Page 167 of Sinful Like Us

“It won’t happen twice.”

Joana steps forward. “How about I kick your ass instead?”

Beckett has been sullen all day, but I catch my brother beginning to smile.

Tony flashes a dry look at Jo. “I don’t punch girls. Sorry.”

Akara interjects fast. “We’re getting off track, guys.”

Tony gesticulates towards me and the girls. “If they didn’t bring enough tampons, then at least one of them should be on the pill. That stops a period, right?”

“Thank you for bringing up the pill, Tony,” I say between gritted teeth. “That’s my second point. Some of us have run out and are now spotting. Which has created a greaterneedfor feminine products.”

“We can snowshoe to the supermarket,” Donnelly suggests like that is reasonable. It’d be an eight-hour hike for tampons.

Thatcher checks his watch. “We’ll have to leave tomorrow at first light.”

A smile tugs my cheeks, and I do my best not to smileathim in front of Tony. Thatcher being in his element always attracts me.

Akara nods. “We’ll send a team of four. Briefing is in five…” He catches me shaking my head.

“There’s no need,” I announce. “The girls and I have already devised a strategy. It involves toilet paper and hand towels.”

I feel badly that I’m not the one suffering. My period shouldn’t come for another week. Luna is spotting, and Jo started yesterday. But they agreed to a makeshift pad plan.

Luna pulls the ties of herThrasherhoodie—and the hood squeezes around her face, only her nose poking out. “We just need you to conserve the toilet paper.”

“One fucking square when you shit,” Sulli adds crudely.

Akara breaks into a smile, but it fades when Will jokes with Sulli, “Just one square?”

Sulli bites her lip. “Yeah, just one.” She hasn’t slept with her boyfriend. Yesterday, she confessed that she was feeling more insecure than usual. He touched her prickly leg and jerked away a little.

She told me,“He’s been so sweet. Maybe this is all in my head. Him, thinking I’m too hairy. It’s just made me feel weird, and I don’t know how to fucking get over it.”

I suggested she talk to Will and ask him about the moment, but she’s nervous to broach the topic.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to snowshoe?” Donnelly wonders with a frown.

“Positive,” Luna nods. “Don’t sacrifice your life for a tampon.”

“More like your comfort, you know?” Donnelly shrugs.

“We’re fine,” I chime in. “We’d rather not send anyone out into a blizzard.” Conditions have only worsened lately, and this fact sinks a weight into the room that no one can lift.

We’re quiet.

Only the crackle of fire heard above the mad, angry wind.

* * *

The rest of the day,I’m practically bursting at the seams—my thoughts churning, my emotions rattling. And as midnight hurriedly approaches, only a few hours from the New Year, I know what I must do.

I need to word-vomit all over someone.

I must talk and talk and purge every last thing that throttles my senses, and there is onlyoneperson I desire to be on the receiving end.

But unfortunately, survival takes precedent.