Chapter 6: Should've Stayed In Bed
Fuck. Fuck. Why did he have to do this to me? Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! At this point Owen had just left. I slumped to the floor and put my head between my knees. I was so stupid! A handshake?! A FUCKING. HANDSHAKE! I groaned before slowly getting up and ambling to the drawer by my bed, I pulled out my PJ's and tossed them onto my bed then grabbed tomorrows outfit and left it on my night stand. After that I headed to my bathroom where I stripped down to my underwear and brushed my teeth quickly before putting on my jammies and laying on my bed where I'd be getting no sleep.
I rolled over so that my face was buried in it, yep I wasn't getting any sleep. Between the embarrassment and the excitement that I felt when I was around Owen my stomach felt like a tsunami was playing on loop, and my heart? My heart ached and raced, palms sweaty. I was deployed to Afghanistan and that was scary as hell, but simple enough. Is the enemy firing at you? Yes? Shoot! No? Don't shoot. Why couldn't dating be like that? This was worse to navigate than topography was in basic! And that was pretty bad! Hip deep snow, -40 degrees Celsius weather, and the snow still falling like its life depended on it. Yeah, 10/10 would rather repeat that bullshit than go through this.
After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, eventually and surprisingly…I fell asleep. Dreaming sweet dreams of saving people in the zombie apocalypse, yeah I could and would rather handle that too. I jolted awake at one point during my sleep covered in sweat, my sheets soaked as bad as my skin if not worse. I recalled the last part of my nightmare, it was Terry trying to kill me. I felt stupid, sure the kid was a bit of an ass acting like a spoiled brat when I chose to end the date but why should I feel uncomfortable for someone else forcing their feelings on me. That's one guilt trip I ain't taking.
Not even 5 minutes later I was ripped from my daze by my alarm, so I turned it off and went on with my morning routine. Once done, I checked the weather and saw it said that it was going to rain so I wore my long sleeve black under armour shirt and tan cargo pants. I quickly grabbed my ball cap and InGen windbreaker before leaving my room and locking it up. The drive to work was the same as last morning, go to Tim Horton's grab a coffee and a little breakfast, go to the compound park, head to the brief and mow down on my breakfast while I wait for it to start. Oddly enough, and thankfully, Hoskins wasn't doing the briefing. We all got up from our seats and headed to our postings, I was still raptor paddock. After kitting up with my pistol and chest rig, Lou and I set up each other's radios and walked to our vehicles.
"Yo, Riley! You want me to pick you up for lunch again?"
"No thanks"
"Ok, oh by the way, how'd the date go?"
"Shitty as predicted by me, the Miss Cleo of Jurassic World"
"Man, that bad huh? Well we can talk about it over dinner at my place tonight. Eliza is making meatloaaaaf"
"Oh god yes! Then in return I need her help"
"With what?"
"Dress shopping, god I gag even just saying that"
"Why?"
"Why dress shopping or why do I gag?"
"Dress shopping, don't want to know the latter"
"Oh, Barry from the paddock invited me to his BBQ thing Saturday night and it's Luau themed so I need a dress Hawaiian style apparently"
Lou looked at me weird for a long moment.
"Oh yeah Eliza and I are going to that too, she knows one of the guys that works at the paddock and he invited us…hey do you have a date?"
"Uh, no?"
"How're you getting there then? I mean Barry kinda lives near us but he's hard to get to"
"Oh uh, Owen"
"Say what now"
"Ugh. Owen Grady"
"So you two kissed and made up?"
"Shut up Lou"
"Aw c'mon now, how'd that come about?"
"Don't even worry about it, it's not even a thing"
"Rileeeey"
"Noooope, have a good shift Lou" I said as I hopped in my Jeep, lucky 13, again.
The drive was a bit longer today, I seemed to hit every red light on the way almost as if life was warning me not to go to work today. When I arrived I got out and walked around the grounds of the paddock, hands stuffed in my pockets. About halfway to the back Blue popped out with Delta, Echo, and Charlie in tow, they were following me. I just smiled and said hello to them as I walked to the back, once I got there, Blue screeched at me and snapped at the gate in front of me.
"Blue?" her outburst made me stop in my tracks and she screeched before turning her head sharply to our front. There was Terry talking with some stranger, I couldn't get a proper sighting as I was a fair distance away. The stranger looked male though in shape alone wearing a ball cap pulled down over his face and a rain jacket, which was weird considering it was still muggy as hell and not raining yet. I continued on and Blue with her pack, stayed by my side hissing more and more as we got closer.
"Can I help you sir?" I called out, the pair froze and almost looked rather startled as Terry jumped a bit. And as if on cue it started to rain, and I mean torrential downpour. The man said something I couldn't hear to Terry before walking off.
"Hey sir!" I bellowed over the crashing rain, but he kept going and Terry headed my way and tried to block me off. "Excuse me please" I said as polite as I could but he didn't budge.
"Terry, please move"
"Or what?"
"Or I'll move you" I said firmly.
"How?" I went chest to chest with him and shoved him out of the way before jogging off to find the stranger, Blue was beside me but without her pack which I couldn't help but find strange. I'd gone around the entire perimeter of the paddock once and the man was nowhere to be found.
"Sonnuva bitch" I breathed out, Blue looked around then at me before bobbing her head once and taking off. I sighed with frustration and searched the rest of the grounds for Terry. He wasn't there. So I walked up to the catwalks and scanned for any signs of him, arms folded under my chest.
"Riley!" I whipped around, and saw Barry walking my way, waving excitedly. I waved a gloved hand in response before returning to scanning the catwalks. Since the rain started it got busier rather than dead, people were rushing around trying to cover important machines, etc.
"Owen told me everything are you ok?"
"Yeah, hey Barry?" I said taking my eyes away for a moment before locking eyes with his.
"Yes?"
"Keep an eye on Terry, both you and Owen, do your normal jobs but try and keep him under your nose. If you see anything suspicious, call me"
"Why? What happened?"
"I don't want to say just yet, it could be nothing, but we need to keep an eye on him nonetheless"
"Ok…"
"Thanks Barry" I said and with that I took one last look for Terry before heading back down the stairs, when I got to the bottom Terry came from my left causing me to stop abruptly.
"Can I talk to you?"
"I dunno can you?" He grabbed a gentle hold of my hand to which I quickly broke and walked behind him toward my Jeep.
"So uh, about last night…"
"Nope, try again, let's start with this morning approximately 10 minutes ago"
"That was nothing"
"Certainly didn't look like it"
"It was just my buddy coming to visit"
"Really? Y'know contrary to the fact that I look stupid, I'm actually not. Now, try again"
"Honestly that was it"
"Then why did you practically jump out of your skin?"
"You yelled out randomly"
"Fun fact if it was your friend just popping in for a visit, you'd have introduced me" He looked thoughtfully at me for a moment before yanking me to the other side of the Jeep out of sight from onlookers and slammed my back against the passenger side of my Jeep.
"I tried to be nice Riley, I really, really did" I glared at him, deciding in my head not to make a move yet. I wanted to know why he'd been acting strange.
"Y'know, I thought I could seduce you but you're just a broken, boring, old dog of war, you pretend to be hard as fuck but you're not so tough now are you?" I raised an eyebrow at him appearing calm, when on the inside I was a raging storm of fear and anger. "Maybe you could be fun" He said seductively as he continued to pin my arms to the Jeep door he leaned in, I snapped free and shoved him off me by thrusting my palms into his sternum, not hard enough to injure, but enough to create distance.
"Do that again, and your sternum will shatter" I growled and he stormed off without a word rubbing his chest. No sooner had he left, did I hear someone calling my name. I quickly grabbed my smokes from my pocket and lit one before casually leaning against the Jeep.
"Other side of the Jeep" I called out as I opened my door really quick and leaned in to grab my rain coat. When I stood back up and shut the door I saw Barry standing there looking worried. I tossed my rain coat on over my chest rig, but left it unzipped.
"What's up?"
"You scared us"
"How?"
"You and Terry disappeared from our sights"
"Oh?"
"Did he come near you?"
"Nope" Some things are left better unsaid. Best to keep that last little nugget to myself, something was really fishy with Terry. Not even just for that little stunt he just pulled but I needed to find out who he was talking to this morning. That's what unnerved me the most.
"Ok well, I think you should stay in the Jeep, I'll text you when I or Owen comes to take you to check the gates, keep you safe and from getting sick"
"I think I can handle it Barry, I am after all security"
"Then we will watch you from the catwalks"
"Ok" I said before stomping my smoke into the dirt and walking with Barry to the gates. We checked them fairly quickly, oddly enough Blue didn't come out or her pack.
"Strange isn't it"
"What is?"
"Blue always comes out when I check the gates…"
"Maybe she's eating"
"Hm. True." I said thoughtfully before I realized something.
"Hey by the way you sneaky bastard! You gave me Owen's number!"
"What? Noooooo I gave you mine"
"Liar"
"Come into building C with me and I will show you that's my number" we walked inside and I radioed to Owen to keep an eye out. Inside the small building was only three rooms one that read 'PERSONNEL ONLY' and another that read 'PERSONNEL LOCKER ROOM' and one that said 'STAFF BREAK ROOM'. We entered the one that said personnel only and I handed him my phone. He looked at the number and feigned shock.
"Oh my goodness! This is not my number, but how do you know it's Owen's?"
"Cut the crap, Barry, stop matchmaking me please it's hopeless, especially with Owen"
"What makes you say that I am and if I was what makes you think he doesn't?"
"Um, the fact that he's clearly not interested, herp derr"
"How do you know that?"
"I just do" I said walking off back to the car in a huff and slammed the car door behind me as I got in. I locked the door before slumping in my seat and pinching the bridge of my nose. Can I ever catch a break? Suddenly my phone buzzed to life showing a text from one of my buddies still in the CF (Canadian Forces) named Denver. He was coming to visit me tomorrow on my day off, Lou, who'd also served with me in Afghanistan but as a Combat Engineer (person who pokes ground for bombs) had apparently invited him up. Something about Mr. Masrani starting up a military appreciation week like Canada's Wonderland does once every summer.
Suddenly a pang of guilt stabbed me in the heart. Denver used to be my friend with benefits, but now…I liked Owen. Plus I'd done so well with not falling back to my old habits, good thing I work long hours. My thoughts ceased when my phone rang, it was Lou.
"Hey Lou"
"Hey, did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"We have a week off two weeks from now for military appreciation!"
Fuck.
*A/N: Wow, poor Riley. That's a doozy of a day! Anyway I think you'll like the next chapter more! Or so I hope so thanks to all of the support I've been continually getting, plus some of my newer followers like CarlyJo, BoromirsLover88, manusoccer, Nevergonnafitin, and Bandersnatchrg! I'm unbelievably thrilled with the responses I've been seeing and only in a few days! So thanks guys! You all inspire me to keep going!*