"When I said that dinner would be on me, I didn't mean to pick the most expensive thing on the menu. For god sake, you don't even like lamb so why the heck would you order authentic Irish lamb stew." I protested as Pascao shoved yet another chunk of velvetiness into his mouth.
"Well for one it is freakin' cold since it is early-January, and two, I just spent the last hour and a half being your throw dummy so I deserve the most that you can offer," he replied after having chewed the meat, then he groaned, "Man, I am going to be so sore tomorrow and it is all your fault."
I couldn't help but laugh, Pascao always knew how to make me laugh ever since … since Day left. I remember those days, my love crazy teen years; it had taken less than a month for me to fall in love with Day, less than a week in fact, I just didn't realize how deep I had fallen until the day my world crumpled down by the words "Am I supposed to know you?". I cried my eyes out once I returned to my apartment, I cried and cried until my eyes were red and puffy, until it seemed natural for my vision to blur with a bitter saltiness that washed over me. I stubbornly refused to leave my apartment despite the pleas of Tess, Aden, and even Ollie. Then, amidst the constant flow of gut wrenching pain, the final blow was delivered when news of Day's departure reached my ears. Aden came to visit the same day that Day was leaving with Eden and walked in like he owned the place before even waiting for me to unlock the door; I guess you can do such things when you are the Elector. He found me in a crumpled heap on the floor with silent tears flowing in a never ending stream. I felt so hallow and cared for nothing, I didn't even care when Aden lifted me from the floor and striped me naked, shoving me into the shower and bathing me since I just stood there doing nothing. Then he dried me and clothed me in a pair of pajamas that he found neatly folded in the drawer labeled Nightwear, it is funny that in all my mess the things around me stayed in order, how I liked things to be, order.
"God June, what happened to you, is this any way that a prodigy should be behaving." Aden said under his breath as he watched me fall asleep on my bed for the first time since I arrived home from seeing Day at the hospital once he regained consciousness. His words, now that I think about it, were not the most sensitive thing to say but he made sense in some way. Was this really any way that I should be behaving? Was this the June that Day had fallen in love with? Was this the June that helped save the Republic and scored a perfect score on her exam? Was this the June that I wanted to be? No, it is not but here I am being the same type that I loathed with a passion, a girl who was so low in self-esteem that she relied on a man to make her happy. Love made me dull, it messed with me and so I reached the conclusion with my perfect score brain that love was a hindrance and was not needed. Love was an illness that had no place in my life, so I decided to kill it. To do that I first needed to go to some place that Day's ghost wouldn't haunt me; I needed to escape and make some distance from all the bittersweet memories and retrain myself.
So I did exactly that, I packed my bags the next day and marched right over to Aden's apartment demanding that he enroll me in the program that they had been talking about. Aden was first shocked that I managed to leave the house and get dressed on my own given my state the night before. Then he was surprised that I even knew about the program that only he and the head of state in Russia were supposed to know. Now that the Republic had united, Russia had been interested in establishing bonds between the two countries. Aden, if he agreed, would go to Russia, along with Russia's allies, to see how things were over there and emerge in their culture, it was a ten year program were Aden, along with whomever he chose, would also be going to China and the Confederate Nations of Africa aside from Russia. I wanted Aden to bring me with him because this would help me get out of slump and frankly he needed someone he could trust to go along with him. He agreed and brought me as an officer-in-training. I brought Ollie over to Tess's new place and told her that I would be going away for ten years and she was the only person I had to take care of him. We exchanged goodbyes through sobs, hugs, and promises of writing letters. The next day Aden and I reached Russia; we were instantly separated since Russia planned to show me its fighting front while Aden would be shown the political side. This was completely fine with me; I needed to sharpen my skills a bit anyways. I spent three years there; I learned pretty quickly in my classes and was praised highly by my teachers. They had originally had doubts about what people from the underdeveloped country I called home could offer, so my excelling left a good impression. I learned Russian and could speak, read, and write it fluently before the three years were up. My body also started to form a well-toned structure that left me with more power and agility behind my attacks; I also learned how to hold my liquor and drank with the guys. I noticed that I became more social and made many friends and alliances.
Next stop was China; the same thing happened there as well, Aden politics and I was in the fighting course. I built up endurance and honed in my skills in the two years that I stayed; I learned the language and the customs until I became fluent in there language like how I had in Russia. I made friends in all the places I went and formed bonds that lasted for the duration of my trip and still stands strong today. Then came the trip to the Confederate Nations of Africa, I emerged myself in the culture once more like before but instead of studying forms of combat, I had a teacher who taught me battle strategies, analysis of people, and criminal patterns. After that I went solo to the Middle East with a body fully trained weapon fully capable of taking a man's life without much effort and being able to predict their next move. So during my stay there, I just learned fire arms and built even more on my physical endurance by battling nature in the cruel desserts. Once the last two and a half years passed I came back a new person physically and mentally to the Republic. No matter where I was I sent letters to Tess every week attached with a photo of me and my adventures. Some photos were me and my boyfriend at that time; they never lasted more than two years. I know I said that I didn't need love and that statement was true and is still true, my relationships were based on both of us merely wanting to have fun and nothing more. There was a mutual understanding that sticky feeling wouldn't be involved, if one of us started to have such feelings, we both agreed to end the relationship. However we would be faithful, even if we had no feelings of love, we still respected each other and didn't want to be messing around while being in some type of relationship with each other.
Once I returned, the first thing I did was visit Tess since I hadn't seen her in the longest. Tess had grown beautifully, she was like a sister to me considering all that we had gone through together. We had a strong friendship and could even finish each other's sentences or communicate without talking. So it was no surprise that when she told me that she was going out with Pascao that I became protective. However Pascao blew all my ease away when I saw how much he really loved Tess, I could tell by the way he looked at her. They both got a big shock when they saw me in person, sure I had sent Tess photos but towards the end of the ten years I had stopped because I wanted to surprise her when she saw me again. I had grown taller, so tall I was almost six feet; I also grew my hair out until it reached my waist. Not to mention I dyed my hair, but only the back and lower part of my hair, a wine red. My fashion as changed, my attire was more loose and carefree, like my hair that stayed down unless I was engaging in combat, then it would be in a braid but never in a ponytail. I absolutely hated ponytails now, they reminded me too much of my old self.