Page 29

He wasn’t too rough with me, was he?
I took a tissue and wiped up more small blood spots. “What’s going on?” I said, confused, in the quiet of our empty bedroom.
I bit my nails down to the quick. Like real stumps, blood had formed around the edges, and it hurt. I was scared.
The bleeding stopped after a day. It wasn’t my period, even though it was due, and I was sure Mason didn’t hit me that hard. I’ve had worse and never bled before.
After that, I only wore white pants, and I couldn’t stop checking for blood every time I went to the bathroom.
Days went by, days of running on the track and climbing assault courses. Days of doing drills and getting yelled at by Mason.
But then the nights would come, and I’d lie under the stars with Jake while he smoked his illegal cigarettes, or I’d gossip with the girls at the bar, or I’d cuddle up on the couch with Mason and eat takeaway and have s*x. And damn. And f**k again.
I never bled again.
I thought it was just a mistake with the c****x. Is it normal to spot after s*x? I didn’t have a phone, so I couldn’t Google it, but let’s be honest, that would only tell me I was dying anyway.
Even though I didn’t bleed again, I still went to the bathroom and wiped extra hard or checked my pants for red. In the end, I began to wait for blood and pray for it. I was scared because my period was late.
“Jake, have you ever hurt a girl during s*x?”
He blew smoke up towards the stars and turned to look at me. “I don’t know, is that something I should know?” he said.
“I don’t know, maybe.” Probably not, since I didn’t tell Mason he hurt me. Do girls really say things like that to guys?
“Are you f*****g someone?” he asked, his face full of curiosity and amusement. Under the clear moon, his eyes shone.
“No,” I said quickly, and he laughed so hard that his chest shook. He smoked another cigarette. “But what if I were and my period was late? What would they do about that here?” He sat up quickly and looked at me with wide eyes.
“Shit Riley, who?” I shook my head.
“Not a big deal.”
“Do you know for sure that you’re—”
“No.” He put out his half-smoked cigarette on the muddy ground. His face was so serious that it made me feel even worse. All the worry and stress made me feel sick to my stomach. I hope it was just from all the stress and worry.
“You have to find out.” He pulled the car rod out of his pocket and gave it to me. “The store thirty minutes away will sell tests.” I sighed in disappointment but agreed because I didn’t have any other choice.
I wanted Mason’s car, but I needed him to come with me on this trip. His car smelt clean and neat, just like he did. It made me feel better. He liked things to be in order and under control. If I were pregnant, I would have crashed into him like a f*****g whirlwind, and I don’t even know what would happen.
Starlight was a small business that was open all the time. The woman at the counter looked older than my grandfathers ballsack, but she had a hunting rifle next to her, so she wasn’t going to mess around.
She gave me a wrinkled smile, and I took a pregnancy test off the shelf and, as an afterthought, some condoms.
“Are you from that army recruitment camp?” she asked, looking at what I was wearing. Her words got stuck in her gums, and she lost track of how to say them.
“Yep,” I said, tapping nervously on the counter while she rang up my two items on her old register.
“Must be nice to be around all those men.” She gave my things a flirty look, and I pursed my lips.
“Yep,” I said again, letting her know I didn’t want to talk.
“I’ve seen them walking around town with their muscles. I’d lick their nipples.” She gave me the bag of things and a gummy smile. I smiled at her in a strange way. “Have a good night.”
I threw the bag on the passenger seat of Mason’s car and drove straight back to camp.
When I got to the parking lot, things seemed different. The floodlights were always on, but tonight there were more lights, like walking around lights and people.
“Shit!” I turned off his headlights and the engine stopped rumbling. I crouched down lower in the seat so they wouldn’t see me. As soon as a torch shone through the glass, I quickly bent my head down, which set off his car alarm. “F**k! Shit! Shit! Shit!”
There were security guards all around the car, so I had to give myself up. I carefully got out of the car, and one of the guys put handcuffs on me and called the commander on his walkie-talkie.
“Bring her in,” he said.
The staff quarters had the commander’s office. I had never been there before, but it wasn’t a shed or a cabin. It was a real office made of bricks. The security guy who was holding my arm tightly looked very pleased with himself. I could almost see the shit hanging off his nose from being so far up the commander’s a*s.
“Rivers, Sir,” the security guard said as he pushed me down into the leather chair across from the commander.
The commander, Mason’s senior, made a face at me from behind a dark oak desk. He clasped his hands together and rested them upon the table.
“Riley Rivers held a convenience store up at gunpoint. Scared a lot of people that day.” He worded in a strict, stern tone.  “My security officers tell me you’re now dabbling in grand theft auto.”
“What a game,” I said with a laugh.
He took a deep breath, which made his chest rise, and then he pressed a button on a small machine that was attached to his desk.
“Red Dog, this is your commander. Please come into my office.” I swallowed hard; red dog was Mason’s name.
“Yes, sir. I’m on my way,” Mason said.
While we waited, the commander didn’t say anything. Nothing at all. He looked at me with cold, hard eyes. I looked at him. I looked at him in a way that showed him I wasn’t scared.
He was a lot like Mason, with a hard stare and a tight mouth. His eyes were the same amber brown as Masons’, but the commander’s were cold and Masons’ were hot enough to start a fire in me.
The door knocked, and at that moment, I was scared. Mason walked in and straightened his clothes before looking up and seeing me.
He frowned and looked disappointed for a split second before shaking off any expression and keeping his face blank. He stood up straight.
“At ease, Lieutenant.” Mason stopped saluting and stood straight, with his hands at his sides and his eyes straight ahead. “Rivers decided to hotwire your car tonight and drive it off campus. What do you think is a fair punishment for what she did?”
He only looked at me, then his dad, and then back to me again. He was quiet and his skin had gotten pale. I put my head down because I was embarrassed that I got caught. I was ashamed to put him through this. I was embarrassed that I had to go buy a pregnancy test in the first place.
He made a noise in his throat. “I don’t think there is a good punishment, Sir.”