He leans in again and I push him, my ire spiking. “Stop it.”
“You’resick,” he says, his brow wrinkled. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m not sick,” I grouse, taking my pizza over to my blow-up mattress.
He follows me. “I can sense it. This morning you permeated self-loathing, and your scent had shifted from dew and rosehip to bitter earth.”
“Dew and rosehip?” I scoff, my anger close to boiling. “I have cucumber melon everything, so your sense of smell is terrible.”
“Is thisJerryresponsible?” he asks, his voice carrying the hint of a threat.
“Oh my god,” I groan.
“Tell me who’s done this to you,” he demands and suddenly…
It’s too hilarious. I can’t help but laugh.
He’s trying to protect me from my own shitty body and premenstrual dysphoria disorder. It’s just the most ridiculous, adorable, himbo kind of thing.
“What is this?” Bastian asks, crossing his arms.
I wave a slice of pizza at him as I cover my mouth, trying to stop the fit of irrational joy.
“Tell me.”
He huffs, his papery wings flaring wide as if I’d be intimidated into answering him. It only makes me laugh harder. Tears blur myeyes and stain my cheeks but the joy in my stomach peels the despair from my ribs one repressed snicker at a time.
Bastian smirks. “Why is it funny?”
I take a few deep breaths to calm myself, then clear my throat. “Jerryis what I call the shitty alter ego that tries to hijack my brain every month.”
The mirth leaves his face. “Jerry has cursed you?”
A guffaw explodes out of me in a huge raspberry.
“This is a serious matter!” Bastian declares. “If you’re cursed, we must break it!”
I get myself back under control and start again. “The only curse I’m afflicted with is womanhood.”
His head cocks hard to the side. “You were previously a man named Jerry?”
Oh god.
I can tell it’s making him angry, but I just can’t stop laughing.
“No,” I barely manage through a giggle.
“Pull yourself together and tell me,” he demands.
“It’s my regular cycle. It happens every month.”
“Jerry controls your mind every month?”
I really don’t want to havethe talkwith this dragon, but…
I set the slice of pizza on my paper plate and steeple my fingers. “Do you understand what a menstrual cycle is?”
“Of course, I’ve read about it. You…bleed,” he says, gesturing to my groin.
