Pretty Bad Things [Sample]

Pretty Bad Things : Getting it Twisted

Chapter Two: Getting it Twisted

Like in every friendship, you have your ups and downs.

I’m aware it’s nearly every teen girl’s dream to have a gay guy best friend—not sure why, since most of the time it’s not any different than just having a regular guy as a friend.

Ask me how many times Nick has helped me pick out a piece of clothing. Zero. Maybe if he did I wouldn’t dress like I’m still twelve—his words, not mine. Come to think of it, he’s pretty good at criticizing my wardrobe choices, but he has the patience of a toddler whenever we try to go shopping together.

I realized I was screwed as I was sitting in English class and felt the terrifying catastrophe in my pants.

Oh, the joys of being a woman.

I slowly swiveled in my desk, as Mrs. Lasowski droned on about Macbeth and his murder-infested conscious, to face my best friend Nick.

“Guys don’t have a tendency to carry pads with them, do they?” I whispered so that the entire class didn’t become aware of my embarrassing situation.

“Liv, I do everything I can to stay away from girl parts, remember? Besides, even if I wasn’t gay, gross.” Nick scrunched his pretty face into a scowl.

I tried to weigh the risks of standing up and going on the hunt for a pad against staying planted in my seat. Hoping that it didn’t look like I had murdered someone in my pants, my wobbly hand shot up into the air in the middle of Mrs. Lasowski’s sentence. The old lady narrowed her eyes at me for interrupting, but hey, it wasn’t my fault that she obviously wasn’t sympathetic to my plight. I doubted she even remembered what a period was. She was really old, like sixty. I wondered briefly why she hadn’t retired already. Wasn’t it illegal for her to still be on the job?

The entire senior class pivoted in their seats to look at me for distraction. I awkwardly asked for permission to go to the bathroom and shuffled my way out once she granted it.

The halls were quiet and empty as I practically jogged towards the girls’ bathroom. I stopped midway and cursed myself for being so stupid. I didn’t even have any spare change to buy a pad.

My options were limited, so I decided to make a small stop at the nurse’s office.

Pushing the door open into the brightly lit room, I made eye contact with a girl who lay on one of the mattresses with her hand on her stomach. Her face immediately become pained when the nurse’s eyes went to her. It was a pretty weak performance in my opinion. You had to keep your guard up at all times when you were faking it with the nurse, since she practically had a mechanical neck that switched directions at the blink of an eye.

“Hello, Livvie.” The nurse sighed as she saw my face. I hadn’t acquired my talents in deception without some practice. I gave her a goofy smile in hopes of winning her over. My face must have been off, because she only shook her head before rolling her eyes as I came closer.

“What will it be today? Headache? Stomachache?” She was already pulling out her notepad to write me my slip. So maybe I wasn’t so smooth when I came in with a fake illness to get out of gym. I could never actually ditch class, but if I had an excuse, especially when it came to any physical activity, I’d definitely take it.

“You know, Livvie, PE class is not all that bad. If you just gave it a chance you wouldn’t have to come here every other day just for—”

I cut the nurse off with a clearing of my throat, partly because I was embarrassed that she knew and partly because the situation was quickly going downhill.