Tales of Tyler-Arther

Catching Up With Matt

Tw: Blood.

'Blood! Blood? Blood.' Blood was the only thing going through Matt's head as he looked at the bright red stain, about the size of a small rock, on the crotch of his pants. Blood, and fear, and panic.
"Why am I bleeding? Why is there so much of it? Is there supposed to be this much?!" Matt was definitely panicking now.
To be fair, he was eight. And public school doesn't teach you about this stuff until at least fourth grade. Matt definitely wasn't in fourth grade.
"Is there supposed to be this much of what?" A voice asked.
'Crud.'
That's right! There was someone else in the bathroom with him. Personally, I probably would've cussed.
Matt sighed, "Blood. There's a lot, of blood."
"You're bleeding?! Uh! Where are you cut? Do you want me to get you the nurse?!" The voice, now recognized as Kyle's, started to panic too.
"No! I-I mean, yes. I am bleeding. But, um. There's no cut." Matt paused between each word of his last sentence. Not quite believing himself. "But my sides hurt! D-does that count?"
" Uhh... Well, then. Um. I guess wherever the blood is coming from, wad up some toilet paper or something and kinda, uh hold it there I guess."
".... okay..?"
"Then, uh, if you think you can get up, I'll walk you to the nurse. Okay?"
"O-okay." Matt was beginning to calm down. Now that he had a plan.

*--*--*--*--*--

Matt had gotten his first period.
At least that's what the school nurse had said. She asked Matt how much blood there was.
"A lot."
She then handed Matt a square shaped, thing in a thin, plastic envelope like thing covered with 'girl' symbols and asked him if he knew how to put it on. When he told her that he didn't even know what it was, and asked her to pleasehurryup because he was still bleeding. She told Kyle to leave the room.
Kyle did not so much as budge from his seat. Matt told her again, to hurry up. Only louder, and more urgently this time as he shifted around a bit, trying to stop the bleeding.
The poor nurse sighed and told him what to do with what she explained was a pad.
While Matt was in the nurse's bathroom putting the diaper like sticker on, the nurse asked Kyle if Matt had bled through any of his clothes.
Kyle just said "His pants." and was overall very confused. Then the nurse called Matt's mother and handed him a pair of loners through the door.

*--*--*--*--

As Matt and Kyle approached their lunch table, Matt saw Dennise almost spit out her orange juice. Only to force herself to choke it down. 'Wonder why?' Then he heard why.
"What? Who's Jennifer?"
'How did? When did- Why? What exactly does Tyler-Arther know about Jennifer?'
As they sat down John passed a book to Matt under the table.
'I don't bother to read the name of the new book John just gave me. It was usually just another propaganda book that my parents call 'wastes of paper' and 'dumb lies' from his mom. But lately they've been nice books. Filled with stories of people like me. They're from John.'
The last book Matt had gotten from John's mother was called Irreversible Damage. Matt's dad barely read four sentences before he started ripping pages out and tossing them into the fireplace for kindling. He said that that was the best use for the paper in the book.
But then he had gotten the book Jack (Not Jackie). It was nice. Then more nice books like it had followed. These nice books had taken the place of the nasty ones. Every other Friday John would give Matt a new one.
Eventually Matt gave in to his own curiosity and glanced at the book. This one was titled Gracefully Grayson. 'Seems interesting.' Matt thought.
His mom picked him up that day.
"Mom?"
"Hi, honey." His mom sounded sad.
"Can we go home?" Matt asked. It had been a long day.
"Of course we can, dear. Of course we can."
As they walked away towards the car his mom added, "We have some things to talk about tonight. And you'll probably be uncomfortable. So to make up for it, you get to choose dinner! What would you like?"
"Dinosaur mac n' cheese. And orange juice."

Word Count: 730