It All Worked Out In The End- A Purple Hearts Rewrite

Chapter 1- Oh Great, Marines

~Cassie's POV~
I just got done doing a set with my band. My friend/fellow band member, Nora and I got our aprons back on to continue our other job, waitressing at the bar we play our gigs at.

Soon I heard some noise but my back was turned, talking to Nora across the counter. Then she looked behind me. "Look Cassie, it's your favorite." she chuckled.
I looked back behind me and saw a bunch of men come in. "Oh great, Marines..." I said under my breath.
We could all tell they were marines. They have this.... How do I say this without sounding mean? A certain look and demeanor. Total douche bags.

I looked at them and groaned, throwing my head back.
Then I heard my name amongst the crowd.
"Cass! Yo, Cass!" I heard a voice. I looked over and saw someone I hadn't seen in years.
"No.. Frankie?" I asked, seeing him.
He ran over to me and picked me up, hugging me.

Once he put me down, I looked at him and ran my fingers through his hair. Or, what was left. His once curly Afro was completely buzzed now.
"Oh my god." I said, "look at this buzz. I am not okay with this at all." I laughed a bit.

Nora came over, surprised to see me being so friendly with a marine guy.
"Nora, Frankie. Frankie, Nora." I introduced them.
They both nodded at each other.
"Nora is in my band, The Loyal. And Frankie here, we grew up together and I was his babysitter." I chuckled, grabbing his face with both my hands.

All his fellow marines started poking fun at him.
"See what you started?" Frankie laughed at me. Then he looked at the other guys. "Well these are the guys. We've got two week till we ship out to Iraq." He explained.

I looked at him, "we're still fighting in Iraq?" I asked.
"Not out yet" Frankie said.
"Another war that never ends.. Well in that case, what do you guys want to drink? First round's on the house" I said.

A guy who looked like he barely finished puberty looked at Nora and I, "Tequila?" He asked.
Nora and I looked at each other. "Does he look old enough?" She asked
I chuckled and looked at the guy, "Not even close." I said.

Then another guy looked at me. He had fair to medium skin, good build, and blonde hair that was shaved at the sides and a bit longer on the top.
"I'll have a Coke." he said.
I chuckled and nod my head, "mmm my kinda guy" I said.
"Could you uh throw in some lemon slices in that?" He cleared his throat and asked.
"How about you pace yourself, bro?" I chuckled.

Then I left to go and put on their orders.
I heard the Marines talking to Nora. They were trying to hit on her before she eventually mentioned she had a girlfriend. Then they turned their attention to me. Nora explained I have a "no soldiers" policy to them. That's when I finally came back to their conversation and one of them looked at me.

"Come on, so we're good enough to fight for your ass but not touch it?" He asked me.
I looked at him, taken aback by his words and scoffed, "excuse me?" I asked him.
He chuckled, "it's alright, I'll excuse you this time" he said.
I pushed the table a bit; "I can't with this." I said, walking over to the counter.

It wasn't long after the same cute, blonde Coke and lemon slices marine guy showed up behind me.

"Hey, I just wanted to apologize for our friend. He's a bit..." he started to say, which I rolled my eyes to and clicked my tongue.
"Okay. Yea sure." I said, turning away from him.
He looked at me, "Uh, I'm Luke, by the way. What's your name?" He asked.
I looked back at him. "Your waitress/bartender. Have a fun night, Luke." I said, starting to go off but then he kept on talking.

"You know, we're not all alike." He said.
"Oh, really?" I asked him. "Because your friend is talking about his right to touch my ass. Which apparently, you also feel entitled to."
"Okay, we're just blowing off some steam. It's, uh... It's actually a pretty big night. Last night on leave. We ship off in a few weeks." He explained.

"I get it, but, uh, not really an excuse for casual misogyny though. You're cute and everything, but..." I started to say but I was cut off by his laughter.
"Okay, all right. I, uh... I get this." He said.
I looked at him confused, "What do you get?"
"You."
"Me?"
"Yeah, yeah. You're kind of predictable. I've... I've met your type before. Yeah."
"Oh. Really? Well, do tell."

"You drive a Lexus that your parents paid for, but it's a hybrid, so it's okay. You... You probably tweet a lot about other people's rights, but when it comes down..." he started explaining but I cut him off.
"Sorry, it's just fascinating to me. Do you have a PhD in mansplaining?" I asked, but he just laughed and brushed it off, continuing to talk.

"But when it actually comes down to fighting for these rights, you don't wanna do anything, right? 'Cause guns are mean. You're a pacifist. I guess it's our job to go off and fight those battles for you, right? I bet you have a little "peace-dove" tattoo on your back to prove it." He said, looking me up and down.
I looked up at him, "On my ass, actually. Which you can't touch, but you can kiss." I said, walking away.

I went back to Nora, who was at the bar.
"You see the guy that looks like he's 12 years old?"
She asked me, I looked at him, then looked back at her. "He told me that I should reconsider my stance on men, because if I marry him, I would get incredible health insurance." She explained.

I widened my eyes a bit, "Wow. Health insurance. That's some dirty talk right there." I laughed, to which she laughed too.
Then a noise started happening. Ducks quacking. "Where's that coming from?" Nora asked, still laughing a bit.
"Mine." I said, pointing to my bag and she gave it to me. "Made it super annoying so I can't ignore it." I said as I grabbed my phone out. Seeing it was an alarm as a reminder to check my blood sugar.

"Uh, hey, can you cover me for, like, five?" I asked Nora.
She nodded her head and looked at me. "Yeah. You okay?" She asked.
I nodded slightly, "You know..." I said, as I put my bag over my shoulder and headed out to my car.

I pricked my finger and took my blood. Seeing my sugar was starting to get super high. I took my insulin and waited there for a minute, looking at my emergency insulin vial and realizing I was pretty much out. I have no medication left.
Shit.

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