Page 74 of The Game Plan

She nods knowingly. “Period? I get cramps in my back all the time.”

It’s not that, but it’s easier to go along with it than explain the likely cause.

“Yeah. It’s not fun.”

“Can I get you some ibuprofen?”

A laugh bubbles out of me, radiating pain through my belly and centering low in my abdomen. “I’m already maxed out on ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and Midol. Thanks, though.”

Kiersten rubs my shoulder consolingly. “I’m sorry, babe.”

I try to make it through dinner. I pick at my food—I have no appetite, which is thoroughly unlike me. This isn’t my first go around with an ovarian cyst, or even with one rupturing. I won’t know for certain until it either passes or I nearly pass out from the debilitating pain.

It’s fun. I’m having fun.

“Are we going to talk about it?” Haleigh asks the table at large.

“Talk about what?” Tamar says.

“Sam has a new boyfriend.”

My eyebrows go up and heads swivel in my direction. “And?”

Wendy looks at me impatiently. “And he’s hot! This is new? When did this happen?”

“Recently.”

She rolls her eyes. “No shit. You weren’t together two weeks ago, you didn’t show up to the Delta party last week, and then you bring him to a Gamma party? How did it happen?”

“He’s so sweet,” Sarita adds. “I just want to hug him. He looks like a teddy bear.”

Ducking my head, I hide my smile. “Me, too.”

“How’d you meet?” Jun asks.

“We’re in the same statistics class. We study together.”

“He’s a math major,” Amanda mentions. “We’ve had a couple of classes together. He destroys the curve, like, every time.”

“Yeah. I’ve asked him not to do that,” I admit. “He politely declined to agree.”

“I thought you didn’t have time for a boyfriend,” Makayla says.

“I don’t,” I say honestly. “He’s worth it.”

“Aww.” Two of the sisters sigh and sag against each other.

“I want that,” says Megan, a sophomore and a Newton cheerleader. I’m amazed at how well she balances the sorority life with her cheer schedule.

“I have no idea how I’m going to make it work during softball season. I’m already stretched thin enough as it is. All I know is being with him makes me happy, and we all need to do the things that make us happy more often.”

“Agreed,” Wendy says. She lifts up her drink. “To us, and to being happy.”

All of the sisters raise their glasses in toast.

We have a pleasant evening planned. It’s nice being surrounded by my friends, my sisters. After being around the testosterone of my new breakfast and dinner table, it’s kind of nice to be in the embrace of the comforting femininity of the sorority.

I never thought I would be the type of woman who enjoyed being in a sorority. I don’t like getting dressed up in fancy dresses or high heels, I don’t wear a lot of makeup, I don’t like the color pink, I don’t like stereotypically feminine interests. That doesn’t make me wrong or anti-feminist.

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