That Time of The Month Has Come and Gone

That Time Of The Month Has Come And Gone

Tomorrow, it’ll definitely start tomorrow, Maddie says as she pulls her thong up over barely there hips, where the lacy material tickles her skin under her jeans. She put a pad down there because she knows, she knows, it’ll start tomorrow. Or maybe even later today. She feels familiar cramping. Or is that just from stress, worrying about it? She takes several deep breaths.

“Maddie, did you finish your homework?”

“Yes, mom,” she calls down. She knows her mother expects her to succeed, to excel, to become what she herself didn’t become and the last thing her mother would want is this. Especially not at 16. Jimmy said it wouldn’t happen, that he had a rubber on, that he’d pull out, only thing was that the rubber came off when he did and all he said was, “Oops.”

She, the math wiz, had done quick calculations; her last period ended just seven days before that and she didn’t think it could happen that fast and Jimmy insisted it couldn’t happen that fast and anyway “only a little bit would have gotten in.” Jerk. It only takes one sperm. She tosses and turns all night for the seventh night in a row.

It still hasn’t started. It’s three weeks late now. She still has cramps. Maybe she just has an infection, she wonders. She’s tried cranberry pills. She looked into a strange concoction called pennyroyal. If she waits much longer, she’ll have waited too long. She drives herself past the high school where algebra class is about to begin, drives into the clinic parking lot, and parks as close to the door as possible so nobody will see her, and sits with the motor running for the longest hour of her life before turning off the motor and walking inside, ignoring her cramps, intent on getting those pills legally while she still can.