Finding Yourself

Charlie’s POV

Waking up, I quickly shower and get dressed for my day, it’s September of my senior year and I am so ready to take on the world and leave this small town behind. Everything I do, I try and keep a positive attitude keep pushing. I have a scholarship for the first two years of college at my pick off a list of schools. I just have to make it to graduation.

This year I have enough credits my school days are only half a day. After I leave there I go to my job at the bowling alley. My days can be repetitive school, work, sleep, repeat. I don’t really have a lot of friends, there is no time for me to be out partying when I work to help my parents with bills. I don’t have a boyfriend, and I have a small group of friends that when I can I hang out with but it’s pretty rare. I wish I could be a better friend but I am focused on pushing myself forward so I can make money and never be in a position of not paying bills, or doing as I please due to not having money.

Realizing the time I get moving, throwing on jeans and a hoodie and throw my long blonde hair in a ponytail. I slap on bare minimum makeup, a little foundation and neutral eyeshadow with black mascara, making my bright blue eyes pop as they are my favorite feature. All together it takes me 20 minutes to get up and dressed and gather my things for school. I holler good bye to my parents and walk out to my 98’ grand am. She has her quirks but I am so proud of myself for buying her with my own money.

I get in and begin my drive to school like any other day. As soon as I make it off my street I pull out my hidden pack of camel’s and light up a smoke as I drive, and play my Story of the Year CD. I drive through town and get to school within about 15 minutes. My mind is numb going through out the days classes there isn’t really any classes that fascinate me this quarter so I’m just trying to make it through.

After my last class I head out and back home to eat and change into my work shirt and head to work.

Still blaring music I pull into work. I look at the old metal building that is the bowling alley and I am excited to go in because I love my coworkers and bowling. I used to do bowling leagues with my sister and brother but that was years ago, my brother joined the army and is deployed right now and my sister got her nursing license and moved a couple towns away. I want to leave here to, but seeing their struggles growing up, and my sisters currently with money, I keep working because I do not want to be unable to afford my own home.

I clock into work and my shift begins, I work behind the main counter where you pay for your games and get your shoes. This bowling alley has 40 lanes, a kitchen, and a gaming area with arcade games. There is not much to do in this town so the bowling alley stays pretty busy most nights. Week nights we close at 10, weekends at 12. It’s a Friday night which means we begin to get busy at about 530 and stay busy til we close. There is a lot of military here and they come in on their time off, I’ve lived around military men and women my whole life and I do not pay much kind to their shenanigans or flirting.

However, this marine tonight, he came in with a group of friends, he is so funny and not overtly flirting, has caught my eye. We talk a lot when I can, and he came outside to smoke with me when I went on my break. He tells me he just turned 19 and I realize that he is not much older than me at all, as I am 17. He has his marine hair cut high and tight, and hazel eyes. He is muscular but still has that little bit of young baby face going on and his attitude just drew me in to him. He has the stereotypical tattoo on his bicep “USMC”, and after talking for awhile we exchanged numbers. He left with his group of friends, and I finished out my shift. After closing we clean and take out trash, I finally left at about 1 in the morning to drive home.

Ezra’s POV

I am feeling good, drinking in a hotel room with some friends for our weekend time off before we have to report back Sunday at 4. We alternate who pays for the hotel room on the weekends, and we found a place in town that does not ID us when we buy alcohol. I love being in the Marine Corp! I stumble around and find my phone and text the young bowling alley attendant that seemed so innocent. Her innocence has drawn me into her. That and her hourglass body, long blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s late but I’m hoping to get a message back.

Charlie’s POV

The excitement continued to build as we texted back and forth, he wanted me to come out to the hotel but my parents would never go for that. We talked about everything.

This continued for weeks, he would come see me at work, and if I could I would go see him wherever I could. We texted constantly. I finally told my parents about him so we could go to dinner together and hang out when I wasn’t at work or school.

Then he got his orders to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. I was heart broken, but we agreed to keep talking and stay together and he was going to come back in November for thanksgiving on his leave. It was only a short time away so I knew we would be okay. I trusted him.

I am marrying this girl so out of my league but for whatever reason she said yes!

Charlie’s POV

I am engaged!!!

I know it’s crazy and my mind is racing, I’ve known this man for 6weeks only but I love the way he makes me feel! I love that he asked my fathers permission! We make plans knowing that he has to leave again soon, and that I have to finish school, but we plan to meet up in Ohio for Christmas, when I am on break at school and he is on block leave for the holidays.

We have make love constantly while he is here, we talk more and drink and have this little bubble of excitement and love and I do not want it to break.

But all good things must come to an end. Soon he is heading back to his base, and I am stuck still in Missouri, finishing school.

We continue to talk and text constantly and at Christmas time it was time for me to fly by myself for the first time in my life to go see him and meet his family. I am a nervous ball of energy. The plane touches down and I turn on my phone and see his messages he is there at the airport waiting for me. We have an hour drive back to his town and we go to his grandparents house where his family is all gathered playing pool and drinking on Christmas Night.

They are so nice, and they hug me and introduce themselves, I am feeling queasy from the flight and being ill prior to coming up but I’m trying to stay in the groove of the moment and be positive talking to everyone. His grandfather sees how sickly I look and pulls me to the side. He makes me a hot coco and talks to me I’m a different area of the house where there wasn’t so much noise, so I can gain my composure some. I told him I had been sick the week prior and I think the flying and excitement had just made me a bit sick again. He made me a cup of water with alka seltzer and said this always made him feel better when he was sick. I have never had alka seltzer so I was nervous, but I drank it because this man that new me for 20 minutes was trying to make me comfortable and feel better. Within 5 minutes if that I realize I have made a mistake. His grandpa and uncle are taking to me and asking about me and I feel the vomit moving up my throat, I can’t swallow it down it just keeps coming up and I don’t know where the bathroom is. Finally in the universal sign I slap my hand over my mouth eyes wide and a cold sweat on my forehead and he jumps up and starts to show me where the bathroom is. I make it just in the nick of time , and puke all over the toilet and floor. I am mortified and begin trying to clean up what I can with the toilet paper and paper towels in the bathroom. I am MORTIFIED! How could I do this as a first impression! This house is beautiful! And I just puked all over! Ezra comes up and comforts me in front of everyone, tells me it’s gonna be okay, but when they leave he looks at me in a way that makes me question everything. He then cracks a joke and laughs at me easing up the moment. His grandmother reassured me that it was okay, and not to worry about it these things just happen sometimes. Helps me get cleaned up and called it a night.

We all departed and went different ways and Ezra and I stayed at his mom and step-dads house for my visit.

Luckily the rest of the visit went well.

I met his dad and step mom, his two brothers , and his sister. Along with a ton of his family on both sides. Yet again though the visit has to come to an end. We made plans to see each other when we could but I had to finish school and he had to get back to his duty station. We didn’t know when our next visit would be.

Our conversations continued through phone calls and texts. We would Skype when we could to see each other, and send pictures from our phones.

By March we got the news his unit was to deploy. I cried and ranted and thought how unfair this all was. We decided we would marry before he deployed so he could get the extra money and we could start building a savings for us to get our house and everything when he got back.

April 10, 2009 we said “I do”, my family pulled together and made it happen, my papa married us, and only his sister and her boyfriend showed up from his family to support us. After having 4 days together as our “honeymoon” we had to say good bye again, and this time he left on deployment, and I went back to school, work, sleep, repeat. Praying constantly just for a letter or phone call.