Life Sentence

Chapter Two

*three and a half years ago*

I had just been put on the task C detail, which basically meant I'd be making posters for the new officers coming to Fort Knox.

My friend Kelly Davis was already on the detail so at least I had the comfort of knowing someone. She was on the detail because an injury pulled her from the field training. I was now on the detail because I was in a "fragile state" and my unit chose to let Martinez go instead of me.

At the time, I was livid. What more was this guy going to take from me?

My unit had been preparing all month. We had been prepping our gear, assuring the maintenance of our trucks and learning proper jump techniques. Unfortunately while I was stuck making posters for the new cadets, he was jumping out of a helicopter into a lake and building float bridges.

Sounds fair right?

I showed up to the detail a few minutes late. My tardiness was mainly because I didn't want to be there but also because I had never been to this abandoned looking set of buildings on post before. I looked around for Davis's car but I didn't see it anywhere. What I did see was a beauty of a truck. It was a 2007 For F-150. I was in awe at the big tires on black rims with black decals on a clean white body, and if this truck couldn't be any nicer, it had a 6" lift kit. This was a truck - the kind I meant when I told me then boyfriend Thomas that I thought trucks were sexy.
He went out and bought a stock 2012 Chevy Colorado the day I said that as an attempt at approval. I think Thomas knew he would forever fall short of my expectations. It wasn't his fault though. Thomas had unwillingly and unknowingly been my beard for the last year.
My family did not approve of gays so I took it upon myself to force a straight relationship. I really did love Thomas just never the same way he loved me.

I had known something about me was different since the eighth grade. My first kiss was with a girl. I had opportunities to kiss boys prior to this abrupt make-out session behind the gym, but it never felt right. When she pulled me out of basketball practice and kissed me I knew that this was the first kiss I was holding out for. Not her specifically but a 'her' in general.
In that moment I felt this rush that I never felt with the boys I dated afterwards. I felt that rush when I saw her.

I felt that rush and then some.

Her hair was cut short and she had just recently added blonde highlights to her naturally light brown hair. It hung loosely to the left side and she had that silly Bieber flip but it looked irresistible on her. She looked up at me and her stunning eyes stole mine. They were by far the most intriguing shade of blue I'd ever seen. I couldn't look away. Suddenly I heard my name from across the room.

"Mallatt!" Yelled Davis in excitement.

Davis was one of those girls that you couldn't possibly dislike. She was a good ole southern girl from Mississippi. The first time I met her was in passing at the company motor pool. When she said:

"Well aren't you a pretty little thing! Just stay away from my husband and we'll be like best friends!"

I was stunned at her enthusiasm and couldn't form a complete response about me having no interest in her husband.

"Honey, I'm just kidding! He's a short lil thing anyway, what are you 5'5?" She said with an ear to ear grin "So where are you from?"

The only response I could muster up was "California?".
I wasn't the most outgoing person, especially coming to my first duty station. At this point I was wanting to observe people. I'd be spending the next four years here after all.

"Well ain't that just the darnedest thing! I ain't never known anyone from LA." Davis exclaimed.

I wasn't from LA exactly but she just had so much excitement in her doe shaped blue eyes. From that moment on we were pretty good friends.

One thing I'd learned about Davis was her tendency to make blunt statements.

We had barely made it through introductions the day I saw her and Ashley at the detail when Davis made a statement the three of us would never erase from our memories:

"So when y'all get married, I call dibs on flower girl"

Ashley jokingly said "Davis, here's the gun... You jumped it sweetie"

As if Ashley wasn't sexy enough with her hair and eyes and tattoos, she was funny too. Her laugh was contagious. Everything about her from that moment on was absolutely captivating.