Here it is... the penultimate chapter. I wrote this one and the next/final one together, but due to mammothocity, broke it into two. As always, thanks to my editor, AnInsatiableReader, for helping me clean it up. When I send it to her, it looks nothing like the finished product you're about to read. Also thanks to samuraisan, who gave this and the next chapter a beta read.
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Day 18
Sunday, June 29, 2007
Grand Junction, CO to Pocatello, ID
I woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. The sun was up, but just barely. There were strange sounds around me, and even though I listened carefully for a few moments, I couldn't make them out. I realized I was lying on a blanket in the grass, and I was actually pretty cold. Where the hell was I?
I sat up and looked around, and the memories of just a few hours ago rushed back to me. Of course - I was in the Marine Corps recruiting tent, lying on a blanket I'd bought the night before. The sounds around me must have been the other nearby vendors, mostly food trucks, getting ready for the last day of the festival.
Nicole was lying right next to me, and I looked down at her - no, she wasn't.
Nicole was gone.
I looked around, but she was nowhere in the tent. I scrambled outside and searched around frantically. The sun was just above the horizon to my left, giving me more than enough light to tell she was nowhere in sight. I was still shirtless, and the cold morning air was covering my upper body with goosebumps and making my nipples hard enough to cut glass. I retreated into the tent and found my T-shirt lying in a heap on top of the blanket, where I'd been using it as a pillow.
I had no idea how long she'd been gone, but she'd taken everything with her except the blanket. I was generally a pretty sound sleeper, and she'd obviously been able to get up, gather her things and slip away without waking me.
How could she do this? She told me she felt as strongly about me as I did about her, so how could she just vanish in the middle of the night, leaving nothing behind?
Well, nothing was the wrong word - when I picked up the blanket, I noticed a piece of fabric tucked underneath, on the side she'd been sleeping on. It was a yellow thong, and lifting it to my nose, I could definitely smell the traces of her arousal. She'd left me no way to contact her, but she'd just ensured I'd never forget her.
Not that there was any chance of that happening anyway.
I wanted to throw up. I'd never see her again, and the thought made me sick to my stomach.
I stuffed the thong in my pocket and collapsed onto one of the recruiting tables in a dazed funk, not knowing what to do, where to go or who to talk to. I might have sat there all day if not for Gunny Granger's arrival.
"Sgt. Carver," he said, setting a big box of what I guessed were brochures down next to me. His utilities were freshly starched and his boots were shiny enough that he could have checked his clean-shaven face in the reflection. He had a slight scowl on his face that made it clear that he could kill me - and anyone else without a Bazooka in the general area - right now if it came to that. I didn't take it personal - I'd seen the same look on the face of pretty much every Gunnery Sergeant I'd ever come across, as if it was standard issue. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Oh, um," I said. I didn't want to lie, nor did I want to depress myself. "Had a pretty wild night at the show, and I couldn't make it back to the campsite. Figured you wouldn't mind me camping out on your grass."
"My grass is your grass," he said with a laugh. "You look a little rough, though. I don't miss the hangover days."
I'd had all of two beers after 6 p.m. yesterday, so it wasn't a hangover. I didn't tell him that.
"Yeah," I said. "Listen, thanks for your hospitality this week. I'm on my way out of town in a little while here. It was good meeting you and your crew."
We shook hands, and I stumbled away from the tent. I pulled out my phone to check the time, and realized Kelly had probably texted me several times last night. Alas, I wouldn't find out until I got to back to the campsite, because my phone was out of juice. My head was on a swivel for the entire walk back to the campground - I knew in my heart Nicole was gone, but if I was wrong, I wasn't going to miss her simply because I wasn't looking.
Outside of the festival vendors getting set up, the place was pretty much a ghost town, and my own campsite was no exception. Sara's car wasn't there, so I guessed she and Liz had stayed in town the night before. Russ had probably never made it back, and if Chad and Janine were in their tent, they were taking a break, because all was quiet.
I plugged my phone into my car charger and walked into my tent to start packing up. I rolled up the sleeping bag and stuffed it in my trunk, then crammed all the clothes into a duffel bag and tossed it in the back of the car. I was breaking down the tent when I heard something rustle behind me.
"You have fun last night?" Chad asked me. He stepped out of his tent, zipping up the door before he walked over to the picnic table in the middle of the campsite.
"Not nearly as much as you did, I'm sure," I said.
He grinned and shrugged with a 'what can you do?' look. "Who was that girl yesterday?" he asked.
"I ran her over in line for ice cream," I said. "And it went from there."
"Ah," he said. "I'm partial to ramming a hot woman's shopping cart in the produce aisle at H-E-B myself, but I guess just plowing them over works, too."
"Not that well, apparently," I said.
"Uh oh," he said. He grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and chugged about half. "Couldn't close the deal?"
I didn't tell him I could have, but I chose not to.
"It's not that," I said. "Actually, we had a great time after the concert."
"So where is she, then?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," I replied, sounding as awful about it as I felt, but much more awful than I had wanted to let on in front of my former boss and roommate.
"Ouch," he said. "She got to you, huh?"
