《Short Recap》

After a few minutes, Harsh sprinted out of the back door of the building and made his way towards us.

"Thanks, Harsh." Vinay nodded solemnly, offering him a reconciliatory smile.

Harsh nodded back in response before making his way out of the dimly lit lane.

I sighed. At least they wouldn't be ready to kill each other the next time they talked. It was a start.

●○●

It was one of the warmer winter mornings when my period showed up. According to my period tracker, it was six days early which was odd.

I sighed, the stress was definitely getting to me but I had to keep going. Missing classes wasn't an option because I'd already bunked many following the setting up of DantelSoft.

As I made my way to the kitchen to get something to eat, I felt a sharp pain shoot up from behind my belly button and I doubled over with a groan. It'd been so long since I had cramps that I had almost forgotten the pain. I groaned softly as I attempted to straighten up.

Grabbing a guava from the fridge, I hobbled back to my bedroom and transferred my pile of neatly arranged books and folders into my tote. I hadn't woken up early to study today because my back hurt. Instead I had spent the early morning hours lying in bed and listening to my special period playlist on Spotify. Needless to say, I felt guilty now.

The pleasant chilliness of the tropical winter hit me the moment I stepped out of the building into the misty whiteness of the air outside. At almost a thousand feet above sea level, Bangalore was blessed with lovely weather throughout the year despite being close to the southern tip of the country where it was usually sweltering hot.

I forgot my pain momentarily.

But by the time I reached college, I was breathing hard and my legs began to hurt. Lara greeted me as I rounded the corner of the first floor to reach the chemistry lab.

"Good morning Akira!" Lara grinned, bumping playfully into my side.

"Good morning." I returned her smile, "How many practical experiments did Professor Dang say we had to do?"

"Five, if you attended the last class and got your work graded. And eight, for the people who got an F grade or got DT due to lack of attendance." Lara replied instantly.

I slumped my shoulders and groaned.

"Well, thank heavens I've got only five experiments to do. Honestly, it's five too many but I guess I can manage." I said, sucking my cheeks into my mouth as we walked into the half occupied lab after giving our attendance.

Lara raised her brow in concern.

"First day of my period." I answered dully.

Lara chuckled as she said, "Fourth day for me. I've got paracetamol if you want. It'll dial down the pain and uneasiness."

I shook my head.

"I never take any meds during my period, it normally isn't so awful." I explained when Lara rolled her eyes, "Basically I never take pills unless it's absolutely necessary because I'm worried about antibody resistance. I don't want my body to become completely resistant to the various meds before I'm old."

"Sounds rather masochistic to me." Lara replied shaking her head, "Jeez! You're being like my father now. Just keep the tablet in case you change your mind, ok."

She thrust a small strip of two paracetamol tablets into my hand before dragging me to an empty workstation inside the lab.

After the first experiment, my legs began to ache again. After the second, the pain spread to my back and as the lab assistant droned on about the third one before we performed it ourselves I felt a clawing pain shoot up my vagina suddenly.

I bit my lower lip hard, drawing blood as I stifled a cry before quickly excusing myself from class and making my way to the ladies' restroom.

The moment I was inside a stall, I sat on the toilet pot and buried my face in my hands as tears of frustration started to run down my face.

I vaguely registered the clip clop of Lara's footsteps enter the restroom after five minutes but I stayed inside.

She waited for a few minutes before knocking on the door of the stall I was in.

"Akira?" she asked softly, "You should go home."

"But the lab practicals..." I hiccups.

"I'm sure you can stay back on another day and complete them. The professors love you, they won't mind making an exception for you." She stopped me midsentence, "Come on out. I'll drive you home."

I closed my eyes and drew in a short breath. I honestly felt like a traitor. I'd wrongfully started taking advantage of their good graces and I felt miserable about it.

And my period was making my emotions zoom all over the place which was messing with my head.

I pinched the bridge of my nose lightly and wiped the tears off my cheeks before opening the door of the toilet stall.

"But don't you have two more experiments left to complete?" I asked.

"I'll come back and complete them. We have time till one." She shrugged, fishing out a hard-boiled candy and offering it to me.

"Right." I pulled my mouth into a tight lipped smile as I took the candy from her hand.

"You should take more care of yourself Akira. You work way too much for your own good." Lara smiled, lightly hugging my shoulders from the side, "Give the boys a chance to do something too."

As if on cue, a flush sound reverberated through the restroom and an older girl stepped out of the last stall.

She eyed my reflection in the mirror above the sinks curiously as she washed her hands, not even trying to be subtle about her blatant staring.

"You're Akira Joshi, aren't you?" the girl quipped zealously.

I nodded my head in response.

Before I could say anything else, she asked, "Wow, the timing is perfect. So, I was wondering if I could intern your company for my seventh semester exposure project."

"Send me your resume on my work email. You can find the email ID on our official website." I answered with a polite smile.

"Great thank you sweetheart. My friends need internships too so I'll tell them you have openings." She smiled a little overbearingly, "Thank you again, Akira!"

'I haven't given you the internship yet', I wanted say as she left in a flurry.

Some people were just so....

"My best friend's a college phenom!" Lara snorted, slapping one hand on her mouth when I shot her a glare, "Anyway, let's get you home."

Nodding, I followed her out of the restroom.

●○●

I spent the remainder of the day in bed, curved into a foetal position under my fluffy blanket as I listened to a podcast by Michelle Obama and ate dry fruit laddoos that Ma had couriered. According to her they were the ultimate solution to anything period related.

I was facing away from the door, so when the bed dipped under a foreign weight I ripped my earphones out of my ears and rolled off my bed to the other side quickly.

"Hey, it's me." Vinay raised his hands in the air.

"Gosh, you scared me!" I yelled, clutching my tummy and falling onto my bed as I groaned, "How did you get inside?"

Vinay dangled a gleaming key in front of my face.

"I still have this, remember," he said, sitting upright against the headboard of the bed with his feet stretched over my blanket, "Besides, Roshni told me about what happened this morning so I didn't want you to exert yourself too much."

"I can walk just fine, ok." I retorted, as Vinay stroked my hair soothingly.

"I'm sure you can," he replied with a sigh, "But is that bad that I let myself in?"

I shrugged, snuggling closer to him and closing my eyes.

Wait, how on earth did Roshni get to know?

"How did Roshni get to know about my cramps?" I surmised aloud, "I didn't even meet her today."

"Lara put it on our group chat and Roshni forwarded it to me because she knows that I never bother checking the chat." Vinay chuckled.

"Ugh!" I turned to look up at him and frowned, "I feel like my life is so over-broadcasted because of those two."

"They love you Akira." He answered.

"I know," I sighed, "And I love them for that."

We stayed like that for some time, a comfortable silence enveloping us as I my abdominal pain began to fade.

Randomly glancing down at Vinay's half covered legs in his rage shorts, I cringed at the disgusting mop of wiry hair running down his shins.

"Yuck!" I said with a disgusted frown, "Sometimes I feel like guys have so much hair to overcompensate for their skinny legs."

"What?! That's freaking offensive, Akira." he feigned hurt, "I fucking comb my leg hair after every shower, ok."

"Ew!" I grimaced, "I never asked you to elaborate on your immaculate body hair care routine heavens sake?"

"Well, you better get used to it," Vinay responded with glint in his eye, "Because you're going to see my hairy legs every morning from now on."

I sat up with a start and studied his glib expression incredulously.

"Are you..." I began slowly.

"Yes, I'm moving back in." Vinay grinned elvishly, "I figured that I want to spend as much time as I can. You've got piles of work at your company and I have a ton of books to read since I'm starting my new course one semester late. Between that we hardly got time to see each other so I decided to come back."

"Right." I nodded, looking away.

The fact that Vinay would be leaving soon kept coming and shoving itself into my face and it honestly hurt to think about it.

"You don't mind that I made this decision without asking you right?" he asked, cautiously bringing his hand to my chin and turning my face to look at him.

"No," I smiled, shaking my head in earnest, "I just realised that I'm really going to miss your idiocy."

Vinay hummed.

"I suppose I can live with that."

I laughed, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

"One more thing, Mumma wants me to bring you home for Diwali dinner next week." Vinay said, "What do you think?"

"I'd love to. I'm actually pretty excited to meet her." I answered biting my cheek instinctively, "As long as she doesn't do what Ma did to you, I'm sure I can manage."

"Great, I'll let her know then. Try not to eat much that day because she's going to bombard you with food and stuff you like a goat before Bakri Eid." He chuckled.

As I smiled, I became hyper aware of a wet feeling between my legs and jumped off my bed instantly. Sure enough there was a tiny red dot on the spotless bedsheets.

"Fuck!" Vinay yelped, eying it weirdly, "Is that your menstrual fluid?"

"You can just call it blood." I rolled my eyes as I pushed him off the bed and pulled off the bedsheets.

Vinay stood across from me, ramrod still as he studied me like a museum exhibit.

"Do you need a hot water bag or chocolate? Or more uh...you know, sanitary pads or something?" he asked after a pause.

I snorted at his sudden awkwardness and ushered him out of my bedroom and into the kitchen.

"I've been a menstruating female for six years Vinay, I'm fully prepared." I said between peals of laughter, "What you can do though, is make us dinner."

"Whatever." He muttered grumpily, "I was simply trying to be thoughtful, ok"

"I know." I smiled, before rushing to the bathroom to get changed.

●○●

Happy Diwali everyone!

I've spent the past week helping my mother make chaklis, sev, laddoos and several other things and I'm bubbling with excitement.

Also if you haven't read the previous chapters, please go back and read them. Vote, comment, share and don't forget to spread the love!

QOTD: What kind of weather do you love the most?
I love cool, windy summer evening and warm, sunny winter mornings. Can't really choose between them XD.