Page 70 of Pucked and Pregnant

“What?”

“Let me walk you to your room.”

“I can do it myself.”

I catch up to him and grab his arm. “I’m sure you can, but I’m doing it anyway.”

He shakes off my grip and almost falls over. I grab him again but harder this time.

“Why are you being so mean to me? Are you on your period or something? You’re always mean to me during that time.”

His words make me freeze.

When was my last period?

Shouldn’t I have had it by now?

Fuck.

Now’s not the time for this. Your only goal in this moment is getting your drunk brother back to his room. Once you do that, then you can panic.

“That’s none of your business,” I say firmly. “And I’m not any meaner to you than I am regularly.”

“Yes you are. When we were thirteen, you gave me a black eye.”

“You hid my tampons. You deserved it.”

“And then when we were fourteen, you moved my entire bed set outside when I was at practice.”

“You hung my stained sheets on the flagpole outside of our house right before all your friends came over. You deserved to sleep outside like a dog.”

He rests his head on my shoulder apologetically and I force my knees not to buckle under the added weight.

“Maybe I went a bit too far on that one. Are you still mad at me?”

“No.”

“Good. But you have to admit what you did was mean.”

“Sure, if it makes you feel better.”

“It does.” Max pats my arm.

This is going to be averylong walk.

19

LIV

Missing my period last month was nothing to panic over. Clearly, it was just stress. I was literally being hunted like an animal and slandered by the media, not exactly a relaxing time.

I’ve missed cycles before, like during final exam week in college. I didn’t have one the first three months I started working for Dave in the ECHL offices, either. The same thing happened when I started working for Caroline.

Missing my period during extremely stressful times in my life is normal for me. So this second missed period is definitely due to stress.

It has to be.

Right?

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