To Forget The Past (Draft 1)

To Forget The Past: X

  I turned to my right, my eyes landing on Isaac. His eyes caught the video I clicked on, quickly dropping his head to look at his phone, avoiding my eye contact. I played the video that was only posted four months ago, his voice sounded the same as it did in real life which surprised me. Isaac sat on the screen, only his stomach up could be seen. His dark brown hair was extremely messy, not like the perfectly pushed to the side style that I've seen. After a bit of him talking he said the words I'd never thought I'd hear him say:

  "I'm transgender, FTM" I heard Isaac shift slightly in the car, though my eyes were glued to the screen. His voice came out shaky, his eyes started to fill with tears.

  My own eyes filled with tears I watched the smile grow on Isaac's face, a few tears crawling down his cheeks. I paused the video and looked at Isaac. He slowly brought his eyes up to mine. I chuckled slightly, my nose running as I sniffed whilst a tear ran down my cheek.

  I put my phone on my lap as I sat up a little bit, leaning my body over the middle and brought Isaac into a large hug, saying nothing. Chuckling, I pulled away and looked at him, his brown eyes were red on the side like they were in the video. I smiled at him as I wiped a tear run down his cheek; I could almost see the relief in his eyes to know I accept him no matter what.

  "At least now I can judge you on your makeup and you won't look at me like I don't know what I'm talking 'bout cause I used to put that shit on every day." I let out a laugh, my eyes watery while Isaac smiled. So many questions flooded my mind, though I didn't want to sound mean from asking them. I settled back in my seat and looked down at the ground, thinking if I should ask him about it. "You can ask questions, it's fine."

  I nodded my head slowly, wary on still asking it. I breathed in, "What pronouns do you use?" Looking at Isaac he only smiled at me, which made me feel a little better knowing that I didn't say the wrong thing. I'd seen YouTubers come out as transgender, like MilesChronicles. But this was different, this was someone I knew.

  "He/him" I tapped on the steering wheel, staring at it as silence surrounded us before Isaac spoke again, reading my mind. "It's okay Everest...ask as many questions as you need to understand this."

   I only nodded again before asking yet another question, "How did your voice get so...deep?" I changed my mind of saying 'manly'.

  "I use testosterone. It's a steroid hormone that regulates the development of the male reproductive system. A simple way of explaining it, but I could go more in depth." I shook my head, taking in everything he was putting out.

  Before I could stop myself the question that ended the conversation slipped out of my mouth, "What did your parents think of this?" The car went silent. Isaac shifted uncomfortably in his seat but spoke up nevertheless.

  "Doesn't matter."

~~~~~~

It had been two weeks since Kane and I had spoken--a month into the road trip. Everyday Kane would leave before I woke up, going to do whatever he felt like doing. I had been spending most of my days with Isaac, messing around. Ever since he told me about him being transgender we started getting a lot closer and talking more in depth about everything; everything other than his parents.

"Oh. My. God! Did you see their face!?" I laughed out loud at Isaac. He was standing behind a glass wall next to two mannikins, pretending to be one and made weird faces, scaring everyone who walked by. Most people either stared at him and picked up the pace but some actually screamed and turned the other direction.