The Summer Before he Left

Chapter 10: Drew

Ring...... Ring.... Ring...

           I stopped what I was doing immediately as I heard my home phone ring. No one ever calls my home phone, that means it could be only one thing. The thing I had forgotten about since I fell in love with her.

Ring...Rin-

       I picked up the phone slowly and took a deep breathe. "Hello?"

       "Hello Drew, how has your summer been?"

       I heard the faintly familiar voice I hadn't heard since the very beginning of the summer. "My summer has been pretty good, how has yours been?"

        "It's been pretty dang hot down here in Georgia but all together we got a pretty good group of kids this summer. I'm assuming you have kept in shape and are ready to get right to work when you get here in August?"

        "Oh yes sir, I couldn't be more ready." I said even though that was the exact opposite of what I was thinking.

       "Well the plan is for you to come down here to Georgia for a few months and then if you feel that you are ready, the plan in to get you deployed to Afghanistan by December. Does that sound okay with you?" my sergeant's voice boomed through the phone in a deep voice that could intimidate just about anyone.

        "Oh... Yes sir! That sounds like a plan to me!" I said trying to sound enthused the best I could.

        "Good, well I will see you in Georgia in the second week of August." 

        "Alright, I will see you then sir."

        "Goodbye Drew."

         "Bye sergeant." I said and he hung up not even a second after. 

~~~~~

            How could I have forgotten about my job? Had I really gotten caught up with her that much? I need to start running about lifting weights again, gah, I'm so out of shape. I shouldn't have even fallen for her in the first place. I knew I had to leave. I knew that this would all end up with her getting hurt. Why would I do this to her? Now we won't ever see each other again and we will go our separate ways and I will lose the one girl that I have ever actually felt really comfortable with. I think she could have been the one.

             But the real question for me right now is how I'm going to tell her. How could I possibly tell her that I am in the military and am going to be shipped to Afghanistan to be in the infantry and probably never even see her again. I guess I will just tell her and we will spend the rest of the summer together and she will be the one that got away. The kind of story you hear about in songs. How they had a the best times together and fell in love and did all these crazy things together and then have to end up going their separate ways. Then in the songs it talks about how they still think about it sometimes and think about what could have been. 

           You know in many ways we are like Ally and Noah, in more ways then I saw before when I first watched it. They fall in love over a summer, her parents don't like Noah, Noah goes to the war, comes back and Ally in engaged. Yep it's going to happen. 

        I guess I should probably tell her soon. It would probably be the best. I'm going to do it tomorrow night after work. I'm not going to plan it out, I'm just going to wing it and let her know straight on. I'm not going to be hesitant and scared, I'm just going to do what I have to do.

~~~~

         The day went quickly. It was just a normal day, no different then any other day. But I could tell she knew something was wrong with me, but she didn't say anything about it, she just went on with her normal business. When we talked I tried to act normal and not be awkward, I'm not sure if it was working though.