You see... The active pills are all the same. There are 21 active pills and 7 inactive pills.

I think that they used to just come in a jar or something. 21 of them. So you had one a day for 21 days.

Then you had 7 days of not taking any.

Then you started the next jar and took one a day for 21 days...

And so on.

They put them in the little blister packs with days of the week on them in order to help people remember to take them properly. They even provide placebo, sugar pills so that you don't get out of the habit of taking them when you have the 7 day break from the active pills.

If you miss one of your active pills (didn't take it within 12 hours of the time you were supposed to then:

Use alternative birth control (not rythmn or withdrawal) for 7 days.

If you miss one of your active pills in the first week of active tablets in your pack and you had intercourse in ANY OF THE SEVEN DAYS PRECEEDING THAT WEEK you need to get pregnancy tested.

If you miss one of your active pills within 7 days of finishing an active pill cycle then you should not take the placebo pills - you should move straight into your next active cycle and apply the 7 day rule (alternative birth control - not rythmn or withdrawal) for 7 days.

So... Either you borrow one from next month (so you have 21 this month) and next month borrow one from the next month (so you have 21) etc etc etc...

Or...

You should have started up the next active cycle without break and applied the 7 day rule...

I don't think you will be protected until 7 continuous days of taking active pills... But if you took your break (and didn't get straight into the next active pill cycle) then I'd use the 14 day rule to be safe...