My Name Is Harper

v

"Callie you have to try this." My friend Bradley said to me, handing me a cigarette. 

"I don't know, Brad, I've never smoked." I replied nervously.

"Oh come on Cal! Just one huff?" Bradley said, putting the cigarette in front of my face. I sighed.

"Fine." I said and snatched the burning cigarette out of his hand. I slowly brought it up to my lips. I inhaled some of the smoke. I immediately took the cigarette out and passed it back to Bradley. I coughed and spluttered. "How can you do shit like that?" I asked, still recovering. Bradley shrugged and put the cigarette in his mouth. 

"Guys and Gals I got the drinks!" My other friend Alec shouted, coming towards us with two 6 pack beer cans. One in either hand. There were only 6 of us. Two drinks each. Alec threw everyone a can. I caught mine and opened it. I started to chug it as fast as possible.

"Go Callie!" Bradley cheered me on. I finished the can and threw it across the skate park we were sat in. 

"Hey Alec have you seen Jade?" I asked. Jade was my girlfriend at the time. Alec paused for his answer then stuttered.

"Uh...yeah but you probably won't like where I saw her." He replied and put his can down on the floor. 

"Where?" I asked. I had no idea as to what he was going to say.

"Well...U-uh-"

"Spit it out chops!" I said, getting annoyed.

"I saw her going into Ava's house." Alec spat.

"Who's Ava?" Bradley chimed in then took another chug of his beer.

"Her ex." I said angrily. "I fucking knew it!" 

"Knew what? What is happening?" Bradley shouted.

"Jade might be cheating on Callie." Alec updated him.

"Alec you're coming with me to find Jade." I demanded before walking away. Alec followed on his scooter.

We made our way through the streets. After a ten minute walk we got to the last known location of Jade. I knocked on the front door. Ava's father opened the door. "Hi Steven. Has Jade been here with Ava?" I asked sweetly.

"Yeah. They left a few minutes ago." He said with a smile. "Do you need them?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. A theory I need to confirm. Thank you Steven." I said.

"Bye Callie." He said before shutting the door. 

"How do you know him? You called him Steven!" Alec said curiously.

"When Ava and Jade were dating I used to be with them a lot. Steven wants all of Ava's friends to call him by his first name." I said then I took out my phone. I called Jade.

"Hey babe." She said, she sounded out of breath.

"Hey." I faked my nice sounding voice. "When are you going to be at the skate park?" 

"Um...about 15 minutes probably." She replied.

"Okay babe I'll see you then." I said before hanging up. "They're not far." I said to Alec. I knew what he was going to ask next so I answered his question. "Jade said she was going to be at the skate park within 15 minutes. 11 minutes to walk down there. 3-4 minutes to finish things off with Ava. She also sounded out of breath."

"Bloody fuck." Alec said. Another one of his phrases. A mashup of swearwords or phrases with swearwords in them.

We walked down the street. We looked down the back alleyways of the streets. First one- clear. Second one- clear. The third. "Son of a bitch!" I yelled There were Jade and Ava. Ava had pushed Jade against the wall. Both of their faces was a bright red colour and their hair was messy. Both turned to face me. I ran to Ava. She started running but I caught up. "Dirty bitch!" I shouted and pushed her to the ground.

"Callie get off her!" Jade yelled from the background. Ava turned around and tried to get up but I pushed her back to the ground. I sat on her stomach to hold her down and held her collar.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I screamed, pulling her face closer to me. "Jade is my girl! You had your chance slut!" I screamed.

"Callie I'm so sorry." Jade cried. I ignored her as anger overtook me. I lifted a fist to punch Ava but Alec dragged me off. I managed to kick Ava instead.

"Why did you cheat?" I shouted at Jade. Jade fiddled with her long red hair. 

"I-I don't know. I guess I wasn't over Ava." She said. I scoffed in return.

"Do you know how much I love you. I've been in love with you for so long now you fucking betray me asshole!" I shouted before walking away. I turned around one more time "We're done."

"So what happened?" Bradley asked when we returned. I looked at everyone. All the cans had been drunk. As usual Olivia and Matthew were all over each other and Bradley was stuck being the third wheel along with Aston. 

"Well she was cheating. Me and Jade are done." I said with an essence of defeat in my voice.

"Awe." Olivia said. "Matthew is too good to cheat on me." She giggled. 

"Oh shut the fuck up." I said and flipped them off then sat back down.

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I sat on my bed with my laptop in front of me. I was looking at articles to do with gender identity in the LGBT+ community. I've never felt 100% like a girl. At the same time, I never felt 100% like a boy. I came across an article about non-binary people. At this time, Maisie walked in. She sat on her bed and began to take off her makeup. "Callie. Now that Caleb's moved out, are you going to take his old room?" She asked. 

"I don't know, maybe." I replied in a trance like state as I read. "Maisie."

"Yeah."

"If I changed my name to something more unisex, what should I change it to?" I asked. Maisie stopped taking off her makeup and took a moment to think.

"Alex is nice but you have a friend called Alec, may be confusing. Brodie is also a nice name. I also heard of someone called Harper. They were gender-fluid." She said and went back to taking her makeup off.

"So Alex, Brodie or Harper."

"Why do you ask?" Maisie asked.

"Well." I started before a pause. "I think I might be non-binary." I said nervously.

"Oh okay. Cool. So you want to change your name?" Maisie said. I smiled at her calm response. 

"Uh. Yeah. I like Harper actually." I said with a smile. Maisie had finished taking off her makeup now and started to change in the corner of our room.

"Do you want me to start calling you Harper?" She asked.

"Yeah." I smiled.

"What about pronouns? They?" Maisie asked calmly.

"I like they." I couldn't stop smiling. Maisie sat back down on her bed. 

"What about near mum and dad?" She asked. I paused in thought.

"Maybe stick to Callie and she pronouns with them and Caleb for now." I said and began picking the skin off my lip.

"Okay. Hey stop picking!" Maisie scolded.

I walked over to Maisie and took a selfie with her. I put the caption as "Everyone I am now going as Harper and using they pronouns" I posted it to Snapchat then Instagram.