AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"We do. I was just thinking it’s been six weeks since I've heard from my girl. I keep hoping that the mail is just behind. But I used to get letters from her every two weeks like clockwork," he tells me. I feel the urge to take his picture just then. His face is the image of pain.
It's a face that I live to capture.
"Mail's probably just behind," I tell him, because it feels like the right thing to say, not because I believe it's true.
"Yeah," he responds softly. "I'm sure that's all it is."
He clears his throat because soldiers aren't supposed to cry, and the emotion in his voice is a little too close to tears.
"You got a girl back home? I'm sure the ladies line up for a hotshot photographer."
I shake my head with a laugh, even though he's not looking at me to see the movement.
"Naww. I'm more of a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy," I tell him. A pair of sparkling gold eyes briefly fills my head, but I push that image away as quickly as I can. He doesn't need to know about the girl who made me the way I am.
"Ever dream of settling down?" There's a wistful edge to his question, and again, my hands ache to capture it with my lens.
But even I know the line where a man's thoughts aren't supposed to be shared with the whole world, and this moment is it.
"Nah," I tell him, brushing some hair out of my face. Fuck, it's hot here. "Besides, it's asking a lot to expect a woman to put up with my lifestyle."
He grunts, and I wince. It was a bad thing to say to a man that's worried his woman is with someone else.
"I took this tour for her," he says quietly. "It was supposed to get us a little nest egg so we could get married. Seven months doesn't seem that long when you're talking about forever."
A harsh snort erupts out of my mouth. "Women are fickle, man," I tell him bitterly.
He finally takes his eyes off the never-ending desert and glances in my direction.
"Sure your inability to commit doesn't have more to do with you than them?" he asks before resuming his watch.
Gold eyes that would make the gods weep flash through my mind. I have a million photographs in a drawer in my apartment back home of those eyes. They used to be my obsession.
Now it's seeing how close I can get to being blown up without actually dying.
I could probably benefit from a shrink.
I haven't talked about her in years, not after her disappearance also meant the loss of the only two guys I've ever trusted in the world. But out here, it’s easier to talk about the past.
"There was one girl. I would have done anything for her. We were childhood sweethearts. She looked like an angel…or maybe an angel of the fallen variety. Even as a teenager, I knew there was no one else like her.”
"What happened to her?"
The bitter laugh escapes from me again. "She was in love with me supposedly…along with my two best friends." I sigh, the memories making my chest hurt just to think about.
"It was the first time I've ever been in love, and it's probably the only time I will be.”
"Did she run off with one of your friends?" he asks, wiping his sweaty brow.
"That would have been better I think. At least that way, I would have had some closure. Instead, she disappeared. Left us all behind. Almost destroyed me, if I'm being honest," I admit, bringing my camera up to take a picture of some dust flying in the wind around a soldier a few yards down.
"Fuck," he swears softly. Then he laughs. "You know, that's more emotion and more words than I think you've said the whole time you've been here?"
I roll my eyes, but can't contain my grin. I've been called a moody bastard many a time in my life, so he's not saying anything new. I prefer to see the world through my lens rather than actually having to engage with it. It's always been like that…except with her. With her, I preferred to experience life as closely as possible.
He opens his mouth to say something else, when the sky suddenly erupts in a ball of fire.
"Get down," he yells as he brings up his gun to shoot at figures darting towards the camp.
