Samaina OS : Aunt Flo comes visiting

Dear fellow YUDKBH crazies,

I have written another Samaina OS. This is based on the Periods topic that a lot of us fans would have liked to have been featured on Samaina instead of Sefarjun. I have tried to keep it realistic to the time period and Samaina dynamics. It was really not a topic that was easily discussed with your BF in those days. However wrong... we did grow up treating it as a taboo subject.

Hope you all like it and do share your thoughts! All feedback good or bad is truly appreciated.

Love,

May.

Samaina OS : Aunt Flo comes visiting

Naina rushed to the restrooms as soon as the lecture was over, as she had started feeling a little uncomfortable during the last half an hour or so. Luckily they had a break before the next lecture. The visit to the restroom confirmed her fears, her period had started much earlier than expected. In the rush to carry a bag that matched her outfit better, she had not transferred all the contents properly this morning and had left her emergency stash of sanitary napkins behind. She was rather disappointed when a quick hushed huddle with all her girl-friends established that neither of them had any spare napkins either. It seemed the only option left was for Naina to head home early that day and miss the remaining lectures for the day. Naina was feeling really mad at herself for being so careless. She had always been so particular about this especially after that incident in school!

It had been during that time after the bet revelation. She had been sort of functioning on auto pilot. Sameer had been trying to apologise to her and explain his side of things, which she was in no mood to entertain. She had been spending a lot of time crying her eyes out in the school restrooms when things got unbearable. Sameer would keep hovering in the vicinity his heart breaking in a million pieces all over again, striving to find any way he could ease her pain. She had always spoken to him so openly about so many things before this whole fiasco and now she barely uttered a word to him. He was struggling to accept her silence, desperately missing their conversations.

Today was no different. Naina was spending an eternity in the restroom! Infact Swati had made a couple of trips to the restroom too, in what Sameer imagined was an attempt to coax her out. But Swati came out looking flustered too. Sameer thought it must be particularly bad today. He cursed himself yet again! He couldn't stop himself from approaching Swati to ask if Naina was alright, when he overheard her asking Kamya and a couple of girls if they had a handkerchief as Naina really needed it. But, the girls just shook their heads and walked away. Sameer was perplexed and quickly stopped Swati as she was heading back to the restroom looking dejected.

Sameer: Swati, wo... Naina thik hai na?

Swati retorted: Tumse matlab?

Sameer offered her his handkerchief and seeing the confusion on Swati's face clarified: Wo maine sunna tumhe kehete hue ke Naina to handkerchief chahiye.. bohoot ro rahi hai kya?

Swati was already at her wit's end. She had been running around trying to find a sanitary napkin for Naina who had been visited by Aunt Flo unexpectedly. A visit to the teacher's room had confirmed that the school was out of emergency supplies too. She had been checking with all the girls she knew but to no avail. And now Sameer stood in front of her offering a big men's handkerchief! Swati in her desperation murmuring a thanks quickly grabbed it and rushed to the restroom and handed it to Naina along with her own. She did not have the heart to tell Naina where she had obtained it from and insisted that this was the best she could manage in this situation and quickly exited from there before Naina could start interrogating her.

Naina had used the handkerchiefs not knowing what else to do. Sameer meanwhile paced nearby rehearsing another apology. As soon as Naina left the restroom, Sameer blocked her way.

Sameer: Naina, tum thik toh ho na?

Naine: Mera rasta chodo.

Sameer was slightly confused not seeing her carrying the handkerchief that he had handed to Swati.

Sameer: Wo Swati ne kaha tum bohoot ro rahi thi... isiliye handkerchief bhi leke gayi... ab thik ho na? I am so sorry Naina. Main bata nahi sakta..

Naina interrupted: Ek minute.. wo handkerchief tumhara tha?

Sameer: Ha.. wo mainne kaha na.. Swati ko chahiye tha toh...

Naina thought she would die of mortification in that moment! Swati gave her HIS handkerchief!! Was he waiting here to take it back from her?! What was she supposed to tell him??

Naina blurted the first thing that came to her mind: Ha wo bohoot ink gir gayi thi... isiliye chahiye tha... main kal tumhe wapas kar dungi.

Sameer: Usski koi jarurat nahi. Main toh sirf yeh...

But Naina sped from there before he could complete his sentence. Only Naina knew how she managed to sit through the last lesson of that day trying to block out certain thoughts and failing miserably. That day she decided that the phrase "dying of shame'' was just a phrase else she would have definitely died! Sameer kept wondering how did she manage to spell so much ink and that too in the restroom? But he drew some satisfaction from the fact that he had been of some assistance to her in some way.

That evening Naina went to the shops and bought a new Handkerchief for him. She was completely determined to not accept any help from him or feel indebted to him in any way. The pain and betrayal that he had given her was more than enough, she did not want anything else from him!

Later that night while Sameer was absentmindedly watching something on the TV, an advertisement for Whisper flashed across the screen. Normally he wouldn't have noticed it, but today it caught his attention. The bit where they showed how much more ink this sanitary napkin could absorb as compared to some others suddenly brought back the events of the day to his mind. Naina stuck in the restroom... Swati scurrying around trying find some handkerchiefs... wait a minute... she had been asking the girls if they had a napkin, which he had confused for a handkerchief. Oh shit!! Realisation dawned why Naina had gone so red when she realised Swati had given her his handkerchief. Poor girl!

He remembered the sex education class that his previous school had conducted couple of years back when they had all been made familiar with the concept of Birds and Bees and also something that the guys referred to as a major plumbing design flaw introduced by God. There had been some boisterous conversations about this in the hostel and also some looks exchanged between the boys when any girls were spotted in the school with some spots on their skirts. He decided to act as if though he was completely oblivious to this turn of events in front of Naina. He didn't want to embarrass her any further.

The next day when Sameer arrived in school, Naina was already at her desk. Surprisingly she had come in much earlier today than she did these days. Sameer left his bag at his desk and looked in her direction. She still looked quite uncomfortable. He was turning to leave the class when she spoke.

Naina: Sameer ruko.

She held out a new handkerchief: Tumhara kal wala rumaal bohoot kharaab ho gaya tha. Yeh rakh lo.

Sameer: Aare, isski koi jaruraat nahi thi...

Naina extended her hand a little closer to him still offering the handkerchief: Thanks

Sameer took it, not wanting to make her more uncomfortable and turned away from her starting to walk away. He has taken just about a step when his protective instinct kicked-in and he stopped. He did not want her going through a similar situation ever again, at least not if he could help it.

Without turning, still facing away from her he said: Naina, wo pass mein hi, bike pe about do teen minute ki duri par ek chemist ki dukaan hai. Tumhe kabhi bhi emergency mein kissi cheez ki zaroorat pade toh mujhe bol sakti ho. Agar bolne mein uncomfortable feel karo toh likh ke bata dena. Mein la dunga. (and then after a small pause) Aur kissi se kuch kahunga bhi nahi, promise.

Sameer walked out of the class without looking at her. Naina had sat down with a feeling of dread washing over her. He knew! How could he? And how was she going to face him ever again?! Naina sat there trying to process all that he had said. She had to admit that he had sounded very genuine in his offer of help and had not said anything to further embarrass her. In fact, it was quite the opposite, he had sounded very reassuring. Naina had anyways been avoiding him at that time and even after they reconciled the topic never came up again between them.

Naina came out of her walk down the memory lane as Preeti asked her if wanted any extra money to take a rickshaw back home. Meanwhile she saw Sameer gesturing that they were heading to the canteen. Naina called out to him and indicated that she wanted to talk to him alone. Sameer approached her.

Naine softly and little shyly: Sameer, wo mujhe kuch chahiye tha.

Sameer feeling intrigued: Ha bolo... kya chahiye?

Naina: Wo dukaan se kuch la doge kya?

Sameer smiling: Chocolate chahiye kya?

Naine: Chocolate? Yeh tum aaj kal haar waqt mujhe chocolate kyu dete ho?

Sameer mumbling a bit: Wo.. toh.. bus aaise hi... tumhe achi lagti hain... isiliye main..

Naina: Aacha wo chodo. Tumhe yaad hain wo tumne ek baar school mein kaha tha, mujhe kissi cheez ki zaroorat pade to tumhe bata du...

Naina could see from his expression that he had not connected the dots yet. So she continued: Wo tumne kaha tha ke kabhi EMERGENCY mein chemist se kuch bhi mangwana ho toh..

Finally realisation dawned on him. And he had a 'oh' expression on his face. Quickly he tried to appear very casual about it.

Sameer: Ha bilkul. Abhi lake deta hu. Ya tum sath chalna chahati ho?

Naina sounded a little confused: Sath chalu? Kyu? Oh.. tumhe mangne mein problem hoga...

Sameer: Aare nahi. Maine toh bus aaise hi poocha. (But then he looked slightly unsure) Waise kya boolu dunkandar ko? Kuch specific chahiye?

Naina: StayFree chota pack.

Sameer nodded then said: Na ho toh?

Naina: Whisper

Sameer started to leave then asked: Kuch aur chahiye? Matlab koi dava... Maine padha tha kahi ke dard bhi hota hai...

Naina: Nahi main thik hu. (and then she added after a slight pause) Usually mujhe jyada takleef nahi hoti.

Sameer smiled slightly at her and shouted Munna-Pandit to proceed to the canteen saying he would join them in a bit. Naina joined the other girls.

Preeti: Aare tu jaa nahi rahi hai kya? Mujhe laga tu Jijaji ko tujhe rickshaw tak drop karne ko keh rahi hogi.

Naina: Nahi main tumhare sath shaam mein hi ghar chalungi

Swati: Aare par tab tak kya karegi?! Abhi toh bohoot time hai...

Naina: Wo... Sameer gaya hai laane...

All the girls cried out together: Kya??!! Tune usse bolo?

Hema: Naina, tu pagal ho gayi hai kya? Aaisi baat Sameer se!

Preeti: Tune exactly kya boola Jijaji ko?!

Swati: Aare usse kya pata hoga... pata nahi kya leke aayega. Pakka kuch gadbad karega...

Naina: Kuch gadbad nahi karega. Aur usse sab samajh aata hai.

Kamya: Naina, tub hi na... aaisi baate kaun aapne boyfriend ko batata hai? Kya sooch raha hoga wo tere baare mein... Aare tu usse Earrings/Bangles kuch mangti toh samajh aata.

Naina: Pagal ho gayi hai kya? Wo sab ku mangungi... abhi jo chahiye wahi mangungi na! Aur wo kuch nahi soochega mere baare mein. Utni understanding hai humare beech.

Naina was about to explain that he had only told her that it was alright with him if she ever wanted him to fetch her something like this. But, then thought the better of it, not wanting to share that event with everyone from long ago.

Naina: Tum log canteen jao. Main yehi rukti hu Sameer ke liye. Baad mein tumhe class mein hi milungi.

As Naina stood there waiting for him, she marvelled at the fact about how long they had come in their relationship during these last 2 years of college and just how comfortable they now felt with each other. She also thought that if she could talk to him so openly about things that she had never discussed with any other males of her household, she would be able to talk to him about absolutely anything! (ofcourse Naina had no idea of what else could possibly be coming up for discussion in the future!!)