This is based off the song Travelin' Solider by The Dixie Chicks. It will most likely make you cry, at least towards the end. I don't own Austin and Ally.
When I told my mother that the States had joined in the war I didn't know what would happen. I was fifteen years old – turning sixteen in three weeks. The draft or every man volunteering was going to happen one way or another. Either way I knew I was going to be in it, if it last until I was eighteen. It seemed like the draft was the preferred choice among Americans because no one joined. I turned eighteen two days ago, and now I'm sitting in a booth in my Army greens, waiting on the bus. The bus that leads to one of two futures for myself: death or living.
"Hello, I'm Ally. I'll be your waitress for today. What can I get you, Soldier, uh," she tries to read the name plague that isn't there.
"Moon. You can me Austin." She was very beautiful. Brown hair, brown eyes, kind smile, but that bow was really the topper on top the cake. She looks around my age – eighteen, seventeen, sixteen at the youngest. I can only hope it's eighteen or seventeen so I won't go to prison for so long if I make it back before she turns eighteen. I realize she's waiting on what I would like, but I still have no clue so I order what my dad normally would, "I'll have a coffee with an apple pie." Please let apple pie be on the menu, I really don't want to look or sound like a fool in front of Ally.
"Coming right up, Austin," she says before she skips off to the kitchen to hand in my order. She comes back about five minutes later with coffee in hand. "Here you go. Would you like ice cream on your pie. I forgot to ask."
"Yes, please," I say and she begins to leave but I call her back for some weird reason. It really isn't like me, but she smiles which is a little encouraging. I guess she could feel my shyness, and it wouldn't surprise me if she did. "Would you mind sitting down for awhile and talking to me. I'm feeling a little low."
She turns to look at the clock on the wall above the kitchen, "I'm off in a hour, and I know where we can go." She says and turns back to the kitchen to get my pie.
I patiently wait for her shift to finish as she moves around the restaurant filling the orders of another guy, an older couple, and a couple who were clearly on their first date. She would fill my cup when she noticed I was out, and before I knew it the hour had passed. "What about the check?"
"I took care of it," she says pulling me out of the booth. We walked to the end of the pier in quietness, it was sort of creepy actually. "When do you leave?" She asks as she slips off her heels and sits at the edge of the pier, her feet dangling over the water.
"Tomorrow night." She sucks in a breath. "What?"
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen."
"How long have you been eighteen?"
"Two days."
"I thought so."
"What do you mean?"
"I think it sucks – the war. We're sending kids to fight for us, and don't even start with all the "I'm eighteen. I'm not a kid," shit. I know you're scared. I can see it in your face." In the hour that I had know Ally, she had all ready learned to read my face. I'm in deep now, which is not what I wanted. "I mean I appreciate the service and everything, no disrespect – my brother's serving, and I know how he feels."
"None taken," she was going to be one of those girls. The one that shares her opinion and who talks a lot, the kind that I usually can't stand, but with her I know I'll enjoy thoroughly whether I wanted to or not.
"I was hoping not. Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Nope."
"Ever had one?" I suck in breath of air, leaving the question unanswered. "I'll take that as a no. Do you want one?"
"Yes."
"I thought so." And we just talk like this for a least three hours; it's the easiest thing I've ever done. Her and I talking. I learn that she just started her senior year at the high school at which I had just graduated – I wonder how I forgot a face like hers. She was turning eighteen in three months, which was probably the time I would be leaving for Vietnam, and that her brother was a year older than me. You would have thought we had known each other since we were little, the way were talking. Eventually the conversation stops, "I have to get home." She says checking her watch. "My dad will shoot me, and you too, if I don't get home soon."
With that I walk her home, and she holds my hand. "What did you do for fun?"
"What?"
She repeats her question, "You know. Did you play sports, or sing, or baby-sit?" I cock an eyebrow, and she adds quickly, "I don't know!" She shoves me softly and throws me off balance, which doesn't take much.
"I sang, not in the choir, but just with my brothers and sister: Charlotte, Dallas, and Jackson."
"Are you all named after cities?"
"Charlotte isn't a city."
"Yes it is!"
"I guess. My parents met in Dallas and married in Jackson. My dad was from Austin, and my mom was from Charlotte. Significant places would probably be a better term for our names." I pause, "What's your brother's name?"
"Landon. We call him Lands."
"Landon Dawson?"
"Yeah, that's him," He was the star football player until he knocked some girl up halfway through his junior year. "You only remember him because he got a girl pregnant, don't you?" I don't answer. "I don't care honestly. It didn't surprise me, but that little girl is his life!"
"The baby or the girl."
She thinks about the answer, "I think both, but they're different reason. The girl is always going to be the mother of his child, but the baby is going to be his forever." She pulls out her wallet and shows me a picture that I was surprised could fit in the wallet. It didn't surprise me that she could afford a camera either, she was from rich Southern money.
"What's her name?"
"Catherine, Katie for short." She looked like a Katie. "We're here." She says, but doesn't remove her hand. "Thank you for walking me home."
"No problem." She pulls out the keys from her purse but I touch her hand before she pushes open the door. "Ally, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah."
"I bet you have a boyfriend, but I don't care. I got no one to send a letter to besides my momma and my sister and brothers, but if send them one they'll cry. Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?"
"Of course, and I don't have a boyfriend. Good night, Austin." She kisses my cheek and goes inside.
Three reviews for the next chapter. Hoped you enjoyed :)
xoxo Maddie