Military Love » Harry Styles

chapter twenty one

His back was leaning against the wall and I could already tell he was annoyed. His stare burned into me as I tried to tame the crème coloured blankets on the bunk bed. Before I had turned my back to him, I saw his foot boring into the wall, probably leaving a nasty mark, after his feet left the wall.

"What was he doing here anyway?" He gritted his teeth as he pronounced the words very carefully. Why was he so worked up?

"He, has a name" I snapped back.

"Stop talking to me like that Violet." The sentence cut back the words I wanted to say to him. He was right, I should show respect if I want to make it through the next weeks.

I sucked in everything I wanted to say and continued striking the blankets down until they were in their previous posture and slowly climbed down from stairs of the bunk bed.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't supposed to act like that towards you Sergeant" I tried my best to sound honest, but it was hard. Recollecting the image of him and Brad slamming against each other's faces made it even worse to sound honest. The way he had torn the necklace from my neck.

"Alright," he nodded, shaking the small loose curls on his tanned head as he did so. He was quite unsure of how to accept this apology.

"Now if you could explain to me why he was here, we can continue the training before some of the sergeants notice something." He cleared his throat and looked at me, not a single expression playing on his lips, only a slight frown on his dark eyebrows.

"I fixed him up," I said, trying to hold back any more words. I didn't exactly fix him up, he fixed himself up in the bathroom.

"He more likely fixed you up," He remarked referring to me laying on the bed and Brad's body hanging above me, ticking my hips and stomach as he himself walked in.

I rolled me eyes while looking at the ground, making sure he didn't notice. Again he cleared his throat and slowly turned on his heel, walking towards the door, signalling me to follow.

--

"Today Sergeant Styles will instruct you on how to fire your rifle." An older woman dressed in military suit stated clearly while walking up and down in front of us, making sure none of us moved.

You could hear the heavy breathing from the previous exercise the others had done before this, and I was only glad that I missed it.

"What is rule number one?" She asked us, expecting us to answer clearly all at once.

"Never be without your rifle, first sergeant." We all yelled, looking straight forward, denying any eye contact with the sergeant walking in front of us. We were lined up in a large row, existing of several small rows of four.

Instead of only the group of ten people, Sergeant Styles had to teach, we now had about fifty people gathered to shoot their first bullets with their rifles.

"What is it?!" The woman yelled again.

"Never be without your rifle, first sergeant!" We all yelled again, as she circled the large group again taking large leaps as she went.

Her short brown hair was visible under the Sergeant's hat and even some grey hairs seemed to appear, while she only looks about forty at age. Guess military makes you stressed out. She nodded at Sergeant Styles and he walked in front of us.

"Two steps forward," he told us, a lot more empowering than the woman had told us. The woman was now slowly walking away retrieving to one of the small houses. He turned his back to us and walked two steps forward.

"Right foot, crosses behind the left." He instructed us as he crossed his right foot behind his left.

"Sit down," He bent down through his knees in front of a few sacks of sand. "Aim," he told us pointing his rifle towards one of the objects in the far distance. "Fire!" A lot of sounds escaped from the small rifle before it hit the object and everything became dead silent.

That was when I realised, we got trained to kill people and protect our country.

He stood up, turning around back to us. "Now lock and load," we did as he told us to.

Because I was the first person in my row of four, I walked forward to the same place Sergeant Styles had been earlier explaining what we had to do and sat down in between the sacks of sand.

He carefully watched me as I bent down and aimed my gun at the object who had several red lines on it, pointing at where I had to shoot; right in the heart.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, imagining that I was at home. Dreaming of the delicious cranberry cake my mother used to make every Sunday when I came home from the park with my dad.

It was amazing, and for a moment I felt my dad's presence next to me, giving me hope. I opened my eyes again, my vision was blurred with a watery substance called tears. Again a sigh escaped my mouth and I re-aimed at the object before pulling the trigger and firing bullets at it.

I felt an immense power pushing me back as the rifle shot, it got me down on my back. I laid there for several seconds before pulling myself up, looking where I had shot.

To my surprise, I had aimed right and the bullet had gone straight through where it was supposed to go through, receiving a few cheers from the rest. I turned my back to the object pulling my gun along with me as I walked back to the rows.

I felt a large hand pulling me back. "Your shooting skills are rather good Violet." His hot breath tickled against my ear lobe as a grin appeared on my face. I freed myself from his grip and walked back to the group high-fiving Agnes and Melissa as I did so.

I couldn't help but feel relieved that I could say that my first shot had gone perfectly fine. A soft voice in the back of my head told me how proud my father would have been.

"How did you do that?" Agnes asked me surprised as I got at the back of the row. I was going to answer but when I looked forward and felt two emerald eyes staring at me intensely I forget what I wanted to say immediately.

He gave me a small smile, which soon turned into a cheeky grin, showing off the perfect white teeth underneath them. I gnawed at my bottom lip and tugged at my clothes not knowing what to do, but I couldn't help my heart from fluttering every time these eyes looked in mine.