Stop While You're Ahead

Cravings

  She looked down at the gift in front of her, something not quite right about the situation at  hand.

"What the hell? You're not suppose to come until next week!!"

***

    She spent majority of the morning washing her sheets, pajama pants and underwear while scrubbing the mattress.

  It was down right humiliating, this sneaking up on her. She could've sworn it wasn't supposed to rear its ugly face until next week. The occasional pain in her lower regions bore something different. She paused, huffing for a moment, before vigorously scrubbing the mattress again. She. Was. Never. Wrong.

  Checking the clock, she gave up with the bed, deciding the sheets would cover the small splotches anyway, and began dressing for school.

  She grunted a good-bye, slamming the door shut behind her.

***

  "So, do you have a plans with, er," he struggled with the name, "Mitch after school?"

She shook her head tiredly, yawning slightly, "No, he's out of town for the week."

  "Oh, sorry, I guess." she heard the happiness in his words but didn't bother questioning it, "So, you wanna hang out at the roller rink?"

  "No, I'm sorry, I'm just....not myself today," she yawned again, stretching her arms skywards.

  "Oh, um, what's wrong?" Again, she ignored the disappointment in his voice, rolling her head from shoulder to shoulder.

   "Nothing big, just not feeling up to it today," okay, it wasn't the total truth but it was close enough. She wasn't about to explain the horrors of the menstrual cycle to her best friend. She visibly cringed, partly from the pain in her, erm, lower regions and partly because of the memories way back in eighth grade when her mother decided to explain the wonders of the woman's body. Yeah, she wasn't putting him through that.

"Oh, okay," strange, that silence seemed to be visiting more often than usual.

***

   How could she be so stupid?!

Her stomach growled in agreement, begging for food. The different, utterly mouth-watering aromas invading her nostrils didn't help her cause any either.

  "Oh my...just kill me now," she clutched her aching tummy, slamming her head onto the table.

It was then that Jean raised a brow, stopping mid way from devouring his tofu burger, "What? Forgot to bring a lunch?"

   She simply groaned in response, shaking her head along the table.

"Wanna a bite of my burger?"

   To this, she turned her head so that her cheek was pressed firmly to the table, giving him a look, "Keep that junk away from me," she was able to mutter between another grumble.

  He stuck out his lower lip, prodding the insult to meat in her face, "Oh, come on!! It's full of tofu-y goodness," he proceed to shove the burger into her face.

  "I don't want any," she insisted.

"Fine," he brought it back to himself, eagerly biting a chunk out of the pasty looking burger, chewing obnoxiously, "suit yourself."

  She grumbled something under her breath, something close to "vegan freak" before complaining silently to herself, her mind yelling at her for being an idiot and forgetting her lunch.

***

   The walk home was unbearable. Her stomach constantly growled, while just below decided to twist and turn in painful, unrealistic ways.

  Jean had a look of concerned plastered across his freckled face, brows furrowed, forhead creasing and lips twitched down."You sure you're alright?"

  She nodded lamely, removing the hand from her stomach, "Just hungry...do you have five bucks?"

 He paused, taken a back by the question before digging into his sweat pants pocket, able to pull out a wallet. Quickly he opened it, pulling out a five, "Yeah, why?"

  "We are going to the gas station and I'm getting me some grub."

He began complaining, asking why he had to pay for it and she held up a hand smiling, "Cause it's gentlemanly like," was her only answer.

***

  "How dare you spend my money on that?" he pointed to the items in my bag, face that of horror and disgust.

  She shrugged, pulling out the small package tauntingly, "I like beef jerky. Not my fault you want to be a vegan."

  "You coulda just got the chocolate instead."

She frowned, "No, no I couldn't."

***

  "Ah," she fell back onto her couch, curling her knees near her chest, "it melted."

  He sat on the other end, fiddling with the remote, arm lazily stretched on the back of the couch, "So, just drink it."

  She glared at him, eye twitching, "I don't want to drink it. I wanted to eat it, solid, whole and non-liquidity." the pout in her voice was unusual and did not go by Jean.

  He cocked his head slightly, facing her though eyes still remained on the tv, "Really?" was all he could utter, bringing his legs up so the tip of his sneakers touched the outside of her thigh, "Really?"

   She huffed, resting her chin on her knees, "Yes, really." she hated the fact that she sounded like this, but it was like she wasn't in control anymore. Hormones and emotions took advantage of her vulnerability, tugging relentlessly to have control of her entire being.

   She stared, mournfully, at the candy bar, bottom lip poked out uncharacteristically. Slowly, her eyes traveled to the unopen pack of jerky still placed neatly inside of the Speedway bag. It was like that, a quick click in her mind. She grabbed the jerky, ripping the package open greedily then opened the candy bar, chocolate oozing out of the silver seals. She licked her lips, scooping a bit of the chocolate with the jerky. Without any question to whether this was healthy or not, she shoved the chocolate coated jerky in her mouth.

Jean watched in horror.

She gagged momentarily, wiping her mouth before repeating her actions again.

  "H-,"

"It's the most revolting thing I have ever tasted," she said between chews, chocolate smeared across her cheeks, answering his unspoken question, "but, it works."

 ***

Not really romantic...at all. But, I wanted my character, Rae, to be able to relate to the fellow girl readers (if anybody is reading this to begin with).

  Any who...uh...I have no real explanation for this.

 So, erm...yeah...

  Hope you all enjoy!!