Live My Life

See Scars

"We'll talk about this in the morning. Go to bed, Liana."

Luis wasn't the name his father had given him. His gender wasn't what the doctor had declared it to be. Luis had come out the month after he turned 17. It hadn't gone well, evident by the quickly purpling bruise on his right cheek.

Luis knew what 'talking about it in the morning' meant. More hitting. Possible death threats. Words that affected his gender dysphoria more than Luis liked to admit.

The Trevor Project had talked him out of suicide, reassuring him that there was another way out, if he looked hard enough. They probably hadn't meant running away, but oh well. Luis's duffel bag and backpack were stuffed full of clothes, non-perishable food, bottles of water, sunscreen, a portable charger for his phone, etc. His plans were to cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, and go from there. Both of his parents were asleep. He had his hair lopped off, and was wearing his brother's old clothes. His phone was tucked in his pocket, his letter on his pillow. It was time.

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6 AM in the morning had people starting work in Manhattan. Cars had started to come roaring down the street, forcing Luis to duck into an alleyway. He blinked. There was already a gang of about five kids in the alley. One of them had a bag slung over her shoulder, and a can of purple spraypaint in her hand. There was a poster on the wall that said: GO TO HELL, FAGS. The girl had spraypainted the word PRIDE over it, in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. She was currently occupied in spraying a purple star next to the PRIDE. But the others were staring at Luis.

Finally, one of them cleared her throat and the spraypainter turned around, finally noticing Luis. She waved. "Hi, how's it going?"

Luis's vocal cords seemed to have locked up. He nodded.

"What's your name?" she continued. "If you want, we can introduce ourselves first."

When Luis didn't answer, she arched an eyebrow, but said only, "Okay, we can introduce ourselves then. I'm Sasha Smith, and I'm female."

Another of them, a redhead spoke up. "Luke Murphy, male."

"I'm May Myers, female," a brunette said.

"Natalia Novitski, I'm female." The speaker was a blonde

"Hayden Chang, nonbinary."

"Ah." His vocal cords were apparently working again. "I'm, uh, Luis. Luis Martinez. I'm a boy."

"You're trans, ain't you?" May asked.

"May," Luke hissed.

"What?" she asked. "I'm trying to help him." She addressed Luis directly, then. "An undershirt is a good idea, but you look like you're uncomfortable. We have one or two extra binders if you want."

Safe to say, Luis was shocked. He'd never met someone who'd offered him a binder, like it was nothing.

"Well?" May prompted.

"Yeah. Thank you."

"No problem."

Hayden chimed in from where they were rifling through a duffel bag, with, "So, you should probably step into it, pull it up around your waist, fit your arms through the holes, and then you can adjust it how you want, Here, we'll turn around to give you some privacy."

Luis hesitantly removed his shirt and undershirt once they turned around. He slipped on the binder, and his shirt over it.

"Can we turn around now?" Natalia asked a second after he had gotten it on.