Chasing The Wind

A fork in the road

PLEASE DON'T PLAY THE VIDEO TILL PROMPTED

I definitely made the right choice. After I sent Eric that breakup text, he didn't text me back even then.

Two weeks later.....

In JROTC, uniform inspections are held outside during the warmer days.

"Your uniform is immaculate as usual, Mitchell. But there is only one thing wrong," Platoon Sergeant Tucker said as he looked at my uniform, "You have a loose string on your cloth rank."

I glanced at my shoulders, looking for the flaw. "You're kidding."

Tucker slipped the ruler he held underneath his arm.

"Have a good day, Cadet."

"You too, sergeant."

My feet ached from standing at attention for so long, and I prayed for Tucker to hurry up and finish inspecting the rest of the squad.

A bee started buzzing around and I was terrified of flying insects. I remained deadpan and calm and when it flew toward me, I swatted at it, causing my grey wool beret to fall off my head and onto the parking lot pavement.

I reached down to pick it up, and I heard my squad leader laughing. He glanced at me with his muddy brown eyes, which sparkled with humor.

"What the hell was that, Mitchell?"

My face started burning with embarrassment.

"Something flew at me, sir."

Parker started laughing even harder.

Tucker gave Parker a deadly glare. He put his finger up to his lips and cocked his head to the side, his hazel eyes widening threateningly.

"At ease," he said menacingly.

Finally, inspection was over, as was the school day.

I had decided to take a shortcut to the bus parking lot, since I didn't want to look at Eric. I was chatting with Simon, who was in my JROTC class.

"They're seriously testing us on this?"

"Yeah. And you have to do the demonstration in front of the class."

All of a sudden, someone was calling for Simon.

A young man sauntered up beside me, and Simon said, "I think we have to make a seventy in order to pass."

"Oh, those new drills?Jesus, I hate what we're doing... especially those side-to-side knee lifts...it makes me feel stupid."

PLAY THE VIDEO!!!!IT WILL BE WORTH YOUR TIME!

I glanced over at the boy, who wore the same JROTC uniform as me. I noticed that he was quite tall, maybe six foot one, and he was clean cut and clean shaven. He had gorgeous brown eyes. This was ten thousand times better than my ex, who let himself go.

"Yeah", I agreed, noticing his build. "We just learned them yesterday, and it's like staff expects us to have it perfect on the first try."

He grinned, and extended his hand. "I'm Tyler Robbins."

I grasped his hand and we shook hands firmly.

"Alana Mitchell."

"So, Mitchell, how well do you know your military movement drills?" Tyler cocked an eyebrow, and my breath hitched.

Blushing, I admitted sheepishly, "Not very well. It's like my teachers don't expect me to have a life outside of school."

"Same here, Mitchell."

Simon decided to veer off on his own, and Tyler asked, "Which bus is yours?"

"167."

"Okay."

Tyler and I talked about Let Service, ribbons, badges, and ranks until we reached my bus.

Tyler rested his hand on my shoulder, and said, "See ya, Mitchell."

My face heated up in less than a second, maybe because Tyler was being so damn cute, his cheeks taking on a slight shade of pink as he struggled to find the right words.

I felt a slight breeze pick up as he looked into my eyes, and I knew right then and there, something more would come out of this.

But what I got, I totally did not expect.