Girl Pain [Daja, Tyler, open]

[dajachugani]

Daja groaned, an arm crossing her abdomen. Why now? In the middle of the day?! Of course she had supplies in her locker, and thank her lucky stars, individually and by name, that she did, else it could be embarrassing. Naturally she would have chosen to wear the yellow sari with brilliant orange and green accents. Hurrying to her locker and grabbing the small pink and blue bag from the top shelf she hurried into the ladies room where she took care of business.

Sometimes, being a girl really sucked. In a very serious way. Monthly pains that lasted three, four, sometimes five days. Teas that sometimes helped, but mostly hot packs, sweets, and sappy Bollywood movies. Or maybe Kinky Boots, it was a cute film that never failed to make her grin.

Keeping the pink and blue bag with her, happily it looked like a clutch, Daja made her way to the lunchroom where she got her meal from the cafeteria workers she settled down by one of the windows and did her best not to curl into a ball of pain and cry. Contrary to what many people thought when one blew their nose with a nose ring, it neither hurt nor leaked out the side.

Half heartedly, Daja began to eat the food before her, barely tasting it and trying not to let the onset of her monthly curse ruin what was other wise a very lovely day. Her talk with Mohinder the night before had been one of the best, and he’d even been thoughtful enough to wish her a Happy Valentine’s Day. It had been a highlight, though she’d given out cards to her friends, cute little things like one would have used in elementary school, but still, they were cute and Daja always enjoyed making people smile.

Like the Little Cupcake Girl. Daja knew that her name was Annie, but she would for ever be the Little Cupcake Girl in her mind. Always cupcaked to the nines, always with a smile, and never letting her disability get in the way.

So many others were smiles most of the time as well. Daja was normally among their ranks, but not today. And not for another few days yet.

[Tyler Durnham]

It was lunchtime already and try as he might, Tyler hadn’t spotted Maggy even once. He wondered if she was even at school today, she could be off. Or, she could be doing a really good job of hiding from him, though, he didn’t know why she would do that, their date went really well as far as he thought, she seemed even more enamoured by him at the end of the night. Or, he could be reading into the whole thing a little too much and just hadn’t seen her.

It was only bothering him a little as he was keen to continue the fun little game the pair had started. Besides, if he could, he planned to invite her to the birthday party that night. For Jasper, if memory served him correctly. He wasn’t the closest of friends with him, but, they ran in the same circles and truth be told, Tyler liked what he had seen of him. They seemed to think alike after all, perhaps that night was the perfect opportunity to broaden his circle of friends. Not to mention, his circle of potential dates and flings.

Though, it would have been good to attend with Maggy, see how she reacted with people more in Tyler’s ‘class’, people a girl like her weren’t exactly friends with. He thought she would surprise him, more than she had already. And the looks on his friend’s faces when they realised who his date was would have been priceless. But, they really should expect it by now. He was Tyler Durnham, he could have anyone and anything he wanted.

Including engaged girls, he thought, a smug grin ghosting over his face as he instead spotted another one of his many female fans. Sitting down opposite Daja, he placed down the pizza that he had raced out to grab, instead of braving the cafeteria food. Opening the box, he pushed the cheese pizza towards her before flashing his very familiar grin. He could just about hear a few girls swoon behind him. “Help yourself.” he offered, before pulling out the Valentine’s card he kept in his pocket, hoping he would run into the rather cute girl soon. “I have to say, I was very flattered. Am flattered. Any guy would be, getting a card like that from such a beautiful woman.”

[dajachugani]

When Tyler slid in to the “booth” (what else are you going to call one of the plastic tables with benches pushed against the window?) across from her and opened the pizza box, Daja looked up, confused. He wasn’t the sort she normally hung out with, nor was she the sort he would normally be seen with.

True to the point, when he told her to help herself, Daja could actually FEEL the eyes of other girls boring into her. Wishing her all sorts of nastiness and perhaps even death. If looks could kill, she’d be dead several times over, having sped through the next several incarnations to find herself… as who knew what. Casting a cursory glance around to see if anyone had possibly put him up to this, the young Indian-American girl’s eyes met those of another girl who had tears in her eyes. SHE had wanted Tyler to sit with HER, but instead…

The other girl turned away quickly and rushed off right as Daja had another cramp. Her hand flexed over her abdomen and she did her best not to curl up into a little ball, though both knees lifted towards her chest under the table in an attempt to crush the pain with added pressure.

His next sentence though caused her eyes to fly wide as she searched his face for the joke.

“What card?” asked the sari-clad girl, pain coloring her tone. The card in his hand wasn’t one she recognized and her eyes searched it for a moment, trying to place It. No, it wasn’t one of hers, but he seemed so pleased to have it anyway. Had her brother..?

That twerp!

She couldn’t just assume though, but it wasn’t beyond her younger pain-in-the-neck’s means to do something like this. He hadn’t before, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t now. Who else would have reason to? Nevermind Sunar didn’t really have reason to. He was the only one she could think of.

“I’m sorry… are you sure it’s mine?”

[Tyler Durnham]

His presence often brought a lot of feelings and sensations to a girl, but pain, well, that was a new one. Tyler watched as Daja’s expression changed slightly, a hand quickly pressed to her stomach, but the dead giveaway that something wasn’t right was in the girl’s voice. Ignoring the unexpected sound of running from behind him, he kept his eyes locked on Daja’s.

Her reaction to the card surprised him though, but it quickly cleared things up and with his smile not fading even the slightest, put it down on the table and slid it over to her. “Looks like someone’s being playing tricks then.” he chuckled, relaxing back in his seat. “It makes sense though, I thought you would at least be able to grasp the basics of spelling. Wonder who it could be?” he mused. He wasn’t too overly curious, though he did wonder if it was meant to be more of a joke on himself or the girl opposite. If it was on him, he wouldn’t be surprised. It was probably out of jealousy, there were at least a few other guys in the school, less popular or rich or charming than him, who had less luck with the girls of the school, and who seemed to resent Tyler for it. It was their own fault, he believed, nothing a bit of effort and work couldn’t fix.

The pizza was starting to look, and smell, really tempting so he grabbed a slice, munching on it as he considered her. Even if she wasn’t the admirer behind the card, didn’t mean he couldn’t still win her over. Would be fun, after all. Besides, she really wasn’t looking all too good. “Are you okay Daja? You don’t look that well. You should just skip the rest of the classes, go home. I can drop you off in you want, always like the chance to go for a drive.” he grinned.

[dajachugani]

He wasn’t upset! Daja felt a wave of relief come over her, as another wave of pain. That was the problem with cramps. They crested. Started small, got bigger and worse, until one wanted to curl up, then they fell away again. Spikes. Waves. Crests. However you wanted to phrase it, it all meant the same thing. But Tyler wasn’t upset? That was a strange way to react to someone playing a potentially cruel joke on him. On her. Sunar was going to play dearly for that mistake.

When the question of her health came up. Or mental state, the “are you ok” could go either way really, Daja shook her head. “I’m sorry, Tyler. I wasn’t feeling well this morning, but thought I’d be able to do the whole school thing.” Funny how very American Daja could sound, considering how she chose to dress. True, she was born American, but her heat was Indian. All the yards of silk, the bright colors, the food… that and a Sari just made it easier to stand out and feel beautiful.

“You would do that?” asked she, after another spike of cramping passed. “Please. I have to get out of here.” It had been a mistake to try going to school on the first day of her period. Heavy flow days were always the worst, not that she was going to admit that in mixed company. By mixed, of course she meant a boy. He wouldn’t understand anyway. But he had reached out and offered to take her home. AFTER the understanding that she hadn’t written or given him the Valentine’s card.

“I really appreciate this..” her eyes landed on the pizza and a wave of guilt followed with a wave of cramps. “Eat first,” she pleaded with him. “I’d feel terrible thinking you didn’t get to eat.”

[Tyler Durnham]

Even though Daja hadn’t given him the card, it didn’t mean she still couldn’t be an admirer. Especially not after today, after all, being charming, sweet, kind, and in some cases, sexy, was what Durnhams did best. So, he really couldn’t get to work up about the fact that she wasn’t the card’s actual sender, it was somewhat a relief this way. It wasn’t the...best written, so to speak, unlike all the other cards that had been crammed into his locker, quite a number of girls trying to win him over with romantic words and poetry. They really should have considered their target a bit better. Now, if one of them had just left a skimpy black thong in his locket, he would have paid a lot more attention.

“Hey, no problem.” he grinned brightly, even if she wasn’t paying as much attention to him as any other girl would, on account of her being sick. That fact that she was engaged didn’t play into it. That was no reason not to flirt with her, even if that was all he would do. Probably. “Easy done. There would be nothing worse than having to stay at school when you’re sick.” he sympathised. That was one way to win a girl over.

She did seem to be getting worse, and out of concern, though it was only slight, far less than he made out, Tyler slammed the pizza box shut, pinking it up in his free hand as he finished devouring his current slice with his other. “No, it’s fine, it’s just as good cold. And I’m not that hungry.” he told her, smiling again as he stood. “Come on, let’s get you home Daja.”