Link: Every Day Is Your Last Title Page and Description

--

After that day, Jack, Rich, and I were inseparable. There were rumors that I was dating Jack while sleeping with Rich, but we didn't care. Rich about killed PFC Ricks the one time he called Jack a cuck and wasn't just shitting around. We had lots of fun and I never got caught. Jack made sure of that.

Not that I was sleeping around a lot, mind you, but I went on a few dates, mostly with college girls. I never risked dating a fellow W-M. While Rich and Jack were running cover for me, I couldn't count on any of them having similar arrangements. We also never went anywhere that was near the base.

If I had a date, which was rare, it was always somewhere remote and out of the way... never any of the usual places the Hellcats or anchor-clankers might go. The only times we'd go places like the Warf or any place we could get seen it was the three of us, sometimes with a girl Rich was seeing, but never with a girl Jack was seeing. That wasn't often and never the same girl more than once, for any of us!

By ninety-four, things got easier with 'don't ask, don't tell', but we kept up the pretense of Jack being my boyfriend because it just made things easier. For me, anyway. Most W-Ms got hit on all the time, but once it got around that Jack and I were an item, I was off limits. Grunts had no qualms about hitting on W-Ms if they we're seeing a civi or were even married to one, but they'd rarely turn on a fellow member of the Corps. I felt bad for Jack, though. It made his success rate with the ladies track nearly to zero.

Even when it looked like maybe Jack had a shot at a terrific girl, something would always screw it up.

---

Jack was bored, waiting in the quiet of the library as Richard got yet another book on business management. Ever since he'd enrolled in Menlo Collage, Richard had spent all his free time studying for his night classes, which was why they were wasting the Saturday before Labor Day weekend in a library. Jack didn't care when Brooke was available, but today she had duty and he was bored out of his mind.

"Come on, Rich!" he whispered. "Haven't you found what you need yet?"

"No." Richard whispered back. "If you hate it here, why did you come?"

"Because you have the car!" he retorted quietly. Raising his voice to a low talk, he grumbled. "I'd get my own if I had any dough, but..."

"Shhhhhh!" the old man sitting across from them shushed him angrily.

Glaring back at the man with eyes crossed and lips pursed, Jack lowered to a whisper again. "Rich, this is no way to spend Liberty! Do you know how long it's been since we did something fun? Saw a movie? Went clubbing? On a date? You remember dates, right? With girls? Those soft, round, luscious things you want to earn all your riches for?"

Rolling his eyes, Richard tried to keep from laughing. "Jack, why don't you find a nice book and read for once." he whispered.

"They don't have nice books here! Only knowledge!" Jack quipped. Seeing that he was getting nowhere, he wandered through the library. After fifteen minutes of poking at books and putting them back, he turned a corner and literally bumped into a girl, sending the books she had loudly to the floor.

"Sorry!" he said, prompting people around them to shush him. Shushing them right back, he started to help pick up the books she'd been carrying that were now scattered around their feet. "Sorry!" he whispered. "Let me help!" As he did so, he got his first real look at the girl. She was blonde and uncommonly beautiful. Her hauntingly vibrant blue eyes caught him by such surprise that he stopped helping and just stared.

Taking the book that he held loosely in his hands as he crouched numbly, she glared at him. "Thanks!" she whispered. "But I can get it myself!"

Shaken back to awareness, Jack grabbed the last book and stood up. "Um... here!" he whispered, handing her the book as she stood and snatched it from his fingers. "Fancy meeting you here!" he joked. "You may not remember me, but I remember you!" he whispered to her as she tried to walk away, Jack following closely. "The name's Jack! Jack Dunning!" he held his hand out as she stopped and glared at him.

With her arms full of books, she was quite incapable of returning the offered hand. Instead she just glared at his hand until he lowered it. Whispering, she asked as she started toward her table again, "Well, Jack... Jack Dunning. Where was it we supposedly met?"

"My dreams!" he answered. "Only every one since the day I was born!"

Rolling her eyes at his bad pickup line, she looked askance at the seemingly crazy young man. "Then what's my name?"

Thinking quickly, he guessed, "Beauty? No, too obvious! Uh..."

She stopped and turned to stand in front of him. "Tell you what, lover boy." she whispered. "You tell me my name and I'll go out with you. Until then..." Leaving her sentence unfinished, she turned and walked away smartly.

Watching her depart, Jack was entranced. "Wow!" he whispered. Running off back to Richard, he skidded to a stop next to him. "Rich! Rich! You gotta check this out! I think I'm in love!" he whispered.

Not even looking up, Richard sighed. "So what's new?" he whispered back.

Undeterred, Jack started tugging on Richard's sleeve. "No seriously, Rich! This girl! She's..." His voice having raised to a low talk again, the old man once more shushed him. Turning to him, Jack whispered angrily, "Oh, hush yourself!" As the man moved to another table, Jack continued to pester his best friend. "Rich! Won't you at least come over and look? I need to figure out her name!"

"No!" Richard shouted quietly. "Now beat it, Jack! I have to get this down before Monday night or I'm gonna flunk!"

Frustrated by Richard's total lack of interest, he looked around helplessly and sighed. Finally sitting down next to him again, he leaned an elbow on the table with his fist against his cheek, trying to think of what her name might be. Realizing there was no way to know, he formulated a new plan. Tapping Richard on the shoulder as he stared off in the distance, a smile forming on his lips, he rose and whispered, "I'll see ya' 'round, Rich!" and quickly left.

Shaking his head, Richard tried to go back to his book. "He's gonna need me to rescue him again!" he said absently to no one, looking up embarrassedly when several people nearby shushed him.

Not seeing his best friend for the rest of the weekend, Richard was worried. When he got back to the Barracks on Sunday night, Jack was finally there. "Jack! Where you been? I was starting to think you went U-A!"

Jack had a smile on his face. "Naw! I'd never do that! Too easy to get caught and you never get good dates in Leavenworth."

"So where you been all weekend?" he asked, already having a good idea.

"Research, my boy! Research!" Jack smiled as he turned a chair around and straddled it backwards. "Remember that girl?"

"The one you're in love with this week?" he needled.

"That's the one!" he answered. "I followed her. Subtly! She's a Stanford girl!"

Looking up at Jack from shining his brass, Richard was stunned. "You... you followed her? Isn't that a little creepy, Jack?"

"No! See, here's the thing. She told me that if I can tell her what her name is, she'll go out with me! She invited me to look into her! It's fine!"

"Ask Brooke if she thinks it's fine. If she says it is, I'll agree." Richard said as he went back to his polishing.

"Here's the kicker, Rich!" he beamed. "I know her name! It's Heather Moore! She's a psych major in her junior year, twenty, five-five, one-ten, blonde, and has the bluest eyes you've ever seen!"

Looking up at Jack, Richard paused his work. "So? You make it sound like she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. What's the catch?"

"There is no catch!" Jack shook his head. "She's smart, beautiful, and I have a guaranteed date with her! I'm so confident, I think I'll let you tag along! There's a party she's going to on the fourth and I ganked an invitation. Wanna go? You can bring Brooke!"

"Speaking of Brooke, isn't it going to be a little hard dating Ms. Wonderful if you're already 'dating' Brooke?" he said in a more hushed tone.

"You're up, Rich!" Jack said slapping him on the back. "She's all yours! I've been keeping myself out of the game for three years. It's your turn to keep the field clear for Brooke while I take a turn at romance!"

"Jack?" Richard looked at his friend. "Have you even considered what you're gonna do in a couple years? I mean, we've already shipped over twice. You thinking of lifeing or are you a Terminal Lance?"

"Nah!" Jack shook his head dismissively. "I'm done after this cruise. When I didn't make the cutting score, I decided then. They might not even offer it. Nope, it's back to Pittsburgh for me! Only reason I haven't moved Mom close is that I knew I'd be going back soon. How about you?"

"Me? I've been busting my rump getting my degree!" he bragged. "After I graduate, I'm transferring to the First-Civ-Div and get me a nice cushy office job somewhere, maybe someplace like New York or LA! Something where the heaviest thing I have to hump is my checkbook!"

The two looked at each other, for the first time aware that in two years they would be going their separate ways after practically living in each other's pockets half their lives. Neither one said anything, but they both knew what the other was thinking. Finally, Richard broke the silence.

"Look Jack, you haven't done anything with your GI bill. Don't you want to go to college? Make something of yourself?"

"Me? Joe College?" Jack shook his head. "Please! I'll be twenty-five by the time I'm Outside! After college I'd be pushing thirty!"

"Forty, the way you study." Richard quipped.

"Ha, ha!" Jack stood up and paced the room. "Besides, what would I get a degree in? Women's Studies? No. No, I see myself maybe starting my own business. Maybe a car lot, or something."

"You? Run a car lot? You've never even owned a car!"

"Or a dry-cleaning place! That's what my old man did after the war!" He paused, his back to Richard. "I might just marry money." Jack smirked as he looked over his shoulder with a mischievous grin.

"So I take it then that this Heather Moore, or should I say the future Mrs. Heather Dunning, isn't hurting?"

"That's what people say." Jack resumed his seat next to Richard. "Story is, her folks were old money with a mansion in New Hampshire or Vermont or something and they both passed a year or so ago. I don't know the details yet, but..."

"What happened to your research? Or did you stop your investigation when you found out she was loaded?"

"Rich!" Jack stood up. "I'm insulted! I just felt that knowing too much would be bad! Wouldn't leave us anything to talk about on our first date!"

"And you know she's interested?" he asked dubiously.

"Rich, she told me to learn about her, and guaranteed me a date if I did! It's a sure thing!" he said, spreading his arms wide.

"Alright. I'll go along with the gag." Richard shook his head. "Just remember, you invited me, so I don't wanna hear it from you when she embarrasses you with Brooke and I there to witness it, or she passes on you to go for me!"

Jack patted Richard on the shoulder. "You're a good man, Rich! I'll name my second boy after you! The first will be Jack Junior, of course!"

"Of course!" Richard rolled his eyes and resumed his work.

Monday the fifth of September came and the three Marines managed to get a day of Leave together. When at last they parked in front of the strange house, Jack practically ran inside, leaving his friends to their own devices.

"Rich? You said this girl told him to look into her, and that if he did she'd date him?" Brooke asked. "Doesn't that sound a little..."

"...impossible? Weird? Crazy?" Richard finished for her. Laughing, he shook his head as he opened his car door. "Yeah. Something tells me I'm gonna be pulling his butt out of the fire again! No woman invites a guy to become her stalker!"

Brooke opened her door and the two climbed out. "Well, it is your turn to rescue him, Rich. Remember last time? I kept that thug from ripping Jack's throat out for hitting on his girlfriend!"

"I know." he said walking toward the door. "It'd be nice if Jack returned the favor once in a while, though!"

"You never need it, and he's always doing me the biggest favor anyone ever has, so I figure I owe him."

"Then you can take a double-turn." Richard suggested, opening the door for her. "Shall we see if he needs rescuing already?"

Brooke shook her head as she entered the room filled with loud music and louder people. Shouting, she answered, "It's early yet! He can't possibly have screwed it up this fast!"

Heather Moore slapped Jack as hard as she could, fury burning in her eyes. "You've been spying on me?" she shouted, seemingly loud enough that he thought Richard and Brooke might hear her from over by the front door.

Jack was dumbfounded. What he had thought was a sure thing had instantly dissolved into a disaster. "Look, Heather. I... I thought you wanted me to..."

She reached her hand back to slap him again when Jack stopped explaining and backed away. "OK! OK! I can take a hint!"

"Obviously not, you cretin!" she growled, this time her voice not carrying far. "I was politely brushing you off! So brush off!" As Jack walked away sadly and so obviously hurt, Heather genuinely felt sorry for him. Taken literally, she saw how her words could have been mistaken for a veiled offer, but the thought that he'd pried into her life enough to know she'd been raised in New Hampshire left her feeling she was better off without her dejected harasser.

Seeing Jack heading back towards him and Brooke, having heard the end of the all-too-brief conversation between he and Heather, Richard tried to console his best friend. "Hey, Jack..."

"Save it!" he shot back as he reached them. "Let's just get outta here!"

Determined to try and earn his buddy a second chance, Richard stopped him. "Hang on, Jack. Let me talk to her."

Jack waved at him dismissively. "Fine! You want her, be my guest!"

"No!" he replied, grabbing Jack's arm to stop his retreat again. "I mean for you! Lemme see if I can get you a second shot at her, a fair shake! You at least deserve that much!"

"Yeah?" he smiled at his best friend. "You think she might?"

"Only one way to find out!" he said, heading off towards where he saw she was sitting with a group of girls.

Heather was trying to put the whole thing out of her mind when she saw a man approaching her who took her breath away at first sight. Now this is more like it! she was thinking as he sat next to her. "Hi!" she said coyly, glad that she'd gotten rid of Jack just in time.

Coming over to her with the best of intentions, when Richard looked at her though, her deep gaze penetrating through to his bones, he sat beside her and smiled; Jack a distant memory. "Hi! I'm Richard, Richard Hargrave." He held out a hand and almost kissed hers when she took it daintily.

Feeling the heat flushing to her cheeks as he spoke, Heather's pulse pounded in her throat as he took her hand. "I... I don't think I've seen you around the college. Are you taking your post-grad?"

Shaking his head, Richard laughed lightly. "No! I don't go to Stanford! I'm studying business at Menlo while stationed at The Barracks in Alameda."

"Oh?" she inquired breathily. "I don't think I've ever met a sailor before!"

Richard's smile melted instantly. "I'm a Marine! Not a squid!"

"Oh! I... I'm sorry!" Heather flushed embarrassedly. "I think that's even more interesting!" she said, trying to salvage her faux pax.

Finding himself utterly unable to be angered at her ignorance, Richard's smile returned quickly. "That's OK! It's an honest mistake!"

"You're too kind!" she said demurely. Looking back up at him slowly, she couldn't help but return his smile. "So, how do you know Melody?"

"Who?" Richard asked innocently.

"Melody? The girl who's party this is?" Seeing his confusion, she smiled wickedly and asked, "Did you just crash or are you somebody's guest?"

Suddenly remembering how he'd gotten here and why, he was overcome with guilt. "Huh? Oh! Um... well..." He laughed, trying to find something funny about the situation. "Well... uh... see, here's the thing..."

Standing next to Brooke by the bar, Jack took a drink from his scotch and soda. "So how's it look?" he asked her. He'd asked Brooke to watch Heather and Richard for him so he wouldn't look too desperate. "Does it look like it's going the same way it did earlier?"

She didn't have the heart to tell him. "Well, no. It... it's going... um... OK." Sighing, she decided that the news was better told to him elsewhere. "Come with me!" she said, grabbing his hand and dragging him out the front door.

"So that's why I came over to talk to you." Richard sighed. "To... uh... see if you'd give him a second chance." he smiled at her.

The college girl bit her lower lip, uncertain what to do about it. "So, Jack got an invitation from Eddie, who got one from Melody, and you and your friend are here with him for...?"

"Moral support?" Richard half-answered. "Honestly, Jack is about as good a guy as they come. He and I have been best friends since high school." He sighed heavily. "And that's why I feel so bad."

She furrowed her brow at him. "Why?"

Scooting closer, he looked deeply in her eyes. "Because I don't think he's going to get a second chance. Is he?"

Her breath caught as she felt his knee touch hers. Flushing, she suddenly felt dizzy and out of breath. Almost giddy, she giggled, "Um... I... I don't think so!"

"Poor Jack!" Richard laughed lightly.

She nodded. "Poor Jack!"

"God damn, son-of-a-bitching, cock-sucking, mother..." Jack fumed around the front yard next to Richard's car. "I'm gonna kill that son-of-a-..."

"Jack!" Brooke tried to steady him. "You have to calm down! You're gonna cause a scene! There are kids in this neighborhood! Ease it down!"

Pacing like a caged animal, he fumed. "Some best friend! Every time I like someone, boom! There he is trying to take her for himself! God damn..." he censored himself and took a breath. "OK! Alright! Fine! He can have her! He deserves the stuck-up....! Ugh! I'm outta here!" Jack spat, starting to walk back down the street they'd come up.

"Jack!" Brooke called after him, but he only waved her off and kept walking. "Damn it, Rich! Why did you have to..." She put her hand on her forehead, trying to think what to do to salvage their nearly life-long friendship. Finally, she ran back in the house to look for Richard. She found him happily talking and holding Heather's hand when she came running up.

"Rich! You gotta come! Jack took off! I think he might go U-A! For real this time!"

Standing quickly as Heather did, he looked at the door. "Oh, crap! Jack!" Turning to her, he stammered, "Um... I... I gotta... uh..."

Practically dragging him to the front door, Heather didn't need explanation. "Come on! Let's go find your friend!"

The three piled into Richard's station wagon, Brooke sitting in the front with Richard behind the wheel. Heather took a seat in the back just as Brooke pointed back down the street. "He took off that way!"

Turning the car around, Richard sped down the street quickly.

"Richard!" Heather warned. "This is a residential street! Slow down!"

Backing off his pursuit, Richard slowed to the legal limit. "Sorry, I..."

"...you just want to find Jack. We know." Brooke finished for him. "So do I, but let's not kill anyone in the process! Ourselves included!"

Making their way down the street, Heather and Brooke looked down side streets while Richard drove a search pattern. After looking for half an hour, Richard returned to the party.

"Look, I'm sorry for all this." Heather apologized. "I... I guess I was sort of cruel to him."

"He has that effect on people." Richard excused as he parked out in front of the house again. "It's fine." Taking a breath, he got out and opened Heather's door for her.

Climbing out, she looked up at him. "Are you sure you wouldn't like my help to keep looking for him?"

"No." Richard shook his head slowly. "Jack'll do what he needs to do to cool off. He'll be back at The Bricks on time. I'm sure of that." He looked around the neighborhood. "I'm just worried about him is all. I've been doing it so long it's become a habit!" he laughed.

Laughing with him a moment before their mirth died, Heather took a chance. Reaching up, she pulled him into a kiss. Making it quick, she backed off and sighed. "Call me?" she asked. "Let me know he's alright?"

Collecting himself from the kiss, he smiled at her as he got back in the car. "I will. Promise."

After he got in, she came up to the window. "You'll give him my message?"

He nodded before he pulled away from the house, leaving Heather to watch them disappear into the distance.

Jack walked for hours. Eventually his anger melted away, replaced with a sick feeling, the same as the day Ox sucker-punched him or the day Wendy dumped him. He felt betrayed, but knew he had nothing to blame but his own hubris this time. Eventually, he found he'd walked back to the Barracks while not even being aware of it. By nine he was walking in through the front gate and headed toward his rack.

He undressed and hit the bed like a hammer, his body shaking it as he came to rest with a shudder. Closing his eyes, he heard movement from the foot of his rack. Turning in place, he looked down to see Richard standing there.

"Come to rub it in?" he growled.

"Nope." Richard said earnestly. "To apologize, and deliver a message. Two, actually, one from Brooke and one from Heather."

Turning over in his bed, he looked up at Richard. "Well?"

He stopped pacing and faced Jack. "Well, Brooke said to say you're an a-hole and she hopes you rot in the brig when they drag your sorry carcass in here tomorrow morning. You can tell her she lost our bet."

Jack chuckled once, then twice. "She should know better than to bet against you when it's about me! And the other?"

"Heather said to tell you that her offer still stands, the one she made to you in the library. She also said to tell you that she's sorry she reacted so badly, that she's willing to make it up to you, and to give you her phone number."

Sitting up in his rack so quickly he nearly bounced out of it, Jack looked at him in confusion. "Really? I mean, you and she didn't...?"

Richard looked his friend straight in the eyes. "Yeah, we did! We hit it off! Marvelously! But she still wants to give you your shot. I do, too."

Sitting back, Jack thought about it a moment. "Whoa! Dude! That's..." His words failed him as he considered what Richard was saying.

"It's a serious offer, Jack." he said. "She means it, and so do I. I honestly wish you the best. She... she'd be a lucky girl if she ended up with you. I mean it." He stuffed his hands in his front pockets, biting off the desire to push his friend aside and take Heather for himself. He'd never fallen so completely in love with a woman so quickly before; not like this. He'd swallow it and risk losing her for Jack's sake, though.

Looking deep within himself, Jack knew what he should do. "No." he said, turning over and lying back down in his rack.

"Jack! I mean it!" Richard half laughed. "I'm serious, bud! She's willing to give you a chance and I want you to take it!"

"Nope!" Jack said, turning back over to face the man standing over him. "No thanks. Call her and give her my regards."

Insulted that Jack would turn down the woman he found so alluring, Richard nearly barked back at him. "Why not? This afternoon you were..."

"This afternoon you weren't in love with her." Jack interrupted him.

Stepping back, almost as though Jack had slugged him, Richard was shocked. "In what?" he asked incredulously.

Standing up, Jack faced him. "You! In Love! With Heather! This afternoon! Do I need to draw you a logic diagram? Get you a sign language interpreter?"

"No!" Richard balked. "What in God's name makes you think..."

Walking up in front of Richard, Jack started ticking off his fingers. "One, you have never offered to step aside for me before, because you always knew the girl wasn't serious and I'd end up getting my heart broken all over again, which means Heather's the real deal, at least as far as you can see. Two, you spent enough time with her, I'd guess looking for me, that she got to know me enough through you that she's willing to give me another shot. Three..." he paused, his voice lowering. "I... I can see it in your eyes. You fell for her hard. Didn't you?"

Stunned, Richard nodded and looked down. "Yeah, I kinda did. And I feel like a total jerk for it!"

Turning away, Jack wandered. "Oh, and four, your lipstick's smudged."

Reaching up, Richard wiped his lips and looked at his fingers unconsciously.

Turning in place, Jack faced him. "Ah, ha! She did kiss you! Five! She feels the same way about you!" Seeing Richard's shocked expression, Jack smiled and pointed it him. "Gotcha!"

He couldn't help it. Richard burst out laughing and walked over to Jack. "You a-hole!" he said, wrapping him in a bear hug. Slapping Jack on the back, he backed off and shook his head. "I guess you know me pretty well. Better than me sometimes."

"I keep telling you, but you never listen." Jack shrugged. "You need me!"