Runaway

Prologue

Rose

It's a typical summer night in Pennsylvania, humid and hot. I am in my room, twirling around, wearing fake bust, 2 inch heels, and a tight violet victorian ball gown. I look in the mirror. Finaly, I feel free, I think, relieved after feeling trapped in a mans body for 16 years. My tight heel slips, and I accidently kick the wall, and freeze. Shit, I hope that didn't wake my parents up, I think immediately, as I fall onto my back. I half stumble half crawl backwards, and take the heels off, hiding them in my closet. I scramble to take the dress off, and as its halfway off, I hear my door open softly.

James, hunny, are you all.... James Alexander Lorenzini, what the hell are you wearing!? My mother screams at me.

I pull the dress back up, and slip out the window and start run holding the skirt of the dress up.

I hear my father screaming after me, James!! Get the hell back here or when I catch you, I'll kill you!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I wake with a start, sweating, and am nearly hysterical, wearing a long orange sun-gown with spaghetti straps, that my friend Samantha gave me. Rose, if you want to look feminine, you have to be used to wearing female clothing, and makeup, or you'll just be a nervous wreck in public, she says every time I goto her house after school. Little does she know, I am already quite comfortable wearing female clothing, but I'm only nervous wearing it around her, my best friend, or in public. I just fear she'll make fun of me wearing it, because I was born biologically male, and always expect her to say that she was joking and tell me how much of a fool I am for taking her literally.
She doesn't know that I rarely, in fact, even wear the sungown or act the least bit feminine, unless it's in the privacy of her home, or when I am home all by myself, knowing my parents won't be home for atleast a couple of hours.
I never wear it or act feminine, because at the first small sign of femininity from me, I would be beaten brutally by my father, while my mother would sit there laughing, saying that they raised a boy, not a girl. I know I can't tell anyone that they beat me, because who would believe me? They would all just say that's what you get for wearing female clothing you freak. I wish I could just be me without people telling me what I can and cannot do, who I can be, and who I can't. But I guess they must be right, because I'm still alive today. But Rose, you know thats not why you're still alive today. You're alive because you're hiding who you really are from people. You'll never be able to be who you want to be, in this community atleast. I imagine Samantha saying. Yeah, I guess your right Samantha, like always. I tear up at the thought of her being right about me not being able to be me while I live here. Maybe someday that can change, but for now I remain closeted, mainly for the fact that I don't want to be beaten again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Just as dawn breaks, I feel myself being violently shaken awake, and hear screaming, but can't comprehend who it is whose doing it. Let me sleep, I'm tired, I think to myself, moments before the person who woke throws me onto the floor. I hit hard, and the force of the impact jolts me awake, making me more aware. "What was that for!" I yell.
"James, you know damn well what the hell that was for, you... you... you freak!!" I hear a deep masculine voice, and immediately realize whose voice it is. I'm shocked, realizing that my fears of my parents not accepting me were coming true.
"D.d.d.dad...?"
"Don't call me that!" He picks me up and slams me against the wall with enough making the dry wall cave in and the boards crack. "What the hell is that you're wearing?!" I take a moment to think, not realizing that I still have my sungown on. He punches me in the stomach, making me loose my breath and lurch forward. "I said, what the hell are you wearing!!"
I say to him, nearly inaudibly, "It's.... It's.... a sungown..." As soon as he understand what I just said, he takes me out of the wall and throws me at the floor, and on the way down, I hit my back on my bed. Once I hit the floor, he starts to kick me in the ribs.
"You mother fucking asshole! Why the hell you do this to us?! You are a fucking man not a woman! If I ever catch you wearing that shit again, I will not hesitate to kick your ass so hard that you won't ever be able to walk again!!!" As soon as he says that, he kicks me one last time, as hard as he can, then leaves my room, slamming the door. I lay there for only a couple more seconds the drift out of consciousness and lay there until the evening of the next day.