Fight or Flight

“Hey.”

Veronica barely heard the voice and stirred, raising her head weakly. With her eyes still closed, her head dropped back down onto the pillow and her arm lolled off the side of the bed. She was back in her slumber within seconds.

“Hey."

The voice was louder and stronger. Veronica jerked and lifted her eyelids. She shut her eyes again, blinded by the light in the room. She knew the familiar voice anyway, and figured she could ignore him. She stayed still as she heard his footsteps approach her side of the bed.

“Are you alive?” He asked in a sarcastic but tauntingly manner. He was closer now.

“Would I be talking to you if I wasn’t?” She asked rhetorically in a mumbled voice.

She heard him exhale a laugh, “I don’t know, would you?”

“Do me a favor,” She mumbled while hiding her face under the blanket.

“Yeah?”

“Look into that nightstand drawer,” She instructed, “and pass me the first thing you see.”

She heard the drawer slide open and he was silent for a moment.

“Ha ha,” He said dryly. “What are you going to do, tase me?”

“I was hoping you’d pass me my gun,” She teased, pulling the blanket from her face and opening her eyes.

She was literally eye-to-eye with Nathaniel’s sparkling, electric blue irises. He was knelt down beside her bed. He picked up her handgun from the drawer and pointed it downward to the floor. He made sure the safety was on and judging by the weight, he could tell it was loaded. She tended to keep an arsenal of weapons around her apartment.

“You’re lucky you live alone,” Nathaniel said, putting the gun back into the nightstand drawer. He pushed the drawer closed. “I would never keep my shit loaded with Alex running around.”

“It’s loaded for people like you,” She retorted. “You always show up without a warning.”

“That, my friend, is the greatness of it. Isn’t that why you gave me a set of keys?” He asked with his signature smile.

“I gave you that for emergencies, not so you can let yourself in whenever you want,” She replied.

“Well, too bad. Get up.” He nudged her shoulder and kicked his shoes off. He swiftly hopped over Veronica’s body and landed in the bed beside her. “You’ve got morning breath and it’s after noon.”

Veronica rolled over to face him. She drew in a breath and blew the air right into his face. “So does Audrey when she wakes up.”

“That’s my wife,” He argued, wrinkling his nose. “You been drinking? You smell like alcohol.”

“We went to a bar last night,” She explained. “I only had two drinks.”

“Who is we?” He asked curiously.

“The guys, remember Avenged Sevenfold?” She asked, even though she already knew he remembered. “They’re cool guys.”

“And since when were you friends with them?”

“Last week,” She said matter-of-factly. “I went to their concert out in Long Beach last Friday and then we went to the bar last night.”

“And you don’t tell me this stuff because?” He trailed off, waiting for an answer.

“Because it’s not that big of a deal. I honestly didn’t think you would care,” She shrugged. “Why are you here anyway?”

“Audrey took Alex to some ‘mommy and me’ yoga thing,” He said, placing his arms behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know how long they’re gonna be out so I figured I’d see what you were up to. I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“What do you mean you haven’t seen me?” She exclaimed with an accusatory tone. “We go to work every day.”

“It’s not the same,” He said lowly, turning to look at her again. “I miss you sometimes.”

Their regular jobs at the base were mostly boring and tedious. They saw each other for a couple of hours every morning during physical training and at formation. The rest of the work day, Stunner was off doing administrative work and Scottie was off doing plenty of work and taking marine classes. Their lives when they weren’t deployed weren’t as interesting and they got a lot of downtime.

“I miss you too, you punk,” She stuck her tongue out at him. She sat up and removed the covers from her body. “If we’re going to hang out, I’m not leaving this apartment. This day was specifically for me to chill and do pretty much nothing.”

“Alright, fine by me.” He put his hands up in defense.

“If you’re hungry, I suggest you order us something to eat,” She said, standing from the bed. “I have to go grocery shopping and I don’t feel like cooking. I’m gonna take a shower.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nathaniel waved her off, grabbing the remote control to the tv from her nightstand.

“I’ll be out in a while,” She said, leaving him alone in her bedroom.



“Oh, hell no,” Veronica stressed her words when she returned to her bedroom. She held her towel around her body.

“What?” Nathaniel asked, as comfortable as he can be on her bed.

“I refuse to watch this movie,” She said, glancing at the television screen. The Hurt Locker was playing. “We’ve watched this a hundred times.”

“It’s a good movie,” He shrugged.

“It might be a good movie, but it makes me nervous,” She admitted. She was not a fan of most military films. For one, many of them were poorly developed and not very realistic to the actual military life. Second, they brought back unwanted and emotional memories. Third, she lived a positive civilian life. She did not want to see characters that could very well be her own teammates on a television screen.

“Okay, I’ll change the channel,” He said as she pulled some clothes from her dresser drawers. “Oh, and I ordered Panda Express.”

“Good choice, ‘cause you’re paying.” She gave him a thumbs up before retreating back to the bathroom to get dressed.

In the bathroom, she moisturized her body and put on her bra and panties, along with a black tank top and cotton shorts. She twisted her wet locks into a bun, securing it on the top of her head. She thought high, messy buns were more attractive (and not to mention easier to do) than the sleek, low buns that she wore every day of the work week. When she walked back into her bedroom for the second time, a new movie was playing. She lay back down on the bed to watch the television.

Her doorbell rang then, indicating that their food was being delivered. She looked at Nathaniel expectantly, causing him to roll his eyes and take his wallet from the pocket of his jeans. She sang a ‘thank you’ to him as he left down the hallway to get the delivery.



“This is so good,” Veronica said, devouring her meal of orange chicken and fried rice.

They both sat against the headboard, digging into their containers of food. Nathaniel was the only person Veronica actually entertained in her bedroom. Most visitors didn’t get to see her bedroom, not that she had company that often anyway. If it was anyone other than him, she’d have surely kicked them out by now.

“You talked to any of the guys lately?” Nathaniel asked her about their comrades that were in different areas.

She shook her head, “I send them a text every now and then. Phone conversations are hard to get these days. What about you?”

“Pretty much the same thing,” He said, pensively looking down into his food container.

Veronica knew what he was thinking. She could usually read his mind and vice versa. She knew that he was bored by now, and he was waiting until it was their turn to deploy again. Returning home after a long deployment always seemed like the best for a while, but eventually they start to miss it. After not being deployed for almost twenty months, something inside of them wanted to go again.

“When are you gonna get yourself a boyfriend?” He popped the question.

“Nate, what are you talking about?” She asked after swallowing her food.

“I mean, Veronica, you’re gonna be thirty in two months. I just think it would be good for you, you know,” He said it like he was truly worried.

“Okay, are you Nate, my best friend, or Stunner, my boss?” She questioned with a raised eyebrow. “I’m too busy to date. I can’t balance my job and a family like you. Besides, if-when something happens to me, I have my parents and my brother.”

“Forget I even brought it up,” He shook his head. “I don’t really want to get all depressed right now.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, shoving him lightly at his switch of emotions. “You’re such an ass.”