Just Your Average Military Girl (Chapter 3)

The ocean was so blue and looked so magical with the sun rising in the background. I let go of the curtain and climbed down from my bed. I walked over to my dresser and grabbed my running shorts and my plain white singlet. I changed quickly, eager to get running. It was only around four. I walked out of pool house and down the stairs heading towards the beach. It smelled the same as last night, everything just the same as I left it. I like that. I started to run, heading towards nowhere and yet knowing I will end up somewhere.

*****
I don’t know how long I have been running but the sun was up completely and there were a few people walking along the beach. My mp3 is playing some old jazz song with a beautiful saxophone solo. I had a friend back at town, he used to hang out at the small and restricted music shop. His name is Charles and I guess the closest thing to a best friend that I had, anyway he was the one who bought me the mp3 and he filled it with all his music. I don’t know why he did it or why he even liked me but a friend is a friend, right?

I running closer towards the house, I’m out of breath but I don’t stop. "Don’t ever stop and give up Aurora that’s a sign of weakness and I don’t accept weakness in my house!" My dad once yelled at me. Push, push, push, harder Aurora, harder. I thought to myself. I was running so fast that it surprised me, as well as the guy who just ran out of the water.
"Hey look out!" I yelled. He turned his head in my direction, his sandy blonde, curly hair bouncing. Then his bright blue eyes widened just before I slammed into him. I probably would have gotten serious whiplash if he didn’t grab me in time. Unfortunately we still fell, me on top of him. I felt very aware of his strong arms around me.

"You can open your eyes now." He whispered. I didn’t even realise that I had them closed. I flicked them open and looked into his blue eyes, there was something about them, something almost…broken, (through years of being on the outside I have come to read people very well). I was so absorbed at looking in his eyes that I didn’t see or even hear the water crash into us. We slid a little towards the dry sand, still me on top of him. I quickly jumped up and he did the same.
"I’m so sorry about that. I tried to stop-"

"It’s okay. No harm, no foul." It looked like he was studying me and I felt a little blush creep over my cheeks. I looked down and realized that my shirt was basically see through and made my stomach have abs and my black sports bra (crop top) was also showing.
"Well…I better be going."
"Right me to."
"Sorry again." I said as I walked by him, glancing one last time at his eyes. They sparkled a little and I gave him a small smile.
"See you round." He called as I began to jog towards the direction of the house. "I hope." He said quieter. I don’t think that was meant for my ears. I smiled a little wider and began to run back to the house.

I ran up the stairs and opened the fence door and took a few steps in, my eyes glued to the ground.
"AH!" I screamed, as a large dog jumped on top of me. He started to lick my face and I couldn’t help but smile, even if it was a little.
"BURGER!" I heard someone call. Then the dog, or burger, was pulled off me. I looked up and saw Marshall. "Sorry about that. He has just come home from the vet and…well he tends to get excited when he gets home."
"Oh its okay." He gave me a smile. "What?"
"Been swimming?" I looked down and remembered I was soaking wet.
"ah…yeah, long story."

"Right. Well anyway this is burger, he’s a Saint Bernard." He was still holding him by his collar. Well at least attempting to anyway. I took a few steps towards them and burger, whose tail was going a thousand miles per minute. I placed my hand on his head and stroked his soft fur.
"Hi burger, I’m Aurora." If it’s possible for dogs to smile, this one would definitely win in a contest. He started to lick my face and I giggled.
"He likes you. It’s rare that he likes someone."
"He’s cute." I stood up and looked at Marshall who was smiling at me. I always loved that smile.
"Well I better get dressed." I said.
"Right. Well mom said to come get you for breakfast."
"I’ll be up soon."

"Okay. I’ll see you then." He smiled at me one last time then left. Burger was know circling me, in a sort of protective way. Ever time I would take a step forward he would step in front of me.
"Burger this is really not going to work." I said as I kneeled down, he then fell on his back with his stomach facing me and his tail sweeping the ground.
"Oh so you want me to scratch your belly huh?" I started to scratch his stomach and at the same time his leg began to shake.
"Your one clever dog, you know that." I stood up and walked towards the door and burger was in front of me again.

"Burger." I whined. "Who’s that?! Who’s that boy!?" I said in a high-pitched voice. He started to walk in the direction of the house. I quickly ran to my room and shut the door. I heard him whining outside my room.
"I’ll be out soon burger, I promise." I heard him whin even louder. I grabbed my jeans and my baggy grey shirt and walked into the bathroom. I had a quick shower and got dressed, tying at small knot at the bottom of the grey shirt so it was showing a little bit of skin but not to much and briefly outlined my top part. I let my long hair out to dry and walked out towards the house. It took me like twenty minutes because burger kept on circling me. But I got there.

"Good Morning." Geneva said.
"Morning." Everyone was at the table eating furiously. I walked over to the my seat from last night.
"Hey Aurora. How are you?" Rodger asked.
"Great."
"I guess you’ve met burger." He said gesturing his head to the dog sitting behind me. I wonder how he got in, I swear I closed the door. "Evan taught him to open the door on his own. I think he can even lock it." He said, I guess he noticed the confusion on my face.
"Smart dog." I muttered again.
"Okay everyone I have an announcement!" Julie yelled beside me. The whole table went quiet. I was quite surprised. I turned to face Julie with them. "As you all know Wayne and I have been dating for a while and I really want him to meet the family so he will be coming over tomorrow night."

I looked at everyone’s reaction and they either rolled their eyes or shook their heads. I wonder what is wrong with this Wayne guy.
"Oh, ah…that’s…great honey. Is there…anything you would like me to cook." Geneva said trying to sound happy with the idea.
"Well Wayne has to go on this like super strict diet cause of his role in the play-"
"I thought he had like one line?" Lauren said.
"It doesn’t matter how many lines you have, it’s about the performance and how seriously you take it." She said coldly, "anyway he can’t eat carbs or fats and he is only eating grilled salmon with lemon and garlic sauce and salad."

"Oh…well then…I will go shopping." Geneva said. I looked down at all the kids and they were all fake gagging of some sort. I almost laughed at that.
"Great! I can’t wait to tell him!" She had a big smile on her face, I guess she really liked this guy. She looked down at her watch, "Oh it’s time to go. I will see you all later!" She grabbed a piece of toast and kissed her mom and dad goodbye before walking out the door.
"Yeah I got to go to." Someone said.
"Yeah me too." Someone else said.
"O I’m late, I have to me Jennifer." Marshall said. For some reason that stung.
"I’m going to go to the library and attempt to explain to Jessie Aarons, that basic calculus is knowing the power rule," Evan said, "Aurora would you like to join me?" He said it in a shy voice and was blushing. It was cute but creepy at the same time.
"Well I was actually going to…ah-"

"Go shopping with me, weren’t you Aurora?" Genève said, she gave me a wink and I gave her a small smile. I looked back at Evan who had a face like a kid who was just told that his puppy just ran away.
"Maybe some other time Evan."
"Promise?" His face suddenly lit up. Crap.
"Um, sure."
"Cool!" He then turned and joined Marshall. "See Marshall I told you I had game."
"Yeah dude you’re a natural playboy." He slapped his shoulder and he turned to me and winked. I smiled at him.
"Wow, you know I would have thought you would have lasted longer." Rodger said. I turned to face him.
"What?"

"Mr Irresistible over there. You feel for his charms, among the other thousands of girls here."
"I have not feel for his "charms"."
"Well with the way you look at him and he looks at you, I beg to differ."
"I’m sorry is that jealousy I hear?"
"Pfft, pfft, jealousy. Jealous of what? I am so out of your league it makes me want to laugh, ha, ha, ha. Jealous?" He got up from the table and was still fake laughing up the stairs. I giggled, I knew he was joking a) because of his tone and b) because he was blushing a bright red when I brought it up. As much as I think he is hot, Rodger will always be my big brother.
I looked around and saw that it was just Geneva and I. She had a smile plastered on her face.

"What?" I asked, shyly.
"Nothing, you just remind me so much of her."
"Hardly. I will never be like her."
"You might be surprised. Anyway we should get going." Genève got up and started to clear the plates away. I helped her.

After we finished with the dishes we walked out of the house and to her car, which is actually smaller than I expected, it was a normal everyday car.
"Let me guess, you were expecting a minivan right?" She said. They are very observant people.
"Yes…sorry." I said shyly.
"It’s okay, honestly everyone expects it as well. But we live so close to everything that we didn’t find the need for one."
"Oh right."

We got into her car and backed out of the driveway. She wasn’t actually lying when she said they were close to everything, it was a five minute drive. We ended up in a car park of a huge shopping center, like crazy big but I guess considering they are on an island, away from nowhere a big shopping center would be needed.
I closed the car door and followed Geneva, who was heading towards the entrance of the shopping center. We were almost to the door when I heard some guys wolf whistling. I looked over at a group of pretty hot guys sitting and smoking, well some of them anyway and they had tattoos up their arms, which actually looked pretty sexy. Although I didn’t really know whether to be flattered or creped out so I turned my head to look at Genève who was giggling at me. I rolled my eyes and turned my head forward. We were inside and I slowly turned my head back to the direction of the guys and they were starting to walk towards the entrance.

"Ah, can we hurry, like now." I said grabbing Genève’s arm and making her walk quickly.
"They were cute Aurora." She whispered to me, as we were about to walk into the supermarket.
"They could be like mass murders or like belong to a sort of gang or something."
"Aurora I know the people on this island like family, if there was some sort of gang or mass murders on the island I think I would know about it."
"Look I’m not a…boyfriend, hook up or have a crush sort of girl."
"No?" She said surprised.
"No, well I actually never had a…boyfriend." I coughed.
"What?!" She almost yelled. "Never?"

"No, my father didn’t really approve of me having a life." We were in the vegetable section now and I was now fondling a tomato, (the closest I have come to the action of fondling).
"Well you should really start. I mean you a young, beautiful girl and you should, you know…be putting yourself out there."
"Um…right." That was really weird.
"You should go talk to those guys."
"Really, I just want to…get settled in first."
"Oh right, of course." Even as she said it a sly smile came across her face. I remember my mother telling me about that smile whenever she saw Marshall and I playing. That sent a shiver down my spine, whether it was due to that fact sounding delightful or not…well I will let you know.

I was pushing the cart now, while Geneva grabbed every ingredient imaginable from the shelf. Genève was behind me as I pushed the shopping cart around the corner.
BANG! The sound was loud as my cart crashed into the other persons. I looked up to apologize when I saw it was the boy from the beach this morning. A smile crossed his face, bringing it to life.
"We have really got to stop meeting like this." He said, his voice sounding even more seductive than this morning.
"Yeah, uh sorry." I said blushing a little.
"It’s okay, no big deal." I looked up and saw him throw me another dazzling smile. I gave a small smile in return.

"Aurora did we get the-" she stopped abruptly when she saw the boy and me. "Oh, hi Wes, how are you today?"
"I’m great Mrs Stanley, how are you?"
"Not too bad. So I see you have meet my beautiful goddaughter, Aurora."
"Goddaughter? Wow. And yes I did have the pleasure in meeting her, this morning actually."
"More of a collision. Sorry again."
"Its fine, Aurora." He smiled a little wider. Who would have thought that a guy could make my name sound so…delish. A smaller woman rounded the corner, she had the same blue eyes and blonde hair as Wes and looked sort of like him.
"Oh Geneva! I haven’t seen you in a while."
"I know it’s been forever." Geneva said.

"And how is this lovely looking lady?" The women said.
"How rude of me. Aurora this is Beatrix, Beatrix this is my goddaughter Aurora."
"It’s a pleasure to meet you Aurora." Beatrix said.
"Yes, you too." I looked over at Geneva and suddenly that smile creped up onto her face. Oh no!
"You know Beatrix, we sure do have some catching up to do and I’m sure these kids don’t want to hang out in a supermarket-"
"You are so right Geneva. You kids should go off and see a movie or something." I looked a Beatrix and saw a mirror image of Geneva. I looked at Wes who was rolling his eyes.
"Very subtle you to." He said. They giggled together.
"Well run along you to and take all the time you need."

"Yes, Wes can drive you home as well Aurora. You have enough money right?" She said to Wes. Wes nodded his head. I stood there for a moment, not really sure what I’m supposed to do now. Keep in mind I have never actually been on a date!
"Well don’t just stand around here all day! Get a move on." Genève said as she shooed Wes and I towards the exit. We walked out together. I turned back around and saw that they were looking at us smiling. I guess Wes saw them as well because he was chuckling.
"It’s funny how they can be so direct without actually being direct." He said.
"Well they weren’t really subtle." I smiled and shook my head a little.
"You look beautiful when you smile." I shot my head up to look at him and he looked a little shocked, "I’m sorry, that wasn’t really supposed to come out."
"It’s okay…thank you." I looked to the ground again.

"Well what would you like to do?"
"Um, I don’t know."
"That’s a good start I guess. Room for creativity I guess."
"I think you will find that I am not that creative."
"I doubt that, everyone can be creative you just have to have the right thing inspire you."
"Wow, nice line."
"Thanks I got it off the back of a wheeties box."
I laughed at that. It was the first time in a long time that I have heard that sound freely fall from my lips.
We were just walking when I looked up and saw a jewelery store. It had a thick, plastic tree stalk in the middle of it with plastic branches coming out everywhere and about a hundred different necklaces hanging down from it, all silver. It was quite a small shop, considering the hug stalk but it looked like it had nice stuff. There were cases behind it with more necklaces, bracelets and rings as well as other jewelery.

"Want to go in?" Wes asked. I realized I had been standing there for a while staring.
"Um, okay." We have nothing else to do I guess.
"I know the owner. She is pretty nice although she is one of those people who get really nervous about stuff."
"What does she get nervous about." We were practically in the store.
"About absolutely everything. On a good day though the list lessens by one." A guy from behind me said. I turned around and saw a tall man, with dark brown hair that was slicked back, he has rather bright hazel eyes, more green. He was actually quite handsome and looked around twenty eight. He also looked very familiar.
"It’s good to see you again Wes. Haven’t seen you in a while."
"Yeah, new job is keeping me busy."

"Well I would think so considering it is the summer."
"Marc this is Aurora, Geneva and Trent’s goddaughter."
"Really, oh well it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Marc Rottler, the owners fiancée." He said proudly.
"I think the whole world knows now Marc."
"Well if you had a girl like Emily, who I might add took me six months to agree to get her to date me, you would be telling everyone to that she is your fiancee."
"Yes, yes I know," Wes said, he turned his head to me slightly, "Marc asked Emily to marry him on their anniversary."
"Yeah so?" I said.
"Their anniversary was eight months ago. She told him yes last week."
"Oh, well…congratulations."
"Thank you very much."
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" A lady yelled from behind us. We all turned and I looked over to a younger women standing behind a counter looking like she was about to explode.
"Sweetie? Sweetie what is it?" Marc asked rushing towards her, with us in foot.

She was a petite lady, she didn’t look over One hundred and thirty pounds. She had jet-black hair with bright green eyes and quite a pretty face.
"I have lost the keys to the front door and now I am going to have to stay here all night, which is okay since I don’t sleep anyway but what if robbers come. Oh my god, I will have to fight them off. Oh my god that means I will have to learn karate. Do you think I will be able to learn it by tonight? But that will mean I will have to leave the store! Which is the whole point in getting the god damn karate lessons." It all came out in a rush.
"See what I mean." Wes whispered. I nodded my head and bit back a laugh.
"Emily honey calm down okay. Remember what your therapist said, take deep, calming breathes. In and out, in and out, in-"
"I swear to god Marc if you say in and out one more time I will kick your butt…when I learn how to."

"It’s okay Emily we will find the key, what does it look like?" Wes asked.
"Its gold with red jewels down the side of it and it is on a long blue ribbon."
I looked around and found it still fitted one of the locks of the cases.
"Do you mean that one?" I said pointing to the key.
"Yes!" She exclaimed, whilst throwing her hands in the air. She pulled it out of the lock and walked over to us.
"Wait who are you? And what is your name?" She tightened her grip on the key.
"Em relax this is Aurora, Geneva and Trent’s goddaughter."
"Oh really?" She said breathing out a little but she didn’t let go of the key.
"She is on a date with me." Wes said. I looked up at him and he had a calm face. I felt suddenly self-conscious, of my clothes, my hair even my body. Is this normal? I will have to ask Geneva, or better yet Julia.

"Really? What happened to that other girl? You know the smart, blonde haired one?"
"Krista and I broke up."
"Oh sorry. Well at least she is prettier." She said gesturing to me.
"Um…thanks?" Okay a) I don’t know why people here are calling me pretty and b) when they do it, it sounds almost fake or insulting.
"Well thanks for helping me find the key."
"No problem." She relaxed her grip and let her hand fall to the side.
"Well we are just going to look around." Wes said. We walked past the necklaces and there were all different types, some had silver roses, others hearts, some with hummingbirds and some with a bunch of different things. They were all quite beautiful. I moved to the cases and looked at the different rings and then something hit me. I turned to face Emily and Marc who where discussing something.

"Blue in green?" I asked, referring to the music playing softly in the background. She looked up at me.
"You know this song."
"Yeah Miles Davis is one of my favourite artists."
"I think you would get along with Wes over there just fine. He is the one who burns all the music for my shop."
"Really?" I asked turning to face him.
"Yeah, it’s no big deal, just something I do in my spare time."
"I almost hyperventilated when he brought them to me, I thought it was going to be some sort of rock or heavy metal but when I played it and the music was simple jazz, I liked it."
"You should have seen her face, I thought she was going to go into cardiac arrest before she hit the play button." Marc said. I smiled, because I CAN actually picture it.
"Your jewelery is so beautiful."

"Thanks. I wish more people would think that."
"You’re going to be fine."
"Yeah, yeah you have to say that."
"Just because I have to doesn’t mean I don’t mean it." He grabbed her waist and pulled him into her and for a split second I could see my parents. I turned back towards the jewelery. I looked up at the necklaces hanging from the tree and one necklace caught my eye. It looked exactly like my mothers. I lost it amongst her things when we packed them away. I spent hours and hours searching for it but it was nowhere to be found. It was a long, thin sliver necklace with a small ballerina on it. It was only about the size of half of my finger but I reached out and took it off one of the hooks of the branch. My mother used to be a ballet dancer, she used to tell me about her adventures traveling around the world dancing. She told me she bought her necklace in Paris, where she danced for the first time and she never took it off, she believed it was good luck.

"That’s really pretty." Wes said.
"It reminds me of my mothers." I said without thinking. Before he could say anything I walked to the counter.
"I will have this one please."
"Ah I remember when I made this. I got an idea from a lady who I saw years ago. She was quite beautiful actually. Anyway her necklace gave me this idea." I sucked in a breath. It couldn’t be? Could it?
"Was she tall, with brown hair that had streaks of a honey color?"
"Yes, a bit like your hair actually."
"That was my mother." I breathed. I could feel tears start to well. I WILL NOT CRY. I thought to myself. "I-I have to go." I turned and rushed out of there, forgetting the necklace, even when I realized that I actually had no money to buy it. I ran outside, past those guys who started to wolf whistle me.
I found a seat that over looked the ocean. I quickly sat down, taking deep breathes. The tears slowly went away. That was a close one.

"Aurora!" Wes said a little breathless. "Jeez you run fast."
"Sorry about that. I…I just couldn’t-"
"It’s okay. No big deal." He came and sat next to me. "Guess what?" He said with a little smile creping on his face. I turned a little back towards the parking lot then faced the ocean again.
"I freaked Emily out thus making her nervous that she said something wrong."
His smile dropped. "How did you guess?"
"Because she is standing in front of the entrance, looking like she is debating whether to come over or not."
He turned his head and laughed a little when he saw her.
"Wow, you think that would surprise me." He muttered.
"I should go and apologize."

"Right but first…" He pulled a small box out of his pants.
"Please tell me you didn’t buy it?"
"Well, I could see that it meant a lot to you."
"I will pay you back."
"It’s okay Aurora really."
"Please Wes just let me pay you back."
"No one ever says no to you do they."
"Not if I can help it."
"Fine, but it doesn’t have to be right away."
"Good because I don’t haven’t any money."
"Oh."

"Have you heard of any places that are hiring."
He was silent for a minute. "You know what I think I have the perfect place."
He turned his head to face the building then back to me with a dazzling smile on his face.
"Come on." He said as he grabbed my hand and led me towards the entrance of the mall. We walked in and I was wondering were he was taking me then before I knew it we were walking towards Emily’s store. We walked in and they both turned and looked at us, Marc was calm where as Emily had a worried expression on her face.
"Emily I think I have the perfect person for you."
"What are you talking about Wes?"

"Well you know how you have been needing to hire someone for almost a year now and you have declined about a hundred people, well I think I have found you the perfect person."
"Her?"
"Me?"
"Yes I think you would be perfect for Emily."
"I second that motion." Marc said with a smile on his face.
"Marc, I told you I’m fine handling the shop on my own."
"Oh come on Em, at least give it a try. How will you know she isn’t what your looking for if you don’t give her a chance to prove herself."
"But what about when school starts?"

"Actually I got my GED when I was sixteen."
"Seriously?" Marc said.
"Yeah, my dad was military."
"Really? Mine too." Marc said.
"Okay fine. One chance. When can you start?"
"Whenever."
"Alright tomorrow morning, at nine o’clock sharp."
"Okay. Thank you."
"Well I better be getting Aurora home. See you guys tomorrow morning." Wes said.
"Bi." I said.
"See you later." Marc said as he leaned in and kissed Emily’s head. I could really see how much he loved her.

I turned and followed Wes out of the mall towards the parking lot. He led me to his car, which was a shiny black BMW, SUV.
"This is your car?"
"Well it’s technically my mother’s car but she gave it to me."
"Wow."
"Get in." I opened the door and had to use the handle bar to hoist myself up.
"I have a question." I asked him as he left the car park.
"Shoot."
"Who does Marc remind me of?"
He chuckled, "you really haven’t figured it out yet?" I shrugged.
"Have you ever heard of the instant messaging program site live fi."
"Yeah."

"Well he owns it, well he actually created it."
"Oh right. I can’t believe I didn’t see that."
"Well you’re the first." We were at the house now. He turned into the driveway. I turned to face him.
"Thank you so much for today and the necklace."
"Your welcome."
We’re looking into each other’s eyes and I know that we are having a ‘moment’ like what they show in the movies but I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t skilled in this area, no one ever taught me about this part. Slowly he lend in and my breaths were getting shallow. He placed one palm on the side of my cheek and I titled my head a little in the opposite direction, (I knew that much from watching movies), and slowly and ever so gently the touched. His lips were soft and warm and I didn’t actually know how to feel at this point. I always thought that this would be weird and disgusting but it was in fact the complete opposite. It was nice and made me feel alive, like I was running except I wasn’t actually moving anywhere. Then he pulled away and gave me a dazzling smile. I smiled back.
"Thank you." I blurted out and immediately I felt my cheeks flush. He chuckled.
"Your welcome."
"I’m going to go now. Bi." I quickly got out of the car and hurried to the door. I turned back and saw him wave. I did the same.

Yes I think I will like this place very much in deed.