A Different Kind of Love

Chapter 8: Gossip Girl

Zach dropped me off after the club closed and I immediately started a group call with everyone on Skype, everyone being Ali, Kate, Max, Jess, Evan, Jack, and Owen.

"Guys, guys, guess what!" I practically shouted into my mic once we all got a strong connection.

"YOUR CAT BECAME BIPEDAL AND RAN A MARATHON!" Evan immediately shouts in response.

"You wish, no that didn't happen, buuuut, Owen drumroll for me please." I say. Owen smacks random objects around him for a few seconds and then stops.

"Zach and I kissed!" I exclaim loudly. There's a clamor of "oh my god" and "no fucking way" being shouted back at me.

"I knew it would happen sooner or later." Ali said leaning on Kate's shoulder.

"Man, I just, I really really like him, but what is everyone gonna say about him being trans?" I worry if I start dating him more people might bully him, because he "turned me gay" or something.

"Big whoop, no one cares that I'm trans." Jack responds.

"What?" I ask. I'm actually shocked by this.

"Yeah, literally not one of the guys here is cis, didn't you know that?" Owen says confused.

"I knew that." Jess says chewing on her headphone wire.

"Yeah me too." Max says.

"We knew too," Kate answers, "Liz how did you not know that?"

"HOW AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO DIDN'T KNOW?!" I shout confused.

"We all thought you just kinda knew? I mean that's how it was with everyone else." Evan says adjusting his seat.

"Guys I'm so oblivious to everything you literally have to spell things out for me or else I'll never know." I say back. This is seriously the most jarring thing to happen to me.

"Whoops." Half of them say casually, the other half just laugh. The rest of the night is spent talking about regular stuff we normally converse about. Memes, music, mostly complaining about schoolwork and teachers. Then it dawns on me.

"Why don't all of you go to the GSA?" I ask.

"I honestly didn't know our school had one." Owen says spinning around in his computer chair.

"I can't get a ride home." Evan says.

"Yeah me neither." Jack agrees.

"I'll ask my sister if she can bring you guys home if you want, you two only live a street down from me." I respond.

"Really? Thank you so much!" Jack answers.

"Yeah, thank you," Evan yawns, "I think I'm gonna go to sleep guys. Talk to you all later."

"Bye." We all say back.

"Jess, what about you?" I ask. The more people that come to the club the better.

"I dunno, do they even want straight people there?" She asks concerned.

"Dude that's a stupid question," Ali says, "literally anyone is allowed at a club, even if it's for gay people."

"Alright, I'll let my parents know I'm going this Friday then, Max you can hitch a ride with me if you go too." Jess says.

"Cool, thanks." Max answers. We continue talking about the normal stuff, and gradually everyone begins to leave the groupchat to sleep. I shut down my laptop and lie in bed. I grab my phone and look at the time, "2:13 a.m." it reads. I open my messages, and tap on Zach's messages. I begin to type, then stop.

"There's no way he'll be awake, he was working all night," I think, "then he can just read this in the morning." I type again.

Hey, so I just, I wanted to know what that kiss meant, because I, I really like you, a lot, and I dunno, I don't wanna be too forward I guess, just like, lemme know what it meant.

I sit for a few minutes contemplating sending the message. I delete it and retype the same thing a few times. I look at the time. "2:30 a.m." I hit send then immediately put my phone down and go to sleep.

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I wake up and look at my phone. "1 Message from Zachariah" the notification reads.

"OH GOD IN HEAVEN KILL ME!" I shout panicked. Peanut knocks on our connecting door.

"Uh, everything good in here?" She questions respectfully.

"I sent Zach a message last night because he and I kissed at the club and I told him I liked him and he wrote back and I don't wanna read it but I do and help." I respond. My anxious word vomit gets Peanut to sit down on my bed.

"What do you want to happen here?" She asks.

"What do you mean?" I respond, still anxious.

"I can read the message before you if you want, or I can read it to you, or I can read it and tell you if it's good or bad." She says back. Too many options for failure here.

"Can I choose none?" I ask shoving my face into my pillow and groaning loudly.

"Listen, the worst he can say is he doesn't like you like that, and that's it," Peanut pats my head, "now you're gonna have to read it at some point because you left your messages open on your phone when you closed the phone last night didn't you."

"Shit you're right," I respond lifting my head up, "read it and tell me if it's good." Peanut unlocks my phone with the fingerprint thing and reads the message quickly.

"Oh it's good, I think you'll like it." She answers and I grab my phone quickly.

I, I really like you too. You're not grossed out by me being trans though, right? That's normally what drives people away, I just, I would like to not ruin this because of who I am.

I type back that it doesn't matter to me that he's trans, he's a boy and that's all that matters to me. We spend the next couple hours texting and we decide for a date to be in October, he's going to drive us all the way to New Hampshire for a day to go to Nightmare New England, I'm so excited to see him again. I spend most of my day watching TV and taking care of Jaspers. Then I hear a knock on the door. Ali and Kate walk in. Ali rushes over to me and bends down quickly in front of me.

"You told him you liked him didn't you." She says immediately.

"How in the hell did you know that I haven't told anyone but Peanut." I respond shocked.

"I got the vibes, we've been friends for too long for me to not know." Ali smirks. She's right though, she's known me since kindergarten, and there's no other way she couldn't know other than it being friend vibes, unless Zach said something.

"Are you sure Zach didn't say anything to you? As like, your quote-unquote vibe?" I say back sarcastically awaiting a response.

"Nope, he didn't say a word to me." She answers with her pinky out. I wrap my pinky around hers and we kiss our thumbs to seal the deal. She's telling the truth.

"I'm amazed, did your friend vibe also tell you I'm pan?" I ask curious.

"NO BUT YOU ARE?! WOWIE KIDDO!" She jumps onto my couch and tackles me, "CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING A FELLOW HOMO!"