Fly With Me // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Eleven

Sophie and Rooster had been at the Hard Deck for about an hour, but they hadn't talked much. The Top Gun recruits had been notified that Iceman passed away and they would have the next day off so everyone could attend the funeral. Sophie's mind hadn't stopped spinning since earlier in the day; she was shutting down and just wanted to be left alone. A task that proved to be impossible at a bar. Luckily, Mark and Jake caught on pretty quickly and left her with her thoughts. Jake had taken up a game of darts with Coyote and Mark sat quietly at the booth, drinking with her. He didn't push her to talk but wanted her to know that he was there if she decided she needed a friend.

Rooster could tell something was up with her too. She had barely said two words to him on the car ride over. It wasn't like her at all. Unlike Hangman and Rebound though, he kept trying to talk to her and see what was up. It's what Sophie would do to him if the roles were reversed. After about the fourth time of being shrugged away by her, he finally gave up. He went to the bar to order another beer and maybe talk to Penny a bit. He wasn't really feeling up to the usual nine-ball and darts with everyone else. A woman in her late twenties approached him while he was waiting for his beer. He made small talk with her to try and distract himself from his fight with Maverick earlier in the night and whatever was going on with Sophie.

Sophie saw Rooster talking to the woman that was so clearly flirting with him and rolled her eyes. She was too drunk to see this and think rationally about it. She finished off her beer while narrowing her eyes at the two. If looks could kill, the girl would've been six feet under five minutes ago.

"Ohhh, somebody is jealous," Mark says, poking fun at her. He hopes that he can maybe lighten the mood and get her talking. It was obvious that she had a lot going on in her mind, but he respected her space.

"We're just friends," she says through clenched teeth, "He can do whatever he wants." Her hand wrapped tightly around the empty beer bottle says otherwise.

Rebound rolls his eyes at his friend. Clearly, he was wrong about lightening the mood. She was hell-bent on being in a pissy mood for the entire night. "Why can't you just admit that you like him as more than a friend? I've been listening to this bullshit since I met you."

"Because I don't," she says shortly. She scrunches her eyes at Bradley and the woman. They were still talking. She laid her hand down on his chest as she laughed at something he said. She couldn't see his expression because his back was facing her, but he must've been enjoying himself. He'd been talking to her for quite some time at this point.

"Why can't you just let yourself be happy," Sophie's WSO asks her in frustration. It was so clear that she had deep feelings for him. He knew it before he'd ever even seen them together, but now that he has, he can't figure out why they aren't an actual couple.

"A relationship in the Navy," she scoffs, "Yeah, that would work out."

"They can work and I have no doubt that if anybody could make it, it'd be the two of you"

She gets up and walks away without another word. She needed another drink. She was tired of arguing with him about pointless matters. She was already in a shitty mood and didn't need to keep hearing his ridiculous theories. He didn't get it. Rebound didn't have a Rooster in his life. No one did. And until they did, they wouldn't be able to understand how she was feeling about everything with the mission.

She walks up to the bar, right beside Rooster and the woman. She was blonde and perky, manicured perfectly from head to toe. If Sophie looked up daddy's money in the dictionary, she was sure she'd find a picture of her. She was the complete opposite of Sophie.