[WP] One day, all women in the world have their period at the same time.

I was only mildly surprised when I woke up to find that stuffing a pad down my knickers had proved to be a good idea. My mood had lifted the day before, like a weight coming off, and, bingo, no more PMSing means period time. I guess I'm lucky I don't have any of those serious diseases like PMDD which makes people literally crazy, or shooting pains, or health problems like excessive bleeding and pain. I just get the blood, wash my hands and go. Stick a tampon up there, remember to take it out and replace so there's no toxic shock, done.

So the day started off annoyingly but normally. Periods are like stubbing your toe or getting stopped at a red light. Infuriating but completely and utterly normal. Not weird, not crazy, just painful or frustrating. I guess if you're the type who gets so ill they can barely move and can only vomit from the pain, you'd think about it differently, but apart from the bother of changing the tampon regularly, it was something of a relief- I wasn't stuck under a grey cloud of misery and irritation any more.

What wasn't normal was how long everyone was taking in the bathroom. I mean, I'm not saying everyone is quick in there, but I swear, people took an hour. Then I came into a toilet stall and, hey presto, one bloody pad on the floor. How hard is it to chuck it in the bloody bin? Cringing, I exited quickly and went to another, much cleaner one.

Things started to get more weird when my friend began to do weird back and leg exercises in the office. She'd also ask questions about gravity and its effects on the body. Being a secretary and not a physicist, I couldn't help much, so she just groaned and went back to her stretches. Then Olivia, usually dieting, started moaning about eating chocolate. 'You know, it's so bad for you on your period...But it's nice.' Ah, periods. It's not like I knew anyone's cycle really, but it's not something you hid. Well, unless you talked to a guy, because then you could be grossed out. Going to a girls school growing up meant I'd learnt to be very open about all stuff body related and although we weren't going to go into nasty details, a bit of complaining about pain, the curse on all women or the price of sanitary ware- and the lack of VAT exemption- were not uncommon topics of conversation.

The day continued on normally and the following week involved my friend continuing to do weird exercises and Olivia snacking on milk chocolate Cadbury bars at lunch.

/r/WritingPrompts Thread