The Army Girl

3. Carmen's Point Of View

The rest of the group had joined us where we were still stood and Lucas, Sophie and Sonja had heard what I had said all looked amused by the blush adorning my cheeks. We started making our way towards the train station exit, Sammantha had her arm hooked around mine, holding onto me like she thought I would disappear any second while I noticed Antonio carrying my bags.

"I can take those if you like?" I gestured to the bags with my free arm as I spoke.

"Nah, you're alright baby sis! You're gunna need your hands free anyways because Sammantha has a surprise for you." He replied smirking in my direction.

"Firstly, I'm not a baby!" I argued stubbornly as I punched him in the arm playfully.

Technically, I was the baby of our family too as Antonio was born first, then three minutes later I graced the world with my awesome self.

"Secondly," I turned my head towards Sammantha arching an eyebrow in question, "What surprise?"

Sammantha smirked at me before she dangled a set of car keys from her fingers. I instantly recognised the set of keys as the keys to my old car. But that was impossible as my car had stopped working and 'died' six months ago.

"Those can't be the keys to Sally!?" I gasped, "There's just no way it could be!"

Sammantha grabbed my hand, giggling, dragging me to the exit. I stopped shocked as we came outside. There she was! My pride and joy! My car! My orange Subaru was back from car heaven!

"SEXY SALLY!" I exclaimed as I ran to the car and gently caressed is cool metal, staring at the car with complete awe on my face. I loved this car, I had built her from scratch, she was the perfect car.

"You named your car Sexy Sally?" Sophie enquired, amused.

"No, Sammie named her Sexy. I had finished building her and was fine tuning a couple of things under the hood, Sammie came in at some point and that was the first word out of her mouth. I named her Sally. Therefore she was christened 'Sexy Sally'." I explained with a laugh, "I can't believe you guys fixed her! You brought her back from the dead!"

"Actually, as much as I'd love to take credit for it, this car thing was all down to Sammantha." Antonio laughed.

I turned away from him and saw Sammantha blushing. I ran over to her and swept her into a bone crushing hug.

"God, you're the best! I love you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!" I said as I pulled away and looked into her eyes.

'Oh so you can say I love you to her casually but you can't look her in the eyes and tell her that you're IN love with her? Tsk!' The little voice in the back of my head said snidely as I ignored it.

"Why don't you take it for a spin Carmen?" Sophie casually suggested while smirking at me. "You could take Sammantha with you as a thank you." She finished with a subtle wink at me.

"Yeah! You go and we will go home with your family and get to know them better!" Sonja joined in, smirking too.

"Okay, are you guys sure that you're okay with that?" I asked as Sophie and Sonja nodded at me. "Is that okay with you guys?" I questioned looking at my family and Sammantha's family. They nodded an affirmative.

With that I opened the passenger door for Sammantha. Once she was in I slid over the bonnet to get in the drivers side. I waved at everybody once I was strapped in and with a rev of my engine I sped away.

I parked Sally in an empty car park and me and Sammantha climbed out, linking arms as we started walking towards a hill. It was our hill, we always called it Sunset Hill because we always made a habit of watching the sun set everyday from this hill when I was home from my duties.

We reached the top of the hill and sat down with our backs against a tree. Sammantha linked her arm through mine and leaned her head on my shoulder while we looked out over the sea, listening to the relaxing sound of the waves crashing below us.

"So, you got promoted?" Sammantha asked softly as she ran her fingers over my arm.

"Yeah. Our old squad leader retired, so they promoted Sophie from second in command to squad leader, making her a Sargent. Then they promoted me to Lance Corporal as we needed a second in command." I replied quietly.

"Congratulations, Lance Corporal." She responded, smiling softly. "Are Sophie and Sonja a couple?"

"Y'know, I haven't got a clue what's actually going on with them. They're always flirting with each other and occasionally kind of act like they're dating, but, as far as I'm aware, they haven't started dating or even told each other how they really feel. So, they're basically f**k buddies, which is highly annoying as anyone can tell that they have some serious chemistry going on." I chuckled as Sammantha let out a small chuckle.

"I'm really glad that you're home, Carmen." She sighed quietly as the sun started setting below the horizon.

"Me too," I smiled, turning my head to look at her. "So, tell me what I've missed! Anything new with you?"

"Um, not really anything new. I've just been keeping busy working at the beach and the pub." She replied sounding nervous.

"Just working? You've not been dating anyone? Hanging out with friends?" I asked intrigued.

"Nope, I just work at the beach during the day time and help out with the pub afterwards. Oh, and I surf with Antonio and Jay at the weekends when we're not working. You're the only friend I wanna hang out with because the rest of them just want to go shopping an they don't surf."

"You're gunna run yourself into the ground working so much! No wonder you seem so tense." I sighed.

I shifted myself so I was sat behind her, raising my hands up I placed them on her shoulders and started massaging them. She let out a sigh, tilting her head forward as the massage relaxed her.

"So, you're telling me that no one has caught your eye in these last four months?" I inquired.

"I never said that no one had caught my eye, I'm just not dating." She replied letting out a small moan as I worked out a knot in her shoulder.

"So you have got your eye on someone? You know, you won't have a shot with him if you're working so much."

"She works just as much as I do, if not more." She grumpily replied.

"She?" I asked, slightly surprised.

"What's with the surprised tone? You know I like girls." Sammantha chuckled as she leaned back into me, pulling my hands over her shoulder and holding them to her.

"Yeah, well, you've only ever dated boys. I mean, you've never dated girls and you've never actually shown any interest in girls except from saying that you like girls. So, y'know, I got confused and just assumed that maybe you prefer boys." I chuckled awkwardly.

"Well, you've never dated boys because you're openly a lesbian, but, you've also never had an actual relationship with any girls or shown any interest in any for a year or so now. You had what? A couple of one night stands with girls before you joined the Army and that's it. Unless you have a secret special someone that you met out there?" She asked looking up at me.

"I don't get much of a chance to meet any girls out there because I'm basically staring at the same five faces everyday. Three of them are boys and the two girls are basically like family. Plus, I've had my heart set one someone for a while and I can't really see myself with anyone different." I replied looking down at her.

"Come on, we better get to the pub, I'm sure you're tired from travelling." Sammantha mumbled as she got up quickly and started making her way back down the hill.

She walked with a defeated posture, head down and shoulders slumped. I jogged to catch up to her and walked beside her in silence. I could tell something was troubling her and it hurt me that she wasn't opening up to me about it.