The Pale: Volume One, Jacob Long [best beach reads TXT] 📗

looked away from the video game he was playing on his laptop. “How are things at home with your girl?”

Alvarez was a shorter and stockier soldier than Specialist Rodriguez, and he’d opted for a clean-shaven head where Adam had a medium fade, but otherwise, the Army had endeavored to make them indistinguishable from each other and had succeeded for the most part. When Adam first got to the unit, he’d gone out for drinks with some of the other soldiers. He had a good time and affected his boyish charm, but Alvarez was the only one of them whose company he wasn’t only pretending to appreciate. He wasn’t a phony. In a world that seemed to Adam as if it were made out of plastic, Benito Alvarez was like old rugged steel; that’s why they were friends.

Adam brushed the sand out of the parts of his hair that had not been covered by the hat. “She’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

Alvarez paused his game and gave Adam a look. “Fine?”

Adam just shook his head, dismissing it.

Alvarez sighed and dropped his feet off the desk, thrusting himself up. He lumbered over to where Adam sat and plopped down onto the bed. Adam’s eyes darted disconcertedly about the scene of Alvarez’s near nakedness being where he slept every day, but Alvarez took no notice.

“Tell me what’s going on, man.” Alvarez’s tone was bordering on a sigh as he spoke. “What’s Christina doing?”

Adam looked at him, unamused. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know. Look, it’s probably nothing. I’m just not giving her the benefit of the doubt, that’s all.”

“Well, tell me, man.”

Adam sighed and cracked his neck. The words came with great difficulty. “It’s just . . . there’s, like, been animal attacks. For safety”—Adam threw up air quotes with his fingers—“she’s been hanging out with this guy that we both know from high school.” Adam waved a hand dismissively. “I’m just being paranoid, that’s all.”

Alvarez gave Adam another look that made Adam feel foolish. “I don’t think so, man.”

“What?” Adam asked.

“I don’t think you’re just being paranoid.”

Adam sighed and shook his head. “You know, you’re a real fucking help, Benny.”

Alvarez scoffed. “Well, that’s what I think, man. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it.” He hunched over and braced his right elbow against his knee, turning toward Adam. “How long have you been in the Army?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“How long have you been in the Army?” Alvarez stressed the words further on the repetition.

Adam lowered his head in exasperation and stared at the floor as he spoke. “Two years, three months, and seventeen days . . . but who’s counting?”

“She’s cheating on you.”

Adam threw his hands up. “Why?”

To Alvarez, this question was absurd. “Think about it, man! Even when we were at Lewis, you maybe got down to California to see her once every couple of weeks.”

Adam shrugged. “What? That’s good!”

“Yeah, maybe for a soldier that’s good, but you say you guys were high school sweethearts.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So you’ve been seeing this girl, this love of your life, once every couple of weeks for the last two years? She’s cheating on you.”

Adam was getting sick of it. “No, man! Why is that the conclusion?”

Whoever had hurt Benito in the past left a bitter man in their wake. His distrust of women was blunt and unapologetic. “Because women are sluts, dude!”

Adam’s mouth fell open. Outrage grew in his stomach as tingling heat and constriction. He did not need those words spoken to him.

Alvarez continued, undaunted. “After probably three years of being together, once every couple of weeks is not enough. She craves the dick just like every other girl, and if she can’t get it from you, the moment she wants it, she’ll get it from somewhere else. She probably didn’t even make it through you being at basic training without spreading her le—”

Alvarez hardly saw the punch coming. Only a blur crossed his vision before the knuckles of Adam’s left hand crashed into his lips and jaw. Alvarez’s lips split open, and his head was rocked to the side. He had to brace against the edge of the bed to prevent himself from falling to the floor. Adam knew how to throw a punch, and he was right-handed too. It could have been worse had Alvarez not been sitting on Adam’s right side.

Alvarez groaned, cradling the wound in his hand. “Fuck!” he shouted into his hand. “Fuck’d you do that for?”

Adam had sprung to his feet and was breathing heavily. “Are you serious?” he growled.

“Puto!” Alvarez stood and swung his right fist at Adam’s face. Adam threw his hands up instinctually, blocking the blow, and then they latched onto each other in a juvenile contest of strength. Alvarez managed to slip his leg behind Adam’s and threw him to the ground. Not releasing Alvarez, Adam dragged him along for the ride. Their bodies crashed into the desk that had been provided for Adam, and then they flopped onto the floor in a heap.

Alvarez climbed on top of Adam, growling curses in English and Spanish. He fired several quick jabs at Adam’s face. They were poorly aimed and executed, but even with Adam’s hands thrown up in defense, two of the strikes landed square on Adam’s cheekbone. Adam defended himself further by wrapping his legs around Alvarez’s back and hugging Alvarez’s head to his chest. In the constricted space, Alvarez could hardly move. He tried to punch blindly at Adam’s ribs. It was ineffectual at first, but once Alvarez figured out exactly where they were, he stuck hard and sure.

Adam groaned from the pain, released Alvarez’s head, and quickly grabbed his opponent’s right arm. Adam then unwrapped his legs from around Alvarez’s body and attempted to twist his own body sideways, slipping his legs into position across Alvarez’s chest. Alvarez recognized what Adam was attempting and restrained Adam’s right leg against the floor. Then Alvarez wriggled out of Adam’s grasp and scrambled away.

Separated and with time to think, the two soldiers got back to their feet. The only sound that filled the housing unit was their labored breathing and the howling of the wind outside. They glared at each other angrily for a long time, threatening to continue fighting.

In the end, reason won out. Alvarez shook his head angrily, muttering another curse under his breath and plopping back down into his chair. He threw his expensive headphones over his ears and started listening to music. With the two of them trapped in the room together and the storm raging outside, all he could do was try to pretend Adam didn’t exist.

Adam was sort of relieved when Alvarez decided not to continue the fight. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes as his body untensed. Still huffing breaths in and out, his heart hammering in his chest, Adam turned and unzipped his jacket. The motion stressed the freshly bruised muscles over his ribcage, and a quiet groan escaped Adam’s throat. Just then, Adam noticed that there was something missing from his desk. Adam didn’t have much on his desk to begin with, seeing as he wasn’t into video games nearly as much as Alvarez, so it was very noticeable. Only the small laptop still stood in place. Adam scanned the top of the desk from side to side and then down to the floor adjacent. There Adam discovered his small hinged picture frame facedown.

Gingerly, Adam lowered himself to one knee and lifted it from the floor. He had hoped there would be no damage, but the moment the floor was no longer holding it all in place, shards of cheap glass fell from the frame. Adam turned it over to discover that the picture on the left side, which was of him and his friend Téa had become the sole victim of his and Alvarez’s stupidity. The glass was shattered, but worse yet was the fact that the loose glass had gnawed into the photograph, leaving a white gash across the length of Téa’s torso.

“I’m sorry.”

Adam looked up at Alvarez. His headphones had been pushed up off his ears, and he was watching Adam pick up the pieces.

“I wouldn’t have had that happen,” Alvarez continued. “I know you don’t really have much out here and those pictures mean a lot to you.”

Adam didn’t have the heart to respond positively or negatively. He just looked forlorn, like a kicked puppy.

“You and that Tee-girl together too?” Alvarez asked.

Adam furrowed his eyebrows when he looked at Alvarez. “What do you mean T-girl?”

Alvarez quickly realized how that must have sounded. “I don’t mean . . . I mean . . . I’m sure she’s not a T-girl. What I meant was her name. I saw it before.”

Adam found this amusing. A playful grin actually started growing on his face. “You mean tay-uh?”

“Oh, yeah. It looks like tea, you know? Like the kind you drink?”

Adam chuckled, just a little. “Yeah, I know. It’s like Croatian or something.”

“So are you with her on the side or something?” Alvarez restated.

“No! Don’t be stupid. Téa and I are just friends. We’ve been friends forever.”

Alvarez leaned back in his chair, looking critically at the photographs from across the room. “Yeah, you two are close.”

Adam considered the pictures. On the left side of the hinge, there was a picture of Adam and Christina. They were at a bar. They both had a drink in their hands. Adam’s arm was around Chrissy’s waist, and both were smiling for the camera. On the right side were Adam and Téa. They were outside in the sun. Adam had his arm over Téa’s shoulders, but instead, Téa was tucking her face shyly into the crook of Adam’s neck. They did look closer. Both were smiling, but it wasn’t posing.

All Benito could see of Téa’s face was the sneaky grin and the chin that hinted at the rest of her slim features. She may have been a real cutie, but what was left of her face was covered by her playful bob, dyed a dark, shimmering red. She was wearing an army “Never Quit” T-shirt over a body that was so thin it was almost boyish. Adam must have given the shirt to her. She would never join the Army the same way they had. From what Adam had told him, she was too independent and too artistic for it to be wasted.

“Téa and I . . .” Adam started, “we’re not confused about our relationship. We were once, sort of. But . . . I guess there was just nothing there.”

Benito didn’t get it at all. He shook his head at the absurdity. “What?”

“It’s easy between us, you know?” Adam said. “We’re comfortable around each other, and that’s . . . just not how passionate relationships are. We’re like . . . old sweaters to each other.”

Benito didn’t even bother asking “what” again. He just gave Adam a look.

Adam exhaled sharply. He knew he wasn’t explaining very well. “Téa and I are just friends, and that’s all we’ll ever be. Believe me, I know.”

Alvarez knew he wasn’t really standing on thick-enough ice to suggest Adam change deodorant, much less admonish him for what sounded like cruel and thoughtless friend-zoning, so he simply nodded. “I get it, I think.”

Alvarez powered down his gear in silence while Adam undressed and got ready for bed. They flicked off the light, and Adam was left to contemplate his future in the inky blackness. He couldn’t shake a heavy apprehension weighing on his heart. The next day would be bloody. There was no avoiding it, but the howl of the mighty wind outside the housing unit served to relax Adam, and before he knew how tired he was, sleep overtook him.