Drill Sergeant Lovato

Part 4

Have you ever done something you knew was right, but you felt completely awful afterward? That summed my feelings up in a nutshell right now. 

I don't think I'd ever been yelled at like Devonne just yelled at me in my life. She basically called me a hypocrite and a terrible person in under 10 seconds. It was quite the blow to take. And the whole thing had been so... spontaneous. One moment we were kissing, the next she confessed she loved me, and after that I'd chosen (what I was convinced of now) the worst possible words as a response. Now I was pretty sure she didn't even want to see my face ever again. 

Which you know, would be a viable option if she wasn't my goddamn drill sergeant. 

I didn't mean her telling me she loved me didn't matter, in itself. I just meant that it would be more trouble and more heartache than it was worth once I graduated. If I graduated. I'd only known her for 5 weeks, but I had a strong feeling she was going to make my life a living hell tomorrow, and the next day... and however long until she calmed down. 

I mean, how hard would it have really been to just tell her I loved her too? I was pretty well convinced of that, at this point. I could have just said that, and we probably would have kept kissing and just feeling right together for as long as time allowed before I had to march back to the drill pad with everyone else. 

But if I had done that... I would have been backpedaling on everything I'd accomplished in the past week. If I had admitted I loved her, she would be on my mind constantly. I'd revert back to how I was before we decided - or rather, she decided - that we should separate. Which, granted, was the more fun option. But it just wasn't realistic. 

No. I'd made the right choice tonight. The consequences were likely going to suck something fierce, but in the end... in the future... I could look back on this moment and know I did the right thing, right? 

Just then my cell vibrated in my pocket. Once, then twice a few seconds after.  

Couldn't be her... could it? 

I retrieved it and opened the messages. No. It was Heather. 3 messages in rapid succession.

YOU TOLD HER IT DIDN'T MATTER THAT SHE LOVED YOU???

Why would you do that, Selena?! She just called me in tears...

If I call you, are you gonna answer? We really need to talk...

Just as I was about to type a response, she was calling me. I answered it immediately, which was odd considering I'd never talked to this girl on the phone before. I'd never even texted her back. 

"Hello?" I answered, naively. 

"Hi, Selena. Nice to put a voice to the name for once. Listen. You have to tell me everything that just happened. Dev might have left out some details. I hope she did..." 'Heather' spoke at a rapid pace. Her voice sounded a lot younger than Devonne's. Come to think of it, Devonne had never said how old she was, exactly. 

"What did she tell you?" 

"That she confessed her love for you and you shut her down hard, saying it didn't matter. Please tell me you didn't actually say that..." 

This Heather was awfully concerned for having only been Devonne's friend for a few weeks... Then again, I was the one in love with her after the same amount of time, so I guessed I couldn't really give her a hard time about it... 

"Okay then..." I swallowed. "I didn't say that." 

I heard her audibly sigh on the other end of the line. "Do you know how hard this is going to be to get her back to normal now?"