Undiagnosed

Chapter 4

The following Monday, I was sitting in the empty classroom on base. Class was awful today. I'm so sick of pretentious law students who are only there on daddy's money. They're all rude and hateful and for some ungodly reason I am their target for their cruel words and jokes. So, I'm sat here, eyes glued to the board in front of me as thoughts raced through my head. I should be studying for my exam tomorrow. I have only studied five of the ten chapters and the stress was palpable. I needed to study but I couldn't even bring myself to look down at my textbook. "You okay?" I jumped at the voice, slinging my phone off the desk and looking down at my textbook. "Calm down. It's just me." I turned to see Lieutenant Seresin pushing himself off the doorframe, walking closer. I huffed, standing from my seat and closing my textbook. "Woah, hey. Don't leave." He came over, slamming his hand on the textbook. I sighed, staring down at his large hand on the textbook. "Please take your hand off my book." I said, meeting his gaze. His green eyes stared into my own, holding my stare.

"Lieutenant. I would like to leave, and I can't do that until you remove your hand from my textbook." We continued to hold eye contact before finally, he removed his hand from my textbook. "Thank you." I said before placing the book in my bag and hiking it up onto my shoulder. "Can we talk?" I shook my head. "I don't think that's a good idea, Lieutenant." He huffed, hands slapping his thighs as he dropped them. "What do I have to do to get you to forgive me?" I huffed, turning back to him. "it's not a matter of forgiveness, Lieutenant." "You can call me Jake if you want." He flashed me a smile, but I kept a straight face. "Lieutenant. You were rude to me. I put up with enough rude people in my life and I don't need to add anymore. "I said I was sorry." He said as I headed for the door. "Lieutenant. Have you ever considered that I didn't want to hear an apology? That maybe all I wanted was to be left alone?" His mouth hung open, as if he was searching for the right words. "You didn't. You decided to pull me into a room alone with you, which I really did not want. Then you had me pinned to a filing cabinet and I felt cornered. Maybe next time you want to apologize to someone, don't force them to listen to you. I'm forced to do enough in my life." I said before finally exiting the room, a weight lifting off my shoulders.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Lieutenant Seresin tried to talk to me. I started drifting around base attempting to hide from him, but he just kept finding me. "Katie!" I laid my head on the table, I was so tired of dealing with him. "I think I liked you better when you were an ass." I said as he sat across from me. He had a wide grin on his face, propping his chin in his hand as he watched me work. "What are you working on?" I huffed, continuing my work. "Just cleaning up my notes for my Bioethics class." He hummed, leaning closer and looking at my notes. "So... do you like law?" I kept my mouth shut, not knowing how to answer. "Oh, come on, Katie. It was a simple question." I sighed, leaning back in my chair. My knee bounced, not able to sit still. "I hate it." It was a whisper, but it felt like a scream in the still room. "Then why do it?" He asked, shrugging nonchalantly. "Money." He raised a brow at me and chuckled. "Okay. If it wasn't for the money, what would you be doing?" He asked and I shrugged. "Nursing has always sparked my interest." He nodded. "I guess I can see the reason for money. Nurses aren't always paid the best." I nodded, a small smile forming on my face. "Yeah, they really aren't. Not for all the work they do at least."

"So why aren't you doing it?" I furrowed my brows at his question, a little lost in my own answer. "My parents don't want me to." His brows shot up in surprise, as if he wasn't expecting that to be my answer. "Do you always listen to your parents?" I nodded as I jotted down a few notes. "Isn't that kind of the point? As kids we're taught that our parents know what's best for us." My phone buzzed and I picked it up, seeing a notification that Natasha had made an instagram post. I opened the app, liking the picture before I started scrolling. "Your parent's don't always know what's best for you." He said, catching my attention. I looked up at him, furrowing my brows. "I'm sorry. What were we talking about?" Looking at my phone, our entire conversation flew out of my head and for the life of me I couldn't remember what I said that led to this conversation. He just scoffed, looking at me incredulously. "Have you ever made a decision for yourself?" I was taken aback by his question. Does he think I'm incapable of making a decision? "Of course I have!"