Chapter Two: Getting it Twisted
Like in every friendship, you have your ups and downs.
I’m aware it’s nearly every teen girl’s dream to have a gay guy best friend—not sure why, since most of the time it’s not any different than just having a regular guy as a friend.
Ask me how many times Nick has helped me pick out a piece of clothing. Zero. Maybe if he did I wouldn’t dress like I’m still twelve—his words, not mine. Come to think of it, he’s pretty good at criticizing my wardrobe choices, but he has the patience of a toddler whenever we try to go shopping together.
I realized I was screwed as I was sitting in English class and felt the terrifying catastrophe in my pants.
Oh, the joys of being a woman.
I slowly swiveled in my desk, as Mrs. Lasowski droned on about Macbeth and his murder-infested conscious, to face my best friend Nick.
“Guys don’t have a tendency to carry pads with them, do they?” I whispered so that the entire class didn’t become aware of my embarrassing situation.
“Liv, I do everything I can to stay away from girl parts, remember? Besides, even if I wasn’t gay, gross.” Nick scrunched his pretty face into a scowl.
I tried to weigh the risks of standing up and going on the hunt for a pad against staying planted in my seat. Hoping that it didn’t look like I had murdered someone in my pants, my wobbly hand shot up into the air in the middle of Mrs. Lasowski’s sentence. The old lady narrowed her eyes at me for interrupting, but hey, it wasn’t my fault that she obviously wasn’t sympathetic to my plight. I doubted she even remembered what a period was. She was really old, like sixty. I wondered briefly why she hadn’t retired already. Wasn’t it illegal for her to still be on the job?
The entire senior class pivoted in their seats to look at me for distraction. I awkwardly asked for permission to go to the bathroom and shuffled my way out once she granted it.
The halls were quiet and empty as I practically jogged towards the girls’ bathroom. I stopped midway and cursed myself for being so stupid. I didn’t even have any spare change to buy a pad.
My options were limited, so I decided to make a small stop at the nurse’s office.
Pushing the door open into the brightly lit room, I made eye contact with a girl who lay on one of the mattresses with her hand on her stomach. Her face immediately become pained when the nurse’s eyes went to her. It was a pretty weak performance in my opinion. You had to keep your guard up at all times when you were faking it with the nurse, since she practically had a mechanical neck that switched directions at the blink of an eye.
“Hello, Livvie.” The nurse sighed as she saw my face. I hadn’t acquired my talents in deception without some practice. I gave her a goofy smile in hopes of winning her over. My face must have been off, because she only shook her head before rolling her eyes as I came closer.
“What will it be today? Headache? Stomachache?” She was already pulling out her notepad to write me my slip. So maybe I wasn’t so smooth when I came in with a fake illness to get out of gym. I could never actually ditch class, but if I had an excuse, especially when it came to any physical activity, I’d definitely take it.
“You know, Livvie, PE class is not all that bad. If you just gave it a chance you wouldn’t have to come here every other day just for—”
I cut the nurse off with a clearing of my throat, partly because I was embarrassed that she knew and partly because the situation was quickly going downhill.
“Uh, not today. I was actually here to see if you were willing to do an act of charity?” My voice went all high at the end, as if I wasn’t sure what I was there for myself.
“Charity?” the nurse inquired, clearly suspicious.
“Yeah, well, Aunt Flow made a visit…” It didn’t matter that I was a senior in high school, I could never talk about my period. God, I was such a loser.
“Who’s Aunt Flow?”
“Well, like, you know, she comes once a month.”
“And why do you need me? Do you need to speak to a counselor?”
Things were clearly not going as planned. So, I resorted to being straightforward without being straightforward. I could hear the girl behind me trying to stifle her laughter. Whatever, sick people usually didn’t have it in them to chortle the way she was doing, so it would kick her in the butt later.
“I was wondering if I could have a pad?” I asked, in a new tone of voice so that she knew to drop the Aunt Flow subject.
The nurse’s mouth grew into a big O when she realized what I had been talking about. Glad we were getting things straightened out.
“Oh!” She laughed. “Why didn’t you just say so? Pads are fifty cents.”
I did say so, technically. That’s when I smiled and started to wring my hands.
“I don’t have any change with me.” My voice was weak and barely a whisper.
“That’s a problem. Livvie, I can’t just give you a pad. Just last month Principal River had to talk to me about budget cuts and low funds.” It didn’t sound like a problem for her. And where was the female compassion? She was a fellow woman out on the field, going through one period after another like the rest of us.
“If I gave every girl here a free sanitary pad, I’d be out by the end of the week. Plus, you all have the tendency to sync up and I can’t keep up with that kind of demand…” She trailed off. Was this illegal? There should have been at least one law in place about her refusing to help me out.
I could feel my face morphing into that of an awkward seal, but I couldn’t just give up. Time was ticking and the zone below my hips was feeling more and more hazardous.
“What if I promise not to come visit you for a week?” Might as well admit the truth that we both knew. I was giving away my free pass out of gym class for the entire week, all for the sake of keeping my dignity.
That’s when the nurse’s face glowed with a satisfied smile and I realized that I had been played. Duped, because she would have given me the pad if I had just held out for a little longer. She’d known how bad I needed it.
I was finally handed the coveted package. Thinking that my luck was going to turn around, I started to make my way towards the nurse’s private bathroom. Until the girl I’d seen earlier got there first and walked in. The chick even winked at me before she closed the door. A few curse words that I would never say out loud ran through my mind at the sight of her.
Nice. Now I could parade around the whole school on my way to the bathroom. If I was lucky some guy like Harvey Lockwell and his friends would end up bumping into me and miraculously become aware of my existence for the first time. They’d notice me and the giant blood stain on my butt.
I walked out of the nurse’s office, pad in hand during the first few steps, until I realized how embarrassing that would be. I cursed for real when I realized my sweatpants didn’t have any pockets. I had no choice but to stick the package into my tank top.
My flat chest wasn’t helping at all. It was official, after staring at my reflection in a classroom window: I had a third boob in the shape of a square. I should have asked for two pads to at least even things out.
I was so close! I could see the bathroom stick people at the exact moment that a shrill and perky voice called my name. My head snapped up to see one of the office ladies flap her hand in the air and come my way. My body turned to give her a frontal view. God forbid she notice a stain and call me out on it.
My stomach clenched up when none other than Harvey Lockwell came strolling right behind her. A hysterical laugh bubbled up but I squelched it in time. He had a little smirk on his face as if he knew some big joke that no one was in on. Was I standing in front of a reflective surface? Was he smiling at the bloody mess on my butt? No, he’d probably be grossed out by that. Unless he had some weird fetish…
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the joke was on me as he walked closer. Did I have something on my face?
I remembered my square boob and crossed my arms quickly. Great, the last thing I’d wanted was coming true.
Well, in reality I had always wanted Harvey Lockwell to come my way and smirk, but not when it was World War III in my pants, complete with the bloody casualties.
Office ladies loved me—heck, all teachers seemed to really like me. Except for Mrs. Lasowski, of course. That woman was an entirely different species, but when I said that teachers and administrators loved me, I wasn’t kidding.
That’s why the office lady made a huge point of strolling right up to me and beaming. I didn’t consider myself a complete nerd, but I did have good grades. I didn’t actually put blood and sweat into my work. Good grades were just easy for me to get. That pretty much explained the whole Livvie Fan Club.
If only people my own age found me as appealing.
The woman started talking, but my eyes became transfixed on Harvey Lockwell.
Everyone spoke when Harvey Lockwell was around, not necessarily to him, but about him. He had a huge record of getting into trouble and breaking rules he shouldn’t.
It wasn’t just his reputation, which everyone in our small town knew about. His older brother, who’d graduated right when I entered high school, had apparently done some time in jail for beating this other guy to a pulp, amongst other things. Things like that don’t just fly past people. I did belong to the category of girls who found him insanely attractive. The category was composed of pretty much all girls, and Nick.
Harvey had a perfect jaw that did the ticking thing whenever he concentrated on something. The light freckles on his face should have softened him up, but paired with the piercing gaze they just created a warm sinking feeling in your stomach. His brown hair stuck out from under his cap, while his lip ring caught my attention as always. Yeah, I’d done quite a bit of gazing when it came to his face, mostly from afar.
Harvey Lockwell could come to school wearing a garbage bag and holding a piñata with one hand and still look like he owned the place. The boy had the darkest eyes, almost black. Eyes that were staring right at my chest!
Harvey Lockwell’s beautiful eyes were on my chest and his smirk was widening! I was flattered, until I realized maybe I shouldn’t be. I mean, what a pervert. He was openly staring at my chest, with no hint of hiding it. Should I have been insulted? If so, why was I getting such an adrenaline rush?
I wore an A cup, but was I getting an A+ in Harvey’s boob gradebook? Did I even make the gradebook, or were my boobs so minimal that they didn’t even make the cut?
“—and since he’s having such a hard time, we figured you could tutor him,” the office lady finished, squeezing my shoulder with a smile on her face. I had to break out of my Harvey trance to notice her smiling and waiting for my answer.
When in doubt, just nod your head and hope it was a question, or that a simple reassurance will work.
“Great! You guys can start next week!” The office lady gave me a sweet smile before turning around and leaving me alone in a hallway with Harvey Lockwell.
The silence ticked on as I tried to figure out a plan to leave without looking like a moron. I couldn’t just turn around even though the bathroom was right behind me. Walking backwards was out of the question. Harvey was still looking at my chest, until his eyes finally came back up to my face. I could feel my right eye start to twitch under the scrutiny.
It was time to keep my cool. I could keep my cool for two seconds in Harvey’s presence. I had to.
I didn’t notice when he started to come closer until I found myself looking up and seeing his face mere inches from mine. I could see his freckles up close like I never had before and it was literally the best view of my life. I was stuck with my back against the brick wall. Harvey came even closer.
“What are you doing?” My voice wobbled. I felt the brick texture under my palms. I had never spoken to Harvey in my life, so it was a little weird to do so at that moment.
He smiled and finally leaned in to whisper in my ear. I was mortified at the little shiver that came over me.
“While you were checking me out, you pushed something out of your bra. You might want to try a push-up bra next time.” I could feel the smile on his face, and just like that he was gone. He had pulled away and had already started walking in the opposite direction.
I looked down the find the stupid pad halfway up my neck, its horrible mint-green packaging calling out for attention from above my tank.
I couldn’t even breathe from the embarrassment. I tried to look up to see if Harvey was witnessing my mental breakdown, but the hallway was empty.
Harvey Lockwell, the badass, the legend, thought I stuffed my bra with pads.