts in about five minutes and will last for a few hours, until dinner.

I pulled my tired body off the floor, trying to avoid placing my hands in the fragile glass pieces. I decided to shove the pieces into a corner, avoiding someone else stepping or grabbing into them. The photo in between, I picked out of the mess carefully.

My finger once again traced over the picture, she looked so happy, so intense in the moment. I shrugged, trying to shake of myself getting into the Sergeants personal life and put the photo on one of the nightstands.

The sound of my petite feet dripping against the three made floor was soft, but still noticeable. I carefully opened the door before leaving one last glance in the room, probably being the last glance I'll ever give this room.

---

"My grandma can do better than this"

"This isn't the girl scout"

"Knees off the ground"

"I said knees back!" "Now!"

The woman yelled towards her group of slightly older people as they all laid on the ground, trying to get up on their arms. Push-ups were probably the worst, at this camp. Especially for me, since I was very bad at them.

I finally figured out how the groups were divided. The older men and women were put together and set into a group, as were the younger part of this camp, me being one of them. And we were just lucky to having Mr Styles as our sergeant.

"Up!"

"Down!"

"Up!"

"Down!"

The yelling continued as I heard a low chuckle and murmur beside me, it was Sir Styles. As I rested my eyes on him, I received a quick glance before his eyes returned to the ground which was mostly mud because of all the rain and thunder.

"Since the storm has interrupted most of our programme" he muttered. "I decided to do something different, and skip the hard part for today." A few cheers were heard in the group, Agnes being one of them.

"But!" he started immediately after the cheers. "that doesn't mean I won't torture you." And that was the very first time, Sergeant Styles made a joke. And for the very first time, one of his dimples appeared on his bright face. Ladies and gentlemen, mark this date in your journal.

A few of us started to snicker but most of us looked at each other with a smile on our face, and that was officially the first time that I had faith in the military boot camp.

"Come and follow me" He smiled again, which was rare but I wasn't complaining though.

We all followed his command and followed him closely on his heels, after a walk of a minute or five we reached the other side of the camp, which I had never seen before. Though it wasn't what I expected.

"Today" He cracked a smile. "We are going to test your stamina, also known as your endurance." I was quite excited since I didn't know anything about this yet, and I'm in for trying new things.

"So everyone, stand close to the water and remember if you're in need for help, just scream it out." We all chuckled as we followed our feet towards the seemingly cold water. The water is probably freezing since it's close to winter. I liked the joky, funny and cheeky version of him.

"Now" he started. "step into the water and let the cold take over your body. At first, you want to jump out of the water, which is currently under zero degrees, but after a while you'll get used to it. So please ladies and gentlemen, stay in the water." He emphasized on the last few words.

I was still surprised by his sudden kindness but didn't question it anymore when the cold water clutched at my body. I wanted to scream out and run out of the circulation-stopping water, but I promised myself I wouldn't.

The water felt like a thousand needles stabbing into my flesh all at the same time, but I tried to ignore this as I almost went knee deep into the water.

A heard a few screams behind me, people getting horrified of the water's temperature, but I tried to keep going, until I was neck deep, with my chin slightly above the water.

I was one of the first ones of our ten to reach this level of the water. Though someone was following me closely behind.

"This isn't that bad right?" He chuckled.

"Right" I chuckled. 'Feeling like you're stabbed by thousands of needles by this unbearable cold water, isn't that bad" I said mimicking his voice, the cold water slightly hurting my neck.

"Feisty one are we?" He shot me a wink.