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Crimson sat on the floor of the bathroom, not sure what she was going to do. She’d woken up to blood in her underwear. Mom had told her this would happen eventually, but it wasn’t supposed to happen without mom there to walk her through it.
Obviously she wasn’t going to ask her brothers for help. Even if she did there was no chance they’d be able to help her. Darry would probably call Mrs.Matthews, convinced Crimson was dying; wouldn’t that be a spectacle!
She could call Ace. But Ace would tell Two-Bit and Two-Bit would tell everyone in Tulsa. Her face burned with embarrassment just imagining it.
Oh! What about that soc girl Ponyboy was friends with? Hadn’t they gone to a movie together? That practically meant they were dating, and calling her brother’s girlfriend seemed like a reasonable solution to her problem. Besides that, Cherry had brought her hand me downs so it wasn’t like they’d never spoken before.
She changed her underwear and stuffed toilet paper in the new pair to keep them clean before going back to the bedroom she shared with Soda and Pony. The house was empty so she could find Cherry’s number without Ponyboy ever knowing she’d been looking through his things.
She went over to his desk and started pulling open drawers. She found the journal he was rewriting his semester theme in, and several old history essays but no phone number. She shut the drawers and frowned as she scanned the room, perking up when she caught sight of the cork board between the desk and Soda’s side of the bed.
There were several old rodeo ribbons hanging and newspaper cut outs pinned up. There! Between a receipt and a cut out of the “Hoods Turned Heros” headline was a piece of paper with ‘Cherry V.’ and a phone number written in neat round script.
Crimson grabbed a pen off the desk and copied the number onto her hand. She made sure everything was left as she’d found it, and then hurried to the livingroom to make the call.
She spun the dial and listened as the phone rang.
“Valance residence.”
“Um, hello. I was hoping to speak with Cherry please.”
The woman on the other end paused, “I’m sorry who is this?”
“Oh, sorry. My name is Crimson Curtis. I’m Ponyboy’s sister.”
“One second.”
Crimson waited, suddenly feeling very awkward standing in the empty living room. She heard the receiver get put down on a table or something then footsteps fading away. She sat down on the edge of the couch, and forced herself not to chew her lip.
After what seemed like an eternity, she heard another line pick up.
“Crimson?”
“Hi Cherry,” boy she hoped she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt.
“Hi, are you okay?”
“Yes! Well, no. I mean I’m having a bit of a crisis, a girl crisis, and I don’t know what to do. And I don’t want to worry my brothers so I called you.”
Cherry didn’t answer right away and Crimson swallowed, hoping the call hadn’t dropped.
“Your monthly?” Cherry asked pityingly.
“Yeah. It’s my first time and I have no idea what to do.”
“Well you were right not to tell your brothers,” Cherry assured her, a smile evident in her voice, “I think any one of them would have rushed you to a hospital. How about I pick you up and we can go to the pharmacy.”
“Are you sure you aren’t busy?”
Cherry didn’t tell her how she spent Saturday’s alone in her room now, because Beverly wouldn’t talk to her anymore. Or that Marsha only called her, afraid for Paul and the others to see them together. Instead she simply said, “I’d love the excuse to leave the house.”
“Thank you Cherry.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
They said their goodbyes and Crimson hung up the phone. She already felt better, Cherry hadn’t been scandalized by her call so that certainly went better than expected.
She suddenly realized she needed to change. She’d been cleaning the kitchen and looked like a mess. Crimson rushed back to her room and frowned into the closet. With the current underwear situation pants would probably be more practical than a skirt, but wearing jeans that had been hand me downs from Johnny when she went out with Cherry felt embarrassing.
She pulled on a navy blue skirt, her least torn pair of tights, and the white sweater Cherry had given her. She brushed her hair up into a high ponytail, slicking the shorter hairs at the back of her neck up with a dollop of hair grease.
Happy enough with her appearance she went to Darry’s room to find some money. She dug through his sock drawer until she found a small wooden box he’d made in shop his freshman year. He usually had a couple of twentys stashed away for emergencies, but when Crimson opened the box all she found was his class ring and dad’s old dog tags.
Shoot. She’d have to ask Cherry to stop at the DX and get some cash from Soda.
She put the box back and went to leave a note in the kitchen incase anyone got back before her. Crimson wasn’t supposed to leave the house without Darry or Soda, they were convinced she’d be murdered under anyone else’s care, but hopefully Darry would forgive her for going to the store with Cherry. He’d been making an effort to be more relaxed since everything happened back in October.
She was just pinning the note to the fridge when she heard a car pull up the driveway. She hurried to the door, waving to Cherry so the older girl wouldn’t leave the warmth of the car. Sliding on her beat up school shoes she pulled her coat on, and slipped her hands into the pockets so Cherry wouldn’t see how the sleeves barely reached her wrists.
“Thanks,” Crimson whispered, slipping into the passenger seat of Cherry’s Corvette.
“Of course,” Cherry said, turning to back down the drive, “Which pharmacy do you want to go to? We could go to the one by my house if you don’t want your friends to see you buying pads.”
“Actually, I need to run to the DX and get some money from Soda. There’s a pharmacy around the corner from the station that we can go to.”
“Oh Crimson, I can pay.”
She looked down at her scuffed shoes, “Cherry this is already really embarrassing. I’d feel a lot better if I atleast pay for myself.”
Cherry nodded, and turned towards the DX. Crimson asked her to wait in the car when they pulled up to the gas station. She watched her run up to her brother at the gas pump, and laughed at how Sodapop jumped at his sister’s sudden appearance. When Crimson came back to the car Soda waved to Cherry, mouthing a thank you.
They pulled up to the pharmacy and Crimson was amazed at the confidence Cherry walked to the female health aisle with. She followed her, head down and cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Together they guessed Crimson’s waist size and chose a sanitary belt. Cherry grabbed a few boxes of pads off the shelf and then they went up to the counter. After Crimm bought her things Cherry bought a couple of chocolate bars for the ride back.
Back at the house Crimson opened the sanitary belt. She frowned as she held it up in front of herself.
“This looks like a torture device.”
Cherry snorted, telling her she was holding it backwards, “So these clips go on the front and back of the pad,” She pulled a pad from one of the boxes and unfolded it so the long tabs could go into the clips, “Make sure it’s centered or you’re still going end up with stains.”
Crimson frowned. How did she keep the back from going up her butt? She wasn’t about to ask Cherry that, she’d figure it out. She took the pad and belt into the bathroom to get this over with.
“I’m going to put these extra boxes in your room,” Cherry called through the closed door.
“It’s the last door on the left,” Crimson called back.
Cherry took the shopping bag and brought it to the bedroom. She paused in the open doorway. Splitting the room in half was what looked like a clothesline with a curtain hanging from it. On this side were two twin beds pressed together, with plaid blankets rumpled at the bottom of the bed. A desk and small dresser were also crammed into the space.
It hadn’t occurred to Cherry that Crimson must share a room with at least one of her brothers, from the books littering the desk she figured this was Ponyboy’s room as well.
Behind the curtain she found Crimson’s side of the room. The bed was made, a yellow quilt pulled up to pillows with worn pink cases, a pile of clothes tossed at the foot of the bed. Cherry placed the pads in the small closet on Crimson’s side of the room.
When she turned to leave Crimson was coming in. “Do you want to stay for dinner?” the younger girl asked, “It’s my night to cook. We’re having tomato soup and grilled cheese.”
“Darry won’t mind?”
Crimson shrugged, “He lets the boys and Ace stay most nights.”
Cherry accepted the invitation and went to wait in the kitchen while Crimson changed. Not only did getting back into her jeans sound a lot more comfortable, but she didn’t want to get soup on her white sweater.
. . .
It was dark when Darry got home. The house was a bright spot on the street, he’d have to talk to the kids about turning off the lights…again.
He heard Two-Bit’s laughter when he came in. Great, they probably didn’t have any beer left in the fridge now. He turned off the living room light on the way through to join everyone in the kitchen.
He found Sodapop and Steve sitting on the countertop, Two-Bit was on the floor a bowl of soup beside him as he gestured wildly, Ace ducking to avoid being hit. Then sitting at the table like respectable human beings were Crimson, Ponyboy, and Cherry Valance?
“Hey Darry,” Crimson called, “There’s more sandwiches by Steve and Soda.”
Both boys looked at her guiltily and she sighed. She stood from the table, bringing her empty plate and bowl with her, “I’ll make more.”
“Thanks,” He nodded before going to change out of his work clothes. Soda followed him to the room they used to share and sat on his bed. “What’s she doing here?”
“Crimm needed some girl help. Cherry took her to the pharmacy.”
Darry frowned, pausing with a clean shirt in his hand, “She left the house. With a Soc.”
“She was fine Darrel,” Soda sighed, falling back on the bed. “They stopped at the DX, I knew where she was.”
“This time,” he grumbled. He was trying so hard not to get angry with his siblings, he really was. But then they did stupid ass things that were going to get them hurt. The rule was there for a reason, Crimm only went out with him or Soda so she would be safe. What if the Socs got at her? They’d do worse than cut her like they did Ponyboy, or burn her like they had Two-Bit.
“Wait, what girl help?”
“The bleeding thing.”
Darry felt the blood drain from his face. Shoot, he was going to have to talk to her about this wasn’t he?
There was a knock on the door and Crimson shouted that there were more sandwiches ready.
Okay. Food first, he’d deal with the rest later.
. . .
Crimson went to bed not long after Cherry left. Apparently losing blood left one exhausted; who would have guessed. She changed her pad before going to her room. She put on a bleach stained pair of sweatpants and lay a towel between herself and her sheets. This pad didn’t seem particularly stable, especially when she was going to be moving in her sleep and she had no interest in washing her sheets tomorrow.
She was reading when there was a knock on the wall beside the curtain she had pulled closed when she got dressed.
“Yeah?”
Darry poked his head in, “Can I talk to you?”
She nodded, setting her magazine aside, “I’m in trouble?”
“No,” he sat on the edge of her bed, “I mean, maybe? You can’t go out on your own.”
“I know. I just panicked and Cherry helped, so I figured it wasn’t the end of the world.”
“It’s not. Just, don’t do it again CC. Please.”
She nodded, looking down at her hands in her lap.
“It was dad’s rule, Crimm. It’s to keep you safe.”
She frowned. That’s what he said practically every time she asked to leave the house. “Is that all? I really don’t feel good.”
His face flushed red, “Soda told me you’re having that…girl thing. I uh, wanted to tell you, you don’t need to go calling strangers, you can talk to me about this stuff.” He looked like this conversation was physically hurting him.
Good. Crimson thought, If I have to suffer through this he should too.
“And, look, you know what happened to Sandy. This means that you could…god CC just promise me you’ll be careful.”
Crimson groaned and pulled a pillow over her face, “Darry I will swear to celibacy right now if you don’t ever talk to me about this again.”
He stood from the bed, not making eye contact with her. He’d ask Two-Bit’s mom to talk to her. He was nauseous from the idea of his baby sister kissing a boy let alone…
”Just…holler if you need anything.”
Crimson nodded. “Please leave?”
”Yeah. Goodnight.” He tugged the curtain closed behind him and let out a breath.
Crimson sighed in relief. She dropped the pillow, and reached up to turn off her lamp. She waited until she heard Darry’s footsteps disappear. He’d go babysit the others in the living room before he went to bed himself. Sometime after that Ponyboy and Soda would come to bed.
Until then she had the room to herself. She could think about mom. How she should have been the one to take her to the store. How mom would have sat on the edge of the bed and ran her fingers through her hair while she told her about being a woman. She would’ve made it sound like an honor to bear children, or at least like a simple fact of life, not like a dirty curse the way Darry did.
He was doing his best; she knew that. He’d given up everything for her and their brothers. But he wasn’t mom.
That’s how she fell asleep. Wrapped in the quilt her mother had made her, her heart broken but warm with memories.