Private 02 - Private Paradise

outside.
    Later, when Carla tried to bring up the incident, Sam snapped at her to forget it. “He hit me up for cash. He does it all the time.” He'd shaken his head and stared off into the distance, a look of sadness in his eyes so profound that, even now, remembering how he'd treated her, Carla still felt a pinch in her chest.
    That was the moment she'd fallen completely, utterly under Sam's spell. When she came up with her plan.
    Eleven years later, the memory of how stupidly eager she'd been, the way she'd thrown herself at his feet, made her cringe.
    It was mid August, a week before Sam was set to head off to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for basic training. Three days after that, Carla was heading to the University of Arizona. Though they spent nearly every free minute together, they hadn't had a single discussion about what would happen after they left the resort. Whether they'd stay together, seeing each other as much as they could. Whether they'd stay in touch at all.
    As the day of his departure loomed closer, Carla became more convinced that she and Sam were meant to be, that there was no way she could stand to be halfway across the country from him.
    So she came up with a plan. Unfortunately Sam's response hadn't been what she'd been hoping for.
    They were up on their usual spot on the mesa, lying on their backs, staring at the stars. Carla still had her clothes on, though Sam had edged his fingers up under the front of her shirt to draw lazy circles on her stomach. Slowly, gently, in a mesmerizing pattern he worked his way up, until soon his fingers brushed the undersides of her breasts. She knew she only had a short window before hormones took over and she'd be too distracted to think, forget talking.
    “ I need to tell you something,” she said, catching his hand before it could reach up to cover her breast.
    “ What?” he murmured, his voice muffled as he kissed the spot on her neck guaranteed to make her shiver.
    “ The University of South Carolina offers almost exactly the same program as U of A. I talked to the Dean and if I wait until winter quarter to enroll I can probably get a scholarship to cover tuition.”
    His mouth froze on her neck. “So?” The wary tone in his voice should have tipped her off, but miss know it all Carla who saw the solution before everyone else was like a horse with a bit in her teeth, barreling to the finish line.
    “ So,” she'd laughed, “that means instead of going to Arizona, I can be close to you while you finish basic.”
    Sam sat up so quickly Carla's head, which had been resting on his arm, thumped against the hard- packed earth under their blanket. “Basic only lasts nine weeks. Then what will you do?”
    Carla's stomach had sunk to her feet at his response. “I― I don't know.” She hadn't thought that far ahead. “I suppose I could transfer to be closer to you―”
    “ What, you'll be like my stalker, following me all over the place?”
    Carla remembered how the cold had overtaken her at the cruel tone in his voice. In the moonlight, she could see the change come over his face, his mouth pulling into a sneer, a look of pure meanness on his face that she'd never seen on him before. Still, like a moron, she couldn't stop pushing forward. “Not your stalker,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Your girlfriend.”
    “ Who ever said you were my girlfriend?”
    Any response she might have made stuck in her throat as his words hit her like a punch to the chest. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She could only sit there mutely as he went in for the kill.
    “ I don't know what you think we've got going here, Carla, but I'm just hooking up.”
    She wanted to point out all the time they'd spent talking, the way they spent every free moment together even if they weren't fooling around, but she couldn't make her mouth form the words.
    “ Don't get me wrong, it's been fun. You're hot, and you have a killer rack, but I'm only twenty-one. No way am I going to tie myself down to one girl now.” He made a scoffing sound that made her stomach clench so hard she thought she was going to throw up. “Especially not an uptight virgin who gives a lousy blowjob.”
    She remembered going cold and hot, the roaring in her ears so loud it was like a freight train going through her head. To this day she didn't remember getting up, scrambling down the hill, and sprinting back to her room. At some point she must have fallen, because when she became aware of