Gumlee Short Stories

Aunt Flow

It was a typical morning in the Abadeer-Gum household. It was early, but the three of them were used to it. Marshall tiredly kissed his husband goodbye as he left for work before marching back up the lengthy stairs to wake up their tween daughter for school. Every morning was a process to get her out of bed, but today she was being especially difficult.

"Val, come on! You're gonna be laaate," Marshall whined, tugging at his biological daughter's arm. She just groaned and turned away from him, wrapping herself up in her fluffy blankets. This has been his tenth attempt to wake her up. "Nope. Get out of bed." He waited a second, expecting her to listen, but quite the opposite happened. Little snores started to leave the lump of blankets. "VALERIE! NOW!" Marshall yelled, jolting his daughter awake. She ripped off her blankets angrily and shot up on her large bed.

"OKAY!" She screamed back at him, her tired face in a scowl. Her long, black hair was a mess and there were bags under her amber eyes. Marshall started at her for a moment, shocked that his little girl had just raised her voice at him.

"Get ready, we're leaving in 15 minutes," he said in a monotone voice and left her room. Valerie sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. She wasn't feeling good that morning and just wanted to stay home and rest. Her stomach hurt and she felt more tired than usual. Not to mention her mood had been out of wack for a past few days.

With a loud groan, Valerie crawled out of bed and stumbled her way to the bathroom attached her room. She began her morning routine by doing what most people do when they wake up, pee. But as she glanced down, she noticed something was wrong.

Her eyes widened as she saw it and started to panic. She didn't know what to do or who to tell. She lived with two men for gods sakes, how would they understand?

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Ten minutes later, Marshall glanced at his watch and huffed. "She better not be asleep again. I'm gonna hear it from Bubs if he finds out she was late to school one more time," Marshall mumbled to himself as he climbed up the steps again. Good news, she wasn't sleeping, however they were still behind schedule and it didn't appear that she was ready. A weird feeling washed over him and suddenly he could sense that something was wrong, especially after he heard soft cries. He noticed the closed bathroom door and walked towards it, knocking on it softly.

"Val? Are you okay?" He said slowly, worried about his daughter.

"Huh?" She sniffled. "Oh. Yeah... I'm okay..." she wiped her tears away and clutched her stomach that was still in pain as she just sat on the toilet, unsure of what to do.

"Are you sure? It's okay if you're not, you can tell me."

Valerie contemplated whether to tell him or not. How would he react? He didn't know what it was like to get a period. Neither did she... Well, not until now. She should just tell him, right? Or maybe her other father would be more helpful? She couldn't lie to him though, that's for sure. It's not like she could just make up a believable excuse on the spot anyway.

"Um... is Papa still home?"

"No, he left a while ago. Why? What's wrong?"

Not knowing what to do, Valerie ditched her gross underwear and loosely put her pajama pants back on and answered the door, her father standing right there.

"Dad, I need to tell you something," she said, not making eye contact with him. "And don't freak out or get all weird like you do when I talk about girl stuff. Okay?"

"Uh... okay."

"Okay... I'm just gonna say it... Glob, this would be so much easier if Papa was here," Valerie groaned rubbing her face. "I-uh... I started my period." She finally said, looking up at her dad, who's eyes were as big as the moon. He was stunned, to say the least.