Chapter 7 - Jake’s First Explanation

Jake blamed stress.
Then hunger.
Then his upbringing.
Then Ethan.
Then me.
Not directly.
He said:
“She ignored me.”
The officer leaned back.
“So?”
Jake realized the sentence sounded worse outside his head.
“I meant it felt disrespectful.”
“You had never met her.”
“I asked a question.”
“And she did not answer.”
“Yes.”
“Did she owe you one?”
“No.”
That was the beginning.
Jake had developed a habit of interpreting noncompliance from other people as humiliation of him.
If another recruit refused a joke:
Too sensitive.
If someone did not move:
Disrespectful.
If a woman ignored him:
Challenge.
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He did not invent that personality in the Navy.
The environment had simply failed to correct it early.