d r e a m b o y | t. russell

1: d r e a m i n g

{A/N: this story will be switching pov's, but the story will take place mainly in Ty's perspective.}

  Tyler Rift was a pretty average teenage girl. She played multiple sports, strived to achieve the highest grades, and didn't have the best emotional stability. She had some friends that she liked to hang out with on a regular basis, but her and her rather uptight friend are getting awfully close to each other.

   One night Ty falls into a deep slumber, and finds herself in a dreamland, which to her surprise, is no different from her reality. That is, besides the fact that she's a boy.

It was a chill Saturday afternoon, Ty wasn't busy with any sports or studying, so her day was quite lackadaisical. She was sitting on the sofa, with her legs taking up an extra two cushions, while her fingers clicked and swiped across her remote controller. Her gum blew up and burst, sticking to her bottom lip, as her eyes raced from one side of the television screen to the other.

"Score!" She yelled into the microphone on her headset, she raised her arms in the air, celebrating her victory on Rocket League. It was an old game she and her friends used to play back in middle school.

"Aw, come on. I was so close!" Ty heard her friend, Pip, groan in defeat through the microphone. She let out a chuckle and teased her friend for beating her the third time in a 1v1 'soccer' match.

   Pip ended up having to go offline for the excuse that her mother was asking for her to go grocery shopping. Ty wasn't going to be left in boredom, so she took out her phone and scrolled through her numerous anime fan fictions. She selected her favorite, it never failed to entertain her quite obviously, it was only her eighth time reading it.

   Halfway through her reading, her phone decided to be an ass and died, without saving her place. So, she was left in her thoughts. Her dark mind, trapped, thoughts swirling around her head like birds in a cage. When she was left like this, she mostly thought of fantasies, character designs, drawing prompts, and sometimes her inability to love. That was a bittersweet topic, love was, she liked to dwell on the thought of a relationship sometime in the future. But she had never dated before, and she was confused with her sexuality. 'I think I'm bisexual or some shit, but it's not like I would ever admit it.' Her mother was an indiscreet homophobic, she acted like she supported the community, but Ty could see the look in her eyes when she spotted a drag or a gay couple.

   She shook her head in attempt to scramble up her thoughts, to land on a different topic. Luckily, her phone had charged to a decent enough percentage and set off a ding, signaling that she had received a text notification.

Raymond:
Hey, what's ur highest achievement on Minecraft?

Ty only laughed and rolled her eyes, then her fingers swiped across the screen as she replied.

Ty:
Higher than urs

Raymond saw her message, but he didn't respond. Ty tossed her phone on the couch, it bounced off and hit the wooden floor, pulling the charger out of the wall with it, but she didn't pay any mind. 'I've got some time to kill before I have to go to bed.' She looked to the clock, it read 15:21. She had to wake up around one in the morning to go work at the 24-hour coffee shop, Starbucks.

The hour ticked by and Ty was off to bed, she kicked off her slides and flopped onto her mattress. She stared at the blank ceiling for a while, hoping to find sleep somewhere in the emptiness.

•••

It was the normal Monday morning, nothing too special. Ty slammed her locker shut... wait. She thought back, 'I thought I was going to work at Starbucks....' Something definitely felt off, very off. She scratched her head, but her fingers didn't get tangled up in her long brown hair. 'What the—?' Her hair was short. Like—boy short, kinda short. She ran to the bathroom, which just so happened to be the men's bathroom.