CHAPTER 34

Genesis's POV

                  What started like someone had

taken my insides and forged them into one gigantic knot in my stomach now felt like that knot was now being punched countlessly, unrelentlessly, akin to a knife being dragged across the insides of my lower abdomen. It felt horrible. My stomach was sore and bruised. It had been three days of stomach sickness and unbelievable pain, chills and profusive sweating and gut wrenching vomiting. All in all, the previous days had been intolerable and I was barely hanging by a thread.

My head drooped down onto the table surface. I squeezed my eyes shut with my arm clamped on my stomach, forcing the contents of my stomach down for the umpeenth time. Grateful for the peace and quiet of the library, I shoved my books to the side, discarding my essay for a bit. I was lucky enough to have been given an extension on my homework. It was to be submitted the following Monday and I wasn't even halfway done yet but a feeling in my guts told me I just had to deal with the discomfort and get on with it anyway I could.

The empty chair on my left tore roughly across the tiles, making a screeching noise that got the attention of half the library. From my barely shut eyes, I saw a girl I haven't seen before sit down and pull out her books but not before tendering her apologies for the noise she created. Average height, red-haired and freckled nose, she was quite pretty but not the kind of pretty you find on the covers of magazines or pictures of Hollywood's finest actresses. She was just pretty. Uniquely pretty. Pretty made just for her.

I screwed my eyes and ignored her presence. There was a slitting headache pounding so hard at the base of my skull and my throat was sore and patchy. Swallowing down mere saliva was sufficient to make me cry out in uncontrollable pain. My back ached. The surface table wasn't soft enough to cushion my head properly. Summoning a bit of strength into my joints and muscles, I pushed back the chair as quietly as I could manage so as not to draw any attention and rose up. I gathered my books into my hands and shoved them in one after the other.

Two pages down, six to go.

What was the possibility of the course professor giving me another extension?

Zero to none.

Plus I couldn't abuse his leniency in that manner. Unlike what I had thought and had in mind, he was nice enough to postpone my submission into the following week. Any which way, the essay had to be completed before the weekend ran out. Twenty was too big a mark to lose.

           "Oh my God!"

The strap of my bag caught on the edge of the table, disstabilizing my stance for a split second. I pushed back and yanked the zip from where it latched.

           "Excuse me? Hello?" The girl who sat by my side pushed back her chair and stood up, her eyes bulging out as she looked at me.

My brows expectedly crinkled in confusion. I turned my head to my left and right and back at her, perturbed at her subject of interaction and interest but her disturbed gaze was fixed on me.

Pointing my index to my chest, I asked, "Are you...are you talking to me?"

She began to gather her books into her hands and started putting them away into her bag. Then, she nudged it and rushed to me, digging her nails into my arm as she rushed me out of the library.

Her actions plunged me into perplexity. I tried to wriggle free from her clutch but she held on tighter, lips grazing the tip of my ears.

She whispered. "You're bleeding. You need to get to the restroom now. Lucky for you, I've got some tampons in my bag."

What?

She hauled me into the restroom, shoved me in and bolted the door immediately. We were alone. My head still fought to make sense of it all. Was the blood the cause of the stomach cramps and uneasy feeling? I barely had cramps during my time of the month. She thrusted a tampon into my hands and I rushed into the toilet.

I tugged my underwear down my legs and my eyes almost popped out of its sockets. Shocked at the amount of blood that drenched at the centre, I was soaked to the hilt. There was blood everywhere, in my underpants, on my thighs, steadily dripping painfully from my core.

           "Oh God." A frisson of alarm surged through my body entirety as fear lodged itself deep in my throat. Drops of crimson determinedly seeped into my palms, running wildly through my lifeline. The sight of so much blood soaking my underpants and trickling onto the floor was scary.

           "Christ! What's - What's happening?"

           "Are you okay in there?" My head snapped up to the direction of the voice emanating from the other side of the door. I had almost forgotten I wasn't alone. My head began to spin akin to the breathless feeling of being stuck under water.

          "Ahh...I don't..." My words staggered hard in the air, soughting for balance. "So much blood. I-I don't know what to do."

         "How much is it?" Her voice wafted through the door and filled up the space contained.

         "It is sprinting down my legs." I yelled back. "It's so fast."

         "Oh....uh...okay. Try....just try and wash up first. Then you insert the tampon."

         "I doubt it can hold it for long." The thought worried me.

         "First things first. Do you understand?"

A small tap on the door and I heard her voice again.

         "I got some water in a bucket. This should be enough."

I nodded and opened up, taking the stainless from her grip. Short of words, my heart beat were at a peak and the sensation of fear twisted my guts painfully. I washed off the blood from my thighs and legs and inserted the tampon as fast as I could. The toilet floor was a bloody mess. Fortunate enough to find a tissue roll sitting comfortably on the toilet head, I grabbed a hold of it and cleaned up the mess on the floor, discarding the used paper via the toilet.

My underwear was soaked and the dubiety that the tampon trapped in my vagina would last long enough before it became useless bothered me.

           "I don't think it would hold it off for long." I said worryingly as I came out of the toilet and headed to the tap.

           "But that should do before you get to your dorm and change up. You stay on campus, right?"

I nodded, too embarrassed to tilt my chin, abashed my period had chosen to catch me off guard and glad because it could only mean one thing.

             "I don't have pads though. I use tampons. You got or not? Or you could buy from the store at the opposite end. Not far from here."

             "Thank you." My shoulders slumped. She yanked the door and held it open. I walked out. As soon as I heard the expected click, I turned to her. "Look, I know this is...I know this is a bit stupid. I'm a girl and this isn't meant to happen and I'm supposed to be aware of things like this but I had no idea it would show up now. I didn't know..."

She squeezed my arm, "I understand. Completely. It happens at times. Sometimes it doesn't appear at the exact schedule. Hey, one time, mine showed up and I had no idea. My crush then in highschool made me realize I had blood on my skirt." She laughed. "Now take a moment and imagine my embarrassment. I almost died."

              "It must have been horrible."

              "You have no idea but at least, he wasn't a jerk about it. Probably because he had three sisters so I guess to him, that was normal. You can call me Miranda."

              "My name is Genesis."

She smiled and drew in closer, muttering, "I know."

I jerked back. She lifted her shoulders in a dismissive shrug. "Almost everyone in the faculty knows you're dating Keegan. He is quite popular around this side of campus. Keegan and his crew. Especially the tattooed one."

My stomach flipped. "You know Dario?"

She chuckled and squizzed at me. "Who doesn't? I've been here long enough."

***

I sneezed for the tenth time in the span of sixty minutes. I could bet with my last dollar that my internal organs were being sucked out of my body and flowing out like a waterfall. It was a Niagara Fall of blood experienced. Cold and trapped in an induced bed rest, a piercing and excruciating pain was painfully present in my stomach and my lower region felt moist.

The ache at my back was so horrendous while the one pulsating down below was the worst of all. The cramps felt like someone was slowly ripping my insides out and shredding them into thin little pieces. Nauseous and barely able to help myself with anything, Lana enclosed the small space by my side as the back of her palm tenderly rested on my brow.

            "Damn. Genesis, you're burning up. "

I sneezed again, grimacing as the cramps clenched my groin tightly in powerful and merciless grips.

           "Tell me something...." My breath hitched. "....something I don't know."

           "But why is this happening now? We were supposed to be on our way to Jacob's tonight."

           "I never planned to go. I don't....even know who he is."

           "He's my friend. I was gonna introduce you two. Sneak peak, he's hitting on me but I don't want him. I've got eyes for only one stubborn soul."

Random stabs of immense pain in my stomach every five minutes, it was unbearable. "Good for you." I hiccuped. "Am I in the middle of a volcano? I feel like I'm dying Lana."

            "And coming down with a fever you forgot to add. You are trembling like a leaf."

            "Thanks."

            "No offense. Here take this." She pushed in a bitter pill into my mouth and cradled my head onto her lap. I was immensely grateful for the little sips of water that came right after. "I'm not sure it will help but I hope it would. Your body feels like red-hot fire."

Saliva pooled at my mouth. I gulped before speaking. "I don't want to but I think I should...I think I should visit the hospi..."

            "No! No! You can't. That isn't neccesary because...because I don't even think it's that serious. Just rest okay? Stay here. I'll call Keegan." She moved to stand.

I stopped her before she could move any further. "Don't call him please."

             "But why? He is supposed to know what's happening."

             "I know but please don't bring him here. He has done so much for me. Please don't call him. He would want to take me to the hospital and I don't want to go."

            "Yes yes. That's true. You're right. I shouldn't call him. Why didn't I think of that?"

            "You should go. Don't stop having fun because of me."

            "I would be the world's crappiest friend if I do Genesis. Have your menses always been like this? Leaving you half-dead?"

Too drained to speak, I gave a slight shake of my head drifting to the negative. A thought struck my mind. I smiled and forced my tongue.

             "At least... I'm not...I'm not...pregnant."

            "Uh, uh. Sure. Look, are you sure you ain't gonna die if I leave you?"

            "No. I won't hold it against you. Please go." She swiped the beads of sweat camping at the top of my head with a warm towel.

            "I promise I'll be back very soon."

I nodded my head and soon regretted it. It hurt to move.

            "Just a few shots and a quickie and I'm done. Cross my heart and hope to die." If I wasn't down with an intolerable period and a possible fever, I would have rolled my eyes. Perhaps, to the back of my head.

My body ached, my nose ran, my eyes ran. My hair laid like a second skin over my cheeks. Empty legs and a rising feeling of nausea from my stomach. It never ceased to amaze me that the muscles that were working so hard days ago now struggled to hold my weight.

I staggered to the mirror to gawk at my sweaty form, sembling one just caught in a sudden storm. White like mother right down to my brown eyes and straight brown hair that clung to my clammy flesh. Sweating makes me look like I need someone to dunk me in an ice bath fast, anything to put out the fire in my cheeks.

I winced to cross the floor, truding back to the bed and winced again as soon my body sank to the sheets. My muscles repeatedly expanded and contracted and the vessels in my skin constricted. I was unable to find a comfortable position. Each toss and turn only made sure it increased the discomforts by a ten folds.

I forced my hand to brush the swelling on my neck and as I did so the ticking from the wall clock positioned above Lana's bed post seemed to get louder, counting my life away. I felt my insides grow warm in an unpleasant way and my guts, though empty, writhed as if struggling with a rich meal.

The faint brush of fingers against my sweaty skin gave me insights to an unseen presence in my midst. Lana had came back just like she said she would. I had earlier doubted her. Lack of breath experienced through my body, that feeling of tiredness and lethargy. For as my lungs worked to bring in the much needed oxygen, even then I felt as though I was drowning in the air. All our lives we take each breath for granted. We assume both that the oxygen will be there and our body will be able to absorb it in sufficient quantity to sustain healthy life. Perhaps that is why we let the forests be destroyed and pollution spill into the air, sea and land.

Shortage of breath is cognate to drowning. You are in the air and unable to re-surface. There is no option to swim up. You can go outside for better quality air if you are lucky enough to live in a place with less pollution. You can go to a hospital and hope they have supplies. However, the best thing to do is to prepare before it ever happens.

My head lifted and water touched my lips. I parted my mouth to let the water in and started to cough and splutter. Lana rubbed my back so smoothly, and that gentle massaging effect helped so much. She dabbed my brow repeatedly with the towel - now damp against my forehead.

A shaky breath broke free from my lips.

            "I...I feel so weak and...and I think I'm wet through."

            "I know." A whisper above my ears, yet sounded so far away.

I felt my body move. Next came a hard wall of muscles that didn't at all compose of the anatomy of a female smoothened against my spine and hands that had more firmness and rigidity a woman's didn't possess thrown over me in fierce protection.

             "Keegan?" I mumbled, curling up against him. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry I didn't call you but I'm glad you're he-here."

             "Hey." The clock ticked. "You wanted to see me."

***

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