American Soldier

Chapter 6

"Mama!" Valerie yells excitedly upon seeing Camila.

"Hi princess." Camila smiled, scooping her daughter up off the ground.

The four year old immediately curls into Camila. "Missed you."

"I missed you too." Camila kissed the side of her daughter's head.

The little girl relaxes against Camila and closes her eyes.

"How were the kids? Were they good?" Camila asked Dinah and Normani.

"We had no problems with them, however Valerie wasn't happy that you weren't there to tuck her in." Normani responds, Dinah was distracted as she played with Aliyah.

Lauren came into the house, pulling her suitcase behind herself after checking on the dogs. "Where's Avery?" She asked, worriedly.

"He's with Keaton until seven." Dinah responds softly.

Lauren paled. "And you let him go with Keaton?"

"It's fine, he wanted to go." Dinah says softly.

"He wanted to go?" Lauren asked, frowning. Her heart sank in her chest. Avery told her he never wanted to see Keaton again and now he was voluntarily going with him.

"He just wanted to go because you weren't here." Normani tells her as she picks up Aliyah up.

Lauren sighed. "I think I'll go take a shower." She mumbled before walking past Camila and going up the stairs.

Sighing, Camila shifts Valerie in her arms. "She's been in a mood since Saturday night."

"A mood? What kind of mood?" Dinah asked, frowning. She shared a worried look with Normani.

"I think she's upset with me because she said it didn't take us long to reach climax and I got a little upset." Taking a deep breath, Camila runs a hand through her hair. "She suddenly didn't want to eat and I tried to get her to eat, we fought and I left the house to calm down."

Normani sighed. "She did that when she found out Chris was dead. She started randomly picking fights with me and Ally and then went off her food. She misses him and there's nothing we can do until she gets over it." She told Camila.

"I can't deal with this right now." Camila mumbles, passing Valerie to Dinah and leaving. She hadn't told them that they want her to come back to Iraq.

Normani sighed. "I guess they just need time to cool off."

Dinah nods her head and shifts a now sleeping Valerie. "This is either going to end really bad or be okay."

"What do you mean by end really badly?" Normani asked confused.

"Camila and I both got letters in the mail to come back to war." Dinah responds with a sigh.

"War? Why? Please don't go." Normani begged.

Dinah smiles softly. "I'm not going anywhere."

Normani relaxed a little. "Do you think Camila will go?"

"I don't know." the Polynesian responds softly.

****

Lauren stood under the warm shower water and sighed. She gripped her brother's dog tags in her hand tightly.

"I've been called back to Iraq." Camila says softly, stepping into the shower with Lauren.

Lauren visibly jumped and looked up at Camila. "What?" She didn't let go of her brother's tags.

"I've been called back to Iraq." the soldier responds.

"Why?" Lauren asked, frowning.

Sighing, Camila looks into Lauren's eyes. "They need help."