Reunion

Chapter twelve

They collapsed onto their seats. Deepika realised her head was spinning. It subsided within a minute of sitting quietly, though a faint sense of nausea remained. She also realised that she needed to go to the bathroom. Music still blared from the speakers as an interval act came on. "I need to pee!" she shouted in Ranveer's ear. He laughed and nodded. As she stood up she saw Alia standing as well. "Bathroom?" she mouthed, and Alia nodded. The two women made their way to the closest facilities.

Alia groaned. "This part of being at a concert I'd forgotten." The line outside the women's bathroom was at least twenty people long. "I swear if I have to wait that much, I'm going to have an accident."

Deepika laughed, then groaned as well. "Don't make me laugh or I'll be joining you in that." She'd noticed that the door to the men's bathroom that they'd passed on the way here had been shut, no line at all. As she watched a single man emerged from it. She turned to Alia to see her watching the man leave. She knew with one look that she was thinking the same thing. "Should we?" Alia nodded and the two of them slipped giggling through the door. The bathroom was entirely empty save for one man who was washing his hands. He looked at them like they'd gone mad and that only made them giggle louder. He muttered something in German as he exited the bathroom and Deepika turned and propped herself up against the door when he left. "Go, go quickly," she said to Alia who nodded and entered one of the stalls.

She came and took up Deepika's position when she was done and Deepika herself slipped into a stall. She finished her business and was about to pull her underwear up when she noticed bloodstains on it. They gave her pause. Her periods were always regular and this was not the time for them. She regretted her decision of coming into the men's bathroom. If she'd been in the women's there would have been a machine that dispensed tampons, or at least another woman she could ask for them. She decided to try her luck with Alia. 

"Alia?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you happen to have pads or tampons with you?"

"Umm... let me check my purse. I usually have an emergency one in here just in case. I'm surprised you don't."

Deepika sighed. "I usually do, but this is a new purse and I forgot to put mine in." She heard a knock on the stall door and pulled it open. 

"You're in luck. This is my last one." Alia held up a tampon in a paper sleeve. 

"Thanks, I'll be out in a sec."

"Timing sucks," Alia called from the other side of the door as Deepika struggled a bit with the tampon. It wasn't the kind she was used to. 

"Yeah, sure does," she said. She didn't go into any of her worries about why she was bleeding at a time she shouldn't be. When she was done she washed her hands and the two women stepped out of the bathroom, looking around quickly to make sure that no one noticed them. The line outside the women's bathroom was still just as long.

"Man, they really need to make more women's bathrooms." Alia shook her head as they made their way back to the stands. Deepika nodded absently, preoccupied with trying to figure out what was going on with her body. They emerged into the arena with its flashing lights and pounding music and Deepika felt a wave of dizziness accompanied by nausea sweep through her. She grabbed the railing of the stairs to keep herself upright. "Are you okay?" Alia turned to her, concerned.