I walked into the Clerk’s Quarters and found her waiting for me, her doe-like eyes unable to mask her current inner turmoil.
I nodded to her. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you.”
“I was told by one of the nurses to write a couple of discharge notes before I left the ward. Why? What’s wrong?” I asked her nonchalantly as I rested my weary back on one of the beds… Ahhh… paradise… The muscle spasm in my back wanted to sing praises.
“[Mistress], I’m late.”
I sat up straight from bed. “WHAT?”
“My period hasn’t arrived yet. It’s been five days. My cycle never acts up. My period always arrives like clockwork.”
She was known for her paranoia. Prior to every exam, she’s right there wailing about how she wasn’t prepared for the exam since she apparently didn’t study at all. As we waited for a few days for the results of each exam, she’s halfway to throwing herself off the bridge with all her exclamations of woe that she was going to fail. And she almost always turns out to get one of the highest grades in every examination.
We were one of the smart girls in class. We were the ones who occasionally studied but managed to pass every exam. We were also the Bad Girls, the Drinkers-slash-Smokers. She was the flirt who always goes after what she wants, I was the more conservative slut.
As such, she frequently finds herself in situations that constantly brings her panic and because she can be such a drama queen, her problems become magnified to one hundred thousand times its value. Of course, she would constantly have to drag me in and help her find a solution that will fix her problems once and for all.
Which is pretty much futile considering that she never listens to me.
Truth is, I have finally accepted the fact that even if she tells me that I help her fix her problems, the actual role I play in her life is a soundboard, since I’m the only one who has the patience to listen to her and everybody else has gotten tired of listening to her same-old rantings.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes! And it’s probably Alvin’s since he was the last person I slept with!”
“And to think you’ve slept with your boyfriend for so long, but one time with Alvin and you’re pregnant? Oh, come on!”
“I just know it’s Alvin’s. I wasn’t quite that safe back then.”
I sighed. Two weeks ago, she had slept with one of the interns she had a fancy for. Forget that I told her not to do anything because he didn’t seem that into her. Forget that Alvin, an intern, was currently courting one of our other co-clerks. Forget that she had a long-time boyfriend studying far away. She wanted Alvin and she made it extremely clear to him.
And you know what they say about worms in the proximity of any chicken…
They get eaten.
So, one fateful night during one of her 24-hour duties, she climbed into bed with him at the Intern’s Quarters and they slept together, the bulkiness of her sleeping bag, their only cover to the lascivious acts that they were doing under the mattress.
As I pondered on what she had told me, other clerks began pouring into the quarters. There obviously wasn’t anymore privacy so we decided to talk outside. As we sat on one of the benches, she buried her face in her face. “God, what am I gonna do? My boyfriend will kill me.”
“Maybe you’re just panicking too much. Stress can delay your menstrual cycle, you know. I mean, with all these work, the papers and the duties, our cycles are bound to screw up. Plus, we both know you’ve been incredibly stressed out after you slept with Alvin. Maybe that had something to do with this delay.”
“But what if I am? God, what am I gonna do, [mistress]? I cannot be pregnant.”
“Okay, wait. Let’s look at this as rationally as we can. First of all, you could just be delayed. It’s only what, five days? You are bound to have some irregularity in your cycle because of all the things that are currently occupying your mind.”
“But I’m very regular… How about if I take a pregnancy test now?”
“And waste your money? No. You’re probably just delayed for a few days. Why don’t you just wait for it? Besides, it’s not as if a month has actually passed since that time you had sex with him.”
“I want to bleed now, [mistress]. What do you think can I take? How about I buy some MTX now?”

“Seriously, how are you going to buy one? We both know they ask license numbers for that in almost every pharmacy in this city. And I don’t think they accept pers.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I can ask from one of the doctors in Internal Medicine for a pre-signed prescription and pretend I’ll be using it for something important. Then I’ll just fill in the rest using my own handwriting.”
“Come on. This is crazy… I mean, what if you take MTX and you start seriously bleeding? You can’t tell your aunt and I’d have to be the one to bring you to the hospital. I don’t have any money to put down as deposit in case you need to be admitted, by the way,” I told her as I tried to make light of the situation.
“I want to start menstruating now, [mistress]. So I can finally decide what I’m supposed to do. How about those herbal medicine thingies they sell near City Hall? Do you think those are effective?”
“The ones whose leaves or treebark you have to boil and then drink? I don’t know… You seriously can’t imagine the two of us going there and trying to buy one?”
“Well… I… ahmmm…,” she started, staring at me angelically.
“NO,” I told her, before the first word ever left his mouth.
“What about any other drugs? Do you know of any other drugs that I can take? I told Alvin I was late and he gave me the name of some progesterone-based pill. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t progesterone supposed to increase your threshold for uterine contractions and make the fetus attach itself more to the uterine linings? I kept thinking, God, what if this guy actually wants me to bear his child? Ewwww!”
I laughed. “Progesterone? Didn’t we use progesterone-based drugs for those with threatened abortion?”
“I know! That’s what I thought too!” she chimed in.
I remembered something I read from the Internet before. “Hey, I heard something before about overdosing on Vitamin C as an effective abortifacient. I think you have to take about 6,000 to 10,000 milligrams in one day or something. And you have take as little water as you can or else the vitamins just gets washed out with your urine. I’m not quite sure with the dosage but I’ll check the Internet when I get home later. It sounded very effective. I mean, there were these written testimonials and all about it.”
“That sounds plausible. How much does one bottle of vitamins cost?”
“I don’t know really. But I imagine it wouldn’t cost as much as MTX… Do you even have any money?”
“I still have some left… How about a pregnancy kit?”
“No. This is probably all just stress-related delay.”
“God, how could I have gotten myself into such a mess!” she wailed again and again, burying her face again in her hands.
“Hey, relax. This is probably just nothing. Today, you’ll go buy those vitamin meds and start taking the customary grams per hour. If after a week, your menstruation still hasn’t arrive, we’ll go buy a pregnancy kit already… Don’t worry, okay?” I tried to reassure her as her eyes started tearing up.
She smiled, albeit forced.
“You know,” I started as I caressed her hair to calm her, “They say it’s lucky to have somebody pregnant around you.”
“Yeah. But I don’t want the pregnant one to be me!”
“Can you just imagine yourself with a baby?”
“Jesus Christ, no! Not yet!”
“Who would it even look like? You or Alvin?”
“I don’t wanna think about it!”
“Well, if it’s bald, at least you know, it’s definitely Alvin’s.”
We giggled like highschoolers as we made fun of Alvin’s receding hairline. I was glad that I was able to make her calm down for a while. That afternoon, we bought the vitamins and she started taking them right away starting that night.
The next day, she got her period. She looked at me sheepishly when she told me.
I wanted to strangle her.
So much for making ME panic along with her.
The moral of the story is if you have to do one-night stands and screw around with boys who are not your boyfriend, play it safe. Use some protection.
Just a friendly message advisory from your dependable pseudodoctor.