Page 134 of A Wreck, You Make Me

Classic avoidance. But since I don’t want to talk about it either, I let it go and type out a reply.

Jupiter

Yes, Shepard. I have tampons. I’m a girl, remember? This has been happening to me since I was twelve. I keep myself stocked.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

Fuck, that’s too young.

Jupiter

I mean, it is what it is.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

Callie got hers around thirteen and we all had a family meeting about it. About who would explain things to her.

Despite the emptiness in my womb, I chuckle at the picture. All the grumpy looking, hypermasculine—I’m sure they were all hypermasculine back then too—Thorne brothers talking about how to handle their little sister’s periods.

Jupiter

Let me guess, you volunteered.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

Fuck yeah, I volunteered. The rest of them were pussies. Ledger kept saying he wanted to throw up and Stellan and Con both had such serious expressions on their faces that they looked like military generals or whatever.

So I said I’d talk to her. But thank fucking God, she already knew most of it. She was the last in her class to get it and all her friends already spilled the beans about it.

Crisis averted.

I bite my lip, imagining a younger version of Shepard going into Callie’s room to explain feminine things. I bet he was nervous too, just like his brothers, but because his brothers needed him, he did what had to be done. He put his feelings aside, buried them deep and ventured into the unknown.

So maybe it does make sense. That I’m disappointed. Because what girl wouldn’t want a man like that in her life? Forever. Permanently. Till death do us part. Even if he loves someone else and can’t love her.

But then that’s the whole issue, isn’t it? He loves someone else who broke his heart and left him. He’s angry and lonely. Maybe that’s why he wants a baby. To fill that gap. It has nothing to do with me.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

You bleed a lot?

His text breaks me out of my morose thoughts and I swallow thickly, blushing.

Jupiter

I don’t think we should be talking about this.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

Why not?

Jupiter

I don’t want to talk about my period with you. Or rather the details of it.

My Toxic-But-I-Am-Toxic-Too Stepbrother

Again, why not?