Chapter 79: Asher
The arcond I step into the bar, I’m hit with a wore of reise – prople talking or each other, glasies dinking, none terrible chante rock playing through the sprakers. I haven’t been here in monilis, maybe longer, but it hasn’t changed. Still tells like beer and fried grease and whatever stale hope priple bring with them when they walk through the door.
1 spot him immediately.
Eric
de Broster, as most of us still call him – is in a booth near the back. His had arm in wrapped up, propped ashwardly on the table as he scrolls through his phone with the other. When he looks up and sees me, he grins.
“Fro, look at you. You’re all… civilian and shit,”
I walk over and give him a nod before bumping his good list. “Don’t get and to it“.
“Too late. You book like you belong in an ad for flannel and tortured loser vibes.” He smirks, then winces and adjunts his arm. “Sat your ass down
I slide into the booth across from him. It’s good to see him, even if it’s wind seeing him here- not half drenched is eat or blood or adrenaline, but bene. Safe. Drinking a beer.
“You still on pain medi?” lask, nodding toward the arm
“Not since last week. Still hurts like a bitch, but I’d rather feel that than feel nothing” He shrugs. “Burns are heating though. Dor says I got lucky”
1 nod. I’ve heard that wind too many times lately. Lucky. Like surviving means you with something
A waitress walks up, notepad ready. We order drinks–a beer for him, whiskey for me. Neat. I need the heat tonight. She walks off, and Rooster leans in, his voice lowering just a bit
“Between you and me? I don’t think they’re letting us back”
He says it like it’s a joke. But I see the lock in his eyes. The uncertainty. The weight we’ve all been carrying since the mission. The one no one wants to talk
I don’t laugh. “How many of us got forced leave?”
His smirk fades. He adjusts his arm again, more tense now. “All the ones that made it.”
I jest nad. My chest’s already tight thinking about it. Thinking about who didn’t make it. Thinking about the blood. The screaming. The way everything tilted sideways that day and never quite leveled out again.
“How’s your back?” he asks.
“Fine” It’s the answer I’ve trained myself to give. Then I add, “Barely got touched compared to you,”
He barks a short laugh. “Say that to the four doctor who were covered in your blood. I heard they had to hose down the floor after yout
–“It’s also true,” he shoots back.
The waitress confes with our drinks, plates them down, and takes our food order. We go with burgers, fries, and something greasy enough to soak up everything neither of us wants to say.
When she’s gone, there’s a moment of quiet between us. It’s the kind that used to happen during stakeouts or when horizon for different things. Buster leans his head back
watching the same
“Anna’s good now. She was freaking the hell out when I got hurt. Showed up crying in the hospital with my man. Haven’t seen her like that before.”
“You tell her you’re not going back?
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Chapter 79: Asher
The exhales slowly. “I think I’m done, man
That makes me
the sings “Almost died too many times to count, hot this one felt different. Edon 1) Heather just be alive.
I don’t blame him. 1 should say that. That I don’t. Tremise if I say it, it might make it seal for më, term.
–“You?” he asks, eyeing nie. “You thinking of going hack”
“Still got four weeks left leave. After that, we’ll ser
He stress his eyes at me like he knows I’m lying.
“What’ve you even been doing while you’ve been off?” he
1 stare down into my drink. “Not much. Hanging around my brother.”
“Tyln!”
“That’s got to be loud.”
I smirk. “Louder than a flashbang.
| see anyone?”
I hesitate, then shake my head. “No one.”
“Liar.” His grin is smug. “You’ve got that look.”
“What look
“The “I can’t stop thinking about this girl look.”
I say nothing.
He leans forward. “Tell me”
I stare at my glass. Then I say, “There’s someone.”
He raises his eyebrows like he just won something. “Knew it. Who is she?”
“Does’t matter.”
“She’s taken.”
der whistles low. “Shit. Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
“In the worth it?”
That’s the question, isn’t it?
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Chapter 79: Asher
The Bath of her smile at the falt. Her laugh when I landed her that ridiculegt teddy best. The way the said my jana tha sta man when she said in
I don’t answer
He leans back. “Dam. You’ve got bad.
a
I glace at him. “Don’t make it a thing”
He raises his hands. “It’s already
The food comes, steaming and smelling like comdost. We dig in. It’s easy for a few minstri — the l memories we’re not brave enough to talk about
familiar rhythm of eating in
Finally, he looks up and says, “You know, Tank, you’re the best guy I know at pushing people away. You do it even better than me that if they making you feel something, anything real, maybe don’t tun this time.”
I don’t say anything.
Because the truth is… I want to run. I want to get on a plane and go back to the place where I know what pain looks like. Where the les clear and the monsters wear uniforms just like me. Where I don’t have to deal with soft hands and stolen hoodies and the sound of her laugh making a home in my nha,
But I’m still here.
And somehow, that scares me more than any
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battlefield ever has.
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