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“No no no no no!”
Louise looked down in horror at what was unfolding before her. It was her time: her VERY FIRST time. Blood just kept on flowing into the toilet, seemingly non-stop, as Louise began to feel the oh so painful cramping that her very first period had to offer. She was a very tough girl, but this was just UNBEARABLE, even for her. If she was at her house when it happened, this would not be a problem: she knew where the pads were, and she also knew her size. Unfortunately, she was not at her house.
…
That day, Louise was at Rudy’s Dad’s house in order to complete a school project: they needed to get a recording of an egg being dropped from the stairs in a way that the impact with the floor wouldn’t completely shatter it, and the two were partners. The two thirteen-year olds needed to buy A LOT of eggs, just to make sure that they “didn’t run out” (Louise had a little surprise for a very deserving guy named Logan). Luckily for them, the project itself was no biggie: they were easily able to secure the egg nicely and tightly in Mr. Stieblitz’s cushioned bed slipper, and with that, the project was easily a success. Of course it was: the two were among the smartest in the entire class.
“Knew it!” Louise bragged.
“Uh, why did we buy so many eggs then if you knew it wouldn’t take that many?” Rudy questioned.
“No reason in particular.” Louise lied, as a devious grin formed onto her face. After all, it was same old Louise, and if Rudy learned anything, it was to not question any of her intentions.
“Well, my dad’s at the Grocery Store to get his ‘secret ingredient’ and a few other things.” Rudy transitioned.
“Yeah, it was so nice of him to let me stay here for dinner. It’ll be far better than hearing my mom singing some crazy song about meatloaf!” Louise responded, with the last phrase being dabbled in sarcasm. Rudy just chuckled upon hearing Louise begin to perfectly imitate her mother.
“Trust me when I say that you have never tried a lasagna better than my dad’s.” Rudy continued on.
“Anything will beat dinner at my house!” Louise joked.
“Oh, I have something to give to you!” Rudy revealed.
“Yeah?” Louise asked, somewhat intrigued. “What is it?”
“You’ll see…” Rudy answered. “But I have to search for it in my room, so stay right here!”
Louise nodded as Rudy headed upstairs; however, she would soon find her visit to be quite eventful. After Rudy left, Louise felt a sharp pain: she could feel it a little bit during the conversation, but now it was beginning to get a bit crampy. At first, she tried to ignore it, but the pain got to be too much, so she decided to go to the bathroom to relax for a little bit.
…
Looking back on it, Louise should have expected this: she was 13 and had yet to have her period. She probably thought about it, but she dismissed it out of fear of being in a predicament that was out of her control. However, she had to set her priorities straight and find a pad. Everything was the last thing on her mind, even Rudy’s gift, as she focused all of her time on searching for a pad. She used a wad of toilet paper as a de facto pad, while she began searching for a longer term one.
Meanwhile, Rudy came back downstairs, holding a small gift box. When he came down, he had expected to see Louise, but she was not there.
“Louise?” Rudy quietly called out her name. “Where are you?”
“Rudy?” Louise answered from the bathroom.
Rudy moved closer to the bathroom door.
“You forgot to close the…” Rudy started, but as he was going to close the door, he accidentally pushed it open, revealing Louise without her pants on and searching through the cabinets below the sink. In complete shock, Rudy stared down at his best friend, who opened one of the cabinet doors to cover herself from his view.
“H-hey, Rudy!” Louise greeted uncomfortably, letting out an embarrassed chuckle in the process.
In response, Rudy’s jaw dropped, and he awkwardly closed the bathroom door, completely entranced by what he had just witnessed. As a result, Louise got up and began to check the hanging cabinet by the door.
“It’s got to be around here somewhere.” Louise searched, scanning through the cabinet.
After a few seconds, Rudy began to recollect what he saw in the bathroom. First thing, of course, was his best friend, Louise, who was searching through the drawers without her pants on. This initially confused Rudy, but then he came to the reasonable conclusion that maybe the toilet paper ran out, and she was just searching for another roll.
“That’s probably it.” Rudy said to himself, seemingly cracking the code.
However, Rudy thought about it again. He looked back on that same mental image, when he noticed something else: on the floor beside her, there were a few red specks on the floor. Rudy thought about it for a moment, but then he came to another conclusion: she was bleeding. Rudy gasped at this realization.
“Louise!” Rudy called out full of worry, and without much thought, he burst into the bathroom. Unfortunately for Louise, she was right there by the door, where the hanging cabinet was. As a result, Louise got slammed by the door and she flew to the bathroom sink.
“Ow! Damnit, Rudy, what the hell?!” Louise scolded in pain, placing a hand on the middle of her torso, where the doorknob bolted into her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Louise!” Rudy apologized in response, moving over to hear.
“Why on Earth would you just bolt in like that?!” Louise questioned, still trying to soothe the pain. “You saw that I was in here a few moments earlier, right?”
“I did, which is why I left. But then, upon reevaluating the situation, I remembered seeing specks of blood on the floor, and I determined that you were bleeding!” Rudy explained concerningly.
Louise simply looked up at him. She couldn’t fault him too much, after all, he was genuinely concerned for her, albeit how awkwardly he went about going to her aid, which absolutely touched her. This was Rudy’s nature: he was smart, but when forced into a situation like this, expect things to get pretty awkward really fast, despite completely good intentions. He was just like her dad, and for a moment, Louise felt like her mom. The thought made her shiver a little, but it wasn’t noticeable to Rudy.
“I’m… having my first period, Rudy.” Louise explained, letting out another embarrassed chuckle in the process.
A moment of silence passed, then Rudy responded. “You are?” He asked with a hint of concern in his tone.
“Yes, you want proof?” Louise sarcastically joked, looking down and gesturing a pull motion at her de facto pad, which was now visible to Rudy, due to its protruding nature.
“Nope nope nope!” Rudy quickly responded, knowing what Louise was gesturing about.
“The reason you saw me on the ground earlier was because I was looking for a pad, or a tampon, or anything to stop the bleeding.” Louise continued on, her voice full of pain from the constant cramping.
“Don’t worry, Louise, I know exactly where they are.” Rudy revealed.
“You do? Where?” Louise asked, relieved that her troubles are almost over.
“They're right here in the bathroom, but the cabinet that they’re in is locked.” Rudy explained, but he continued on. “However, I know exactly where the key is!”
“Then get it! Hurry!” Louise responded quickly, seeking to end her predicament as quickly as possible.
“I’m going, I’m going!” Rudy exclaimed, bolting out of the room, proceeding to place the gift box on the Nightstand in the Living Room.
Upon seeing Rudy bolt out, Louise began to worry slightly about his Asthma, since she didn’t know where his inhaler was; however, she also knew her friend, and she knew that he would do alright. It didn’t even take that long for Rudy to get back with the key.
“You’re a real lifesaver, Rudy.” Louise spoke gleefully upon seeing Rudy return with the key.
“Hey, it’s what friends do.” Rudy started before accidentally tripping on the bathroom mat.
While doing so, the key flew out of his hands, and it slid down the sink and into the drain. Both friends looked on in horror at what just happened.
“No!” Louise shouted, seeing what may be her only hope literally fall down the drain.
“Don’t worry, Louise, maybe I can use my fingers to get it out. After all, I can see a little bit of it from here.” Rudy suggested, as he began to reach down for it.
Fortunately, since the key was upside down, its head stopped it from falling any further. Unfortunately, Rudy’s fingers were too big to make any significant progress; however, Louise’s fingers were slimmer, so maybe they could work.
“Louise, you have smaller fingers, so maybe you could get the key!” Rudy hypothesized, and Louise reached into the drain.
“I can touch the edge of the key, but I can’t go any deeper!” Louise revealed, removing her hand from the drain.
“I think my dad has a small set of tweezers in the garage. Those may help us!” Rudy mentioned, and he left. “Give me a minute to find them!”
A single minute felt like an hour for Louise, who’s cramping seemed to just get worse. She now completely understood how her mother and sister, Tina, felt when the time of the month hit. It didn’t help the matter considering that her de facto pad was beginning to lose the battle against the constant bleeding that came from her.
However, Rudy found the tweezers with very little trouble, and he rushed back to the bathroom. These had to work, right? If they did not get the key out, Louise would be driven to insanity, but she didn’t want Rudy to take the fall for it. Luckily, the tweezers completed the job.
“I got the key!” Rudy cheered, pulling the key out of the drain.
“Thank God!” Louise shouted in response, somewhat impatiently, as she just wanted this to be over with.
“Now I just have to put the key in, turn it, and unlock the cabinet.” Rudy reviewed, as he put the key into the lock.
“Rudy, why are the pads even kept in a locked cabinet?” Louise asked, genuinely curious, since somebody else could really need one of those pads someday.
“I don’t know. I assume it’s to troll my mom when she visits to pick me up or fight with my dad.” Rudy explained, shrugging his shoulders.
The divorce between Rudy’s parents was pretty harsh, almost ruthless: they completely hated each other with passions. With every story Louise would hear about it, she was all the more grateful that her parents were completely the opposite. They had their disagreements now and then, but at the end of the day, they were happily married, and they would remain so for the rest of their lives.
“There we are!” Rudy spoke, unlocking the cabinet and opening the door. He then turned toward Louise. “It’s time for me to go and leave you your privacy.”
With that, Rudy left the room, and Louise searched through the pads in search of her size, which, luckily, was there. After the situation was finally settled with, Louise proceeded to leave the bathroom, where she noticed a glimpse of Rudy holding something and looking at it. It looked like some kind of picture, but that was all that Louise could make of it before her friend noticed her and tucked it away between the couch cushions.
“Oh, Louise, you got it all settled?” Rudy asked her.
“Yeah, but what was it that you were looking at?” Louise questioned out of curiosity.
“Oh, it’s nothing much.” Rudy responded nonchalantly, but there was a small sense of disappointment in his voice. “Well, since you’re all ready, I better give you your gift.”
Rudy got up and got the gift that was on the nightstand, giving it to Louise. “Here you go!” Rudy continued in an excited manner.
Louise looked at the red box, proceeding to open it. Then she saw it: it was a Kuchi Kopi collectible. Now, this wasn’t just any collectible, it was the rare blue one that Louise had spent years trying to obtain, but it was always to no avail. Until now.
Louise couldn’t control herself: she let out a high pitch squeal of excitement. “Where did you find this?” She asked in astonishment.
“It wasn’t easy, but I saved up money for a couple of years, and I got you it.” Rudy explained.
“Oh, Rudy, you are the best!” Louise cheered, hugging Rudy.
“It’s what friends do!” Rudy responded.
After the hug, Rudy went into the bathroom, while Louise put the cover back on the box for safe keeping. Upon doing this, she noticed the picture that Rudy put in the couch, and she took it out, proceeding to analyze it. Upon getting a clear look of it, Louise began to frown a little, sympathetically. It was an old picture of Rudy with his parents, with Rudy looking around five or six in it. She knew it bothered him that his parents’ divorce was so harsh, and she felt terrible for him every time he brought it up. This felt even worse, considering how much Rudy had done for her just then. Since they first got to know each other on that trip to the museum, Rudy had done so much for her, but it was less the other way around. Rudy was her best friend by far, and she even had a bit of a crush on him since she gave him that kiss on Valentine’s Day four years earlier. He had done everything for her, but this time, she had to do something for him.
After a little thinking, she had her idea: in a flash, she proceeded to take out her phone and call her brother, Gene. It wasn’t long before he picked up.
“Hey sis, what’s up?” Gene asked his little sister.
“Are you available right now?” Louise wondered.
“Well, I do have a date with Courtney tonight, but that’s not for another three hours.” Gene explained.
“Alright, good!” Louise replied. “I need you for something.”
“Alright, go on…” Gene spoke, with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
…
An hour had passed, and it was close to time for Louise to go. She was sitting on the couch, holding her gift. She turned toward Rudy’s dad, Sylvester. “Thank you again for letting me stay over for dinner. That lasagna was the best I ever had!” Louise thanked him.
“My pleasure, Louise! So, your mom’s picking you up?” Sylvester asked.
“Yes, she is.” Louise replied.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. “I got it!” Louise spoke, springing up from the couch and heading to the door. She looked through the peek-hole and saw that it was Gene; she then proceeded to turn toward Rudy.
“Actually, you got it!” She continued, gesturing toward the door.
Rudy was a bit confused by this: why was Louise having him open the door? Regardless, Rudy complied, and he went to open it, with Louise and Sylvester behind him. Upon doing this, Rudy, to his surprise, saw Gene standing in the driveway behind a keyboard cart.
“Gene?” Rudy called out in a surprised manner. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I got a request to sing a special song for a very special friend!” Gene explained before beginning to play a jovial tune on the keyboard.
It took a few seconds for Rudy to figure out what Gene had meant, but upon Louise standing right next to him and looking at him with a smile, Rudy did the same, knowing that Louise had planned this for him.
“Oh, Rudy, you are such a great friend that can’t be traded for the world. What began as a simple field trip became all I could ever w-a-a-ant! Oh, Rudy, you just don’t understand the great impact you had on me. With everything you have done for me this friendship will go down in his-tor-ry-y!” Gene sang, perfectly speaking Louise’s mind.
As Gene kept singing, all of the amazing memories with Louise kept flooding into Rudy’s mind: the field trip to the museum, the great train robbery, his birthday parties, and his kiss on Valentine’s Day, just to name a few. As the memories kept coming, Rudy looked at Louise, who proceeded to look right back at him.
“This is the best thing that anyone has ever done for me. Thank you.” He thanked his friend, proceeding to hug her.
Louise smiled. “It’s what friends do.”