"Jezabella," Carlos whispered into my ear.
I moved my head around until he repeated my name again. "Jezabelle," he sang in a tune.
my eyes fluttered open and I was met with Carlos looking down at me as he sat on my side of the bed. the blanket I was covered with was below my knees, which he moved under my feet.
"what are you doing?" I responded, still halfway asleep. "what time is it?" I looked towards the windows to see lack of sunshine.
"almost seven in the morning," he answered. "come with me, I'm gonna pick you up, okay?"
"what happened?" I asked, ignoring his question.
he didn't respond though. instead, he pulled me into his lap and placed his right arm under my legs as his left arm wrapped around my back.
I latched my arms around his neck in response and he stood up very carefully.
"everything is fine," he assured me. "I'm just going to put you in the shower,"
"it's too early," I whined. "we can do this later,"
he didn't listen, and did the exact opposite instead. he placed me on my feet and opened the shower stall, turning the water on.
the smoke from the heat of the water filled the bathroom and Carlos changed the temperature of the shower knob.
"you had a little accident, babe," he pointed to the bed. "so I'm going to clean you up,"
my head tilted to the side and I followed the direction to where his finger was pointing. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but when I looked at the bed, it didn't take any searching to see what I had done.
on my side of the bed was a small, severely dark red stain that was soaked into the beige sheets. menstrual blood was right where I was laying.
I sighed, trying to think of a more humiliating moment in my life than what I was experiencing right now.
"oh my god," I whispered, looking back at Carlos. "I am so sorry, I didn't even feel it come at all during the night," I tried to explain about my monthly visitor.
I've been living with Carlos for such a long time now but never had I stained the sheets the whole time I had lived here, especially when on my period.
"it's okay," he quieted me, "it's natural, right? I just wanted to make sure you felt clean,"
I nodded in response and he proceeded to remove my shirt over my head, and then my shorts with red stains, similar to the stain on the bed.
before he could remove my underwear, I stopped him, causing him to look up at me with a frown.
"babe, this isn't a big deal," he said. "let me help you,"
"no, I don't want you touching this. this is not like normal blood,"
he tilted his head. "blood is blood, no?"
his statement made a laugh escape my lips. "what I'm dealing with right now is gross. I'll take over, but thank you for being okay with this,"
he shrugged and stood up. "I'll just go put the sheets to wash then,"
I removed my soak-filled underwear and piled them with the rest of my bloody clothes and stepped in the warm shower Carlos started.
it turned into a pretty long shower for some reason. I scrubbed myself very thoroughly three times, washed my hair, and shaved.
Carlos had come in to check on me and gathered my dirty clothes, I guess to go ahead and wash with the dirty sheets.
I guess I was blowing the whole period thing out of proportion, nervous that he would've been completely disgusted by the whole thing. obviously I was wrong.
