Conflicted: Keegan's Chronicles (17 page)

“You are gorgeous,” he murmured, one arm
curling around her to drag her body against his. “I can’t believe
you even give me the time of day.”

“You are ridiculous. I’m the lucky one.”
Keegan put her arms around his waist as he leaned down to kiss
her.

“Get a room!” someone yelled.

Donald laughed and Keegan’s face turned
bright red.

“Let’s go dance.” Donald pulled her into the
next room.

Keegan glanced around and couldn’t get over
the extravagance of the place. A huge chandler hung above them and
tables lined the walls overflowing with food. A live band was
playing, complete with light show and disco ball. Keegan barely
knew the girl who was throwing the party, but she had gone all
out.

She smirked at Donald, amused. “I see you
learned some new moves.”

“Yep, thanks to your Christmas present. Give
me another week and I’m asking Lauren for a rematch.”

Keegan glanced around trying to catch a
glimpse of Anna or Lauren but there were too many people. “Where
are the rest of the guys?”

“No idea, and I don’t really care. I just
want to be with you.” He touched the side of her face and smiled
down at her.

“Let’s grab a drink before I get dehydrated
from all this dancing.” Keegan led him off the dance floor and to
the food, where she grabbed a plate and filled it with snacks.

“Do you want soda or a drink?” Donald
asked.

“Soda or punch is fine.”

“Ok, I’ll go get in line.”

She watched as he walked off with his lazy
gait and smiled to herself.

“There you are. I have been looking all over
for you.” Lauren screamed over the music.

“I can hear you fine. What’s up and where is
Josh?”

“I just broke up with him. He’s so
upset.”

“I thought you were going to wait till the
end of the school year?”

“I figured I might as well get it over with
now. It’s kind of cruel to lead him on.”

“That’s true. Are you ok?”

“Not really. I need a drink.”

“Go tell Donald, he’s in the line.”

Lauren gave her a thumbs-up and glided away,
scanning the drinks line for Donald.

Later, Keegan reflected that telling Lauren
to get a drink was probably not the best idea she had ever had. She
stood in the bathroom, the sounds of the party muffled by the
closed door, and held Lauren’s mass of dark curls back as her
friend got sick in the toilet.

Supporting a very heavy Lauren on the side
of her own body, Keegan escorted her out of the house. The cold air
seemed to sober Lauren enough for Keegan to let her fall to the
white wicker couch on the front porch while she texted Donald and
Anna that they needed to leave.

“Too much?” Donald asked, tugging his big
black coat on as he closed the front door behind him.

Keegan turned around to find Lauren had
fallen over, her face planted in the cushions as she snored.

“At least she’s breathing,” Keegan sighed.
“Can you take us home?”

“Of course.”

Once Anna joined them, they all piled into
Donald’s car. Keegan was exhausted by the time she got home and put
Lauren in bed.

Tommy and Rourk both made it through Airborne
school.

Rourk was surprised he ended up having a lot
of fun. Tommy struggled because he had a fear of heights. Somehow,
with Rourk’s encouragement, he managed to make it through
unharmed.

Once again, Rourk found himself singled out
as the Distinguished Honor Graduate. This time, however, neither
Tommy nor Rourk had any family in the crowd.

They were given a weekend pass, before they
had to head to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for the Special Forces
selection process. The initial selection process was only three
weeks long. If they made it through that, it would depend on which
field they were placed in. The training would be anywhere from six
months to over a year.

Tommy was really nervous that he wouldn’t be
selected. If Rourk had anything to say about it, he would make it
through with flying colors. Having Tommy around made the days go by
quicker. Keeping an eye on the kid gave Rourk something to do to
keep his mind busy, to keep his thoughts off Keegan. He couldn’t
help but think that Keegan would really like Tommy. He hoped
someday they would be able to meet.

“Come on, Tommy, let’s get out of this
place.” Rourk said, grabbing the last of his things.

Tommy followed suit, checking around the
room one last time before he closed the door. “Right behind you. If
I never came back to Fort Benning it would be too soon.”

“Let’s get a hotel downtown. We can get some
real food, and maybe catch a movie.”

“We should try to get into a bar.” Tommy
laughed.

“I don’t drink Tommy.”

“I’m not talking getting drunk, man. Maybe
we could just get a couple of beers.”

“My mother was killed by a drunk
driver.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry, I had no idea. You’re
not exactly an open book when it comes to your personal life.”

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”

“Maybe we can find a mall and try to pick up
some girls.”

Rourk stared at Tommy for a moment. Rourk
was not interested in girls, but it might do Tommy good to get his
mind off his ex-girlfriend. “Sure, we could try that. I’m not very
good around females though. So I’ll sit back and take notes from
you.”

Tommy chuckled. “I’ll give you some
pointers. First one, you need to learn to relax.”

Rourk and Tommy caught a taxi to a nearby
hotel where they booked separate rooms. They had been bunk mates
for so long; some solitude was just what Rourk needed. After they
cleaned up, they went out for dinner, then grabbed a taxi to the
mall.

It was small and run down. It was already
getting dark outside, and shoppers were few and far between.

“I don’t know if you are going to have any
luck with girls in here, Tommy,” Rourk remarked as they strolled
down the aisle towards the main shopping area.

“Let’s go to the bookstore. There are always
hot chicks hanging out there.”

Rourk thought of how many times he had seen
Keegan getting her white chocolate mocha at bookstores. “Sure,
sounds good. I could use a cup of coffee.”

They spent a couple of hours at the mall,
and Rourk stood back and watched as Tommy got turned down again and
again. It was pretty funny, he had to admit.

"One more time, Rourk. Let's go talk to
those two girls." He nodded towards a brunette and blond sitting in
the food court. Rourk shook his head and followed.

Tommy walked up and put his hand on the
table. "So ladies, how would you like to hang out with me and my
buddy over there? We're going to be green berets."

The blond looked up at him and said, "Get
lost."

Tommy turned towards Rourk and shrugged his
shoulders. "Alright let's go watch a movie."

Rourk had to give him credit for trying. A
few good movies had come out since they had entered basic training
over three months ago. It was hard to believe it was already
February.

***

Once the weekend was over, they were back in
their bunks to pack for Ft. Bragg. They were traveling by a van
since there weren’t many of them left.

“Rourk, I’m scared.”

“You should be scared, Tommy. This is the
make or break point. If you make it through the next three weeks,
more than likely in less than a year you will be wearing a green
beret. If you don’t make it, you’ll be thrown back to the regular
army.”

“Thanks, that was encouraging.”

“Well, you need to know how important this
is. I know you can make it.”

“You really think I’ll make it?”

Rourk smiled over at Tommy. “I really
do.”

“Well, I can’t let you down so I guess I’m
going to have to get selected.”

“I guess so.” Rourk leaned back against the
seat and closed his eyes.

“Well, at least we shouldn’t have to clean
floors once we get there.”

“Let’s hope not. I’ve cleaned enough floors
and bathrooms to last me a lifetime.”

“They didn’t tell us that part at the
recruiter’s.” Tommy laughed.

“Yeah, the recruiter seemed to leave out all
the good parts.”

Like all training, time seemed to fly. After
a couple of weeks of “indoctrination” phase, where they did tons of
physical exercise in preparation for the selection phase, they
finally got a class date.

They shipped out to Camp MacKall, North
Carolina, less than an hour away from Ft. Bragg. The selection
class started with 345 “candidates” as they were called. Within the
first week, they had lost 50 from the PT test, swim test, and those
that chose to leave because they realized they had bitten off more
than they could chew.

Rourk and Tommy were in different huts,
which is what they called the large barracks buildings the
candidates stayed in, but they saw each other several times
throughout the day and spent any free time they had hanging
out.

The second week was spent running through
the woods doing land navigation from point to point. Rourk thought
the course lanes were almost laughable in how short they were
compared to what he was used to. Each night he checked on Tommy to
see how he was doing and to make sure to keep his morale up.

“I don’t know man. I only found two points
today. I think there were four. They’re gonna drop me for
sure.”

“Relax, Tommy. They don’t expect you to do
everything perfect. They don’t even expect you to find all the
points. If you do, it’s a bonus. They just want to see that you
have the ability to continue to drive on even when things suck. As
long as you don’t quit and show them you have the drive, you’ll
make it. You’re doing good.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t even look
tired. I’m beat down. How many points did you find today?”

“Four. After four points, they had me sit
over and start up a fire. And I may not seem like it, but I’m tired
too. I just happen to be in a little better shape than you. Don’t
worry about it. Don’t think about the negative, just keep thinking
about the positive and your mantra. Say it for me.”

“It’s all mind games. Countless others have
made it and so can I.”

After the second week, almost half of the
class was gone. They had a couple of days of rest where they
weren’t running around in the woods, but still didn’t get any more
sleep and instead had some grueling log and rifle PT sessions. Not
as many were quitting as when they had first arrived, but each day,
one or two more candidates would show up at the cadre’s door,
knock, and voluntarily withdraw, or VW, from the course.

By the start of the third week, what they
were calling SR week, there were 170 candidates left. They were
placed into 12 separate teams with 14 or 15 men each. Again, Rourk
and Tommy were not together.

After the end of the first day, Rourk found
Tommy sitting on his bed taking care of some of the blisters on his
feet.

“How’d today go?” Rourk asked as he sat down
on Tommy’s bunk.

“Ugh, probably about the same as yours. How
many guys from your team quit?”

“Three. We started with the ammo crate
carry. Within the first two kilometers, the first two VW’d. After
lunch and right before we started the second event, the third guy
went up to the cadre and VW’d. Left us with an odd number, but gave
us an extra rest man.”

“My team lost five. What the hell? I can’t
say it didn’t cross my mind a couple of times while as my grip was
giving out that it would be easier to just call it than suffering
through this, but I didn’t want to let you down. What the hell does
SR stand for anyway?”

“Situation, Reaction. Typical military,
putting an acronym to everything. Don’t think of it as letting me
down, think of it as letting yourself down. Look how far we’ve come
already?” Rourk moved to the floor and started to stretch a bit.
His legs were starting to get stiff sitting on the bunk.

“I know, it’s pretty crazy.”

At the end of the 24 days, both Rourk and
Tommy were standing in formation waiting to hear if their roster
number would be called.

“Listen up candidates,” the Senior Assessor
Cadre addressed them. “If I call your number off, fall out of
formation and move into classroom number 2.”

The tension and nervousness was in the air
as numbers were called out in random order. “17, 64, 311, 224,
152…” In all, twenty-seven numbers of the 133 candidates left were
called. Neither Rourk or Tommy’s number was called.

After the last candidate that was called had
entered into the classroom, the Senior Assessor Cadre looked over
the ones that were left. “Congratulations men. You’ve been
successfully selected for further training.

Over half of those standing let out a cheer.
Rourk smiled and looked over at Tommy, who had a grin from ear to
ear and was shaking the hands of those who stood around him. After
they were dismissed, Tommy came over to Rourk and shook his
hand.

“We did it!”

“Yes we did. I told you that you would make
it.”

“Of course, it’s not over yet. We still need
to find out what our MOS will be, and from there how much longer
our training will be.” Tommy ran his hand through his hair.

“Do you have a preference?” Rourk glanced
over at Tommy.

“I’m hoping for Medic, but I’m not sure if
my scores are high enough.” Tommy said.

“That’s another year of training. I’m hoping
for anything, but medic.” Rourk laughed. “Where do you want to be
stationed?”

“It doesn’t really matter to me. What about
you?”

“I’m hoping for Washington State, 1st
Group.”

“Really? Why? It’s cold and rainy there
man.”

“I like cold and rainy.”
Not really.
However, for
whatever reason Keegan’s dream was to go to Alaska. Rourk would
really prefer to stay near Tennessee and go to 5th group at Fort
Campbell, Kentucky. He only planned on staying the initial four
years, and then he would go back to the Army of the Light so it
didn’t really matter where he lived.