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soldierofLHS

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My alarm starting buzzing. It was 7:00 AM. I had an hour to get to work. Monday morning, I should be going to school, but I had about 11 credits and it was my "senior" year so I wasn't going to graduate anyways. Not to worry, the army would accept me with a GED, even thoughI told them I had already graduated with a diploma. They need people, they would accept me.

 I climb out of bed and start digging through my laundry basket for my work clothes. Fully dressed, I find my mom sleeping at her sewing machine with a cigarette thats half ash, half waiting to be burnt without a single drag.

 "Hey mom, it's almost a quarter after, can you take me to Bud's?"

"Yes Matt, just let me find my glasses and my purse."

We walk out the door and I say bye to my dad as he is sleeping on the couch. Him and my mom haven't slept in the same room in almost 4 years, yet they stay together just for the sake of my little sister. We get to the car and start the drive to Bud's house, he lived about a 5 minute drive away up Highway 41, which stretches from Tampa all the way to Miami.

 Bud is my best friend. I met him when I was 11 years old and we have been through so much together. We've done just about everything together, he's the one who got me the nice paying, easy work job on the beach. He graduated 2 years ago, even though he's only 2 months older than me. He was 16, and how he pulled that off I'm not sure. He isn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but his street smarts beat out any rapper you see on MTV.

We pul into his driveway just as him and his roommate Shamir walk down his stairs. He lived in a stilt house that was older than both of us. Me and my dad got into a fight last year and I moved in with Bud for about 7 or 8 months but moved outright after my dad went to jail for driving without a license.

 I tell my mom bye and climb in the car. Shamir puts on some music and lights a joint.

 "Matt, you ever going to stop smoking? Your recruiter tells you everytime you see him you need to quit"

"Fuck off Shamir and drive faster or we wont be able to eat McDonalds before work."

He starts driving faster. Shamir is a crazy ass driver but I loved it. When we got to work, Rosemary was bitching us out for being late. We clocked in at 8:03, 3 minutes later than we were supposed to. Rosemary was the only downside to this job. It was easy work, a grand a week, everyone that worked there was our age, cool as hell, and smoked weed. We worked on Miami beach and hit on hot ass tourists all day that just come there to get laid by local boys. Life was good.

It was kinda chilly that day for it being March, plus the wind didn't help.

"Hey guys I think that today is going to be slow as hell, I can send two of you home. I only need one person closing up tonight."

" I knew it was going to be me. I had only been working there for two months, and I hadn't closed by myself yet so a slow day was the bets for me to learn. Shamir and Bud took off, and right after they did, the sun came out, the wind died, and the people came to the beach.

I started busting my ass setting up umbrellas and putting out chgairs for all the lazy ass rich people who came and stayed at the Hilton. Of course those two dipshits turned off their phones as soon as they saw the weather clearing up so they didnt have to be called back in to work.

By the end of the day I was beat. My older sister wasnt coming to pick me up until 10:00 pm, and it was only 6:30. I told her to come pick me up then so I could go relax in the hot tub by the pool. I wasn't very well known with the Hilton staff outside the people who worked at the bar that waas at the pool, and the beach crew. So if a manager saw me in the hot tub they would think I was a customer.

I waunder over to the hot tub and slide in. Accompanying me in the tub  is an old couple in dire need of slim fast, and a woman in her 40's with her daughter, who was about 11 I'd guess. The little girl had a ton of energy and wasn't listening to a single thing her mom was saying. When I heard her mom tell her to calm down or she would take her cell phone away, I had to laugh. I got my first, prepaid cell phone when I was 16 only because I paid for it. And when I was 11 if I was pulling the shit on my dad or mom that the girl was, my dad would've simply pulled me out the hot tub by my ear and gave me a couple good smacks on my ass to be quiet. Worked every time too.

 The old couple left and the woman decided to strike up a conversation with me.

"So where are you from?"

"Miami, born and raised"

She found out I was a local and started asking me about it. I found it she was from Chicago, had 3 other kids besides the little girl, the oldest being 16, and had just arrived in Miami that night on a week long spring break.

'4 kids huh? just like my family, only I'm 18 and I'm third in line out of the 4' I thought to myself. She was a really nice woman and before I knew it we had been talking for 2 hours. We were telling stories left and right and she had a lot to compare with mine having a daughter in her junior year of high school. I told her I had joined the army and she thought that was amazing, which I liked. A lot of people had negative input about me joining the army, working for Bush, saying I was going to Iraq, and it got irritating after a while. The next thing I knew it was 9:45 and my sister was calling me to tell me she was on her way and would be there in 10 or 15 minutes. As I was hanging up the phone the woman, who's name was Mrs. Role, was looking up smiling telling someone behind her to come meet her new friend. She looked at me and said it was her daughter. I turned around and became speechless.

 "Hi, I'm Julia."