Unraveling Hearts

Chapter Seventeen.

♡ M I L A ♡

The following five days felt like an endless nightmare-a pure eternity of torture. I was in agony, every second stretching into an hour, as I suffered from cramps, nausea, and fatigue. My uterus was my enemy, launching a brutal attack on me like it did every month, and I was losing the battle. To make matters worse, I have secondary dysmenorrhea, a fancy way of saying that my periods were hell on earth. Lucky me!

Which means I skipped my classes and missed a week's worth of lectures, something I hate to do with a passion. But Jennie proved to be my lifesaver. Putting everything on hold, she never left my side and was always at my service, fulfilling my every whim, bringing me treats I craved, staying up with me as we chatted aimlessly, or binge-watching Gilmore Girls with me. She even reached out to my professors and got me my assignments. 

I only feel awful for making her do all that, but she insisted that she didn't mind. But now it's finally over. I walk out of the residence hall and let myself bask in the golden sun that illuminates the campus, feeling light and breezy. I take a deep breath as I fix my jet black flared long skirt contrasting my solid pink tank top, and pair it with a pair of beige embroidered toe-ring flat sandals, then completing my look with silver oxidized bangles on my wrist, kohl-smeared eyes, and a loose side braid.

"Let's go!" Jennie calls me out before continuing to prattle about her latest piece chosen to be featured in the university journal as we make our way to our classes, obviously not before we get some coffee in our system, my treat for everything she has done and dealt with. "Anyway, you're seriously not going to tell me who sent you that care package?" she asks then.

The care package I received on the first night of my period... from Heath.

"Nope," I tease with a tight-lipped smile.

She groans and sips her coffee. "Oh. Just tell me. Someone sent you a care package containing everything one needed to survive periods, and my tingly senses tell me it's from a guy. Someone is interested in you, and I want... no, I need to know who it is," she winks, nudging me.

I feel my face heat up, but I shake the feeling away as I cough up, changing the topic. "Enough about me. What about you? You brought a guy to our room last night." "How'd you know that?" she snaps before she snorts and dismissively waves at me. "Well, it was nothing. Just two people hooking up."

"Oh, really?" I scoff, then shrug, teasing her back. "It might've been dark, but I've ears. It was too nauseous to hear you guys going at it all night."

"Yes, really. And I'm not sorry for making out with someone when you were on your deathbed."

I frown, snapping at her. "I wasn't dying!"

"But it felt like one, right?" she taunts, raising her eyebrows.

I purse my lips. I can't argue about something that's actually the truth. She abruptly claps before my face, earning a gasp from me. "Forget that. As I said, mine was a typical hookup. A freaking care package on our door for you... someone's got a secret admirer," she sings with a wink.

"It could be a stalker," I claim. I know who the sender is... he's the person who seems to be making my heart flutter even in his absence. A smirk tugs on her lips. She tilts her head and snorts mockingly. "So, you cuddled a plushie cow given to you by your stalker and even named him Mr Cow?"

For some reason, I haven't told her anything yet. I don't know why.

I had that note neatly tucked in one of my books on my desk, but she ended up seeing the basket the next day. I wanted to tell her, but enduring excruciating pain made it slip out of my mind completely, and right now, it's too late, I guess. "It's not like that." I gasp, skirting her smug gaze.