OK children, gather round for I have a wondrous tale of SPORN.
Years ago I was working in an office and having a really rushed, stressy day chasing deadlines - so when the crease between my nose and cheek started throbbing at about 9.30 I didn't have time to pay attention. However, it became increasingly throbby so I went to the office toilet to have a quick look in the mirror. Strangely there was no sign of a raised spot but if you paid attention you could see that the whole of one nose/cheek crease area was swollen and pink in relation to the other side. I very gently touched the raised area and HOLY UNDERPANTS THAT HURT. Instantly my eyes were streaming and no way would I be touching that again, too bloody painful.
So, I resolved to just ignore the throbbing until I had time to go home and think about what could be causing this - a sinus thing? A skin infection?
Anyway, too busy to stop so I go back to my desk and try to ignore the throbbing. But it gets worse and worse, so I end up taking two paracetamol to try to shut it up. It doesn't work. Ibuprofen. Doesn't touch it and by now I can actually feel my pulse in my nose crease. No way am I tempted to touch it again though - it was so sore. At intervals I dash back to the loo to check if it looks as huge as it feels but it's still just a general slightly pink swelling that's not too pronounced. Throbbing like a mofo by now.
I don't have time for lunch but I have to dash out to buy a wedding outfit for the next day so I rush into the M&S near my workplace to grab a few dresses to try on. I take them into the changing room, tear my office stuff off and, just as I'm reaching for the first dress, I catch sight of myself in the floor to ceiling mirror and do a double take. There's a white head on my swollen nose crease. I look again just to be sure and yes, definitely a head! But I'm not going to touch it because it was so insanely ouchy. But it has a head. But ow. I stand there for a minute unable to decide and then, so gently it's almost imperceptible touch, I place my middle finger on the side of the swelling. I don't press down at all, I just rest the finger with a feather-light touch.
KERSPLATT! Imagine if you had a soup ladel full of runny custard and you flung it at a mirror. It looked like that! I literally couldn't see my face anymore as all of that part of my reflection was completely obscured by DRIPPY YELLOW GUNK. I swear there must have been HALF A PINT OF PUS stuck to the mirror. And the throbbing and pain had instantly gone!
I stepped aside to a clear bit of mirror and looked at the site of the spot and it looked as innocent as ever: you would have had no idea anything had just come out of it. Clearly it's going to be empty now but I'm interested to see if the skin is still tender so I gently touch it again. WHICH BRINGS US TO...
ZIT 2: THE RECKONING.
You know those travel size toothpaste tubes you can buy from Boots? What came out of my face was like squeezing one of those from the bottom. Same width and quantity and colour of PUS as one of those. Oodles and oodles of thick white FACE CUM writhing out of my nose crease. It starts off pure white then becomes yellow and then pink and finally speckled with actual blood. It unspools onto the back of my hand and then flops onto my neck/chest because I have nothing to wipe it with.
Finally, it stops. I continue the pressure for a second once the matter has stopped coming just to be sure and A THIN LONG SPLINTER OF GLASS comes out of my face, followed by a dribble of pussy blood. I had absolutely no memory of glass entering my face. I have no idea when or how it happened.
By this point I am staring gasping at the mirror. I can't believe what has happened. I am amazed and, to be honest, aroused. But then it dawns on me that I have just basically destroyed a changing room with my face splat and I have no means of even beginning to clean it up. It would be a crime against humanity to leave it for somebody else to find. Oh, did I mentioned it smelled? IT STANK.
Apart from anything else I need to get back to work so I don't have time to think. I try on one dress, it's not great but it'll do. So I pick one of the other dresses, turn it inside out and use it to wipe the mirror and my body, as best I can, of RANCID SPLAT. Then I gingerly turn it back, hang it on the mirror and tell the woman staffing the changing rooms that I will take them both. So yes, I ended up paying £40 for a dress secretly full of pus that I binned as soon as I got outside, just because I had no other way of cleaning up my mess.
Those ten minutes in that changing room were undoubtedly the highlight of my life, and I draw on the memory often as a newborn suckles on a breast.
You're welcome.