A hard knock pounded on my bedroom door.

"Hey, man. Riley threw some steaks on the grill. Come and get some before we eat it all."

I fixed my hardened gaze on Jensen, not saying a word before his face scrunched.

"What the fuck, man? You got some incredible news. What's wrong with you? You've been coming home, locking yourself back here for the past few days."

My expression didn’t change. He was a serious source of contention for me. And even if things between us were back to being civil, deep inside I still harbored a bit of animosity towards him.

"Fuck it. If you want some, you know where to go."

He closed the door, leaving me to fester in my shit stain mood and billowing anger. This wasn't a good mixture, and I felt like at any moment I was going to combust, violently.

The next morning, standing in front of the class, I worked hard on the training that I had been giving myself for the past few days. I figured out how to scan the room without allowing my eyes to land directly on Cassie. If I did, it would be the end of me. I couldn't take looking at her because by looking at her, I knew I was only inviting myself to take the route back to self-destruction and that was the last thing I needed.

Or so I thought.

"Because so many of you performed less than exceptional on the last test, we have a bit of an incentive for you. Hopefully this will wake your asses up. I don’t want any of you in any unit with me, in combat, with average scores tagged onto your ass. If people can't communicate, we lose fellow Marines. You need to know your shit. You understand that?"

"Yes, Sergeant," the class called out. Cassie's voice, as soft and fragile as it could be at times, stood out amongst all of the rest. I tried blocking it out, not wanting it to seep in and knock me off my post again.

 Sgt. Newsome stepped forward, giving the details for the challenge.

"Alright," he said, clapping his hands together, "the person who has the highest average for this last test and the next two coming up before the field training op, will be pulled from the duty rotation."

Chatter began to fill the room as excited and eager faces lit up at the prospect of escaping a night of duty.

As soon as the word duty hit my ears, my last duty night came crashing back into me. That night, the risk, the sweet reward, and the utter frustration at the end of it...it swept in like a tidal wave, taking my focus away from everything else in that moment.

I stole a quick glance in her direction, knowing ahead of time that I shouldn't have, but did it anyway. She was looking at me, not with the same desire that usually shone through her sex craving eyes, but with something more along the lines of emptiness. She didn’t look sad, but she wasn't as vibrant as she normally was.

Damn!

I fucking hated myself all over again. I did this. Not only was I hurting myself, but I was also hurting the only girl who had taken me, shook me, and claimed me. All because I was a selfish bastard.

After speaking to Jensen and Newsome, I walked out of the classroom. There was no way I was going to be able to stand in there one second longer without losing my shit. As I walked out, passing just a row over from where Cassie sat, I caught a whiff of that restraint breaking vanilla aroma, and it sent my mind into overdrive. I picked up the pace, plowing through the door and stomping down to my office before I turned around and really punished myself.

Unfortunately, later that night, I was stuck with inspecting the rooms on Cassie's floor. As soon as I found out the others had already divvied up their assignments, frustration tore through me like a jackknife. I was either the world's biggest asshole, and I deserved the torment that came with having to see her in every location possible, or my attempts at staying away from her were unrealistic and an utter waste of time. Either way, having to see her so close to me and not being able to touch her was unnecessary misery.

After inspecting the room directly next door to hers, I gathered myself before turning for her room. No way was I going to walk in there, unprepared and fail myself. I swallowed, took a couple of deep breaths, then confidently walked into her room, greeting her and Ruiz on the way in.

"Good evening, ladies."

"Good evening, Sergeant," they both responded, the sweetness of Cassie's voice nowhere to be found.

I averted her eyes on my way in. No way could I look into them and find anything other than happiness, joy, and want. Her indifference was a silent killer, even if she had no idea.

I did a quick sweep, definitely not as thorough as I would normally do. I just couldn’t stay in her room any longer. Thoughts of moonlight on her sun-kissed body, my lips on her, her lips on me-- all of it was much too vivid, and I couldn’t handle looking at it any longer.

"Good job, ladies," I mumbled as I walked out of the room, looking at Ruiz but deliberately avoiding Cassie.

Confusion filled Ruiz's face, but she calmly responded, "Thank you, Sergeant."

I walked out of the room, my bitch card hanging low before me, letting me know just how far I had fallen. All I could think about was going home and drowning in a twelve pack.

And as soon as field day was over, that was exactly what I did.

Waking up the next morning, I dressed in my Service Charlies with little enthusiasm for the day. Friday should have been a welcomed day. It brought the weekend and free time, but too much free time was too much time to think, and lately my thoughts were chipping away at my wall of restraint.

"You ready, man?" Jensen asked, standing in the kitchen, fully dressed after having woken up early and doing a rather intense workout session. I heard his ass in the garage and thought about joining him, but nixed that idea rather quickly. I didn't want conversation getting too deep with him.

I looked at him but didn’t respond.

Riley came strolling in, a Red Bull in his hands. I grabbed it from him, popped the top, and polished that bitch off in one long gulp.

"Fuck, dude. You look like you needed that, but asking would've been cool."

"Shut up, Riley," I muttered, moving about the kitchen and looking for the coffee pot.

I was not a coffee drinker, but when an entire night of restlessness took over, I needed something, anything to get me through the day. I stood in front of the sink, filling the pot, when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window. My eyes were damn near bloodshot, heavy bags sitting underneath, and a scowl looking like a permanent fixture. This was all courtesy of Cassie and the hold she had on me. Moving away from her was supposed to be the right thing to do, but every day that I stayed away, my body felt like the punishment was growing larger and larger.

By the time I got to the schoolhouse, I’d had two full mugs of coffee. That coupled with the Red Bull, and I finally felt like I was energized enough to make it through my day, but I knew that the looming crash was coming. No sleep and all caffeine didn’t look promising for me.

Before getting the day started, I darted off to the bathroom, throwing handfuls of water on my face, hoping that I looked somewhat presentable as I was scheduled to be in front of damn near the entire schoolhouse this morning. After looking myself over, I took the fuck it approach. So what if I looked like I had drank all night and gotten no sleep because that was, in fact, exactly what I had done. And if anyone had shit to say about it, then they were probably going to be on the receiving end of a very belligerent asshole.