Alexander's P.O.V:

I stepped inside my house, sighing as the heavy feeling inside me begun to take its place. It was like as soon as I came home, it started; all the emotions, all the thoughts inside my head I was trying to suppress, along with the feelings that followed, surfaced to the top and pounded inside my head like a bad hangover.

Glaring inside the empty house, I couldn't hear my mother's footstep. No surprise there. She worked two jobs to be able to pay for us all; me, my two sisters and Sir Grumps-A-Lot, the pet hedgehog Kaylee and Sarah had managed to tame. We all lived here, but nothing about us felt like a family.

I walked up the stairs to my room, each footstep heavy and slow. It always felt like I was dragging myself up to my little dirty den – dirty being the operative word. I dropped my bag down on the floor and then shut the door firmly; locking all the ghosts out, even though they hung onto me and not the house.

Turning and glaring emptily into my room, I felt like just dropping dead. Homework was waiting for me—homework I already mentally knew all the answers to and had sorted out years ago. Instead I glanced out my window to the house next to my own, seeing Sophie running around inside her room, her phone pressed to her ear. She was only wearing a bra and her makeup was halfway done, and she was frantically trying to slap on a dress with just one hand. Cute.

She was getting ready for a night out with her girlies – the night out she always tried to postpone or get out of. She had texted me about an hour ago, while I was in detention, and told me she had decided to go out and have fun for a change, which of course naturally meant I was going to crash her party. I couldn't allow my Soph to be out with adult supervision, aka her friends. She didn't know it yet, but she needed me if she wanted to have a good time.

Smirking to myself like I always did when I watched Sophie being off in her own little world, I leaned against my wall and watched her go. She was now applying mascara while speaking rushed words into the phone. The tight baby pink colored dress she had decided to wear had only reached her waist in the tugging-process. Finally, she hung up her phone and pulled it all the way up. She now begun the task of struggling with the zipper on the back.

I pulled my window up and leaned on the sill. "Hey, Reynolds! Need help with that?"

She whipped around and glared shocked at me, only just noticing me now. She then frowned annoyed and went to her window. After wrestling with the stubborn frame for a moment, she managed to pull it up. "What the hell, Alex? Is your life really that boring that you have nothing better to do than to spy on me?"

"Hey it's not my fault you're flashing your tits at me," I said and gestured to the deep cleavage her dress had. "Leave some to the imagination Soph, that's the thrill. The rules for your dress should be the same as the rule for an essay."

"Say what now?"

"Long enough to cover the subject, but not so long it gets boring."

"And which is my dress?" She asked, but then changed her mind. "You know what, don't answer that. I'm not looking for your expert opinion. I'm in a hurry so I'll talk to you later. Say hi to your mum for me!"

Without waiting to give me a chance to reply, she shut her window on me. She then rushed out of her room and left me staring into her empty bedroom.

She always surprised me with what came out of her mouth. I loved that; loved that she knew she didn't need my validation to know she was hot, loved that she wasn't the average insecure, lip-biting, incontinent next-door-girl who didn't know jack about the world. Soph was Soph; she was a heartbreaker, confident, and not afraid to use the voice her mama gave her.

– And that of course made me wonder how the fuck we came to be friends.

Sighing, I finally closed my window too and let myself drop down on my bed. I was tiredly rubbing my face when I heard the front door go and then the pitter-patter on stairs of my little sister coming up. The next thing I knew, she was bursting into my room, smashing the door open.

"For Christ's sake, Kaylee. We fucking talked about this—" I froze in the middle of my sentence when my twelve-year-old little sister came running over to me, her cheeks wet from tears.

She cried loudly and wiped her eyes. "Alex, help me!"

I shot up from my bed and strode across the room when she nearly collapsed from devastation. I lifted her weightless body into my arms and cradled her. She was shaking as she threw her tiny arms around me and sobbed. "Hey, Kaylee, shh. Don't cry, it's a waste of water. Think of the parched children in Africa."

She sniffled against my neck, still completely broken. "Alex, please, you h-have to help me..."

"What happened in school today, princess?" I asked, softly stroking her fine blonde hair. "Tell me and I'll beat the shit out of whoever hurt you."

She shook her head and dried her cheeks with her sleeve. "N-no, it's not anything l-like that. I-I'm... I'm dying."

I pulled her back from my neck and forced her to meet my very confused eyes. "Say what now? You're dying? How the fuck did you get to that conclusion?"

Kaylee started sobbing vigorously again and hid her beautiful dark brown eyes behind her hands. "I-I don't k-know w-what h-happened! I didn't do a-anything, I swear, it just started!"

"What started? Breathe, Kaylee," I ordered when she started hiccuping. "Start from the beginning and then we'll see about ordering your tombstone, okay?"

She nodded a little and then drew back in my arms. I walked us to my bed and sat her down, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. She exhaled slowly and hiccuped a little.

"Alright, from the top, kiddo," I said as she wiped her tears away. "Why do you think your dying?"

She blushed red for some reason and looked down. "It's e-embarrassing..."

"So what? If you're dying, why do you care?"

She thought a little and then nibbled at her lower lip. "Okay, fine... I-I was in the middle of math when my stomach started hurting. Like, really hurting. So I asked Mr Ashby if I could l-leave to go to the bathroom and then he gave me the hall pass and, and..." She started welling up again, but I was already cringing.

This wasn't happening. Why did I have to be me right now? Why was I here and not some place else? Why was mom not here? Oh God, I wanted to go to a dark pit and just hide there.

"I went to the bathroom because I thought I had to p-pee, but when I sat down and pulled down my undies, there was bl—"

"Oh, my fucking God." I jerked away from her and stood up, running my hands through my hair. "This is just not happening."

"I told you!" Kaylee cried, beginning to tear up again. "I'm dying! I've been bleeding all day and my stomach keeps hurting! I'm losing all my blood and—"

"Kaylee, you're not dying, you're menstruating," I forced out through gritted teeth. "And you're sitting on my bed and you don't have a diaper on or whatever you women fucking use to stop it, so please get up."

"M-menstruating?" Kaylee blinked up at me. "I... I'm not sure what that is."

Of course she didn't fucking know and you know why? Because mom was never home to teach them about these things and since she could barely afford education for all of us, we went to shitty schools where they didn't teach young girls about this crap. And the Internet? Well if we could afford iPhones or maybe just a laptop to share, she probably would have known that this happened to every fucking normal female in the world, and apparently, I was now the genius who had to explain her the ways of the vagina.

This was the work of dear old Karma; Me, the pussy-player, was now destined to become the pussy-instructor. Ha-to-the-ha.

So not happening.

"Kaylee, call mom," I snapped, not even being able to look at her. "Tell her she has to step up to the motherhood to tell her daughter about womanhood. She'll know what that means, and if she doesn't, just add period. Period."

"Period," Kaylee blinked confused, tears still lingering on her eyelashes. "S-so I'm not going lose my l-life?"

"Quite opposite, dear sister," I said, finally turning to her and giving her a look. "You now have the ability to create it."

~~~

So mom came home and sat both of my sisters down to have a womanly talk. Since Kaylee and Sarah were identical twins, Sarah was most likely to get her period within the week, too. I was happy to be off the hook and couldn't wait to get out of the house.

I was running down the stairs with my wallet in my hands as my mother came out of the basement, holding a basket of laundry. "Alexander?"

"Can't talk, I'm going out," I said in the passing, walking into the entrée to slap on a pair of shoes. "See you when I get back."

"Where are you going?" She asked, giving me an inspective glare.

Sighing, I glared back. "I'm meeting up with Miles and Jagger. We're going to go get peaches."

"Peaches?"

"Yeah, you know, the little round tropical fruit that tastes sweet and—"

"Don't be smart with me," She said, pursing her lips. "I know what peaches are. I just don't understand why you're going to go get peaches at 7.30pm on a Friday evening."

"We're guys with a healthy appetite," I replied while tying my shoes. "But we might get some chocolate too, though. Jagger is a chocolate kinda guy."

Frowning, my mom just looked at me. "Right... Okay. Oh, by the way, pastor Niels called me today and asked if you were showing up for Mass on Sunday?"

"I always do, ma. You wouldn't have it any other way."

Chuckling a little, she shrugged. "I'm just trying to raise my kids in the proper faith of God. His love is what's helped us through these past many years."

"Sure, amen," I replied, grabbing my coat. "Look, I gotta go. See you later, ma."

I hoped one day she would realize I was an atheist and didn't care jack about God and that I was probably the biggest biblical sinner you would find on the face of the Earth. But as for now, she dwelled in the blissful belief that I was a regular Saint and Virgin Mary.

"And amen to that," I said as I walked down the street.

• • •

My car broke down. Wrote this while waiting for the tow car.