Becoming Her (Trans)

Chapter 27

Gwen smiles when she sees me at school. "You're alright now," she says, leaning over to give me a tight hug.

"Yeah. I am," I respond.

She pulls back and looks at me. "You dyed your hair, too!" she exclaims.

I turn red and gingerly touch the blue hair. "Do you like it?" I ask. "It was kind of a last minute thing."

"For something last minute it looks fantastic on you." Gwen walks around me to inspect the rest of my head. "Did you go to a special hair stylist or something?"

"Or something. My sister helped, actually."

Gwen looks impressed. "I figured she might have dyed her hair when I first met her," she says.

I'm about to change the subject (cause honestly, I don't want to waste time talking about hair dye when there might be more important stuff) when someone behind me calls out my name. I turn to see Miss Young standing by one of the tree benches.

She beckons me over with her index finger. I get closer to her, and she hugs me as tight as she can without causing me pain. After letting go, Miss Young takes a closer look at me. "I heard about what happened," she says. Well, stated is more accurate.

I raise an eyebrow. Exactly how much does she know? "Um, yeah," I say. "I'm a littler better now."

My teacher smiles softly. "That's good to hear," she says. Suddenly she turns serious. "Have you reported the incident to the police?"

My eyes widen. "D-don't you think that's a little serious?" I ask. "I mean, I get it if you're asking me to go to the principal--"

Miss Young cuts me off. "Matthew, you were in the hospital for several days because of the injuries this guy inflicted on you. That's a serious crime, not something a toddler would do and get a time-out for. Whoever he is, he needs to be brought to the police."

I process her words slowly, in a way slicing each word into letters and examining them, deciding how to respond. And possibly taking the sweet time to avoid the question. She notices the delay, and adds, "Why don't you think about it for now? I'm sure you'd like to see your friends and catch up on things?"

Noticing the fact she hasn't even mentioned the essay (now that I think of it, I can probably turn it in by the time the semester's almost over), I nod once and see Josh walking towards Gwen with his hands in his pockets. His head is down, which almost never happens with him. Maybe something bad has happened to him?

"Hey Josh!" I call out. He looks for the source, and his eyes land on me. I'd expect him to look relieved, or break a smile, or even question my hair. In reality, he's pissed. About what?

Gwen notices Josh's look and puts her arm around his waist. She goes on her toes to whisper something in his ear, but he doesn't respond. I tentatively walk towards them, my brain rushing through the various reasons that Josh would be pissed at me.

"Hey," I say. "Is something wrong?"

"Hell yeah there is," he spits out.

". . . Okay? What happened?" If I was staring down a tiger, I don't think there would be any difference.

Josh crosses his arms. "That one guy," he starts. He looks around the campus, probably so he can think out his next sentence. "That one guy," he repeats.

My eyebrow raised, I say, "Okay, what about him?" Don't say he told you the reason it happened, I chant in my head.

"He, he had the nerve to spread a rumor that you're a fag!" Josh says, quiet enough to not cause glares in his direction. "Just because you were dressed up as a girl for Halloween."

I don't get a chance to react when Gwen prompts, "What did you do?" Josh clenches his jaw, and she calmly puts her head on his shoulder.

"I went up to the bastard and told him to take a fucking joke!" Josh rants, still talking in my direction. "And you know what he said after that? He fucking lied about making out with you to make me feel all stupid and shit. Seriously, I'm done with idiots." With a dramatic sigh, he puts his head on Gwen's.

I blink a couple times. Just . . . wow. Without any doubt Josh stood up for me. Sure, he doesn't know about the other side of me, but he knows me as his best friend. As far as he's concerned, that's good enough.

My shoulders slump as I think about how he'll react if I ever decide to tell him.

"Matthew, get your butt over here," Josh instructs, wiggling his hand free and grabbing my arm. "I want a group hug."

I snort, but do what he's asked. The gesture would've been sweet if some douche bag passing by haven't shouted, "Threesome!" I may have growled a little under my breath, but Josh takes care of it by flipping the dude off.

Suddenly Gwen giggles. "Matthew, are you happy now?" she asks.

I respond by purring, and she laughs again. "I'll take it as a yes." I smile.

"I just realized you dyed your hair," Josh pipes up. He runs his fingers over my hair, and immediately jerks them away. He puts on a disgusted look on his face. "That doesn't feel nice and soft."

I look at him long and hard. "I don't know what to respond to first. That it took you too long to realize the hair's different, or that it's not soft," I say.

My best friend grins sheepishly. "I'm special," he says.

Rolling my eyes (great, now I'm starting to act like Kelly), I respond, "Clearly."