The sun was shining outside and the birds were singing in the trees that were lined around the dorm building. This sunny mood was not the same however, in the room. Instead, a storm was quickly brewing.

When the rays of the sun hit my eyelids, they were abruptly yanked open. With the too bright light, I immediately closed them. My mind finally woke up enough to register the cramps that were beginning in my stomach. It was a slow ache that was getting worse and worse as I laid there. I pulled my knees up to my chest and stretched my arms tightly around them. The comforter was wrapped around me snugly as I was currently a human burrito.

The pain was a constant throb at the moment.

Of all days, why today?

When my time of the month rolls around every four weeks, it's the worst five to seven days. The other days of the month I'm already temperamental, but when I'm on my period, my mood swings are horrible. I have major anger management to say the least.

My mother, being a lawyer, can put up with a lot. All my friends absolutely love her. She cooks all the good food when they're over, or we order pizza or carry out Chinese food. She's my own therapist especially during that week. When I get a little too out of hand though, she doesn't put up with it. Let me tell you, my mom is scary during the very few times she gets angry.

Instead of butterflies that should be in my stomach because of the first game, hammers were currently crashing around in my uterus. This is not going to be good. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to get up and have to start getting ready. Slowly craning my neck back, I looked up at the time on the clock. It was five minutes before I needed to wake up.

With how this was going, there was no way I was getting up any time soon. Another round of cramps washed over me. A groan escaped my lips at the pain that seemed to roll around inside me. Nausea was swimming around in my stomach as well.

The sudden noise caused the bed on the other side of the room to shift around. The covers and sheets ruffled and were pulled around. The duvet was pulled down enough so a messy blonde head of hair was visible. A hand was pulled through the unruly mess. A tan arm stretches out of the blanket and dangled limply off the edge of the bed.

"Gloria, what time is it?" a voice laced with sleep yawned from the other bed.

I pulled the duvet over my head in response, snuggling in closer to my pillows and blankets. For 30 seconds, it was silent in the room. There was more shuffling around with the blankets after I didn't answer.

"Gloria?"

My knees were practically touching my forehead. I was so condensed in to a ball. Just leave me alone. Please leave me alone.

There was squeaking from the other bed as the weight left the mattress. Light padding of feet were shuffling across the floor. Then the weight that had been on the other bed came to sit down on mine.

Why? Why? Why? Just stay away from me.

Miles's back was pressed against my shins. A hand was trying to move the blanket away from my face, but I clutched the comforter harder.

The pulling stopped for a second as I was yanking the duvet over my head. It was dark and comfortable under the blankets.

"Come on, Gloria," Miles said softly.

My grip slightly loosened as his soft voice coaxed me out. Who knows why, but I let go of the bedding and put the arm previously holding the comforter, back around my abdomen to hold my aching stomach.

The hand tried again at pulling the blankets away. Slowly, but surely, the blankets were pulled away from my face. Miles's face was suddenly visible as I squinted my eyes at the bright light still filtering in through the curtains. There was a small smile pulling at his lips, but his eyes looked worried.

"Hi, there," Miles said.

I let out a huff of air and closed my eyes.

"What's up with you?" His hand was now resting on my back.

I could feel the warmth of his skin through my thin pajama shirt, where'd he had slid it between the covers to sit comfortably on the middle of my back. Subconsciously, I pressed my back in to the warmth of hand. He took this as a sign and his thumb started making small circles in to my spine. It felt so freaking good on my always sore back.

I still hadn't answered the question he'd asked. My side was pressed in to the bed, facing him. His large, muscular figure loomed over my squished together one. I didn't meet his gaze that was burning in to skin. My stare was fixated on the rumpled sheets on his own bed.

Without warning, Miles's other hand came to my chin where he carefully pulled my face up to look up at him.

"What's wrong, Princess?"

I took a shaking breath at the close proximity and intimate situation we were in.

Words finally bubbled out of my throat after I spent a good minute looking up at his bright green eyes.

"Mother Nature," I croaked.

He turned around to look outside the window.

"What's wrong with it?" His face was confused as he kept glancing back and forth at me and outside the window.

"The gift of the month," I tried again in simpler terms. I could feel my temper start flaring. It'll come out of nowhere, and it was beginning to boil. As cute as it was that he was so confused, I just wanted him to understand right now.

His eyebrows knit together, and Miles looked even more clueless.

I don't know why him not knowing what I was talking about right at that moment was pissing me off so much, but it was.

Then without another second, my temper spilled over.

"My fucking period. There is blood currently coming out of my lower regions. I have cramps in my stomach because I started my period! This is not that hard to understand," I practically yelled at him. I puffed out long breaths after my sudden outburst, trying to calm myself down. My cramps flared up as I was snapping at him. I could feel my face go red, and the one stupid vein on my forehead was starting to pop out.

Miles's eyes went extra wide as his brain finally caught up to what I was saying. A lightbulb went off in his head.

"Oh... shit," he mumbled. "What do you need?"

"I need you to go in to my back pack and get the purple sparkly bag out of the biggest pocket," I instructed, hotly.

Miles hopped off the bed and kneeled down to look through my bag. His hands dug through the many things I had stuffed in there.

"Got it." He tossed it up to the bed. It landed close to my stomach. I unlatched my hands from my stomach and unzipped the bag.

Not even caring about making a mess, I dumped the bag's contents in to my lap. Carefully sitting up, I searched to find the right bottle. There were several bottles of different medication in the bag. Miles looked on to see all these bottles that were scattered around me.

"Why do you have so many-" Miles started to say, but I immediately cut him off to not get in to that topic. He again looked confused. He probably thought I was some prescription drug addict or something.

"I need some water," I said with my eyes going puppy dog on him.

"Yeah, sure," he said, seeming to forget all about his previous question. He practically ran out of the room with an empty water bottle in his hand.

Another close one to have to start explaining everything. While Miles was filling up the water bottle, I opened the top off the prescription of Advil. The rest of the bottles were shoved back in to the bag before Miles could inspect the labels. I took three tablets out of the container and placed them on my tongue, awaiting the water. As soon as I tossed the bag back towards my backpack, Miles came back with a full water bottle. He handed me the water and sat down on the edge of the bed.

I took a big gulp of the cold liquid and swallowed the medication.

"Better?" he asked.

"Well, the medication has to kick in first," I said, chuckling softly.

"Right," he said, smiling at me.

We sat in a comfortable silence. I was reclined in to my stack of pillows with my knees pulled tightly up to my chest. Miles had scooted back on to the bed and moved himself back farther since my legs were not in the way. He leaned in to the wall and had his hands settled in his lap.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked, picking at my fingernails.

"Shoot," he replied.

"Why are you so clueless to the mensteral cycle?"

He laughed. It was a deep rumbling that came from his chest and lit up his face. I couldn't lie, but I liked it a lot when he laughed. "I haven't had that much experience."

I let out a small smile at his response. "Other than the fact you're not a girl, what about your mom or other girls?"

"My mom had to deal with my brothers and me and my dad. She didn't tell us anything. Why would girls tell me about their time of the month, though? Other than you obviously. I thought you were slowly dying over here."

"Your girlfriends?"

"To your surprise, I haven't had that many serious girlfriends, actually."

"Your not too many is different from my not too many."

"I have had like four serious girlfriends."

He was right, that did surprise me. I have had two or three serious boyfriends, so we were about in the same boat.

"Did you never like experience their 'episodes'?" I asked, slightly amused.

"I did my best to stay away from them when it was their time. I think they wanted me to stay anyway," he said sheepishly.

I chuckled.

"Alrighty, then. Looks like I'll be your crash course."

He smirked at me as soon as I said that very awkward sentence. "My crash course, huh?"

I scoffed, trying to play off my very poor word choice.

"Like you need a crash course for anything? You've probably experienced it all."

"Other than the wonderful week of a girl's period, I still have a few things I need a crash course for."

"Pervert. I'm only here to give you a great experience of what the usual week is like for me."

"Well aware. Why would I want to do anything with you anyway?"

His comment shouldn't have meant anything to me in the slightest. He was just teasing. It really should have been a relief. He was being honest. This short sentence kind of hurt my feelings though.

I blinked several times to get the look off my face that had subtly appeared. I couldn't do it fast enough. Miles spoke before all the evidence was gone.

"I didn't mean it like that," he rushed out, trying to turn the situation around.

"No, it's fine. You're right anyway. Why would I want to do anything with you?" I said with no emotion. With that, I pulled myself out of the bed and grabbed the pile of clothes off the top of the dresser.

"Gloria..." Miles trailed off.

"I need to go change," I said before he could continue. I placed my cosmetic bag on top of the pile before heading to the door.

I was half way out the door when Miles opened his mouth again. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Why are you sorry?" I fired back before closing the door behind me.

When I finally did get to the bathroom, I quickly stepped inside and locked the door. My legs were giving out, and I let my back slide down against the wooden door.

Why was such a stupid little thing that Miles said, bothering me so much? It shouldn't really matter in the slightest, in fact. Something was becoming wrong with me, but I can't figure it out. He's doing something to me.

Probably my period. I'm always more emotional then.

...

The bags were piled on to the sidewalk in front of the cafeteria. The air was sticky and hot as the whole team sat under the awning of the building. We were sweating like pigs with the perspiration running down our foreheads.

It was only 8:27 in the morning, and it was a telling sign that today was going to be absolutely brutal.

All of us had gone to change out of our uniforms, so they wouldn't be soaked with sweat when we get to the field.

"When is this stupid bus suppose to get here?" Harrison complained next to me.

I sighed and shrugged in response. We had been sitting here for over 20 minutes because all of us were scared to death of being late.

As if on cue, the rumbling of an engine could be heard. "Finally," I muttered.

We all got up and hesitantly stepped out of the shade. It was just too hot to be outside.

The bus that pulled to the curb was one of those nice charter buses. Thankfully not one of those crappy yellow school buses. Rust seems like one of those guys to make us suffer and ride in one of those. Surprisingly, Rust happened to be the one driving the bus. He pulled the handle to open the door and hopped out.

Throwing the keys at Jackson, he stepped right back on to the bus without saying a word.

"Alright, let's load up, then," Jackson instructed us, popping open the compartment doors on the sides of the bus.

All the bat bags were thrown in, along with the buckets of balls, tees, and nets. Each space was jammed full of stuff. Every door to the compartments was shut, and we were ready to go. The only things we were allowed to bring on the bus was a personal backpack and a pillow, if we wanted. I packed both boxes of feminine supplies in my backpack with my uniform that I would need to change in to when we got to Colgate University. My pillow pet was under my arm, so I could have a pillow for along the way.

Coach opened the door to the bus, and we all gathered around to get inside.

"Sit with your roommate to make attendance of all the players easier. Got it?" Rust yelled from his driver's seat.

Since the very awkward situation this morning, Miles and I haven't talked at all, and I've been doing my best to distance myself without making it obvious. This was going to be an interesting 3 and half hour bus ride.

Harrison got on before me and picked a seat towards the back. I sat in the window seat across from his to be able to talk to him. Dylan came to sit next to Harrison; while Jackson sat down in the seat in front of mine. Miles came on last. His eyes searched up and down the rows until he found me. He strode down the aisle and plopped down next to me. He also had a small backpack with him. We hardly looked at each other. We sat on the very outer edges of our seats, so we didn't touch in any way. We were basically acting like a couple of five year olds.

When everyone did find a seat, Rust started the bus back up and off we went. Not a minute after he started driving, Coach Rust picked up the loud speaker microphone.

"We're going to get to Colgate at around twelve o'clock. Our game doesn't start until two, so that gives you guys plenty of time for eating and changing. They sell stuff at the concession food stand that you can eat for lunch."

With that, he placed the microphone back in its holder and focused all of his attention on driving. The bus was pretty quiet with only a bit of noise from side conversations.

My pillow pet was currently the barrier between us. Miles leaned back in to the seat.

In each seat, there was an armrest that could go in between the seats. Our armrest was up because my pillow pet happened to be sitting right there. With no warning, Miles pulled the rest out of between the seats. He pushed it right down on top of my pillow pet, squishing him. He placed his forearm down on the armrest.

"You're squishing him," I said with anger flaring in my voice.

"Then move him," Miles snapped back.

"He was there before you put down the arm rest."

"You don't own the whole seat."

"He was there first."

"Stop acting like you're in kindergarten and move the stupid stuffed animal, which is an inanimate object."

"You're an asshole."

"Like I haven't already heard that before from you."

I huffed loudly before ripping my pillow pet from under where he was trapped under the armrest. I knew I was acting like a little kid, but he was just getting on my nerves more and more as the day continued. I put the pillow pet on the window and set my head on him. My body was leaned to the seat, so my right side of my butt was up. I had scooted down to where my back end was resting on the armrest. Closing my eyes, I hoped this bus ride would be over as fast as possible.

Not a minute after I had closed my eyes, Miles's voice filled my ears.

"Get your ass on your side," he snapped.

"It is on my side," I barked, not even bothering to open my eyes.

"Again, you don't own the whole seat, so scoot over."

"It's not even in the way," I seethed, scooting over.

"It obviously was."

My temper was boiling, and we've only been on the bus for ten minutes.

"Would you two shut up? Miles switch seats with me," Jackson butted in out of nowhere. He got up and stood in the aisle to let Miles in to his previous seat.

"Gladly," Miles responded, getting up and taking his backpack with him. "Good luck."

Jackson sat down on the seat next to me and looked over at me. "You guys are like an old married couple."

"Why would I ever want to marry him?"

"Nevermind, just go to sleep."

I pouted a little at him before scooting back down in to the seat. Hopefully, I'll get some much needed sleep before the game.

The next time I opened my eyes, the bus was pulling in to a parking lot next to a large stadium. The light was pouring through the windows making me blink several times. The bus was much louder with all the talking of the players on the bus.