Its Complicated

The Cafe

I woke up on Friday wishing that I was so sick I couldn’t move. I really didn’t want to have to dress up like a maid and serve everyone. I mean seriously, I was meant to be a guy right now, so I should really be dressing up as a butler and keeping up that appearance. But no, apparently I had to be a girl today.

This just seriously sucked.

“Wake up Jace!” Blake grinned, moving the curtain away so the sunlight pierced through my eyes.

“Nope, I refuse,” I muttered, rolling over so my back was to him.

“Aw, come on Jace, it’s only for a day, then you never have to worry about it again,” Blake pouted.

Yeah, one day, unless we don’t win this homeroom competition; then I’ll never be able to see you again.

I sighed heavily, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I guess all I really had to worry about was being the best maid possible for today, but… I didn’t know the first thing about being a maid.

“Come on guys, gates open in two hours! Let’s eat and get ready!” Hayden boomed, striding into the room with a huge grin plastered on his face.

“Hey, why do you look so down?” Jeremiah asked, walking into the room behind Hayden.

“Nothing,” I pouted, looking away.

“No it’s not, something’s up,” Blake said seriously.

I sighed irritably. I mean, I was slightly happy that they cared, but I was also irritated that they couldn’t figure it out for themselves.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I muttered darkly. “Maybe because you guys get to be butlers for the day, while I’m stuck dressing up as a bloody maid,”

The room fell silent for a while, in what I thought was a pitiful way. But the second they all started laughing really set me off. Tears strung my eyes in both anger and embarrassment, and to hide that I jumped off my bunk; landing in between all three of them, before I stormed to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

In a burst of anger, I kicked the clothes basket over, seriously hurting my toe. After hopping around for a bit, I calmed down and stripped off my clothes, turned on the shower and stepped in, shutting the curtain behind me. Once I was under the hot water, my knees buckled and I fell to the floor; hot tears running down my cheeks. They just didn’t understand the situation I was in. They could laugh like that because they didn’t know the truth. That just frustrated me to the point of tears. I wanted to tell them, I wanted them to know who I really was, but, I was still so scared of how they would react. I just wanted this term to be over, so I could go home and be myself again.

“Hey, Jace, are you alright?” Blake asked, sounding incredibly close.

I gasped as I realised he was in the bathroom. I jumped up and froze; glad I had pulled the curtain across the shower.

“I-I’m fine,” I stuttered.

“No, you’re not fine at all,” he replied irritably.

“Then why bother asking?” I snapped back, mentally slapping myself for being so rude.

“Because you’re one of my best mates, Jace,” he said,  causing my heart to speed up slightly. “And I just wanted to apologise for being so mean before. We don’t have any right to laugh at you, because if it were us, we would hate it just as much as you do. So, ah, yeah,”

An awkward silence filled the room; the only sound being the water running from the shower. After a few moments, I heard Blake’s footsteps retreating out of the room; the door closing shut after him. Feeling down, I finished washing myself and got out; getting dressed into a pair of gray shorts and a white shirt. Considering we had to wear a costume all day, we didn’t have to wear the uniform, thank god.