See You Later.

It's never goodbye. It's "I'll see you later." I'll never forget that day, or the pain that comes with it. November 7th, 2009 is forever burned into the back of my mind. It will always be there and I'll always feel that tinge of pain everytime I think about it.

Kayla and I had driven 2500 miles on a whim to see our husbands off. Originally neither one of us had the money and neither one of us even knew our husbands were in the same unit. We went to highschool together;  Kayla, Sam and I, but none of us were ever close so how would we have known? It was November 3rd 2009. I knew Sam was in the marines and I knew he was in Cali because I had seen him at family day back in June of 2009, but I hadn't seen him since then. Kayla and I sometimes talked on MSN and just happened to be talking that night. We talked about deployment and I had curiously asked her Sam's address to see if he would be anywhere near bryce. I about shit my pants. The addresses were identical. They were going to the same place.

It was 3am on November 4th now. We had devised a plan to get us to California. We only had 3 days to drive 2500 miles, spend time with our boys and have our hearts ripped out of our chests, we were pressed for time. I had zero money, Kayla didn't have any either, only her money in savings.. The things we'll do for love. So with the promise that I'd pay her back for my half of the trip, some bread and peanut butter, we set out.

I called my parents to tell them I was going to California and they were scared to death. After all it was just Kayla and I, but I told them I didn't care. I was married and I was going. Oh the joys of being 16 and married!

It was a long hard trip and I'll never forget it. We took turns driving and sleeping, I was 3 months pregnant and my stomach was turning so bad I couldn't even eat. At that point Kayla was begging me to eat, but I just couldn't. It didn't help that I couldn't get ahold of bryce until we got to Texas because I had resorted to calling his shop and telling them I was driving from Tennessee to see him off and he didn't even know I was coming yet.

About an hour later I get a super hateful phonecall from him. His tone immediately changed when I told him I was in Texas coming to see him, the questions then turned to "When are you going to be here?!" "How much longer?!" Excited much? With a few I don't know's and I'll call you when I get closer's and an I love you we were off the phone and I felt much better. That stabbing pain was still there, I still couldn't eat but I was relieved and that was enough for me.

At some point in West Texas the speed limit goes up to 80mph on the interstate. By now it's about 9 pm on the 4th of November and we see blue lights. The officer tells Kayla she's doing 85 in a 70. Apparently the speed limit drops to 70 at night. Why, I'm not really sure because it's flat all the way across and you can see for miles. Kayla explains the situation to the cops, that we're trying to get to California to see our husband's off and neither one of us honestly saw a sign about the speed limit.

The officer tells Kayla he'll just give her a written warning and says to hang tight for just a minute so we're finally breathing again because Kayla is absolutely terrified of getting pulled over, it's quite funny really! The cop comes back and hands Kayla a piece of paper. It is not a written warning. It's a 300 ticket. He tells her to keep the points from going on her license to go to driving school. When she tells him she's from Tennessee (which he obviously knew in the first place) and can't attend driving school in Texas he tells her oh well just to pay the ticket. With that little incident we were both heated.

A few hours after the texas incident I'm driving. There are cones in the middle of the interstate and they start guiding me into one lane. I look and see a sign that says "weigh station" so I immediately start thinking I've messed up from being so tired and made a wrong turn. I slowly drive through the parking lot and around the semi's to get back on the interstate. I get a half a mile down the road and I see blue lights. I start waking kayla up with "Oh shit kayla we're getting pulled over again!" She wakes up freaking out asking if I was speed and I tell her no, I have no idea why we're getting pulled over again.

I look up and we are surrounded by cops and they have a spot light on us. Do I have a dead body in the trunk and not even know about it? A cop walks up and knocks on Kayla's window, so she rolls it down. Keep in mind we haven't showered in two days and are in our pajamas. He says "border patrol, why didn't you stop" Well HOLY COW. I explain that I didn't know it was border patrol. He then says "You didn't see the big red flashing lights and border patrol sign? I tell him that I actually didn't and thought it was a weigh station because of the sign I had seen and the semi's that were in the parking lot. He asked who's car it was and when Kayla, who's sitting in the passenger seat, says it's hers he looks at us and is like well why is she driving and so we have to explain once again what we're doing. We both tell him we really have no idea what we're doing because we've never attempted to go that far from home before. He asks us where we're from (which he obviously knew because of the car tags and my license) we both chimed in "Tennessee" he then laughs at us and tells us to be careful and to have a good night.

Back on the road again. Nothing else remotely exciting happened until about 10 am on the 5th when we hit California's border patrol. There was a border patrol agent to our left with his german shepherd and a car being torn apart by agents on our right. Kayla spots the dog, a DOG, a GROWN DRUG DOG and says "aww what a cute puppy" I told her she probably shouldn't say that to a badass drug dog.... Did she listen? NO. As soon as we get to the agent she rolls down her window and repeats herself. Good thing that guy had a hold of his dog or Kayla woulda been toast! Lesson learned.

By 1pm we thought we were so close to being with the guys that we told them we'd be there in about an hour. FAIL. By this time, I still hadn't eaten. It had been about 48 hours since I had last eaten and still didn't have the stomach for it.  Around 4 we rolled into oceanside. The guys were so excited to see us they had dropped bryces truck off at the shop and started walking to our apartment, but we got to them before they found us :D. It was such a relief to see his face and I know Kayla felt the same about seeing Sam.

A weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, but I knew deployment was just around the corner. We had two days left with our boys, every second counted. Bryce made me promise that when I saw our apartment I wouldn't get mad at him.... I walked in and was ready to kill him. There were food wrappers laying everywhere. I'll never forget the feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach realizing he had been just as hungry as I had been. We were broke. I knew it wasn't my fault but I was still overwhelmed with guilt.

November 6 th came, we didn't do anything but hang out with each other and just enjoy our time. Sam and Kayla were off doing their own thing. That night we all went to a Hibachi Grill and Sam paid, I was ready to kill bryce. I don't know if it was just stress or if he was really pissing me off that bad, but I was mad. He was acting like such a little kid and wouldn't knock it off. He ended up getting mad at me so we were mad at each other and it was just bad. Looking back now it had to have been the stress of deployment weighing heavily on us. It's a scary thing and very real.

November 7th 2009 Came too fast. We had to be at batallion by 11. I was fine, scared, but fine. We wasted all day there, but I'm thanful for the time I had with him. We just sat there.. sat some more.. the guys left to go get their guns and when they came back, we just sat around more. It was about 10 and i started getting really nervous. I could feel the tears coming and they burned. I didn't wanna cry because he begged me not to. We went and sat in his truck so he could call everyone and tell them bye. He didn't even seem bothered by the fact that he was leaving me and our unborn baby and I was upset by that too. That was until he talked to my mom. He said "Take care of my baby, take care of both my babies" I'll never forget that. After he said that he burst into tears and laid his head in my lap and we cried together. We pulled it together and walked out to talk to our friends. We were standing in the grass and he lifts up my shirt to kiss my stomach...

I'll never foget sitting on those metal benches either. It was there that I saw the first white bus turn the corner and then more followed. My heart sank to the bottom of my feet and I was overwhelmed by fear. At that moment I knew it was all over. He was leaving. I couldn't make him stay no matter how bad I wanted him home or how bad he wanted to be home, he had to go. Duty called. I burst into tears and he begged me to stop but truth is, I just couldn't. Even if I wanted too for him, it was too late. He held me and I soaked his cammies. He kept promising me he'd be okay, but my heart was heavy and I was already missing him.

They were then called in for formation. I had never seen him at work before, I was so proud. It's an overwhelming amount of emotion to feel at one time. Then came the final see you later. We kissed and hugged. I didn't wanna let go and neither did he which made me cry even more. He had to go and I had to let go. It hurt so bad to watch him walk away. My heart was slowing being ripped out of my chest right in front of me and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

Right before he was supposed to get on the bus he turned around and ran back to me to give me one last kiss. Then he really had to go. I found Kayla somewhere in the crowd and we stood there together and just cried. We watched every single bus drive by. I wasn't sure which one bryce had gotten on so I wasn't about to leave until I was done staring down the last one.

Staying at the apartment that night was rough, Kayla and I cried together and I'm so thankful I had her. Everything reminded me of him and I just wanted to go home. I wanted to be out of California, away from the Marine Corps who took my husband away from me to send him to the shit hole called afghanistan.

The next day we cleaned out my apartment, turned in the keys and headed home. Saying see you later was only the beginning after all we had 7 more months of hell in front of us.