Embarrassing Period Stories

God's Purest Creation

I was nineteen and attending a summer class at a certain well-respected Southern institution of higher-education. I had never been away from home before. I was a part-time student and thus unable to secure a dorm, but my parents had rented me a room across the street from campus, next door to the local Wawa, which was an important place in campus life. My tale of heartbreak and misery centers around that God forsaken Wawa.

I was also in love. His name was Joshua* and he was God's purest creation. He was beautiful and brilliant. He looked like Hugh Dancy, but with the subtle masculinity of Jon Hamm. Poems have been written about his perfection, and his name will go down in history. I had zero experience with boys, and he was the first one I'd ever known to completely charm me. We had many long chats about history and politics and other smart people subjects. I have a vivid memory of us sitting on the floor of the British history section of the library talking about Anne Boleyn.

So what if we never kissed, or even held hands? We were in love, in God's purest way. Or at least I was. Looking back he may have just been using me to do his homework. But anyhow, I am not attractive, and men don't exactly flock to me. I made an effort for Joshua. I wore short skirts and cut-offs. I wore heels to class. I started wearing make-up, and I learned to do my hair in the styles of 1940's pin-ups after Joshua expressed a fondness for them. Despite some mild flirtation on both sides and my best efforts, Joshua had yet to make a move of any kind. But I was convinced it was only a matter of time. Until that horrible, horrible day.

It was a Thursday near the end of the term. I was visited by Madame Becker, at the Romanovs would say, in the morning, and spent the afternoon in my room reading Harry Potter fanfiction and setting my hair in pin curls. Then my stomach was seized with pain. I rushed to the toilet as blood gushed out of my body. This happens about once every period for me; it gets really heavy for an hour or two. I went to change my pad to discover, to my horror, that there were none left. I used up the last of the toilet paper (I was going to buy more later that day) wiping myself, and wiping off the pad to prepare to go to Wawa to buy more.

I left the house feeling very insecure with my soaked pad and my short shorts. I was terrified I was leaking. I rushed to get in and out. I got some very overpriced toilet paper (they charge extra for "convenience"!) and some of those extra thick plus-sized pads that protect so well while completely fucking up your panty line. As I'm lining up to check out, who should I notice but Joshua. God's greatest creation, standing in line to buy a pack of gum, with a pure halo of white light around his head.

He noticed me. I noticed him. He looked down at the items I was holding, and quickly looked away. I blushed, and sweat began to roll down my back. Neither of us said anything. I was shy around boys, and knew little about them. But I was sure they did not want to think about blood coming out of a girl's vagina. I got to the front of the line. The clerk rang up my purchases. I reached for my purse.

My purse. I'd forgotten it.

Fuck.

Joshua must have been watching me. Silently he pulled out his credit card and paid for my items. If I had been embarrassed, now I was mortified. I did everything I could not to cry. Neither of us said a word. As soon as he paid, Joshua left the store. I went out behind him.

I don't know what possessed me in that moment; I now suspect it was Satan. But I couldn't let it sit like this. I couldn't spend the rest of the day dreading seeing him again. I couldn't sit in my shame. I was going to thank him for paying. I was going to explain how I'd forgotten my purse. I was going to offer to pay him back the next day. I was even going to offer to give him some of the homemade brownies my mom had given me a few days earlier.

I ran to catch up with him. He was waiting to cross the street. I ran up to him as fast as I could, and put my hand on his shoulder. He turned around. In that moment I stopped moving, I felt something drop. Out of my pants. It was my pad. My thick pad, so soaked with blood it's shape could not be made out. It was like I'd given birth to a pile of medical waste. It had gotten so wet with blood it had come unstuck from my panties, and slipped out of my shorts. Blood covered my thighs and stained my shorts.

Joshua heard the drop. Joshua looked down. I looked at him for one second, and saw a look of complete horror and disgust appear on his perfect face. He looked at me, scrunched up his face, and ran across the street, barely missing several cars.

We never spoke again.

*Not his real name.