My Man, My Marine, My Lover!

Dear Reader(s),
Warning: This is a somewhat longer story than you may be used to.
This is a love story. I believe you will find that it is romantic, funny, and erotic at different points. It has friendship, family, and love. It also has a preamble that some may consider lengthy or verbose, before you get to any 'sexy' stuff. But it explains a lot about the main characters and their relationship and growth. I think you will find it worth reading if you take the time. However, if you're looking for a "quickie" or "frequency" this may not be the story for you today. But come back tomorrow, you may find you like it if you give it a chance. I hope you enjoy the read!
Dedicated to ALL men and women who leave their friends and families behind to protect and serve!
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Do you believe in love at first site? It's a question I have thought about often over the past several years. I've heard a lot of people say it doesn't exist. But I know they're wrong. I know it exists because it happened to me. Almost fifteen years ago, I met the boy of my dreams and fell in love with him immediately. I was eight and he was twelve. Now, he is the man of my dreams and I'm still in love with him. I have been all of my life. The only problem is every time I tell him he's the one for me or that I love him, he seems to disappear from my life for a few months or even years. This time I'm going to make sure that when he leaves, he will want to come back. This time I'm not only going to tell him I love him I'm going to show him I love him. This time I'm going to make him love me.
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I was only eight years old when I first met Brian. My family moved into the house next door to his. For me, it was love at first site. For him, he disliked me immediately. The only reason he even acknowledged my existence was because his mother made him be nice to me.
Both of our families were 'military' born and bred. Not just 'military' but Marine Corps military. It is a totally different animal. My dad had just been given a new command at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico and we had just moved to Virginia. At the time, my dad was a "Big Wig" in the Marine world and very well respected. He carried a lot of responsibility in his new role as the Commander in Charge of the Training and Education Command (TECOM) for Marines at MCB Quantico.
Whenever someone asked me what my dad did for a living, I always said my dad was in charge of every aspect of a marine's life, including how marines are taught, trained, and developed into fighting machines. My dad said his job was to "graduate marines who could think, plan, and act at least three seconds faster, deadlier, and more precisely than their enemy. Because those three seconds will save their life and the lives of their men."
Brian's dad was a Sargent Major and under the command of my dad. He was considered the best instructor and combat trainer in TECOM. He was the epitome of a fighting machine and my father respected him greatly. But he was Brian's Achilles heel. Whenever Brian and I would argue back then, I would always know how to get the best of him. All I had to say was "Yeah but your dad still has to say 'Yes Sir' to my dad!"
Brian adored his dad and wanted nothing more than to be just like him. All he ever talked about was becoming a Marine like his father. So once I said that, I knew he would just leave me alone. I think he feared he would take a poke at me if he didn't.
Brian spent every chance he had with his dad. If his dad wasn't on duty, he was with Brian. They spent as much time as possible together. Brian's family had a lake cabin about sixty miles from the base. They would spend weeks up there during the summer, fishing season, and hunting season. If the Sargent Major was off on a weekend, they went to the cabin. My family spent a number of weekends with them there also. It was Brian's family's home away from home.
When my family first moved to the base, I didn't know a soul. As the daughter of one of the men in charge, it's not always easy to make friends. You end up placing people in two categories. Those people who want to be friends with you because of your dad and those who don't want to be friends because of your dad. The people in the first group never make good friends and the people in the second rarely give you a chance. So, I didn't really have many friends growing up.
Luckily for me Brian's mom was on my side. She made Brian walk with me to the bus stop and introduce me to some of the kids. After school when he would be in the driveway playing basketball, she would make him let me shoot some baskets with him. He hated every minute of it for the first few months. Then I started to get pretty good at it and he took all the credit for teaching me how to shoot and how to play basketball. When I was a freshman, I made the high school team. When I was a sophomore, I started for the varsity team. Brian of course said I owed it all marmaris escort to him. And I guess I did.
Basketball became our thing and in later years it became our bonding time. We played all the time and as we played, we talked. After a few years, the age difference didn't seem as significant as it did at first. Depending on Brian's mood and the situation, he would take on the role of my "best friend" or my "big brother." Unless of course someone, specifically a boy, was bothering or picking on me, then he became my "protector." No one got away with picking on me if Brian was around. Of course, no one ever stopped Brian from picking on me, but that was a different story. He felt that was part of his job under any of his roles previously noted.
When I was thirteen, I got hurt during one of our pick-up games. Brian and I were in the drive way and I just happened to be having a good game. We were tied and when I went in for a lay-up that would have won the game if I made it, Brian threw a pick that would stop me in my tracks. It did, as he planted his feet and stood right in my path, I hit with too much momentum to stop. I took an elbow to the face and he busted my lip. Blood came pouring out of the open wound. When I bounced off him, I hit the ground and scraped both of my hands and elbows as I fell to the cement driveway.
When he reached down to help me up, his face became pale as a ghost. My lip was pouring blood and it was all over my chin and dripping down to my shirt. Both of my elbows and palms were brush burned and little streaks of blood were running down my forearms. He picked me up off the ground and ran, carrying me into his house. His mom wasn't home and he took me into the kitchen. First he soaked a kitchen towel in cold water and put it on my lip. "Hold this here and press hard" was all he said as he ran from the kitchen. A minute later he returned with a first aid kit and two plastic bottles in his hands.
He cleaned off my lip and face then grabbed an ice pack and a clean towel. "Hold this on it" was his next order. Then he took the brown plastic bottle and poured some on my palms and cleaned the cuts on my elbows. My cuts started to foam and he said, "That will clean them out so they don't get infected." Then he took some gauze and cleaned the foamy stuff off of them. He then took the little plastic bottle and poured it on a clean piece of gauze. He painted it all over both of my wounds and my skin and cuts turned reddish brown. Within seconds they were on fire and I started to cry out. "It hurts Brian, it really hurts. They burn."
Clearly seeing my pain and panic setting in he said the only thing that could stop my tears immediately. "You know the old Marine quote, 'Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal, Suck it up Marine.' Marine's don't cry." I bit back those tears faster than even I thought I would be able to. I wasn't going to embarrass my Dad the Commander. I surely wasn't going to embarrass the Marine Corps and I would rather have died than embarrass myself in front of Brian.
Brian called my house and told my mom what happened. When she came in Brian's kitchen, she saw my cuts and abrasions all cleaned and bandaged and the ice pack on my lip. She inspected my lip and said she wanted to take me to the base hospital. She thought I needed a few stiches to close my lip. When I started to tear up again and was trying to convince her otherwise, Brian stepped in. "I thought we put an end to these tears. Suck it up and stop your whining. Let's go Mrs. J." That's what Brian called my mom, Mrs. J. Again he just bent down and picked me up from the kitchen chair and carried me to my mom's car. I could have walked, but who was I to complain if he insisted on carrying me. Brian became very bossy when he was stressed.
He went to the ER with us and watched as they stitched my lip. I got a tetanus shot, a shot to numb the area around my lip and four stiches but, I didn't shed one more tear that night. On the way home, I sat in the middle of the front seat between Brian and my mom. When we got home, my mom went in and Brian and I sat on the front porch for a while. He apologized for the hundredth time before he got up to go home. Right before he left I said those three little scary words for the first time. I don't know who was shocked by them more, me or him.
"Brian." I said quietly as he turned to go home.
"Yeah Brat." The nickname he always used when it was just the two of us.
"I love you." I just said it straight forward without any hesitation or doubt in my voice, my mind, or my heart. I knew I loved him since I first saw him and this was my chance to tell him.
"Yeah Brat, I know. Go get some sleep." He smiled, winked at me and crossed through the yard to his house.
He didn't say he loved me but he didn't say he didn't love me. So, I was in heaven. We saw each other frequently over the next two weeks. He checked in on me often to see if my lip was healing. We talked marmaris escort bayan almost every day about one thing or another. It was the end of July when I told him I loved him and two weeks later, Brian was off to college. I didn't see him again until that December when he came home for Christmas. We spent very little time together and my feelings were hurt. Mostly he hung out with his friends from high school. We made a point of playing a game of twenty one before he had to go back to Atlanta and Georgia Tech.
It was early the next day when he was packing his car to leave and I walked over to say good bye. I hadn't seen him for Christmas and I didn't get a chance to give him his present. So, I grabbed it and took it over with me. Not knowing exactly what I was going to say, I started off with the obvious. "Packing to go?"
"Yeah. Very insightful Brat. What was your first clue?" He just looked at me, shook his head and smiled.
"I don't know. I think it was when I looked out my window, saw your head in the trunk and had the overwhelming desire to close it on you." He looked at me a little shocked, but I think he knew I was hurt. I just smiled. But he knew by my tone, that I meant what I said, at least to some degree.
"Oh, that's nice talk. I thought we were friends." He looked at me and then turned back to his trunk. He just kept moving stuff around in his trunk to make more room but I didn't see anything else he had to pack.
"That's funny I was thinking the same thing. But since I barely saw you since you've been home, I thought maybe I was wrong."
He stopped what he was doing and looked right at me. In what I'm sure he thought was a kind voice, but I only heard as condescending, he said, "Listen Brat, I know we didn't spend much time together, but things are a little different now. You're just starting high school and I'm away at college and well, things change. Do you understand?"
I was wise beyond my years. I grew up as the only child of Marine officer and I wasn't letting him off the hook so easily. "No, I don't understand. Are you saying because you're in college and I'm still here we can't be friends anymore. We can't talk or spend time together. We can't be the same two people we have been or share the same good times together because you're older than me. I hate to tell you this Brian, but you have always been older than me. If fact, you're the same number of years older than me now as you were five years ago when we first met. So, is that what you are saying?"
He was finally at a loss for words. He didn't know how to respond to me and I was too angry at him to give him an out. So I just left him with a few more cutting lines. "Well, I didn't get to see you at Christmas. I wanted to give you this before you left. I hope you like it. Have a safe trip. I guess I'll talk to you whenever. Bye." Then I just tossed his Christmas gift in his trunk, turned and walked away.
Thirty minutes later his car was gone. It's about a ten hour drive from Quantico to Atlanta. Brian left around ten that morning. That night, I was in my room chatting online with a friend. "Bing" an instant message pop's up from Brian. "Hi. Can you talk?" I ignored it. A few minutes later another "Bing." "Hey. Talk to me." Again, I ignored it. A few more minutes and "Bing," number three pops up. "I just wanted to thank you for the book. I wanted to get this one. Please talk to me." I ignored him and shut down my computer.
Sure, now he has time to talk to me. He was here for two weeks and couldn't spare any time for me but now he wants to talk. Well too bad. I hope I never have to talk to him again. In fact, I'm not going to talk to him again. Ever!
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The next day I opened my email and saw two from Brian. I didn't open them but I did lock and flag them. A few days went by before I was online late one night and got another "Bing" from Brian. "Almost done reading "The Missions, The Men, and Me.." Loved the book so far. Can't say thank you enough. Can't say SORRY enough! Do you forgive me?" I didn't want to answer him.
I went back to my unread emails from him and opened them. He apologized for not spending any time with me over his break. He also apologized for being an "ass" and for not being more considerate of my feelings. He went on to say that he was wrong about what he said to me that last day and wished he could take his words back. He asked in both emails if I would forgive him. Both of his emails were heart felt, so I knew I needed to let it go and forgive him. I loved him even if he was an "ass."
I messaged him back. "Glad you like the book. Knew you would. Agree you are an "ASS!" Apology accepted. Good night." Before I could close out, he messaged back. "Thank you. Knew you would agree about me being an "ass." Small letters, I don't remember using ALL CAPS! Talk to you tomorrow. Good night."
While Brian was in Atlanta going to the University, I only saw him for a escort marmaris few weeks during the summers or over holiday breaks when he came home. But through modern technology we were able to email, call, text, and later Skype a few times a week. There wasn't much happening in my life that I didn't talk to him about. Sometimes just to get his opinion, sometimes just to vent. He was my best friend and I think he talked to me about most of what was going on with him. I knew about his friends, his classes, ROTC, and his final senior project, etc.
The only topic that was off limits was girls and his love life. I tried several times during the years but never got even a crumb of detail from him. His favorite response to me was "I'm not going there with you. Period. The end!" If I heard it once, I heard it thousand times.
The year he graduated Georgia Tech, I was graduating from high school. When he came home that summer we spent the first few days catching up and having fun. That summer Brian started Officer Candidates School (OCS) at Quantico. For the next ten weeks I didn't see him once. Finally upon graduation from OCS, he had some free time. One night his parents were having a barbeque to celebrate and they invited my family. It was just his parents, his younger brother, my parents, and me.
During dinner there were a lot of fun memories and stories. Mom retold the story of Brian carrying me out to the car when I got hurt that night. Brian's mom told us how she used to have to bribe him to be nice or to spend time with me when we first moved there. Brian's dad recapped his athletic career and his karate lessons. It was fairly late when my parents went home and Brian's family went inside.
It was rare, but tonight the silence was too much for me to deal with so I started talking. "So, OCS is complete, should I call you 'Lieutenant' now?"
"No, but once I'm officially commissioned, you will have to and you better know how to salute me. I won't be giving you any breaks because of who your father is you know." He laughed.
"Yeah, well you better rethink that Marine, because both you and your father still have to say 'Yes Sir' to my Dad!" Even though I was just teasing him, I could see his jaw tighten as he bit back his response to my old barb. Then to add fuel to the fire I reached up and rubbed my hand over the top of his G.I. Joe haircut. That was an offense he was not going to let me get away with. Before I knew it, he picked me up off the picnic table and tossed me into the pool. I screamed before I hit the water and his parents came running out.
Seeing that we were both ok and just playing his dad said, "Son, careful not to play too rough and make sure you don't hurt her."
His mom being much wiser said, "A.J (my name is Andrea Jean as opposed to Brat) don't you hurt my son. He has to report back for TBS (The Basic School) soon and I don't want to have to explain that he was hurt by a girl and will have to delay training." She smiled at me and took her husband's arm and pulled him back into the house.
"Yes Mam, don't worry, I won't hurt your baby." I said teasingly more to Brian than his mom.
Brian helped me out and wrapped a towel around my shoulders. He walked me across the yards to my back door. "So, you leave tomorrow to head north?"
"Yes. I'm leaving around ten or so. It should be about a seven or eight hour ride to Philadelphia. I start classes on Monday, but it makes sense to get settled a few days early. I guess you'll be pretty busy for the next six months with TBS."
"Yeah. Six months of more books, tests, and training. It's a tough schedule but I'm ready for it. I've been waiting all my life for it. To tell you the truth, I can't wait until it starts."
You could hear the excitement in his voice. He had been waiting for this and training for it all of his life and it showed. He studied hard and graduated in the top ten of his class at Georgia Technical Institute. He received a second place award in his Mechanical Engineering Class for "Most Technically Advanced" on his senior project. He scored fifth in his OCS class. He was prepared mentally, emotionally, and most definitely physically for his career as a Marine Officer.
As we said good night Brian started to go back through the yard. "Hey, I'll come by tomorrow morning and see you before you go."
"Ok. I'll see you then." I was hoping he was going to say more, but he didn't.
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The next morning he met me as my dad and I were packing my stuff. My dad went in the house when Brian came over to the car. "So, you're ready to leave?"
"Very insightful Lieutenant. What was your first clue?" I wasn't sure if he would remember that he said almost those same words to me four years ago. But when I saw the smile on his face, I knew he remembered.
"I'm not going there with you. Period. The end!" He said as he laughed at me.
"Touché Lieutenant, Touché!" I smiled back at him thinking of all the things I would like to say to him and some of the things I would like to do to him. But it seemed like timing was never on our side. We talked for a few minutes about things I don't even remember now.