Cole III

Jade felt so guilty.  She knew she had been to hasty in her decision to take it a step further with Dylan.  She couldn't help but wonder what it meant.  Before Cole cheated she never dreamed of kissing another man let alone full blown cheating.  She didn't even look at other men for the most part.  She blamed him entirely for her actions.  If he hadn't of cheated she would still be perfectly faithful, Right?  Things between Cole and Jade were more of a facade.  Jade and Cole both knew the love they shared had faded but neither of them were willing to let go.  They held on grasping at what was left. 


Cole was scheduled to leave for Iraq that following October.  Jade was prepared to wait faithfully for his return.  With every scheduled tour over seas the soldiers were allotted block leave to have time to say, what could be, there final good byes to their families and loved ones.  Cole had told Jade that he wouldn't be going home to see his family but that he would be staying in town with her.  Jade felt so bad about that and encouraged him to go home to see his family offering to go with him so he could have the best of both worlds and knowing that it could be the last chance he had to see his parents, brother's, nephews and old friends.  He insisted on staying claiming he couldn't afford the plane ticket home anyway. 


Jade called him the Friday his block leave started and got no answer and no return call.  Days went by and she still hadn't heard from him.  She called his friends and still no answer.  Sick with worry she sat by the phone waiting for him to call.  She called the hospitals and found no answers.  A week went by and finally she got a hold of his best friend who informed her that he had gone home to see his family.  The rage she felt was comparable to a tropical storm.  She didn't understand why he would leave with out telling her.  Did she mean nothing to him?  She was after all still his fiance.  Jade called his parents house and got no answer she left a message for him to call her as soon as he could.  He never returned her calls.  Jade could only assume that he was spending what would be his last weeks with April.  She wouldn't be wrong.


Jade decided that him leaving with out having the decency of telling her was the last straw.  Why should she wait for 18 months for him to just come back and continue to be unfaithful.  She was so angry and hurt.  She was finished, done, over it.  She was now going to start living as if she was a young single 21 year old woman so she did.  Her best friend Katrina and her started going out.  Jade started living her life like any normal 21 year old does.  One particular Saturday night Jade ran into Cole's best friend and a few of the other guys from their squadron.  Instead of hiding the fact that she and her girlfriend met a couple of good looking men that night she flaunted it in front of them.  Knowing of course that they would take what they saw and tell Cole about it.  They looked at her puzzled as she stood talking to them with the strangers arms around her.  She told them about how she was done crying over Cole and that her and Cole would no longer be together as a couple.  The guys praised her saying "good for you".  Then Jade grabbed her new admirer and went off to the dance floor.  


Several days later Jade was out and about at a local night club when Cole walked in.  She was dieing on the inside.  The emotions ran through her like a river cutting mountains.  She wanted to cry and yell at him for being so thoughtless but instead she smiled in his face saying how was your trip?  He asked her to go out side with him so they could talk.  Wanting some closure she agreed.  The two sat in his car and he told her about how he was hurt to come home and find out that she had dumped him with out him even knowing it.  Jade naturally laughed at him and said "Well maybe if you had called me I could have told you personally.  Maybe if you had been a normal human being and told me you would be leaving the state for two weeks none of this would have happened but no you chose to run off with out a word and you chose to ignore my calls.  How do you think I felt?  So don't sit there and tell me how hurt you are.  Yes we are done.  I am not going to sit here and wait for you to come back from war so you can just do this to me again.  I'm worth a lot more than this.  I don't deserve to be treated with such disregard."  He admitted to her that him running off was wrong and he told her how sorry he was.  Then Jade asked him what she really wanted to know.  "Did you see April while you were home?"  Cole hesitated for a few moments then said "Yes."  Jade asked him "Did you sleep with her?"  Cole turned his head toward the front of the car and nervously said "I saw her at a party I was drunk and don't remember a lot about the night.  The last thing I remember was her being naked so I don't know."  Jade said "Really, that's the best you can come up with?  I don't know.  So in a nut shell you cheated on me, again, with her.  I don't feel so bad for her now.  She knew you and I were still together and she knowingly fucked you.  At least I didn't have any prior knowledge of her when you and I first got together.  Oh unless you told her that we were finished."  Cole said nothing he just sat there.  Jade reached for the door handle to get out then turned toward him and said "Have a nice life and don't die in Iraq."  Jade stormed across the parking lot and back inside the night club.  She wanted to start ripping off heads. 


Knowing that it was really over this time Jade locked herself in her apartment and mourned the relationship that had just died.  Cole called her and asked her to come and spend his last night in the United States with him at his Barracks room.  Since the men and women would be leaving the next morning they were restricted from leaving base.  Jade knew it would be her last opportunity to see him and so she went feeling like if she didn't go see him she would regret it for the rest of her life.  Jade and Cole embraced each other all night.  The two hugged and kissed and cuddled and made love and talked and cried and laughed.  Neither of them wanted the night to ever end.  They stayed up all night not wanting to miss a second.  Jade and Cole didn't really want to loose each other.  They still shared so much love despite all that had happened.  So Jade promised to wait for him and he promised to return to her.