Kelly's POV
I knew military life wouldn't be a blast but after meeting Brad I felt better that I'd at least know someone. Joe had a meeting at the school with the Cadet Major, Brad, and decided it would be in my best interest to meet someone before school actually starts. That's when I met Brad, after the meeting Joe asked him to meet me for lunch. He accepted, although I think his reasoning was not to get on my step fathers bad side. Anyways, we had an amazing lunch and he insisted that we keep in touch. So the weeks before school he helped me improve my military training. I had a very large fear of heights and he helped me overcome it. We had become close in the short amount of time that we knew each other. When I was finished with my training he was standing at the bottom of the "climbing building" smiling, and me being the shy confindent girl I am, decided that I'd finish the training and I'd kiss him. As soon as I landed he came to me and gave me a hug, I couldn't stop smiling and as soon as he pulled back I leaned up and kissed him. He kissed back and it was the best kiss ever! As we pulled apart I opened my eyes and saw that he was smiling and looking at me. "Hi…" that was the only thing I could come up with.
He puts his forehead to mine and says, "That was amazing" I continue to smile and realize that he is leaning in for more. As we are kissing he puts his hands on my waist and we stay like that for a few minutes, I pull away when I need to breathe.
"Wow, the kiss was deffienitly amazing, but I think your better." I smirk, and look away. I feel a hand on my chin and he looks at me and kisses me again.
"From my view, you're the amazing one." he looks at me and starts blushing, "Wow, that sounded sappy" I smile and put my head on his shoulder.
I mumble, "Not sappy, sweet." we stay like that for a few minutes and then I hear foot steps, "Shit! I think Joe is coming, I'd rather not have my stepfather catch me like this."
"Understandable, I really don't want to get on his bad side" He kisses me quickly and pulls away just as Joe walks around the building. "Good afternoon Sir!" he salutes Joe.
"Good Afternoon, Brad, Kelly" He nods as he greets us, "Would you guys like to show me what you have been working on?"
"Sure, Joe, but I must warn you I am still not that great but better than I was before." As I start we all begin to walk to the start of the course, "Brad want to go with me, of course you will win but you could always give me pointers as we go." I question.
"Sure, but you are not that bad, you have deffienitly improved within the past week." I smile at this and get in position to start. "Do you want to be timed or just for fun?"
I start thinking, "I want to be timed, see if I can beat my 1st time" I smile and he smiles back. I look at Joe, "Do you mind timing me?"
"Not at all, you need all the help you can get" He says with a joking face.
"We will see about that" I say determined. With those words, Brad and myself got ready, Joe motioned for us to go and we were off, Brad helping me the best he could, and myself trying my hardest to prove to both my step-father, and my closest friend as of recently. Turns out trying your best does get you somewhere, I didn't beat Brad but I wasn't expecting to, I did however beat my previous time by a good 5 minutes. My current time for the course is 20 minutes, where as Brad can do the course in 10 minutes.
"Good Job! Like you said your not perfect but you have perfected your skills, by the end of the year I want to see just how well you do." Joe said as he looked at Brad for his input.
"I have to say I'm impressed, of course as of recently you have proved me wrong quite a lot this week" Brad smiles and then dimisses himself "I have things to get ready for Drill Team, in the team room, I will be by to see you when I have finished my duities Sir" Brad says professionally.
"I'm going to go to the locker room and change if it is ok with you Joe?" I look at Joe and he nods.
"Of course, you may have done an excellent job but I know that you will always be a true girl" Joe says smiling "Well since you both are heading in the direction of the house could you tell your mom that I will be back in a few hours, I have a meeting with the staff, and then headed to town to get your mothers birthday gift, but don't tell her that." Joe says directing the first portion to me
"Yes, Sir" Brad, and myself salute him with, we both burst into laughter because of the timing. Joe looks at us with a disapproving look, I can tell he is joking, but I don't think Brad could tell. Brad immeditally stops his laughter and stands tall "Sorry Sir, That was highly inappropriate of me Sir" Joe looks at him and smiles.
"Brad, I was joking, I'm not always serious, and when its just the three of us I don't mind being unformal, but when others are around formaltality is neccessary."
"Okay Sir, I will remember that" Brad says "Well I need to get to the team room, I will see you later Sir." He smiles at me, "Want to walk together Kel?"
"Sure, lets go, later Joe, see you at home." As me and Brad are walking away Joe turns and heads for his office "So, I think we need to talk about something before you start your duties, but 1st lets stop by my house, is that ok?"
"Yea, but before we go anywhere come here, I need to tell you something super important." As I turn and lean in closer to him I feel his hands on my waist, and his breath in my ear, "Kel, you did really good out there" he pulls back slightly and kisses me. "Lets go to your house get you some clothes and you can help me with my duties, ok?"
"Sounds good" I say smiling. We head for my house which is only about a minute walk from the training ground we were using, the house was hidden by trees though. I walk in the door and a wonderful smell comes to me, "Mom, I'm here to get some clean clothes and then I'm heading to the team room to help Brad with his duties" I yell, as I finish, mom walks into the entry hall.
"Kelly that's fine, but I need you home by 6 for dinner, Joe has a cadets parents coming over for dinner at 6:30 and I am going to need your help setting the dining room up, by the way do you know where he is?" mom says in a surprisingly calm voice.
"Wow! Your actually calm about having other people taste your cooking?" I question and earn a glare from mom, and a chuckle from Brad, I continue, "And Joe has a meeting with some staff, he said he will be home in a few hours, and is the cadet going to be at dinner as well?"
"Well I hope he remembers he needs to be here by 5:30 to get ready, and yes the cadet and his older brother, who is also a student here." She says looking directly at Brad
"Wait, Brad its your family?" I question
"Yea, my little brother is starting here, and he has been a trouble maker in the past so my parents want him to know his place." He says smiling at me, I smile back, and then I realize that I'm still in my muddy clothes.
"Mom, can you go grab me some clothes, all I need is my AE jeans, the t-shirt dad got me from Costa Rica, and my purse." I say thinking of everything I'd need. She nods and walks up the stairs. "So your eating dinner with us tonight?" I say smiling. He leans into me and pulls me closer,
"Yea, Hope you don't mind spending the whole day with me." he says smirking, I answer by giving him a peck, just as he starts to deepen it I hear the door to my room shut, I pull away and go back to how mom left us quickly.
"Thanks mom, I will be back by six, that way I will have time to change into some nicer clothes and help you." Mom nods and comes over to hug me.
She whispers in my ear "He seems really nice, and I can tell he likes you, be careful, and have fun." she smiles and I nod into her hug, signaling that I know. She then lets me go and her voice returns to normal, "Your dad will probably be calling you in a few hours, right before dinner, he wants to tell you something"
"Wait why did he call you? He usually always calls my phone." I begin to wonder.
"He wanted to run what he is going to tell you by me before he told you, and all I am going to say about it is that you are going to enjoy what he has to say." She says smiling
"K, now I'm excited for that, but we better get going, I'm not sure how long Brad's duties are going to take, and before I help him I want to get a shower in the locker room and change." I say and then I suddenly remember, "OMG! Mom I almost forgot I beat my record for the course, by 5 minutes, which is still pretty bad but in my book its good since I only started doing it last week." Mom smiles and then tells us to get going so we can finish up before dinner.
Brad and I end up walking in silence for a few minutes. "Sorry about that, mom is not like most moms." He looks at me and smiles, nodding. "You know when she whispered in my ear?" he nods, " She told me something interesting" I smirk, because I wasn't going to go anymore into it.
"And?" He questions anxiously. I look at him and smirk, as I do this he grabs my waist and pulls me to him, "Kel, what was it? You may not have known me long, but you know that I'm very impatient."
"Well her exact words were, 'He seems really nice, and I can tell he likes you, be careful and have fun.' I'm hoping she is right." I say looking down. I feel him lift my head up to look at him
"Kel, she is right, I do like you, and I want to know if you will have dinner with me tomorrow night?" He says and surprisingly he is very shy.
"Brad of course I will!" I say smiling and I suddenly jump into his arms, he stumbles back as he wasn't expecting that. "Sorry" I say looking away, I then try to get out of his arms, but he holds me closer.
"Kel, its fine, I was just surprised, but it is completely fine, I actually like having you in my arms." He says smiling at me, he leans in and kisses me, I deepen it and we stay like that for a minute, then pull apart and our foreheads and leaning against each other. After 5 minutes of starring into each others eyes, my cell starts vibrating out of my purse. He lets me down so I can answer it.
"Its just a text from Amanda, I will text her later on, right now I want to get out of these clothes. I never knew I could stand wearing muddy clothes for this long." We both start laughing, because he knows just how girly I can be.
"We better get you to the locker room so you can change, I will probably be a little longer than you because I need to hop in the shower, I'm not going to get a chance to go home before dinner tonight, and I'd rather not smell like I've been sweating all day." He says
"Well I need a shower as well, because there is no way that I'm going to smell like this all day, but before we do that can I ask something?" I say looking away, he nods "Before we go get a shower can we kiss?" I blush and look down, and of course he grabs my chin and kisses me, and deepens it, we stay like that for a few minutes.
He pulls away, but makes sure I am still watching him, "You NEVER have to ask to kiss me, unless of course we are around your parents, that includes your step-dad." he starts laughing towards the end and I smile along with him.
"Ok, I just didn't want to do it and then you be mad at me." he just leans down and kisses me again, after we pull away I state, "Lets go get our showers because its already 3 and I would like to spend time with just us after your duties are finished."
"Same, and my duties shouldn't take that long, I just want to get them done so I don't have to worry about them next week, that way we can spend the week before school starts together." he smiles, I nod, "Well go get your shower and meet me out in the team room when your done.
"Okay." I smile and turn towards the girls locker room, I liked spending time with Brad, but this mud was getting to me, so I head in the locker room and get ready. When I get out of the shower I grab my towel and wrapped it around myself, I realize that I left my bag in the team room, instead of bringing it into the girls shower area. I dry myself off and then head out to grab my bag, I grab my bag and head into the locker room to change I hear Brad on the phone.
"Jen, look I can't make it tonight…yea I know I promised but I have to go to a dinner with the Commandant and his family… I can't get together tomorrow night either, I promised him I'd take his step-daughter out…no, not like a date…Jen, look I have to finish this up before I go to dinner tonight…yea, I will call you tonight…bye."
Wow! I never expected that! I finish changing, I found a really cute pink halter top that I put in my purse last week when I was with Amanda and then make sure I look super good. I applied my make-up perfectly, walked into the team room. Brad must have just gone into the guys locker room because I heard the shower start running. I decided to walk around the team room and see what was in there. I saw a wall lined with drill team guns, and flags, on the next wall I saw uniforms, and boots lined underneath them. As I was taking in the surroundings I started thinking, I should have known that Brad would have no interest in me, I was 15, and he was 17, but why would he act like he did, did Joe put him up to it? I sit down on a stool in front of a counter with a pile of dull belt buckles. I can't believe I fell for this, mom said he liked me and usually she is right about these things. As I think of all of this I feel tears come to my eyes, I hear footsteps and I try to wipe them away before he sees them. He walks up behind me and smiles at me, I try my best to smile back, but I'm pretty sure he can see its forced, because I still have tears in my eyes.
"Kel, what's wrong?" he questions worriedly
"I don't want to talk about it." I say, continuing to wipe my tears away. He looks at me with a 'yeah right' expression. "Okay, do you really want to know whats wrong?" I say because I really want to get it off my chest.
"Yes, tell me, you know you can tell me anything." he says trying to be supportive.
"I left my bag in the locker room, and after my shower I went to go get it, I heard you on the phone…" I begin and then trail off. He looks like a deer caught in headlights, "Why would you ask me to dinner, like a date, and act like you really wanted to go out with me?" I question, holding my tears back.
"Kel, I really do want to go out with you tomorrow night, and Joe never asked me to take you out, I really do, its just my realtionship with Jennifer is complicated."
"What kind of realationship?" I say, glad that I'm not holding this in any longer.
"When she first started school here, I was a sophmore and she was a freshmen, and we hung out a few times because we were in a leadership class to help us become cadet majors. I asked her to the dance and we had a fun time, since then we were off and on until last year. I realized that we weren't working out to well and told her that, she didn't agree, and we didn't talk for a few months unless we had to. Well over summer she called me and asked if we could be friends, we have met up a few times since then and I think she thinks we are dating, and were not, but I don't want to break it to her over the phone because I'm not that kind of guy, believe me I really want to go to dinner with you tomorrow, as a date, and before we do I will make sure Jennifer knows that nothing is happening between me and her." He explains to me, I could tell he was sincere and I felt slightly better but I wasn't completely ok. "is that ok with you?" he asks.
"Yea, I just, why couldn't you have told me that before anything happened with us, or right after we first kissed? Because it may not seem like that to you, but I feel like you are cheating on her with me, even if you don't reconginize your realtionship as dating." I state, trying to tell him my feelings, yet scared that he is going to get mad about my way of thinking.
"Kel, why do you think I agreed that we needed to talk, I wanted you to know everything, and I promise I will set Jennifer straight about me and her. But for your safety I'm not saying that there is someone else, because she will want to know who, and she is your majoring cadet so I don't want her to be super hard on you." he says, I nod and wait for my tears to subside. He opens his arms giving me the option of hugging him, I take him up on that offer and get comfortable in his arms. "Kel, you feeling better now? I never meant to hurt you, I hope you know that." he says pulling me closer into him.
"I'm doing a lot better, I just, I don't know, I just don't want you ruining anything because if me." I state shyly.
He pulls back and looks at me, "Kel, I'm not ruining anything, I'm improving my life, you have only been in my life for a few weeks and yet you have made such a huge difference. Kel, haven't you realized that?" he looks at me questioningly.
"I just don't want you to throw something away that is important to you." I state, worried that he might choose me and mess everything up. He stares at me and shakes his head.
"Kel, I've told you, you are important to me, not Jennifer. She did play an important part in my life in the past two years, but you are going to play a bigger , more important part." He opens his arms to me, "Kel, you need to understand Jennifer forced me into dating her, which is something I know you would never do, when I decide to start officially dating you, it will be by choice, not by force, and I appreciate that you give me my space, as long as it doesn't harm you or anyone else."
"Okay, I understand that, but I do want to stop doing anything until she knows that you guys are not together. It would make me feel a lot better, because like I said I feel like you are cheating." I explain looking down.
"That's fine with me, but before we do that, you look amazing, come here, I don't know how long I'm gonna be able to resist you. So one last kiss before we stop doing stuff."