Part 1The Crimson Redemption

During the break between classes, my desk mate nudged me gently. "Do you have... you know? Can I borrow one?"

Seeing her awkward, squirming expression, I understood immediately.

Just as I was about to reach for a pad, strange bullet comments—like a livestream chat—suddenly floated across my vision:

[Lily, don't lend it to her!]

[The school bully is going to snatch it. Sarah won't admit she asked for it; she'll tell everyone the blood on the back of your pants is yours!]

[Because of this one pad, in a month, you’ll go insane, and Sarah will die.]

...

Despite the frantic warnings floating in the air urging me to ignore Sarah, I calmly pulled out a sanitary pad and placed it squarely in front of her.

"It's the extra-long overnight kind. Don't worry, it's safe."

* * *

Sarah Jenkins stared at the unwrapped pad sitting openly on the desk, completely frozen.

I knew why she was shocked.

Zach Stone, the school’s notorious bully, often led his pack of guys to make fun of girls on their periods. It had gotten so bad that girls in our class handled menstrual products like contraband—hiding them in sleeves, stuffing them in pockets, or passing them under desks in opaque black bags like secret agents.

But today, I put it right there on the table in broad daylight...

As if it were a pack of tissues, not a source of deep, teenage shame.

"Don't like the long ones? I have a regular flow one, too."