Chapter 1
“And with that, I’d like to say congratulations to the class of 2024!” the school principal intoned. “You’ve officially graduated!”
Through the caps flying through the air, four young women eagerly sought each other out. The graduation ceremony had been held on the football field, and at the far end under the goalposts, Sara took her fiancé Kate in her arms, while their friend Justice took her fiancé Elsie into her arms as well. The four of them had been inseparable for years while going to school in Charlotte, with Kate and Elsie having grown up together, and then Justice moving there ten years earlier when her father retired from the military. Last to join was Sara, who joined them when her mother moved back home after her father was killed in action in the military.
“We did it, little one,” Justice picked up Elsie, who quickly wrapped her legs around the hips of the ebony skinned young woman who towered over her. Her auburn curls bounced as Justice spun her around, kissing her deeply. Looking at the pair, some onlookers turned away, not liking to see the interracial couple, while others curled their lips to see two women kissing, but neither girl cared. Justice’s fists had taken care of too many people who had disrespected their relationship, and at this point nobody else was going to say a thing.
There wasn’t nearly as much of a height difference between the other two, but Sara and Kate found themselves in an equally passionate kiss that left their surroundings a blur as they got lost in one another. Like Justice and Elsie, neither cared about the haters anymore. Sara might not be as tall as Justice, but the blonde with short, tousled hair had boxed for years, and had made sure people shut up about them too. Indeed, for several months her nose had a little curve to it from a broken nose that hadn’t set properly when a guy tried to take Kate from her at a party once and it turned into a brawl. She finally got it fixed before prom so that Kate could have the cute pictures she wanted. “I can’t wait to make you my wife,” Sara murmured as they broke apart, both of them with happy tears in their eyes.
Kate’s green eyes, which matched her ginger hair perfectly, nodded happily. “I can’t either!”
The friends had all dated other people another off and on before Justice asked out Elsie. Kate was upset, as she was going to do the same thing, but then Sara asked Kate out, which turned out fine. The foursome finally found their rhythm over the summer between their sophomore and junior years, and those pairings just seemed to stick. Now, with high school over, the two couples planned to marry quickly before Justice and Sara took their oaths and joined the army, just like their fathers had many years ago. Justice already had a brother in the Air Force, but she would go into the Army like her dad had done. Sara was joining alongside her, and they hoped to serve together for as long as possible.
Kate and Elsie would be moving up to an apartment in Raleigh-Durham to go to UNC, and they would do college while the others did their enlistment. If they were lucky, which was hard to predict with military assignments, then they could move to wherever their wives would be stationed once they graduated.
Within minutes of their little celebration getting started, their parents were all gathered around them, joining in their hugs. There had been some issues with Elsie’s parents over her relationship years ago, but they’d gradually grown to accept it. Part of that was because Justice’s father, Clive, a giant of a man who still carried himself with a martial disposition, told them point blank that they were being racist and bigoted, and that their daughter would be more than welcome at his house with his daughter whenever she liked.
Elsie’s parents might have peed themselves a little, but they grudgingly accepted it, and then became more supportive as they saw how happy the two girls were together. It didn’t hurt their case that one of their friend’s daughters had to deal with a teen pregnancy, and they knew that wouldn’t be happening with their daughter.
But with Clive’s early acceptance of their relationships, it was hardly surprising when he was the one to speak up. “So, tomorrow is the big day. Are we still going to go downtown to get married?”
“Yell yeah!” replied Justice. “We’re making these girls ours!”
It was a low key night, with a large cookout back at Clive’s place where he’d done up a bunch of burgers and hotdogs. Though it wasn’t going to be a big wedding, since it would be just two small ones at the town hall, the parents all agreed that they should not stay together the night before as it was bad luck. None of them loved that idea, as their time was at a premium. They only had a week to get married and move Kate and Elsie into their apartment before Justice and Sara had to report back to take their oaths and head off to Fort Leonard Wood out in Missouri. Normally, the pair would have gone to Fort Jackson for Basic Combat Training, which was much closer, as the base was just over the border in South Carolina. But their service specialty had training conducted out west, so that was where they were headed.
That meant that every night that they could spend together, enjoying the company of their spouses, they wanted to take. Of course, all of the parents wanted the same thing, to spend a little time with the kids that were going off to start their new lives, but they knew that couldn’t take too much of their time. One night was all they could be selfish enough to take. In this one instance, the parents got their wish, and they each spent the night back home before they got married.
The following morning, they all met at the town hall. Justice and Sara wore suits, while Elsie and Kate wore lovely dresses. There was a plan to renew their vows once the first enlistment was up and college was over, and they could hopefully get time together for honeymoons, but right now, the goal was to get married and cement their love for one another. It didn’t hurt that Elsie and Kate would be eligible for their military benefits once the marriage was complete, which both Justice and Sara wanted just in case the worst happened and they didn’t come back from their tour of duty. Having lost her father that way, it was important to Sara that she could provide a little for Kate in an emergency.
It wasn’t a long ceremony, less than an hour for both weddings, and all of the parents were sniffling a little at the end, while the newlyweds were ecstatic. As close as they all were, being married alongside their best friends to the women they loved was something that they could hardly believe had finally happened.
“We did it, baby girl!” Justice yelled out as she twirled Elsie around. “You’re my wife now!”
“Yeah, we did!” agreed Elsie, who leaned in and gave her new wife a kiss while she was still lifted up. She was only 5′2" compared to Justice’s 5′11", so she needed all the help she could get!
Once the congratulations from their parents were wrapped up, it was time for equally tearful goodbyes. Kate and Elsie were taking summer classes at UNC, hoping to graduate quickly so that they would be ready to relocate once Kate and Justice had a better idea of where they would be stationed. That meant that they’d be moving up now, and then the other two would be gone for their ten weeks of basic training.
They knew that they might not be in the same location through their enlistment, but they would do the best they could to be stationed together. Elsie and Kate were both going to try and be nurses, the kind of job that would allow them to work anywhere in the world since people never seemed to stop getting sick. It was a given that military marriages were hard, but they had a plan and they had high hopes on making their relationships work. Hell, Sara had lost her father to war, and Justice’s mother had cheated for years while Clive was deployed, only to leave them both when he finally was ready to retire. They knew as much as anyone that staying married long term wasn’t a given, but they were willing to take the risk.
A few hours later, they were in Elsie’s Honda CRV, with the back loaded up with clothes. The apartment that Elsie and Sara were moving into was fully furnished, as are most college apartments, so they didn’t need much else besides their clothes. They could buy a TV while they were there, and then they’d be all set. But the apartment would be their little get away for a few days, then they could all go home for the swearing in.
It was a bittersweet visit, as they had a nice chance to be together, but they also knew that there was a clock ticking that would limit their time together. After ten weeks, there would be a graduation ceremony before they got a weekend off, then it was right back to more training or an assignment. Both of the military girls were going in with the same training schedule, so they should be together for a good while, and then hopefully would stay that way.
Sara’s father had been a combat engineer, who had been killed in action. Justice’s father, Clive, had told his daughter multiple times how combat engineers had saved his ass, and those of his troops. Those influences made it easy for both girls to want to get trained in that specialty. Shooting other people wasn’t high on their list of things to do, though they knew that was a part of the job if a firefight came their way, but protecting their fellow soldiers seemed like it came naturally to them, much like protecting their wives from bullies in high school had been. There were few women in that specialty, but they were determined to succeed at it.
“Is that everything?” Justice asked the shorter girls once they had unloaded the SUV. The apartment wasn’t much, just two bedrooms on either side of a small kitchen and living room combo. But it would work to get them through college, so that was what mattered. They had brought all the clothes they could fit in the SUV, though it wasn’t everything that they owned, but it was a good start. Sara and Justice only brought a few of their things, so they would have them for little visits like this, but the majority of their things would be staying at home.
“I think so,” Sara replied as she dropped the last box. “There is nothing left in the car.”
“You got it all, baby,” Elsie assured Justice, wrapping her arms around her. “Now come with me and we can take a shower!”
Kate grabbed Sara by the hand as the other pair disappeared into the bedroom. “Let’s go, soldier. Time for you to fuck your wife and consummate that marriage!”
