Did You Get Your Period?

CHAPTER FOUR.

It has been about a week since the debacle and Shweta's period has still shown no sign of happening. Now that she's certain she's not pregnant, she's surprised and worried that her period is still absent.

Rather concerned over the delay, she speaks to her mother who is still raging about the fact that her daughter is no longer a virgin. She reminds Shweta by glaring at her every time she sees her. Not only has she been asked to turn her phone in, but her already scanty curfew has also been decreased to five o'clock in the evening. None of this has bothered her much; she's used to the strictness by now. She knows that her mother will get over the anger within a couple of weeks and for now she doesn't want to test her mother.

But she's been missing Vaibhav. Especially because the last conversation with him had left so much unsaid in the air. Did he want a relationship? Or was he just asking her out because he felt like he had to? She hasn't tried reaching to him for fear of her mother finding out. She'd almost asked Riddhi to use her phone but there's been an unsettling calm over their friendship once Shweta's little secret was busted. Riddhi had been calm, supportive even but there was something wrong here- something she couldn't quite put her finger on. But the years of friendship made her feel that something was indeed wrong.

Was Riddhi mad that she hadn't told her earlier? Somehow, Riddhi hiding her anger made her feel pained and almost betrayed, making her realize how Riddhi must've felt when she hid her own secret.

"Maa?" She asks her mother who seems to be lounging on the sofa. She's playing Candy Crush with utmost focus and Shweta cannot help but feel a little anxious as she approached her.

"What?" Her mother says, her eyes still glued to the screen. With her reading glasses on, her mother reminds her of a teacher in primary school who had a rather distinct hatred for her.

"I still haven't got my period yet." She says, hoping that her mother won't launch into the sermons once again.

"Hm." Her mother says. For a gynecologist and a panicky one at that last Sunday, Seema now seems fairly distracted when it comes to her own daughter's reproductive health.

"Maa!" Shweta says, now thoroughly annoyed by her mother's lack of attention.

"What? Okay, I heard you." She says, carefully pausing the game as she looks at her daughter. "I want you to wait for at least a month more. I don't want to start you on the pill right away for no reason. If your period is still missing, then we can go for an ultrasound." She says.

"Ultrasound?" Shweta echoes, "Is there still a possibility that I might be pregnant?" She asks.

"No. Don't you remember that I took your urine samples that day?" She asks.

"Well. Yes, I'd forgotten." Shweta says and her mother looks at her disapprovingly.

"Well, they don't indicate pregnancy and neither did your pregnancy test, I remember. But I hope you've learned a lesson. Shweta, this is not something to joke about. What if you had actually gotten pregnant? What would you have done then? Do you have any idea about the implications that it can have on your health? And for you to get so horribly involved with that boy? What sort of stupidity do you live with? Do you think life comes so very easy? Do you have any idea how hard it has been for me to raise two girls on my own after your good-for-nothing father left for self-discovery? Have you got any idea at all what people have said about me since? But no. You just want to parade around pretending you don't have a care in this world. I'll tell you, Shweta, you have a whole lot of responsibility on you. And that is to build a career. You might be exhausted from me yelling at you all the time, but I seriously don't know what to do. Someday, you.." Her mother continues.