I smile down at my wonderful girlfriend as she sleeps peacefully in my p. My hands stay firmly pressed to her ears so as not to let her get overstimuted in her dreams. The py is really good, and I enjoy watching it.

  Emmy wakes up periodically during the performance, and during the quiet moments, I stroke her hair and forehead, and return my hand to her ear when the noise picks up. She murmurs softly while she sleeps, and I have to stop myself from squealing at the cuteness of it.

  Eventually the py ends, and I gently shake my girlfriend awake. She stirs, but doesn’t actually get up. Oh well. I pull her phone out of her bag, type her passcode in, and call her mom. The phone rings for a moment, and then picks up.

  “Hey, Emmy!” Her mom says.

  “Hi, Mrs. Valera.” I say. “Emmy ended up taking a nap. We’re ready for you to pick us up though.”

  “Sounds good.” She says. “Where are you at?”

  “We’re near the southern entrance to Jefferson Park.” I expin.

  “Ooh!” Her mom says. “Did you go see Wigglesword in the park?”

  “How did you know?” I ask.

  “I wanted to go, but then Emmy had her date.” She says. “Had I known, I would’ve just gone with you.”

  “I’m sorry…” I say softly.

  “Don’t be.” She says. “I’m just gd you two could have a romantic evening together.” She lets out a short cough. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  “Sounds good.” I say. “I’ll wake her up and get moving.”

  “See you soon, Holly.”

  “See you soon.” I say, and go to hang up.

  “Wait a moment.” Emmy’s mom says.

  I quickly put the phone to my ear. “Yes?”

  “While we had a private moment, I just wanted to say thank you.”

  “For what?” I ask.

  “You have just been such a wonderful influence on Emmy.” She says. “I’ve watched her grow so much over these past weeks, and it’s all thanks to you.”

  All thanks to me… He’s lying to his parents, and forcing himself to be something he’s not, all for me… “Well in that case, you’re welcome.” I say, and then hang up.

  I shake Emmy a bit harder than before. She doesn’t respond, and I flick her hard on the ear.

  “Owwww!” She whines as she sits up. “What was that for?!”

  “You weren’t waking up.” I say, and kiss her on the nose. “I was worried.”

  “Oh, sorry…” She says softly.

  “Don’t be.” I say, and pull her to her feet. “Let’s get cleaned up. Your mom is on her way.”

  Emmy nods, and starts folding up the bnket we used as a base. I fold the one we cuddled in, and then stuff it into my bag, and hers after it. I take her hand, and pull her body against mine.

  “I love you so much, Emmy.” I murmur against her lips. “Tonight was amazing.”

  “I love you too.” She says in between kisses. “Best date I’ve ever had.”

  I giggle and pull away from her. “Let's get moving.”

  She smiles, and walks alongside me, holding my hand the entire way. Her mom pulls up as we exit the park, and I happily open the door for my girlfriend. She hops inside, and I follow her before closing the door behind me.

  “How was your date?” Her mom asks.

  “Good.” Emmy yawns before turning to me. “Sorry for sleeping through the py.”

  “It’s fine.” I say, and stroke her knuckles. “You needed it.”

  We sit in retive silence on the drive to my house. Emmy is home. Not a house, not a pce, her. We pull up to the sidewalk, and the car goes into park. I step out, and am a little surprised when Emmy follows me.

  “I want to walk you to your door.” She says.

  I smile and take her hand as we walk up the sidewalk. When we get to the top, she gently pces her arms around my neck. I tilt my head back and kiss her immediately. She happily leans into me.

  I groan slightly at her kiss, and pull away to look into her eyes. “I love you, Emmy.” I whisper.

  “I love you too.” She says. “Holly…” She says quietly.

  “Y-yes…?” I say, feeling myself tremble.

  She lets out a soft breath, and I happily let it fill my nostrils. “I cannot imagine my life without you in it.”

  Tears begin streaming down my cheeks at her words. All sense and reason fall away, and I pull her close to me, terrified of letting her go. She strokes my back as I cry into the soft skin of her bare shoulder.

  “I… I…” I splutter.

  “I’m here.” She says softly. “I’m here.”

  “Please don’t ever leave me.” I whimper. “I… Promise me, no matter what, that you won’t leave me.”

  “I promise.” She says. “What brought this on?” She asks.

  A thought strikes my brain. “I… What you told me about Paige earlier, and then what happened with that guy… I’m scared.” I say, and sob into her. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  “You won’t lose me.” She says quickly, and then smiles at me. “What do you want me to do? Ask me for anything at all to make you more comfortable, and I will do it.”

  “Block Paige.” I reply immediately. “I… Please…”

  “Okay.” She says simply, and pulls out her phone. After typing for a few moments, she turns the phone to me, and shows me Paige’s contact now has the ‘blocked’ status.

  “Thank you.” I whimper into her neck.

  “It’s like you said earlier.” Emmy says. “I would do anything for you.”

  “I love you.” I say, and finally pull away from her. “I love you so much.”

  “I love you too.” She says, and gives me one final kiss before turning away.

  “Wait!” I shout, and she turns around. “I want to see you. Tomorrow, please.”

  “I can’t tomorrow…” She says sadly. “How’s sunday?”

  “Sunday’s perfect.” I respond. “Noon?”

  “Noon.” She repeats. “I’ll count down the seconds.”

  “As will I.” I say, and then watch as Emmy climbs into the passenger seat of her mom’s car, and drives away.

  I turn and head inside, intentionally ignoring the gre May gives me. “Did you have to have your sappy heartfelt moment right where I could hear it?”

  “Sorry…” I say numbly, and walk into my room.

  I strip off my clothes and crawl onto my bed. Tomorrow is going to suck… Why can’t it be Sunday already?

  ?????????????

  “It’s Sunday!” I shout as I enter the living room.

  “What are you so happy about?” May grumbles.

  “Emmy is on her way here.” I say happily.

  “Oh… right… I forgot about that…” She says.

  “Is that a problem?” I ask, as I fill my mug with coffee from the pot.

  “I’m just already not in a good mood, and having to watch you be all lovey dovey with your girlfriend all day is not going to help.” She compins.

  “I had to deal with you and Paige constantly being in each other's ps.” I say, and immediately regret bringing her up. “I’m sorry…” Before May can respond, we hear a soft knocking on the door. “I’ll get it.” I say excitedly.

  I walk quickly to the door and open it. “Hey, my lo-” I stop in my tracks as I see Aiden standing in front of me.

  “Hi, Holly.” He says awkwardly.

  I step aside to let him in. “What are you doing here?”

  “Just checking on May.” He expins.

  I nod, and start to shut the door behind him, when a luxury SUV pulls up in front of my house. I quickly step outside, and watch Emmy step out of the car. Beautiful. Emmy is wearing a bck and gray striped sweater, bck denim booty shorts, dark sheer tights, and her bck canvas high-tops.

  “Hey, Holly!” Emmy shouts as she walks up. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too.” I say, and pull her into a kiss. “Let’s go inside.”

  I hold the door open for her, and we walk in to see Aiden and May hugging by the stairs. Emmy pulls off her shoes, and we start to walk to my room when Aiden stops us.

  “Would you two be interested in pying a bit of Charles Carro with us?” He asks.

  I look at Emmy, and smile. “What do you want to do, my love?”

  “I kinda want to py with them.” She says softly.

  “Great.” Aiden says with a smile. “Sit down, and I’ll get it set up.”

  I sit down on the couch, and pull Emmy into my p, and hold her tightly to me. Aiden passes us the red and pink controllers. I let Emmy take the pink one, and wait happily while Aiden sets up the game.

  Emmy quickly picks a blonde princess with a bck and red alt styling, and I choose her white and blue counterpart. We select our carts, and May chooses the course set. The match starts, and Emmy quickly pulls ahead.

  I crash a few times because I’m too busy watching her drift fwlessly through various shortcuts. She ends up winning the first race, May gets third, Aiden gets sixth, and I get eleventh.

  We continue through the next three races in the set, and Emmy takes first pce in all of them. My girlfriend is so wonderful. I end up taking a respectable seventh pce. May is in third, with Aiden in fourth. We are about to start another set, when Emmy speaks up.

  “Hey um…” Emmy says softly. “Aiden…”

  “Yeah?” He asks, looking at her confused. “What’s up?”

  “If this is too much, please don’t answer it.” She says. “Are you on HRT?”

  Aiden smiles and shakes his head. “No, I’m not. Why do you ask?”

  “I um…” She says tentatively. “I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow, to see about starting it… and honestly I’m more than a little scared.”

  “You’re getting on HRT?” Aiden asks, his eyes narrowing.

  “Yeah…” Emmy says softly. “It’s the only way to move forward… I can’t just stay like this for the rest of my life.”

  May sighs deeply. “That makes sense.”

  Emmy nods. “Hey um, Holly, can I go use your bathroom?”

  “Sure.” I say, and give her a kiss. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She says, and walks through the beads.

  ?????????????

  I hear a sob break out as I exit the bathroom, and quickly rush out to see Holly, curled in on herself, tears streaming down her face. I try to wrap my arms around her, but she pushes me away.

  “Holly…” I whisper. “What happened?”

  She doesn’t respond immediately, just refuses to meet my gaze. After a few long moments, Aiden speaks up. “Holly…”

  She reacts as if struck with a whip, and stands up. “I’m breaking up with you.”

  Pain and fear drive into my core and start cwing at my heart. “Please…”

  “It’s not your fault…” She says softly. “It’s mine. I let this go too long.”

  “Holly!” I sob as tears force their way out of me. “Please don’t do this! I’ll do anything! Please just don’t leave me!”

  “No, Danny.” She says, the words hitting harder than if she’d just struck me. “We’re done. You need to accept that.”

  “I…” I stammer, and try to force air into my lungs. “M-my n-n-name… is Emmy…”

  “Don’t bullshit me!” She roars. “This has already gone way too far. Aiden and May are right. You need to go back to being a boy.”

  Any control I had of my body flees, and I nearly fall to the ground. “I…” I say, unsure how to possibly find the words amidst this sea of thorns. “How c-could you…? I exp--p-pected this from May, b-but Aiden? And you H-H-Holly? I thought you underst-stood me…”

  “I do understand you, Danny.” She says, while refusing to meet my gaze. “I understand that you are so obsessed with me, that you let me put you in girl’s clothes and makeup, and let me convince you to change your name and pronouns, just so you could be with me.”

  “H-Holly…” I stammer. “It may h-have st-st-started that way…”

  “I don’t wanna hear it!” She shouts. “Just… get out of my house, Danny…”

  I run. My feet carry me out onto the sidewalk, the door hanging open behind me, and I run. Tears fill my eyes, but I do my best to wipe them away. The ground moves quickly beneath me. How could she do this to me?

  I keep running, feeling a burning in my legs and a choking in my lungs. She said she loved me… I… I thought she understood… I keep running. Something sharp bites into my foot, but I ignore it and keep running. Why…?

  The asphalt digs into my feet as I cross the street. There’s a blurry shape that is most likely my mom kneeling before the rows of flowers in our front yard. The ground falls away beneath me, and I crash into the dirt.

  “Emmy?” My mom shouts.

  I ignore her, and just sob into the dirt. A scream rips its way out of my throat, and I hammer the side of my head with my fist a few times before something firm locks around my wrist. I try to struggle, but something presses against my body, and holds me tight.

  “Oh, Emmy…” My mom says. “I’m here. I love you.”

  ?????????????

  I start to follow her out the door, but May storms over and sms it behind Emmy. “Don’t you dare, Holly.”

  “I…” I sob, struggling to find the words. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Would you rather I had gone in there and told him the truth?” Aiden asks. “That this started as a plot for you to humiliate him and break his heart on his first day of highschool?”

  “No…” I whimper. “I…”

  “I get it, Holly.” May says as she strokes my hair. “It hurts.”

  “It does…” I whine.

  “At least this way, you can wait for him to go back to being himself, and ask him out then.” Aiden says. “If he had been told the truth, he’d never want to see you again.”

  “I get it…” I murmur. “I’m a monster. I deserve this.”

  “This isn’t about you, Holly.” Aiden says. “This is about Danny. We couldn’t just let him make permanent changes to his body, because you couldn’t tell him the truth.”

  “I know!” I shout at them. “I know… It just…” I sob. “This feels like bckmail. You forced me to do this!”

  “It’ll be for the best.” May says. “You’ll see.”

  I don’t respond, but manage to look back at the closed door. “She left behind her shoes…”