The Senior (College Years 4)

Oh God.

I rest my hand against my belly, wincing when I feel the cramp ripple through me. Maybe it wasn’t the need to pee at all. Maybe I’m cramping and that’s what woke me up.

“No, no, no,” I murmur, hitting the call button and trying to reach Eli.

It’s after two in the morning. He’s for sure sleeping.

It goes to voicemail and I end the call and redial again.

Still no answer.

I text him again.

Me: Please call me. It’s an emergency.

Me: I need you, Eli.

I pace my room, a wave gripping my lower belly that has me bending over. There’s a gush between my legs and I run back into the bathroom, pulling down my underwear to see I’ve bled right through.

There’s blood everywhere.

Crying, I clean myself up, grab another pair of panties and a full-blown pad this time and slip everything on.

And then I go to my parents’ bedroom.

I don’t even bother knocking on the door, I just walk straight in, going to my mother’s side of the bed. I shake her shoulder gently, whispering, “Mom,” a couple of times until she

wakes up. When she spots me, she sits straight up.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“I think—I’m having issues.”

“What sort of issues?” She’s frowning, confused.

“Womanly ones.” I start to cry harder.

She climbs out of bed and I watch as she slips on a pair of old sweatpants and an oversized sweater. Dad doesn’t even stir. The man must sleep like the dead.

“What do you want to do?” she asks me.

“I want to go to the hospital. The emergency room.”

“That’s so far though. How about the twenty-four-hour clinic?”

“We have one of those up here?”

“It’s new,” she says as she slips on a pair of old Ugg boots. “Get some shoes on. And a coat.”

I rush to the hall closet and pull out an old winter coat, then slip on a pair of Autumn’s old black Uggs that she left behind. I love that my mother didn’t even hesitate or try to talk me out of what I want to do.

She’s just doing it.

I wait for her in the kitchen, gritting my teeth when another cramp grips me and she magically appears, her purse already slung over her shoulder and her car keys clutched in her fingers. “Let’s go.”

I follow her into the garage and we get into the car, me checking my phone every few minutes but still no response from Eli.

He must sleep like the dead like my father.