6. Graduation

Curls of hair fall over my face as I remove my cap and settle it carefully on the dresser. The bedroom feels smaller than normal.

"You did great." Strong hands slide over my shoulders and draw me back into familiar arms. "You're ready, Skye."

I bite down my beaming grin, forcing my lips to straighten as I watch Ridley smooth my hair behind my ears in the mirror.

Unbuttoning my uniform jacket, I slip it off, fold it carefully, and place it beside my hat. I've come so far. I touch my chest where if I feel deeply enough, I can catch the subtle shift from my own ribs to the replacement. Clear skin, I bear no sign of the gunshot that had killed and rebirthed me.

Turning in Ridley's arms, I tug him closer and kiss his lips. It's the first time I've ever known I would miss someone.

"One year," he whispers between kisses, weaving his fingers into my hair. "It'll feel like ten."

Pain tugs at my chest. I shake my head. "My fourth year went by so fast, Ridley. Even with me gone, you'll be here in no time. It'll be your cap on the dresser."

"And where will you be? Halfway across the world for all I know."

"We've chosen the same path. When you graduate, you'll be in my division. I know we'll have time for each other."

"You don't know how high you'll climb. I remember the first time I saw you... Out in the rain when the other recruits had gone in for the night, running the track. You know what I thought?"

My heart beat faster. "What?"

"I could never run on that track again if I'd gone through what you did."

"You would if you started off behind and then lost three months to recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest and watching your comrade die."

He chuckles. "Like I said. You don't see it. We're the ones who're behind, Skye."

Enduring the captivity and returning after recovery hadn't given me a free pass through training. For the past four years, I constantly had to work harder than my fellow recruits to keep up. No one forgot what I did that day, how I'd stayed strong. But that didn't make me the ideal soldier in every respect of the word.

I'd come so far but I still had so far left to go.

Tomorrow I began to the true test. As much as I had thought training would make me who I needed to be, I see now that it can't compare to what I'll face in the field. I'll wake up to the rest of my life, the active service I sacrificed the end of my teenage years for.

Butterflies fill my belly at the thought of the future, so I bury myself in Ridley's embrace, drifting to the bed, scattering what remains of our clothes unceremoniously wherever they fall. I gaze into his endless hazel eyes. When will I see him next?

"I don't want this to be the last time I make love to you." Ridley runs his hands along my back, over my hips, and trails my neck with kisses. "I'm not asking you to wait for me." His lips travel down over the skin where no scar lay and yet the pain of the bullet has never left. "Just promise me one more time when I find you again."

I gasp as a chills snake over my skin. "I promise."

Ridley had been there for me every day since I met him two years ago, whatever that looked like for the two of us. I can't imagine entering the field in my first year as a private tomorrow while leaving him behind in the training program.

I lose myself in his arms, too tangled to find my way out.

***

Morning light gleams through the massive windows of the conference center. I am on the last few bites of a danish when a surge of guests spill in through the entry way. After breakfast we receive our first missions and there was no way I'd be coming in late like those lining up at the breakfast bar.

I'm sitting by myself near one of the windows, looking out at the mountains rising in the distance, their white peaks vanishing in the wispy clouds overhead. I've been too busy for friends and I can't say that I have any interest in saying farewell to anyone but Ridley. My chest pinches at the thought of him driving back. It would be so long before we could see each other again.

"You made it."

The deep voice, one I swear I've heard before, comes from my right where there's only a corner, where there's no seats or benches to sit. Chewing on the last of my danish, I look up a sergeant's uniform and am drawn to a familiar stare.

Green eyes.

I choke on my danish, coughing with my mouth closed. Quickly taking a drink, I try to calm my storming heart. I can't believe he remembers me. God, probably for all the wrong reasons. "Excuse me?" I touch my throat, horrified that I'd reacted in such a way.

His eyes sparkle with his sly grin. "You made it. Unless you sneaked in, that is"

Nearly four years have crept by since I last saw him. I slip back into the skin of the girl I once was, unprepared and all too zealous. When had I even thought of him last? Lifting my chin, I force down the butterflies filling my belly. Despite the brutality of the training and climbing up to surpass people with more naturally ability, I still feel like that lanky kid who didn't understand what she'd gotten herself into. "I didn't just make it. I graduated in the top ten percent."

"Yeah." He nodded, eyes still on me. "I might've heard something about that."

Heat fills my cheeks. He doesn't just remember me. He knows my ranking. My mouth feels so dry I'm not sure I can talk, but I push through, trying to appear as confident as he always seems to be. "You can apologize any time now for doubting me."

He slides his hand in his pocket and leans a shoulder against the wall. "Hyde."

"What?" I twist my brows.

"My name." He meets my eyes. "Hyde Cooper."

My eyes widen. "The Hyde Cooper who wiped out communications for Independence?"

"I'd say my partner did most of the work."

I bite the inside of my cheek. Why had I mentioned it? His partner had died a brutal death at the hands of our enemies, executed after months of imprisonment. Everyone had talked about the devastating loss of Captain Euclid and how she'd left her rising star of a partner too soon. All this time and I had no idea Hyde Cooper was the fourth year I'd met so long ago.

Memories of knocking him to the ground fill my mind and my cheeks redden. "It's an honor to meet you formally, Sergeant Cooper." I dip my head.

He dips his own. "Likewise, Private Carrel."

He's lost the traces of boyishness I'd been too young to see. With his broad-shouldered form filled out, I find it even harder to look away than four years ago when I'd first walked into the training center. A day's growth shadows his face, dark like his hair. The depth of his green eyes looks as if it'd been painted in a portrait, more than a little eye catching. It feels like I might melt onto the floor.

"Best of luck to you at the ceremony." Then Hyde Cooper begins to walk away. I can't help but twist to watch him as he drifts passed the food and through the crowd, continuing on for the door.

I turn back to the window, breathing in deeply. The memory of Ridley's lips fills my mind and I touch my hands to the cool glass. I don't need to feel guilty. We haven't promised each other anything. But I can't help but feel a twinge in my gut as I glance behind me where Green Eyes had walked away.