Doomed To The Army

James looked at Ashley who sat in the corner of the room. She was a nice girl who had only a week before lost her maidenhood to him. It meant the world to him at the time and he even brought a ring to tell Ashley that he enjoyed her to the limit. However something pulled him back and he threw the ring into the trash. What had stopped him from giving Ashley the ring? War, it was on the rise and he was needed to perform as one of the troops. James groaned as he thought about war and all its blood and hate - he had seen the movies on war a dozen time and he knew what it was like, pitiful!

James wiped his hands on his pants and then he smiled. Ashley wasn't in the mood to look up from her book and James lost the smile fast. James wished Ashley was more in tune with the world, but she was lost like a ghost on a ship that sailed across the middle of the ocean; he didn't like it because he couldn't charm Ashley with old fashioned romance, he needed to talk and when he did talk it was with a needle on his tongue.

“What are you doing there?” he asked to break the silence that caused barbed wire to rake against his skin.

“Reading;” muttered Ashley who was unable to look up from her book.

“What are you reading?” asked James as he narrowed his eyes.

“Just some silly romance;” told Ashley in half-grumble.

“Why is it silly?” asked James as he lingered on his spot where he could feel the warmth from the light-globe the best.

“It's sappy and dull;” told Ashley as she shrugged.

“Then read another book;” told James as he shrugged.

“No, I would rather just finish this one;” told Ashley as she began to bite on a strand of hair.

James gave up on trying to be the interest, and he shrugged.

“I'm going to war;” he told Ashley as he felt his heart dip.

“What do you know?” muttered Ashley as she turned a page.

James felt angered, but no tempered. He knew Ashley was aware of the war and the enlisting, but not of the fact that he had been enlisted.

“You couldn't be sympathetic?” he asked as he narrowed his eyes.

Ashley finally looked up and met James angry face as he glared at her like a stick with a head that was filled with hot fire and anger.

“They are recruiting girls, maybe I will meet you there;” told Ashley with a grim smile on her face.

James shrugged and then he picked up a bag and pretended to pack. Ashley glared at James and he felt his skin crawl as she eyed him. She laughed at him under her face, she knew there was something more when a person was enlisted and she laughed at him with a cackle that threw him off. James stopped the pretend and packed for real; sure he didn't need to be at the station for two days but he wanted to get away sooner then expected. Ashley stopped her laugh and watched as James continued to pack, and he didn't stop until his shoes were out of the door.

James got drunk at a local pub and picked a fight. He ended up in the gutter with his head rashed with blood. James didn't want to care and he groaned for a full half an hour before a bouncer told him to take it to the park. James picked up his bag and moved to the park, and there he laid himself on the dewy grass and slept.

In the morning James was woken by a bird and he spent the day with his eyes on the trees. Then night fell and he moved on. He walked the lone shadows that were long and tall, and he made it to the train station where he would catch a train. He had only one more day to wait and his sweat was on his spine. James could feel the tension and so he walked to another pub and got drunk. James spent the night drinking and then he picked a fight - he ended up outside of the train-station and he was carried onto the train by a soldier who noticed his tightly packed bag.

James woke and looked out of the train window - his eyes were red, his head was sore, and he felt glum. A train service attendant offered James ice-tea and James took the drink with pleasure. He felt distorted inside and the ice-tea only stung his brain. James didn't want to think any more, he was in the army and he was doomed.