Page 33 of Triton

17

Erik

I pulledon the leather pants that I’d purchased last year for Halloween and clutched my massive trident, though the long metal spear couldn’t ever replace my real trident that had been pounded into my flesh upon my BUD/S graduation. Standing there with my class, looking at my family in the audience, my father’s face beaming with pride, without question had been the best day of mylife.

“Babe, let’s go. I don’t want to belate.”

Aria emerged from the bathroom door, and one look at her caused my heart to beat strong in my chest. Stunning, simply stunning. She wore thigh high red and gold boots, a short blue skirt over black boy shorts, a red bustier, and a long blackwig.

“Damn, woman. I’m going to be fighting off men at this party.”

She laughed and then whipped her gold lasso atme.

I grabbed the lasso and wrapped it around her. “We can use this later tonight.”

“Sounds like aplan.”

My hand clutched her ass, and I kissed her. My hand traced over the metallic rope. The truth lasso. If only it actually worked. Then I would be able to force her to be honest with me. “Let’s go, babe.”

We left her place and got into my car. I drove over the bridge and headed toward Grady and Isa’s place. I was looking forward to talking to Grady alone, find out what really happened to him in Iraq, off the record. I knew too well how the media embellished war stories. Grady was no doubt a hero, but I wanted to hear his account in his own words.

I was also curious to see Aria in a casual party setting. Would she let loose? Get drunk? Have a good time? I worked my ass off, but I also knew how to chillout.

Aria gripped my thigh. “So, I know you can’t tell me details of your job. But, in general, what are deployments like? Where do yougo?”

I appreciated her interest in my job. Most girls I’d dated didn’t care at all about it, even if they had pretended that they thought it was cool that I was aSEAL.

“Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria. We go everywhere, but different Teams have different regions.”

“What’s your exactjob?”

“Well, I’m an officer, but a junior one. Kyle is my superior officer. But SEALs are all operational, officers and enlisted. I plan the missions, interpret Intel. I was an Economics major at Annapolis.”

Her eyes widened. “Wow. That’s so cool. I considered majoring in comparative literature, but I ended up declaring HumBio.”

“What’sthat?”

She blushed. “Oh. Sorry. Stanford lingo. Human Biology—the relationship between biology and social science. It’s really cool. I was pre-medalso.”

“Really? So, are you going to apply for med school? UCSD has a great one. And they are the Tritons.”

She averted her eyes. “Maybe. I’m notsure.”

There she went again . . . being evasive. “You aren’t sure about what? I’m finding it hard to believe you don’t have every minute of your life mappedout.”

“Oh. Um . . .” She removed her hand from my thigh and looked out the window. “I already told you that I’m going to train back east after this summer. Then I’ll figure out what I’m doing.”

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. Why was this bothering me so much? I really liked this girl but I had only known her for two weeks so why did I care that she wasn’t opening up tome?

We arrived at Grady and Isa’s complex near San Diego State University. Isa buzzed us in, and we walked into their apartment. It definitely contrasted from my bachelor pad. Though the furniture was black, there were framed pictures, fresh cut flowers, and a bunch of those throw pillows on thesofa.

A few girls dressed as sexy superheroes and villains were talking to Isa, and there were a bunch of dudes who looked like jarheads milling around, but I didn’t recognize any ofthem.

Isa greeted us dressed as Black Panther. “Hey, guys! Oh my god, you both look awesome.”

Aria hugged her. “Thanks. So do you. Though with my red hair and your black hair we should probably switch superheroes.”

Isa laughed. “I know, right? Yeah, it’s a joke. You see I met Grady at a frat party. He was dressed as Hulk, and I was Black Panther. We went to the same party a month ago as Harley Quinn and the Joker but it wasn’t the same so we are back to being the Hulk and Black Panther. So we decided to hold an anniversary party and invite our friends. I can’t believe it’s been over a year since we met. If you had told me last year I’d be married, I wouldn’t have believed you. Anyway, let me take you to meet my friends.” Isa led Aria out to the patio.