She didn’t know my sexuality like Annica did. In her mind, the barracks ho was suddenly getting married but still sleeping around. No wonder Tenesa kept her distance. She didn’t say anything when I brought home this quiet virgin boy and, two nights later, slept with his squad leader, who’d I known from basic training. She never asked me about the tall, dark, handsome guy from the chow hall or the French Tori Amos fan. She let my business be my business and never intervened until the evergreen incident when the drunken French guy came into our room while she was sleeping. He shook her awake to ask if he could sleep in my bed. She knew I was down the hall with the freckle-faced boy and his amazing red hair. Tenesa asked me never to put her in that situation again as she explained how Frenchie begged her in the dark to stay. He apparently showed her the scratches and green skid marks on his body from earlier in the night when he tried to climb an evergreen tree outside of my window to reach me and fell to the rocks.
