❦𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮❦

I wake up with an agonizing pain in my lower abdomen.

No, no, no this can't be happening, this is the absolute worst timing ever. I throw the thick blankets off me and run to the bathroom.

When I exit the bathroom minutes later miserably, my muscles ache and I just want to go back to bed, but the pain is setting in worse so I know it won't happen.

Periods suck.

I only have a handful of tampons left and zero money, so I have no clue what I'm going to do after I run out.

I'm on the edge of a breakdown, I have horrible periods.

I don't get super hormonal, it just drains the life out of me and hurts so much. I'm usually out of commission for a few days bundled in a ball crying out of pain.

I can't eat much, the pain is so intense it makes me nauseous, and I even throw up sometimes. I don't like taking pain relievers because they make me feel sick. Then on top of all that, I get these black dots in my vision and almost pass out when I stand up.

I'm just not looking forward to the next few days. How am I supposed to pretend everything is fine in front of Blake?

I'd usually just hide out and not take jobs, but I'm staying with Blake right now and I'm honestly freaking out currently.

Groaning, I faceplant back onto that mattress and pull the covers up over my head. Ugh, why did that jerk Conway have to threaten Blake with me yesterday? He could have had a little respect and waited a few more days.

I curl into a ball, maybe, if the heavens bestow a sliver of remorse I'll be able to fall asleep again.

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Three hours later and I've got no sleep. I just lay in a ball like a miserable potato.

Then I hear the front door open and shut, I think for a second Blake left, but then I hear multiple footsteps walking around.

Curious, I force myself to get out of bed and peek my head out the door. I immediately regret it when Isaiah and I make eye contact as he looks down the hallway.

"Hey Cupcake!" He smiles at me. I suck in a deep breath and force a smile on my face too.

"Hi Isaiah." I try to make my voice as cheerful as possible even though I feel like I'm dying.

"Blake just went to grab something from his car." He points to the door over his shoulder.

"Ok." I nod my head slightly and then try to pull it back into the room but Isaiah speaks before I can.

"Come hang out with me?" He gives me puppy dog eyes that make it almost impossible to say no. So I give in and nod my head then slip out the door and head towards him.

He leads me to the kitchen and has me sit in a chair at the island, pours me a glass of lemonade and slides it over to me.

I was a little shocked when Ace walked out of what I thought was a pantry, but turned out to be a bathroom.

"You had us really worried." Ace speaks as he takes a seat next to me.

"Why?" My eyebrows crease as I look up at him. He's so much bigger than me, makes me feel like a mouse.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I've never heard Isaiah's voice so sad. "It's like you don't understand that we care about you, Cupcake."

I don't, I really don't understand why they would. But they do, I know that now. I try to look at it from their perspective, and if any of them were in trouble and I could help I would in a heartbeat.

And it would make me sad if they didn't think I cared about them enough to help. I drop my head, my shoulders sagging.

"I'm sorry." I whisper out. I hear light footsteps before an arm is wrapped around me from behind me, almost like a hug. But then the other hand is shoved into my hair on the top of my head and moves around frantically causing my hair to frizz up.

"God, why are you so cute?" Isaiah mumbles before letting me out of his hold.

"Just try to rely on us more ok? You're our friend and we watch out for friends." Isaiah scolds.

I nod as I try to fix my hair that he left in a knotted mess on top of my head.

Blake walks through the door before I can fix it completely, he looks at my face that is probably pouting and then to Isaiah's smug looking one and lets out a sigh.

"Goddamn it, Isaiah. Don't harass my guest. Your sister hated you for doing that you know, I think that's why she decided to move so many states away." Blake points out as he joins us in the kitchen.

"Whatever, she doesn't hate me, we talk everyday. It's you she hated, always so grumpy." He scoffs.

"I was perfectly nice to her." Blake defends himself.

"Yeah, perfectly nicely grumpy." He shrugs.

"Fuck off." Blake grumbles.

"My point exactly." Isaiah says under his breath.

I try to contain my laughter, but a small one escapes. Isaiah sends me a wink when I do and Blake throws his shoe at him but Isaiah dodges it.

Ace just sits silently beside me, he's definitely the calm one out of the three.

I try to take a sip of the lemonade but a cramp hits me full force. I have to put the glass back down as I contain a whimper of pain and lean my head against the cool counter.

I wish those stinking car theft jerks didn't steal my hot water bottle because that would be coming in very handy right now.

"Rose, you ok?" Blake's worried voice makes me peel my eyes open. He's crouched down beside me trying to get a look at my face. I try to smile but I come out as a grimace instead.

"I'm ok." I whisper. I'm doing a really crap job at pretending to be ok, but the pain is just too intense right now.

My eyes snap closed as another squeezing pain rips through my lower abdomen. A cool hand is placed on my forehead.

"She doesn't have a fever." Blake states to the other guys. Oh my gosh, could this get any worse? Mother nature says yes as she blesses me with my lower back hurting on top of everything else.

"Rose, tell me what's wrong." Blake pleads as he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear.

"She looks really pale." Ace says as his eyes travel my face in alarm.

"I'm fine." I rasp. I place both hands on the table and push myself up into a slightly hunched sitting position. Gosh, I should have stayed in the room.

"You don't look fine." Blake points out.

He stands with his hands just in front of his body almost like he thinks I'm going to fall and he'll need to catch me before I hit the ground.

Do I really look that bad? Then a wave of nauseous hits me and my head is back to lying on the counter top, this time forehead down so my hair can surround my face. Maybe that way I can forget I'm surrounded by boys as I'm dying from period pain.

"Rose." His voice sends a shiver down my spine and my heart nearly jumps out of my chest when his hand starts rubbing soothing circles on my back.

"Period cramps." I say then suck in a breath and hold it. I didn't want to admit it, but they're all too stubborn to leave me alone about it and no way am I going to be able to muster up enough strength to pull off a believable lie or convince them I'm ok.

I can't even lift my head off the gosh dang table right now.

"Ok... Shit. What do I do?" His voice becomes higher as he starts to panic.

"I'll be fine, just give it a couple days." I mumble out, completely exhausted from the pain.

"A couple days!?" He wheezes. "There's stuff you do for this right?" I can't tell if he's talking to me, but I'm too drained to even care anymore.

"Don't look at me! I have no clue." The sound of Ace's terror stricken voice over me having a cramp, would have made me laugh if I had any energy left.

"Isaiah, what did Sarah do?" Blake questions.

"I don't know! She just ate a bunch of food but she never looked like that." Ah, one of the lucky ones who don't have killer cramps.

"Should we call an ambulance? She looks like she's about ready to pass out." Isaiah's panicking, which causes the other guys to panic more as well.

"No." I mumble out. I'm not going to the doctor, I hate hospitals.

"Should I call Sarah?" Isaiah asks someone, I'm not sure who because I'm trying to focus on not puking in Blake's kitchen.

If they would just chill, I'd lay her for a few hours until I get some strength back and then go take a nap. Someone must have replied with a yes, because the next thing I know I hear the outgoing call ring.

"Sarah! Thank God you picked up. I think Rose might be dying!" I would roll my eyes but no one would see because my head is still buried on the counter.

"She has period cramps but she doesn't look good. I don't know what to do." Good news is, I'm in so much pain I can't even feel embarrassed about the fact that Isaiah is chatting with someone I don't know about my period.

"Ok, yeah." He mumbles.

"Cupcake, can you talk to my sister for a moment?" He whispers.

I turn my head so my cheek is now what's smushed against the counter instead of my forehead and hold my hand out for the phone.

He gently places it in my hand, I put it up to my ear, rasping out a hello.

"Sorry you have to deal with those idiots." A sweet feminine voice travels into my ear. I giggle in response.

"How can I help?" She asks genuinely.

"I told them I'll be fine, but they won't listen." I mumble, and to the left of me Blake huffs.

"You don't sound fine. What do you usually do for it? I can text them what to get you?" Hearing a girl's voice right now is comforting.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? That's not good. What about painkillers?" She's so sweet, gosh is their whole family nice?

"I can't. They make me sick." Not only that but my brain gets all fuzzy and I hate it.

"Awe, you poor thing. What about food?" Her voice is so comforting it almost puts me to sleep.

"Can't, too nauseous." I shake my head even though she can't see me.

"Aunt Flow really has it out for you, doesn't she? What about hot pads?"

"Those are nice." I smile and she laughs.

"They really are. Do you use tampons?"

"Yeah"

"Any specific brand?"

"No"

"Ok, so here's what I'm going to do. My periods have always been pretty mellow, but my roommate in college had a terrible time with them. So I'll whip up a list of things that helped her and send one of the guys to the store to pick them up. Anything you want me to add in?" The way she speaks is so charming. I hope I get to meet her one day.

"They don't need to. I'll be fine." I don't look up, but I can feel eyes burning holes in my head.

"Stop it. If you're worried about them, don't. They may be idiots but they aren't the type of guys who will shame you for something like this." She reasons with me.

I was concerned about it, my mom never really taught me anything about it, and my brother and Max always talked so negatively about periods.

I guess thinking guys look down on girls on their periods is another thing I thought was normal but maybe isn't.

"Thank you." I whisper gratefully.

"No problem, I hope you feel better. Hand the phone back to one of the guys and I'll get this straightened out." I lift the phone off of my ear and hold it up in the air so whoever wants it can grab it.

Someone immediately does. "Yeah." Blake's voice is gruff as he speaks into the phone.

"Don't even start with me, Sarah. Just tell me what to do." He growls. I tune out the conversation and hum a little song in my head, trying to distract myself from the pain.

"Bye." Blake ends the call and throws the phone over to Isaiah.

"Will you guys stay here while I go to the store?" He asks the guys. They say yes.

Next thing I know I'm being lifted off the chair and carried out of the room. Blake sets me down on the bed, then walks to the bathroom and turns on the bath water.

"Sarah said a warm bath will help." He speaks from the bathroom. I watch in awe as he glides around grabbing things then turns the tap off. He walks back into the room and runs a nervous hand through his hair.

"You can use anything you need. I put a towel and a more comfortable pair of clothes on the counter." Yes, I was still wearing the overalls, they are all I have at the moment so I don't really have a choice.

"Thank you." I feel like I'm dreaming, I've never been cared for to this level before.

"Yeah. Text me if you need me to get anything else." He says, and before I can argue he leaves the room shutting it behind him.

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"Ok, I got this heating pad thing." Blake mumbles, his brows are furrowed as he focuses on rummaging through the shopping bag in front of him.

"And this tea is supposed to help." He throws a box of red raspberry tea on the bed next to me.

The bath actually helped so much, I've never had a bath to soak in before so it was a nice surprise when it eased the cramps.

"And Sarah said you can't take painkillers because they make you sick. But she said to try this herbal tincture thing her friend used." He grabs my hand and puts a small bottle of liquid herbs in my hand.

"I got three kinds of tampons, I wasn't sure what the difference was so I just grabbed what other people were grabbing." He seems stressed as he places them in the bathroom.

"Then I got this." He grabbed out a huge bag of what looks like salt, I look up at him confused.

"It's smelly salt stuff for the bath." He explains, then puts it in the bathroom. He's definitely been super attentive to me since he got back, every few seconds he looks at me to gauge my reaction to the things he bought.

"Thank you, the bath helped a lot." I smile over at him as he walks back out of the bathroom. A look of relief crosses his face.

The cramps have eased enough for me to be able to focus on something other than them, and now I can see just how concerned Blake is for my well-being. It's really sweet and my heart swells at his actions.

"Do you think you could eat something? I know you get nauseous, but I picked up some stuff to make a smoothie. I thought that might be easier on your stomach and you really should eat something." He says nervously.

"I could try?" Liquids always seem to be better than solids for me this time of the month.

"Ok, good. I'll be right back, you stay here and use that hot pad thing." He points to the box it's in and then heads out the door leaving it cracked slightly.

"Why did you buy a blender?" Isaiah's muffled voice says from the kitchen.

"To make a smoothie, dumbass." Blake snaps. They all can be so rude with the way they speak to each other, but they never seem to actually hurt the others feelings.

"Why? You've never made a smoothie before."

"It's for Rose. So shut the fuck up." I hear frozen fruit clinking in the container followed by a loud blending sound. Seconds later he's walking through the door with a glass in hand, in that glass is a pink smoothie and a straw.

"Here," he hands me the drink. "Let me know if you need anything else." I look at the glass in my hands, then back up at the man who gave it to me and my throat constricts. Is this what it feels like when someone cares for you when you're sick?

My mom never did, she would either say I was faking it and make me clean the house or let me lay in my room until I got better. But even if I was sick for weeks she wouldn't do a single thing for me, I'd have to crawl to the kitchen to refill glasses of water or try to find something to eat.

I would lay there and wonder if I was going to die, I would wonder if anyone would care if I did.

How long would it take for them to find my body? Would they only check when they smelled the stench of my rotting flesh? Or would it be sooner because they wanted me to wash dishes, unload the car or do laundry?

Would they dump my body like trash or give me a funeral?

But I never died, and when I would emerge from my room finally able to walk again; I would be met with a trashed house and a fist to the stomach for taking so long to get better.

My eyes well up with tears, the amount of concern Blake has shown for me these last few months is more than I've ever received in a lifetime from my family.

"Shit, what'd I do? Why are you crying? Do you not like it? I could make you a different kind." Blake rushes out his questions like a speeding bullet. I didn't realize tears escaped my eyes and were traveling down my face until he pointed it out.

"I'm sorry. You're just being so nice." I pathetically hiccup as I scrub at my eyes trying to do away with the tears.

Blake lets out a sigh as his tense shoulders drop in relief. "Of course. What kind of assholes have you been hanging around." He grumbles.

If only he knew, I doubt he'd sit still. From what I've gathered he'd probably ask for names and addresses, then beat the living daylights out of them.

I'm really glad he trapped me on the roof that day, I can't imagine my life without him now.

But no way am I getting him involved in my mess, I won't let any of my new friends get hurt because of people wanting to hurt me, especially Blake. I can't let anything happen to him.