The Third Divide

Chapter Four

Alright so My plans for a longer third chapter kinda failed due to some... "technical" issues. but with any luck this should at least be 2 pages long :P

Dam it Nick. So now I was running head long into a very sticky situation, I wasn't even this scared when i was being chased by Sergeant Blackburn! Nick was jogging now and he was about fifty metres from the girl, lucky she had her head down and didn't see us running down the streets like dorks toward her.

Oh crap, Nick was already there, they were talking, I guess the fact she hadn't sent him away yet was a good sign. I was only twenty metres I thought i might get lucky and be able to sneak into the background. Two metres... One... Yes! i think i di-

"Hi Dean." She said without even taking her eyes off Nick.

"HI Laura." I said then, trying to start conversation. "How have you been?"

"You shouldn't be here." Still not looking at me.

"Hey come on you two, why cant you just get along?" Nick said rather diplomatically

"He knows perfectly well why." She was right i did.

"Maybe i should go." I said finally

"Oh no i wouldn't want to break up your fun for you two. I'll leave." And with that she walked off further down the street and turned a corner and was gone.

There she goes, the once upon a time love of my life, Laura Blackburn.

So Nick and I wonder about the market for another hour or 2 talking about nothing in particular until the stalls start to pack up and the sun starts to get closer to the mountains. Nick checks his watch and decides its probably time for him to leave so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. By this time there was only a few stalls left so I thought I'd better head home to although i was dreading the lecture i was undoubtedly going to get.

By the time I was about five hundred metres from the house the sun was half way down the mountains but even in the twilight I could make out the shape of my father barely fitting in the door frame. I shouldn't get to much of a yelling at, i mean Saturday used to be my day off anyway, they didn't tell me anything about yesterday changing that.

"Dean." Said dad when i was about fifty metres away. "Welcome home."

"Listen, I can explain, sat-."

"I'm sure you can explain but it wouldn't do you any good. I'm not mad at you son." He said in a very fatherly voice.

"Yo- You're not?" I replied, thoroughly confused.

"No. Now come inside, your mothers made us a delicious broth for dinner to night."

I entered the house and could smell the broth in the air, smelt like lamb and carrots, delicious indeed. I said hi to mum and poppy and we all sat around the table while mum ladled the broth into our bowls. after mum had said down dad lead us in prayer to the divines to bless us and thank them for the food we were about to eat. after a lot of 'mmm's' and 'ahh's' and 'this is delicious's' we all thanked mother for cooking us the food, which really was good, and went our separate ways throughout the house. I went to my room and just laid in bed thinking about the events of the day, though anything i thought of ended up going back to thinking about Laura and how beautiful she looked today with her wavy long brown hair, her breathtaking blue eyes, her wonderful slender, tall, graceful physic. My thoughts were interrupted then by the sound of a knock on my bedroom door.

"Can i come in?" Dad said even though he was opening the door and coming in as he said it.

"Yeah sure." Like i could just say no now and kick him out.

He walked over to the end of the bed and sat down causing me to sit up in the process, lest he crush my legs.

"I need to talk to you about something, something i probably should have told you yesterday when it happened." He said rather solemnly, this was getting me worried, dad is never solemn.

"What is it?" Though i had a feeling it might have been something to do with the talk he had with Blackburn which scared me even more.

"I didn't want to do it, believe me its the last thing i wanted to do, but Blackburn gave me no choice. It was either this or we'd have to pay the 500 Republics, we just don't have that kind of money."

"Just tell me what you did Jack!"I yelled, the stress getting to much.

"OK, OK. Well, Dean. I had to sign you up for service in the UR for 2 years as soon as you turn 18."

This dropped on me like a bomb, my first thought was how could dad do this to me? He's despised the UR ever since they dishonourably discharged him 10 years ago, never got a reason for it either. But soon after i realised that he had to, it was my fault, i got caught and i couldn't expect my family to pay the money. then i just felt acceptance, i knew i'd have to do it, i knew it was my fault.

"OK." I said finally. "OK. I think i can accept it."

"I'm sorry." I knew he meant it.

So now i was laying in bed about two hours later i was thinking about anything but everything ended up boiling down to either, being forced to join the UR, Laura, or what tomorrow will bring...