I slowly lower my notebook, staring at Billy with wide eyes. She’s hunched over the desk, her hands on her stomach, glaring down at the paper like she’s developing one of Mother’s infamous migraines.
“You okay over there, Billy?”
My sister twists in her seat, turning her scowl on me. “Do Ilookokay?”
She doesn’t. Not one bit.
Her skin is nearly translucent, eyes shadowed, cheeks hollow. She looks like a cadaver.
“What the hell,” I mumble, forcing my eyes back to my notebook. “Kill a guy for asking.”
She turns back to her paper, then stiffens. “Bash!”
My eyes flick back to her as she stands in a rush.
I sit up, assuming it’s low blood pressure again. She swoons every other day. Usually, Evelyn’s fed us some kind of lunch by now. It’s almost time for our paltry supper, in fact.
“Have you had water?” I say, getting up and heading for the bathroom. “You know you need to drink water when?—”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Billy mutters as I walk past her.
“What—”
She throws me a furious look, claps her hands over her backside, and rushes into the bathroom so fast she knocks me with a bony shoulder en-route.
The door slams in my face.
“Jeez! What the hell?”
“Go away!” she yells in a strangled voice.
“What? Why? What’s wrong?” I grab the door handle—our bathroom doesn’t have a lock either—but stop myself from going in.
It wouldn’t be the first time she got an upset stomach from the pastries. It just usually happens a lot earlier in the day.
But then I hear her crying.
“Billy!”
She doesn’t tell me to go away again. Doesn’t stop crying. So I push open the door a crack.
“You okay?”
“Y-Yes,” she blubbers.
“You don’t sound okay.”
“I-I’m fine. G-God is just t-testing me.”
I grit my teeth as I push into the bathroom. “You gotta stop it with that shit again, Bill?—”
My sister is on the toilet, but that’s not why I cut off.
There’s blood on the underwear stretched between her skinny calves, and streaks of it down her leg where she tugged the fabric down.
Is she hemorrhaging?
No…wait, it’s just her period. And judging from the shock on her face, this is her first menstrual cycle ever.
