A/N: I apologize for my uneventful absence from the fanfiction world but I was busy. I'll try not to let it happen again. Here's some more Roach and Alice goodness for the soul!
Touching, in Alice's opinion, was addictive. Alice was, once again, enjoying her time with Roach and his family. It was about a week after he had taken her to the height of badness and goodness and wanting and all those other things. He had done it again too, lots of times, whenever they got a free moment together. In fact, judging by the hand on her thigh he was fixing to do it again. They were watching Christmas specials during the summer with the air conditioner turned up full blast to simulate winter time. Roach was sitting next to her under a blanket on the couch while his younger siblings sat in front of the TV seemingly trying to blind themselves. Alice tiled her head back and Roach made it under her dress again. They exchanged a knowing look and Alice scooted closer to him on the ancient, lemon yellow, couch. Just when Roach was about to get to the good part Donna flopped down at the end with a bowl of popcorn.
"Hey, what are we watching?" said Donna trying to stop what was about to transpire. The others, with the possible exception of Trysta, were too young to be able to tell what was going on between Alice and David Jr. Donna was sixteen and knew full well what was going on.
"Charlie Brown Christmas, the second one where they put on the play." Said Morgan not even turning around.
"I like the first one better, myself. What about you guys?" asked Donna. She wished she had brought her camera just to capture the annoyed looks her siblings were giving her.
"Are you gonna talk through the whole movie?" asked Trysta sourly. Donna put up her hands defensively.
"So-rry. Please forgive me, oh great and powerful princess Trysta, for thinking I was allowed to make conversation with my own family, plus Alice." Said Donna in a mock grovel.
"Apology accepted. What? Oh sorry Messenger, Donna's just being annoying…uhuh…no Peppermint Patty and Marcy are sheep in the Christmas play….that's not good because those are bit parts…uh-huh…last year I was Mary and we used a real baby for baby Jesus but it started crying and threw up on Joseph who was playing Joseph…yeah, he only got the part because his name was Joseph…what do you want for Christmas?" said Dottie as she spoke to Messenger. Trysta and Morgan gave her annoyed looks.
"I think it was really sad how they were so mean to Charlie Brown but then it was happy because they made the tree look nice." Said Alice. She knew it was stupid to be sad for a made up cartoon character but lately everything had been making her sad.
"You wanna know what's really sad?" said Donna leaning in close speaking in mock conspirator tones. Alice leaned in, interested.
"What?" asked Alice. Donna made exaggerated glances to each side.
"We have a pink aluminum Christmas tree we put up every year." Said Donna quietly. Alice cocked an eyebrow, that wasn't so sad. Pink was a nice color.
"I like pink." Said Alice. Donna, Trysta, and Dottie all rolled their eyes as they took in Alice's pink dress, pink gel shoes, and pink headband.
"Dottie, get off the phone. I damn near broke my neck tripping on this cord." Said Amanda as she carried a basket of laundry across the living room. The cord to the living room phone was stretched from one end of the room to the TV where Dottie was currently running up the bill.
"But mom, Messenger and I are discussing which character on Charlie Brown is the best. I think Peppermint Patty because she's awesome and doesn't take nothing from nobody. He says Schroder because he plays piano good and puts up with Lucy." Said Dottie as if this was a perfectly good reason to send the phone bill through the roof.
"Well you've been on the phone all morning. In fact, you kids have been vegetating in front of Christmas specials all morning too." said Amanda as she took in the cassettes that surrounded her youngest children.
"I gotta go." Sad Dottie getting up and hanging up the phone. She'd call him back later and they'd discuss which Berenstein Bear was the best. She thought sister because of her great sense of style. Everyone should wear pink overalls and bows.
"Morgan and Dot, you two go play in that playground your father built for you. Trysta, get started on that summer reading you've been putting off. David Jr., give me that blanket so I can was it. I don't remember it being quite such a dingy grey." Said Amanda. Her children groaned but complied. There were other battles worth fighting.
"Oh man…" said Trysta as David Jr. got up and gave their mom the blanket he and Alice were cuddling under. She nudged Donna and pointed to the blood stain very clearly visible on the back of Alice's pink dress.
"Shit! Muttered Donna. She got and walked over to David Jr. in an attempt to spare Alice the embarrassment of her boyfriend seeing that. Trysta got up and decided to save Alice too out of the goodness of her heart.
"Hey David Jr., wanna help me…uh…make some lemon aid for everyone? You know…cause it's so hot out?" said Donna lamely. He looked over at Alice, Trysta was standing very close to her, and she nodded. Roach made an Ok sign with his fingers.
"Good, you can start squeezing lemons while I…look for the sugar." Said Donna. Trysta gave her a look. Donna could not lie under pressure. Roach made another Ok sign with his finger and began to crush the juice out of the lemons with the plastic lemon juice crusher thing.
"Alice, won't you join us in the upstairs bathroom?" asked Donna. Trysta grabbed her hand and began to drag her up the stairs. The things they did for their brother.
"You keep sugar in the bathroom?" asked Alice. Well, Debbie had sugar body scrub so she guessed it wasn't so weird. Trysta closed the door and locked it. Alice began to get the trapped feeling she got whenever a door was locked.
"Look behind you." Said Donna getting a hand mirror from the cabinet. Alice looked behind herself and saw some blood…unexplained blood…from her bad place…God was punishing her and she was dying…she screamed.
"Quite freaking out! It's just your period!" said Trysta as she put her hand over Alice's mouth. Donna went to the cabinet and got out a maxi pad for Alice.
"I'm dying! I'm dying because I was bad! I'm bleeding to death!" screamed Alice. Donna began to shake back and forth in an attempt to calm her. Trysta filled the toothbrush cup with water and threw it in Alice's face. That quieted her down. Running could be heard followed by pounding at the door.
"Damn it!" said Donna under her breath. She could hear her little brother's frantic calls to Alice and inquiries as to what was happening. If she didn't know what a period was then he most certainly wouldn't. She was not going to explain that to him either, let dad do it. No need to spare him the joys of an awkward father son talk.
"She's fine, she just found one of Morgan's pee bottles and it broke opened! She got really grossed out and fell back into the tub and one of Donna's stupid glass shampoos broke and she cut herself. Just go and get mom, she cut her leg really high up and you can't see that because you're a boy. Even if you already have I don't wanna hear about it, just get mom." Said Trysta.
"(Yeah, yeah, yeah! Mom! Mother! Help!)" yelled Roach as he ran down the stairs. Alice could be bleeding to death for all he knew. He jumped the last few stairs to the ground floor before he realized that his mother was in the cellar doing laundry. He took a few deep breaths and ran down stairs to get her for Alice.
"Will you stop that, it's just a period!" said Trysta thrusting a box of maxi pads into Alice's arms. Alice was still shaking and muttering something about being bad and death coming for her.
"Alice…Alice look at me…have you ever had a period before?" asked Donna getting down onto the ground next to her.
"A period? Those dots at the ends of sentences? What does that have to do with me dying?" Alice managed to gasp out between gasps. Donna and Trysta's jaws both practically hit the floor. They didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
"Hang on, I have a book you can borrow." Said Trysta. She unlocked the bathroom and ran over to her room. Donna took Alice's hands in her own. She looked like a scared little kid then, not a fourteen year old young woman.
"Alice, you're not going to die from this. I swear on my life." Said Donna. She could hear her brother trying to say something as he dragged their mother up the stairs.
"What the hell is going on in here!?" said Amanda as her son practically shoved her into the bathroom before closing the door. He wanted his mother to get right to work stopping Alice from bleeding to death. He was going have angry words with Morgan later about peeing in bottles because he was too lazy to get up and use the toilet and then leaving the bottles everywhere. Even Messenger Robeson, born and bred under the stairs, thought that was sick and weird.
"I got the book!" said Trysta pushing Roach to the side and entering the bathroom where she found her mom and older sister trying to console a sobbing Alice.
"Oh." Said Amanda as her middle daughter came into the bathroom waving a copy of 'You're a Woman Now'. It all came into place in Amanda's mind, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
"David Jr., if you really want to help you can go downstairs and match socks for me while I take care of Alice. Ok, it's a very important job that I need you to do for me or the family won't have any socks to wear. You like to help the family, right?" said Amanda as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"(Yeah, yeah, yeah.)" said Roach going downstairs to help out his mother. Maybe Alice needed stiches or something, Trysta had been waving a book around. He went down stairs and tried to match socks, praying that Alice would be alright.
"How does a girl in this day and age not…uh!? I'm only only thirty one and when it happened I knew what was going on…I was born in 1960 for Christ's sake! I can't believe Mary-Ann didn't tell you anything?" grumbled Amanda as she tried to compose herself.
"I-I'm not going to die?" said Alice softly. Donna had sworn on her life that Alice wasn't going to die and she believed her. Trysta had even told a lie for her. As she calmed down she was grateful for these people who cared for her more than Mommy and Daddy ever did. Mommy had lied to but never for her.
"No, it's just something that happens to every girl once a month until they get too old to have babies." Said Amanda. She was not going to tell Alice where babies came from, she shouldn't even have been explaining this to Alice.
"I'm going to have a baby?" said Alice softly. Amanda felt all the color leave her face as she realized exactly what could happen. She knew Alice and David Jr. were most likely making out, maybe fooling around, but not having sex yet. No sex, no babies. For now, anyway.
"No, the blood means there's no baby inside of you right now. Duh!" said Trysta before Amanda shooed her and Donna out of the room. Donna couldn't leave fast enough, she didn't want any more of a part of this.
"Is this happening because I was bad?" asked Alice softly. Amanda stood Alice up and hugged her. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like to be Alice at that moment. Scared, away from everything you had ever known, and now your body betraying you.
"No, you weren't bad and this isn't your fault. This is just something completely and totally natural that happens to you and every woman. You're gonna feel some pain, and you're gonna either yell or cry a lot more than normal, but it'll pass in about five to seven days. Here, you put this in your underwear to catch the blood so it doesn't ruin your clothes…anymore. I'll lend you something of Donna's to wear home. When you get home you should tell your mother and have her explain everything to you." Said Amanda. She handed Alice the maxi pad she had dropped and Alice clung to Amanda.
"Thank you." Said Alice as she wrapped her arms around Roach's mother. This is where Roach got his inherent goodness from. She felt a relief rush through her comparable only to the relief she felt when she heard Roach was going to live.
"You're welcome, Alice. I think you should go home now and have your mother explain everything to you. My husband probably had a few things to explain to David Jr. when he gets home." said Amanda. Alice sniffed back some residual tears and nodded. Amanda left the bathroom feeling a few years older and wiser. Later in Alice left their house with a new found newfound love and respect for Amanda.