Chapter Three

“All weather coats!” Everyone that was still inside the loop of the dorms said as more people came out of their rooms. Everyone was in blues and it was supposed to rain so instead of wearing light weight jackets like they usually would, they would be wearing the long dark blue trench coats.

“You guys start block one tomorrow and you’ll be on A shift, so you’ll be going home early tonight I’m just not sure when.” SSgt Bradley said.

Smith was sitting next to Johnson again and they talked until they were finally released at seven. The chow hall was closed already and they were told to ‘smu’ (Small marching unit) back to the dorms. Everyone decided to smu in twos, Johnson and Smith were of course together. Since the chow hall had closed already and neither Johnson nor Smith had food in their rooms they decided to stop at the shopette to get something to eat. Frozen dinners were their final choice, pasta of some sort and chicken nuggets with smiley potatoes.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Smith said, they were at the bottom of the steps, about to go their separate ways. Smith was now living on the same side of the building as Johnson, she had moved a week earlier.

“Yep, see you in the morning.”

***

“Free day!” The MTLs said and everyone started to scatter, instead of normal structured PT everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted for the hour. Some went to play basketball, others push-ups and sit-ups on the PT pad, however most either ran or walked around the track.

“Walk?” Johnson asked.

“Yep.” Smith and Johnson started towards the track when someone behind them called Smith’s name. She stopped and turned around to find Majors and Biancardi, two girls in her class.

“We’ve got a question for you,” Biancardi said.

“Johnson leave,” Majors added.

“Okay,” Smith looked to Johnson, “I’ll meet you on the track.”

Johnson headed for the track when Biancardi asked, “What’s up with you and Johnson?”

“We’re friends, he likes me but I don’t like him.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.” And with that Smith went to the track and met up with Johnson.

The next day after class when Johnson and Smith’s class were cleaning up, Majors approached Johnson in the hall. “Hey Johnson, I have a question for you.”

“Huh?”

“What’s up with you and Smith?”

“We’re just friends.”

“So you don’t like her?”

“Only as a friend.”

***

“Movie this weekend?” Johnson asked.

“Um, what movie?”

“You said you wanted me to watch The Notebook, so I got it from Netflix, so?”

“Sure, Saturday?”

Saturday Smith braided her hair and threw on a Pens shirt before waiting at the bottom of the steps for Johnson. “You look nice today,” Johnson said when they met up.

“Thanks, you too.”

“So movie?” Smith nodded and they headed up to the third floor dayroom. The couch against the back wall would be their spot for the day and no one else was in the room. The couch was more of a loveseat but once Johnson put the disc in the DVD player he sat down on the very end of the couch, as far from Smith as he could. He wished that he could sit closer, that he could put his arm around her and have her rest her head on his chest. He really liked her but he would take what he could get, and for now that was watching a movie with her on separate sides of the couch.

The movie started and as Noah and Allie were getting closer relationship wise, Smith wanted to get closer to Johnson physically. She wanted him to hold her hand, had she started to like him? ‘I can’t, I promised myself that I wouldn’t date anyone in the military, and I made that clear to him too.’ She thought.

“This is my favorite part,” Smith said just before Noah said, ‘It wasn’t over, it still isn’t over.’

***

Tuesday after dinner Johnson walked Smith to the white line to say good-bye. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Johnson said.

“See you tomorrow.” With that for some reason they hugged. They had never hugged before and for some reason it felt right.

Wednesday night Johnson and Smith were going to dinner at the chow hall, just like every night, and while in line Smith was texting both Jesse and Cassie. ‘I think I like him, what should I do?’ Johnson looked over at Smith and she thought he might have seen her text. “No looking at my texts.”

‘Tell him that you like him, the worst that can happen is that he says he doesn’t like you.’ Cassie responded.

‘Go for it sis,’ Jesse said.

So after dinner Smith was talking to Johnson on AIM when for some reason she decided that she would give up on her promise to herself, that is if Johnson really did like her. ‘Can I ask you a question?’

‘Sure, what’s up?’

‘Okay, in all seriousity. Haha’ She never thought she would use that word, it was a word that someone in their class had used and they had made fun of her for. ‘Okay, seriously though, do you like me?’ When she hit enter her hear stopped for a moment.

The question popped up on Johnson’s screen and he froze. ‘YES, YES!’ He thought. He tried to type something romantic but ended up erasing it and in the end just typing a simple, ‘Yes.’

It had seemed like forever to Smith when an answer finally appeared in the window, and she could breathe again.

‘Do you like me?’

‘Yes,’ she typed quickly, Johnson was relieved when he read her answer. ‘So what do we do?’

‘If I ask you out will you say yes?’

‘Only if you come downstairs, I’ve never been asked out in person.’

Smith went outside her room and waited for Johnson to come downstairs. Johnson wasn’t nervous anymore, just anxious. “So,” Johnson said when he got to the bottom of the steps. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“I will.” They both smiled, Johnson pulled Smith into his arms, and she felt safe.