"Hey dreamer. You about ready?" Dalton asked, standing in the doorway of my room. He looked so much different out of uniform with his skinny jeans, black t-shirt, plain black slide-on Vans, and nerdy glasses. I couldn't help but smile at him.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Just let me lock up my locker."

"Shit. I heard about that. Sorry. Newsome can be kind of fucking crazy."

I laughed while locking up the locker and double checking to be sure that I wouldn't have another repeat of Field Day night.

"You're telling me. I thought he was going to put me through these brick walls in here."

"Well, his buddy isn't much better. Sergeant Smith chucked an apple at some Private's head today in class, then was on him like a bad rash after that, screaming in his face because he had dozed off. I thought he was going to pop a blood vessel."

My mind drifted to Cruz who had fallen asleep in class today. I couldn't be sure that anyone else had noticed, but I had, only because I kept stealing glances at him.

"So anyway, what about Sgt. Cruz?"

"What about him?" I asked, my voice stiff and defensive.

"He looked like he was going to smash my face in earlier today. What's his deal?"

I sighed. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to definitively find out that something had been going on between us.

"He's just intense. He's always telling us how our first priority is passing this course so that we can get to the fleet. That's all."

Dalton didn't look like he was buying a word of my lie. His eyebrows shot up, and a faint smile traced his lips, but I didn't feed it. As far as I was concerned, I was going to have nothing more to do with Sgt. Cruz than to listen to him teach me about radio communications so that I could get to a unit and do my job.

"Anyway. Transformers. What is this about?"

Dalton stopped walking and held his chest, breathing hard and pretending to be in shock.

"You're fucking kidding, right?"

"No. I don't know anything about it."

He took my hand and placed it on his chest. His heart wasn't beating any faster than normal, but he was playing up the part, trying to hit home the fact that I was desperately out of the loop.

"They were only my favorite action figures as a kid. I had every single Transformers toy ever made."

"Okay. So what is this movie about?"

"Robots, good and bad, caught in a battle for Earth." I looked half amused. "Trust me, it's kick ass. I've seen it twice already."

"Then why would you want to see it again?" I asked, laughing.

"Because of the pure awesomeness of it. You're going to love it too, rock girl."

"Rock girl?" I asked, confused by the nickname.

"Yeah, rock girl. You must have lived under a rock to not know what Transformers are."

I blushed, then awkwardly laughed. I had been living under a figurative rock with my mom, and not one that I'd wanted to come out from under either.

"Thanks to your depravity as a child, I'm treating you tonight. Movie, popcorn, aaannnddd a drink. Don't thank me, it's the least I can do."

I hit his shoulder and laughed again. "Don't splurge on me or anything, Dalton."

He folded and stiffened his arm, holding it out for me with a goofy grin on his face. I took it, then walked down the walkway, passing the duty room in the process. Looking in, Cruz was sitting at his desk speaking to another Marine. For that brief second that I was able to look into the room, our eyes locked, and I felt time stand still. His hazel eyes burned into me. His lips puckered ever so slightly, and he swallowed… hard, that clit stimulating Adam's apple protruding with the movement of his throat.

I turned away and continued down the walkway with Dalton. If I looked at him any longer, my weakness would prevail, and I would find some reason to stay in my room in hopes that he would make his way up and fuck me until I couldn't see straight. That wasn't going to happen, so rather than set myself up for disappointment, I tried as best I could to block any more thoughts of him from my mind. I needed to be able to see him and not think or feel any salacious thoughts and feelings. I needed to go back to being able to see him the way I had when I first saw him at Coyotes.

Who the fuck was I kidding? From the second I laid eyes on him at that bar, my thoughts wandered aimlessly to what I wanted him to do to me. I was hooked from the onset, so trying to find my way out of that hole was going to be a monumental task.

I was doing a piss poor job of listening to Dalton as we walked over to the movie theater. He had been talking a mile a minute, and unfortunately, I hadn't heard a lick of it.

"…yeah, and an axe murderer is going to come and chop us all up tonight, right?"

"Yeah," I quickly answered, trying to break free from the thoughts that were cruelly shackling my mind while simultaneously breaking me down."

"I knew you weren't listening to a word I said."

"Huh?"

"I just told you an axe murderer was going to come and chop us all up, and you agreed."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just have a lot on my mind."

"I can tell." He paused as we were approaching the movie theater. "You sure you want to stay for this? Your mind seems to be elsewhere and, well, jackass of the year is here too." He nodded his head in the direction of the ticket window where Allen was standing with a couple of his buddies. All of them looked like meatheads with the behavior to match. They were yelling out, "I am Optimus Prime!" and other things that I was sure were in reference to the movie.

"I'm fine. He's loud and obnoxious, but I'm not letting him ruin my night."

"Alright. Sweet." He flashed a school boy grin, my facial muscles forming into a tight smile, trying hard to reciprocate the gesture.

We strolled up to the ticket window, standing in line when we caught Allen's attention. He made his way over to where we stood and I rolled my eyes, not in the mood to deal with him or any of his antics.

"You two on a date?" He looked us over, and I could see why he thought that. I was still holding on to Dalton's arm.

"Nope. Just enjoying a night away from the barracks with a friend," Dalton calmly answered.

"Well, good, because I think you should totally go out with me, Bennett. I'll show you what a real man is like, and I'll turn you into the lady that you need to be." He smiled, but there was no sincerity behind the smile. Only malice.

"That's okay. If I want to go out with a real man, I'll just have to keep looking. I don't think you're it." I smiled back, wiping the smug look of asshole right off of his face. He lowered his eyes then cracked his neck before Dalton pulled me up to the ticket counter with him.

Allen reminded me of the chauvinistic pricks who my mom often dated, and I couldn't find one single appealing thing about the guy.

"He's got some serious issues," I told Dalton as we walked into the lobby of the theater, making our way to the concession stand line.

"Yeah. He's just a prick. He's harmless, though. I'm telling you, he just has an issue with women in the Corps, but he doesn't hate women."

"Well, he might as well. I'm in the Corps. I'm not going anywhere."

"True. Just avoid him."

"I try. He hates me. There are other females around here, why me?"

"I assume because you don't back down, and you're top notch. He probably sees you as a challenge or something." He stopped and placed our food order. "Look, I don't want to get into his head. It's too fucked up, from what I can see. Just don't talk to him."

We grabbed our food and walked into the theater, making sure to avoid Allen and his caveman crew.

The movie was mildly entertaining for me, but Dalton, even though this was his third time watching it, was engrossed in it, reciting lines and cheering on the Autobots. I had picked up a few things here and there, but I wasn't pulled in the way he was.

Nearing the end of the movie my phone began buzzing in my back pocket. I took it out to find a text message from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hope you enjoyed that movie. I'll be coming by to see you tonight.

"What the fuck?" I whispered, apparently not low enough as I caught Dalton's attention. He looked over to me and I quickly stuffed my phone between my legs, looking up to him and smiling.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Just a surprise text, that's all."

Dalton turned back to his movie, but I couldn't focus. What little focus I had before the text was gone now. I knew who it was from, but I couldn't find the right words to respond to him.

"I'll be right back," I whispered to Dalton, grabbing my phone and hurrying out of the theater. I walked into the bathroom and stopped just inside, leaning back against the wall before pulling my phone out and sending a text back to him.

Me: How did you get my number?

Almost immediately, a response buzzed in.

Unknown: Don't worry about that. I have it, and I want to see you. Don't go anywhere else with that pencil dick either. I'll be coming by.

His earlier interaction with Castillo popped back into my head and frustrated me all over again.

Me: Don't you have a dinner date?

Unknown: NO!

I didn't know what to make of that response.

I tucked my phone back into my pocket, then grabbed a few paper towels, wetting them and dabbing the small bits of moisture from my face. Staring at myself in the mirror, I searched hard for my will power. I needed it desperately. I didn't need Cruz crashing back into my life when I was finally able to recognize that I had lost my focus and needed to get it back. I was ready to do what it was I came to Comm School to do-- to learn and move on.