The Girl and The War

Chapter Seventeen- Kayla

A little after lunchtime my dad knocked on my door. I sighed. I didn't get up to open the door. I felt too weak to even move. "What." I said from my bed.

"Can I come in?" He asked quietly, such a shift in demeanor compared to the last few weeks.

"Yes." I replied. He slid open the door, he was carrying Moby in his hands. He put him on the bed and Moby ran to my arms. I didn't smile or laugh or celebrate, but I was relieved to see he was okay.

"I had Mrs. Turner take of him for the last few days." He said. I nodded. "I know you don't really want to celebrate your birthday with me or Lieutenants Jackson and Streeter, so I set up a dinner for you and Sam if you want to go." I looked up at him confused. Almost a month ago he told me he wouldn't let me see Sam ever again and now he was setting up dinner for us? As long as I've known him, I still couldn't figure out what was going on inside of his head. "It would be supervised, but just you two." Of course. He paused for a minute. "Well do you want to go?" He finished. I realized I hadn't said anything while he was talking.

"Sure." Was all I said. I knew I should have been more excited, but I just felt so weak. I really needed to eat more.

"Okay, well he will be here at 1800." My dad said.

"Is that 6:00pm?" I asked. Despite being on a military base I didn't use military time a lot, all my clocks were set normally.

"Yes dear." He said. "If you want, we have presents out here for you to open." He added.

"Maybe later" I said while petting Moby's belly who was now rolling around in bed.

"Okay." He said. Then he left and attempted to slide the door shut, but he didn't close it all the way. I heard him talk to Andrew.

"She doesn't want to open presents right now." My dad said.

"Maybe she's depressed?" Andrew said.

"Yeah maybe, I'll have her go to the infirmary tomorrow to meet with one of the doctors."

"That's a good idea." Andrew said. Then they started discussing the war. Maybe they were right. Maybe I was depressed. I use to feel so happy, but ever since the ball, I felt like something was missing in my life. It wasn't Sam, although I really did want to see him again. I just felt so empty. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. It was a little after 2:00pm. I decided to take a nap before dinner with Sam. I woke up around five, and dragged myself out of bed. I went back to my mirror and tried to clean myself up. I brushed my hair for at least an hour until I heard a knock on the door. I got up to answer, but my dad beat me to it.

"Wait there." He said to Sam. I didn't hear Sam's response. "Kayla! Sam's here!" My dad called.

"Coming!" I shouted back. I said goodbye to Moby and came out. Sam looked nice, he had a long sleeve blue shirt on that shaped his muscles nicely. He looked even stronger then had three weeks ago. "Hey." I said

"Hey, you look great, Happy birthday." He smiled. He was being nice, I knew I looked awful. I glanced at my dad and took Sam's arm as I finally left the apartment for the first time in weeks. As father promised, we would be supervised. Andrew was following us closely behind, but not close enough as to hear our conversation. "You alright?" Sam asked me as we entered the cafeteria. It had been set up similarly to how it was the night I ate with my father and the lieutenants, except a smaller table.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I told him.

"Are you sure? You look a little-"

"Tired?" I interrupted.

"Sad." He said. I glanced back at Andrew who was standing by door way.

"It's been a rough few weeks," I confessed. I told him how my dad kept me locked up at the suite and how he even took Moby from me.

"Kayla, that's terrible." He seemed shock. "I.. I had no idea otherwise I would have-"

"Rescued me?" I smiled, knowing he couldn't have done a thing. "It's fine, I think he will let me out from now on."

"No it's not fine Kayla, that's not normal, normal dad's don't lock their kids up for weeks at a time."

"He's not really my dad." I said. I felt guilty as soon as I said it, but it was true. My real dad was dead. "Can we change the subject?" I asked as we were served our dinner, steak, mash potatoes, and green beans. "What have you been up to the past few weeks."

"Nothing exciting, just training and more training." He smiled, but his eyes look sad.

"Do you miss your grandmother?" I asked him, assuming his sadness was attributed to homesickness.

"Yes of course, but I mostly just worry about her safety." Understandable. In the current state of this world, no ones safety was guaranteed. The two of us knew that all too well. "Oh and speaking of family, I got you something." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a long satin blue box. It had a little white bow wrapped around it. He handed it to me. I opened it up. It was a necklace, with a silver heart shaped locket at the center.

"Oh Sam, where did you get this? It's beautiful." I touched the necklace and felt the cool metal on my fingertip. Something like this was far too expensive for a recruit to purchase.

"It was my mother's." He said

"Sam, I can't accept this." I said closing the box and pushing it back to him.

"Sure you can," he said "it's a gift."

"Not if it was your mothers, I would feel terrible taking it from you."

"I want you to have it, besides it's not really my style." I laughed. "Can I put it on you?" He asked. I was so speechless I just smiled and nodded. He took it out of the box. I felt him rub my shoulder as he brushed my hair out the way. I turned towards him and we were only inches apart. It took everything in me not to kiss him.

"Thank you." I told him.

"Of course." He whispered back. He looked back at Andrew then took his seat again. The rest of the night he told me stories about his childhood. I laughed at all the funny memories he shared with his parents. But the stories made me sad. I didn't have memories like that with my own parents.

Sam finished his entire meal, before I even took my first bite. "Not hungry?" He asked.

"No, not really." I replied. I had a few bites of ice cream for dessert, but that was all I ate. We talked for hours even after dinner was over until Andrew disrupted us, saying that it was getting late.

"Yes, you should get to bed Sam, you probably get up a lot earlier than I do," I said while standing up.

"Let me walk you back to your suite at least" he said. I took his arm as we made our ascent back to my prison—I mean my home. I wanted to kiss him good night. But with Andrew watching intently, I settled on a hug. I didn't want to let him go, but I did. He wished me goodnight and left. Andrew and I entered the suite to where my father and Lieutenant Jackson were having beers. They turned towards me when I walked in.

"How was the dinner dear?" He asked.

"It was good. I'm a little tired though I think I'm going to head to bed." I told him. As I went to walk to my room I felt my knees wobble and I started seeing black splotches in the air. Then everything went black.