The Wind Through The Dog Tags

**Zena**

“Jesse! Wait up,” I hollered down the hall.

Jesse stopped and turned around. He sarcastically looked at his wrist where a watch would sit, then smiled back at me.

“It would be greatly appreciated if you could take your conversation somewhere other than the middle of the hall,” I politely told the group of babbling eighth grade girls in front of me, who were all star struck at being waved at by Jesse Smith. 

They looked insulted till they saw who I was and quickly moved. It had perks being the small town star athlete’s best friend.

“Took you long enough.”

“Sorry I had to get around a party of your adoring fans,” I retorted.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that next year. Z, we need to talk.”

“You’re taking me to your house, since my truck won’t be fixed till tomorrow, so I guess that gives us time to talk. What do you want to talk about?”

“I’ll tell you when we get in the truck. Isn’t Brock riding with us, right?”

“Your little brother has other plans and his own truck,” I mumbled.

“What did he do,” Jesse chuckled.

“He stole my flash drive. I turned in my paper and was told to stop copying his work! Again!”

“Why don’t you just tell Mom?”

“Unlike you, some people aren’t snitches. I can handle this myself.”

 “Whatever you say,” Jesse smiled and opened my door.

“I guess Pop is rubbing off on you,” I laughed.

“Oh shut it!”

I laughed at the memory of telling Jesse he needed to learn how to be a gentleman from his grandfather, as he walked around the truck and got in.

“What did you want to talk about,” I questioned as we pulled out of the school. 

“Well as you know, graduation is next Friday.”

“Yeah which means I only have a week left to annoy the crap out of you and to deal with your fan girls being in my way all the time.”

“I leave in July.”

“Oh? What school did you pick?”

Jesse sighed deeply as we headed out of town toward his house, “The United States Air Force.”

“Come again?”

“I leave July 12th for basics.”

I burst out laughing. This is defiantly one of the better pranking Jesse had tried on me.

“Zena, I’m serious. I leave on July 12th.

I stopped laughing when I heard him use my real name. He never called me Zena.

“You’re completely serious aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to tell you. I was so scared you would be mad at me.”

I looked away from him. I leaned up and turned up the radio. I couldn’t talk to him about this right now. I had to think. Was I mad at him? Was I in shock? I leaned back in my seat as the Dixie Chicks sang The Traveling Soldier.

“Nope! Not right now,” I yelled at the radio as I quickly changed the channel.

I looked everywhere, but at Jesses the final 10 minutes it took us to get to his house. As soon as he put the truck in park I jumped out and ran to the shed behind the house. I took the key out of Brock’s 4-wheeler, shoving it into my pocket as I got on Jesse’s 4-wheeler. I started it and took off.