Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!
Squires
Chapter 28 by Bailey Summers
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Squires-28
Image Credit: anime couple
*** Johnny…………
It was such an amazing thing, such an amazing date and she couldn’t help but beam and smile and shimmy with the music back and forth with the cream soda float Brian had gotten her.
He’d been so excited, so happy.
At something as her being into arcade games and just being allowed to be himself.
~I did that. ~
She thought with a smile as Brian cried out as his race car in the game was skidding around a corner and he was vainly trying to not wipe out. She looked over to Jessie who was doing the same as she was and he looked like he was enjoying himself despite the way he looked.
Jessie could pass so much of the time and had real breasts…something Johnny really wanted herself. But it wasn’t something that Jessie had asked for and the whole thing had really brought then as much violence in his life as being Trans had brought to hers.
And who knows what kind of trouble still might lay ahead for all of them. The alpha’s and the others that didn’t want the boat shook up still had a lot of time yet to mess with all of them…hell the school year had just started and things were….
Well there were going to be a lot of people unhappy about the otherwise odd kids banding together and not exactly being the target rich environment that they adored so much.
It was nice to see the usually serious Jessie relax and just be another one of the kids around here.
She took another drink and she went back to watching Brian play or well try and play and she even laughed at some of the flubs he made.
Which actually had him look over at her and she smiled back. “What?”
“You’re laughing at me.”
“Well you kind of suck.”
“None of the other girls have ever laughed at me Johnny.”
She looked at him and she leaned into the car game and gave him a pretty straightforward look. “I’m not like the other girls Bri even as much as I’d want to be.”
He looked at her. “No…no you’re not you’re at least honest with me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, the others weren’t. Britney wasn’t.”
She looked at him. “I don’t want to be that kind of girl. Those kinds of girls tend not to be nice to people.”
He looked at her again and he let go of the steering wheel for the game. “Can I kiss you again?”
Johnny nodded. “I’d like that.”
He leaned up and slowly kissed her as he crawled out of the game and turned them so he leaned her up against it. He broke the kissing just enough to say. “Good because I like kissing you.”
She laughed. “That’s really good because this would be really awkward otherwise.”
He grinned. “No…not with you Johnny, I don’t think it could ever be awkward with you.”
She blushed and Jessie quipped. “Oh so asking her out in the bathroom in front of all of those girls was just a cake walk then?”
That made Brian blush and groan and cover his face in the cutest embarrassed way.
“God don’t remind me I was so scared.”
Kenyon chuckled. “You’re a braver man that I am being in there with all of them.”
Brian looked at him. “You’re gay dude you wouldn’t exactly have had the incentive to go in there y’know.”
“There is that.” Kenyon said looking smug.
Jessie elbowed him. “Het y’know we take gym with a whole bunch of guys and if you think what Brian went through was funny I could always talk about out date in the locker room.”
“Jesus Jessie you’ll get us lynched!”
“They’re going to have to get used to us Kenyon, I have no intention of being ashamed or being shoved in a closet because I happen to like dating a guy and find him attractive.”
Kenyon blushed but he reached out and took Jessie’s hand.
*** Jessie…………
It was…
It was a good date.
Jessie moved with some of the music as Brian and Kenyon were playing the racing games and was sort of just hanging with Johnny which wasn’t a bad thing but it was still sort of like being “the girl.” Again not really a bad thing considering Johnny might have needed a wing-woman or something like that but the whole getting seen as a girl was intensely strange.
Well still strange…he had gotten used to it to an extent but here he was trying to be more open about what he was like and who he was so that was sort of less hiding out.
And Chicago, heck America especially mass teenaged America was kind of odd still. He took a drink from his float sipping at it but looking at Kenyon.
They had started going out actually fairly fast?
It seemed fast and while still a first date it had come about pretty swiftly for Jessie who was still figuring things out.
There was lot’s to figure out since kissing Johnny in the library wasn’t exactly that long ago and it wasn’t exactly a thing that Jessie had “Just done.”
But Johnny was into Brian and there was some definite chemistry there too. They actually made a cute pair even this early.
Kenyon moved from the game and looked at him at Jessie as he got out from the racing game and Jessie had to admit if you just liked the person over things like sex and stuff Kenyon was a good choice for a date.
Tall like most guys that go the basketball route and muscled since he’d been hitting the weights for getting onto the basketball team and good skin, nice eyes and short sandy brown hair cut sort of fashionably.
All in all not bad and even better when you take the fact that the look on his face is a pleased one.
Pleased that they were doing this and pleased that he was with Jessie.
Jessie had to admit it felt nice.
They switched places and Johnny was for all her being kind of girly was really good at the videogames and not just the racing one where she was creaming Jessie but she was really good at a whole lot of the other games too from the old vintage stuff like Streetfighter to Donkey Kong and she even kicked butt extremely well at the light em up dance floor videogames.
Jessie smiled at how much fun Johnny was having but he was having a good time too. Even with the dance game.
He’d been self-conscious the few times that he’d seen them when he’d moved to Rio and that was one of the few places he had lived besides japan that had big arcades and malls and hadn’t been too young for them or out in the middle of nowhere with his folks.
But here with Johnny and Brian and Kenyon and having that buffer and security he let things slip away until he was just having fun.
He couldn’t deny there was this “Oh…” zip from when he and Kenyon laced fingers as they left the arcade spot for the actual bowling alley.
There was some looks from the two girls behind the counter when he ordered size nine guys’ shoes but that wasn’t too bad and they ended up at the far lane and in a set of cozy seats and stuff.
The closest he’d ever sort of come to this was shuffle board a few times and one time when his dad had taken him to this bar/men’s hall in Ecuador on a project and they had drank some and done something called feather bowling.
South America had been a lot like South Africa with his dad going to help or to consult all over the place.
As a hydrological engineer you wanted to set his dad off on something just ask about the jungle deforestation and soil erosion and the damage that happens to the entire water shed…
Jessie knew way more about silt that any teenager should know in his opinion.
It was funny since Jessie’s first look at bowling here wasn’t the bowling that he had expected. Once they were all shod and ready he’d taken a ball and stared at it.
Kenyon tilted his head as Jessie examined the ball. “Problems?”
“There’s no hole?”
“It’s not that kind of bowling.”
“There’s more than one kind?”
“Oh definitely.”
“They did NOT mention this on The Flintstones.” He said while looking at the ball and then lining himself up and sending then ball down the lane only clipping two pins.
Johnny laughed. “Flintstones!?”
Jessie shrugged. “It’s the only bowling that I really have seen done.”
There was some all-around laughter and Kenyon got up and went over. “Can I help?”
Jessie looked at him.
There were a couple of thoughts going through his mind. The first was this whole thought of I’m not a girl.
This sort of seemed like one of those things where the guy is teaching a girl.
Then there’s this whole we’re on a gay date…so does the feeling I’m having apply and is this one of those things that I should be okay with since it’s sort of a date thing.
Jessie bit his lower lip.
There really wasn’t an easy answer.
Actually yes there was.
Kenyon means it in kindness and take it as such…part of Jessie told himself.
“Uhm…okay.”
Kenyon came over and slid close. “Is this alright?”
“….yeah…”
“Good because I’m not sure of what I’m doing.”
“Then how are you going to show me how to bowl?”
“That I know it’s the rest of this that I’m nervous about.”
“Because this is sort of guy and girl like?”
“Yeah…and I’m not sure exactly if I should…”
“Should?”
“Show you like that.”
“Well try and see, I mean we’ve already kind of crossed that line with personal space when we kissed Kenyon.”
Kenyon blushed, okay that was true.
He took a breath and nodded.
Jessie smiled. “It’s okay, I don’t bite.”
Johnny cackled as she interrupted them. “Yeah everyone knows to be careful about using your teeth!”
Kenyon blushed just at the thought and made a face at Johnny who was laughing until Brian pulled her down to the seats making her squeal.
Another breath.
He slipped up against Jessie. “It’s like this, you sort of cup the ball and roll it off your fingers…it’s all about the spin.”
Jessie nodded but felt him pressed to him and was starting to feel Kenyon’s attraction to him. It was so different…but at the same time. Erections happen, guys get blamed all the time but girls get their nipples hard and it can be for a whole bunch of reasons but they don’t get the social grief that guys get.
Just because you have one, does mean you’re going to use one.
But on the other hand it was so strangely good that Kenyon was that into him, into doing this.
It was kind of sexy in a movie kind of way to get shown how to do this.
It took a few more turns and tries and that contact before Jessie’s throws improved and he and Kenyon lost really badly with Brian being a really good bowler and Johnny too. Apparently this was one of those things ingrained into U.S. culture, even if you’ve never done it before you know about it.
That and she said her dad bowls.
That made sense; her dad seemed like the bowling kind of guy.
*** Kenyon…………
What a great night.
He’d never really been on a date before and this; this had exceeded anything that he had in his head.
Even Johnny was cool with Brian and he’d never seen Brian that happy before either. The roller skating was kind of hokey fun and the arcade was actually awesome. There wasn’t all the arcades that had been around when he’d been a little kid the play station and x-boxes took care of that.
But this had been so much better than he’d imagined.
Bowling made him ache though…Well Jessie did and being that close all night, smelling him sometimes…he swore that smell wound around his brainstem and made things go pop.
Made him think about.
Jessie.
Not that he was going to do something on their first date.
Hell no!
It was one of the things he was kind of sure he hated about being gay. About the gay stereotypes and that was the whole fall in bed and hooking up thing. It was skanky…or skeevy…it just really bothered him.
But holding Jessie had…it was the way he smelled and it was the way he felt too against him, in his arms and that young hard male body was so…it made him tingle…it made him think of doing things with Jessie or have Jessie do things to him.
Even if those thoughts were still sort of new, and scary, and exciting.
But it was so much more than that sex stuff…even if he found Jessie incredible.
It was after a while even if it was the four of them fun…they had fun and laughed together and even the gay thing didn’t seem to be so much in his head through most of the date. He was with friends, he was with Jessie and they were just being themselves, having fun.
They actually stayed and bowled several games and in between they actually even danced some.
Dancing was hard.
Slow stuff he sort of had an idea about and stuff but the regular stuff….and Jessie was so hot there. Better at dancing than Johnny even. He admitted to dancing being a really big thing for kids to do in South Africa and in Rio. He could move, and do all these things and it wasn’t girl dancing…because Jess had breasts no this was that sexy kind of Latin stuff and disco and sort of rock stuff.
Not the kind of stuff a shy gay white jock boy learned how to do.
He was so not going to ever be the half tee whoop-whoop at the rave gay guy from the movies.
But learning had been fun.
Brian cracked everyone up with his Travolta, even Jessie who said a lot of that was still a fun dance hall teen thing in Rio as much as the up to date stuff and disco never really died there like it did here instead it just became part of the dancing.
So there was this whole Travolta, Grease thing and Brian and Jessie actually were more in the know there. Like Kenyon had heard of some of it but seeing Jess and Brian doing movie lines was kinda neat.
It was a little odd seeing Jess doing an imitation of Sandy.
But that had them talking movies while they bowled too and Jessie did a pretty damned good Ferris Beuller too.
And since they were bowling of course The Big Lebowski came up and Brian was so cracking people up being the dude.
It was kind of fun watching Johnny and him bond over that too since apparently it was one of her favorite movies.
It was really nice just getting to be yourself.
They’d finished their third game and they noticed the bulk of the people were leaving and heading out and the place was looking like it was shutting down and Brian suggested.
“Call it a night? We’ve all kind of had a really long day.”
There were some nods and Johnny had to set everyone off with a loud and long yawn. Kenyon walked Jessie to his car. It took him a second or so before he opened the door for Jessie and they actually both ended up sharing a smile.
“Sorry, I just don’t know yet like how to act with this whole date stuff the only thing I know is the stuff I thought that I should be doing when I thought that I was straight.”
Jessie nodded. “I get that it’s cool try having boobs and not really being a girl but being on a date with a cute guy and not slipping into that.”
Kenyon got in his car. “But I still had a great time.”
“Me too, I’d like to do this again sometime.”
“Like this here games and bowling or like another date?”
“Both actually, this was nice.”
“Yeah…” Kenyon chewed at his lower lip a little. “I wasn’t expecting just how good though.”
“Me either, it’s been a real eye opener of a night but I still had a lot of fun.”
They smiled at each other again and it wasn’t long before it still got first date awkward and Kenyon turned the car on and started to drive them home. Well to Jessie’s house it was a little of that sot of first date shift too when Brian pulled away with a honk of his car horn to drive Johnny home.
Some things Kenyon decided should be drug out and made to last but this end of the night stuff seemed to drag on in this really awkward way.
It seemed like forever without them talking to drive Jessie home.
It wasn’t like he was mad or that Jessie was mad there was just this sort of quiet and lack of chatter and at the end of the date he sort of found it unnerving a little but he didn’t want to seem like he was a motor mouth either especially with Jessie who definitely had this quiet sort of stoic side.
Well stoic and serene was good right? Like cool?
Jessie definitely had cool going on.
Kenyon felt his mouth go a little dry as he pulled into Jessie’s driveway and they got out of the car together and he faltered a half a step unsure if he should walk Jessie to the door but with all the other things that had gone on or gone semi-wrong tonight he went and walked Jessie to his door.
“Thanks Jessie, I mean it thanks for tonight it was fun…and it really helped.”
“Helped?”
“With the nerves and stuff. Honestly if I’d been on a date with a different guy I’d be a whole lot nervous.”
“You were still nervous Kenyon.”
“Yeah, but you made it better.”
He waited a few long seconds before he turned to go.
Jessie put him hand on Kenyon’s shoulder. “Isn’t it like customary to end a good date with a kiss?”
“On our first date?”
“We kissed before that silly.”
“Oh…”
The Jessie leaned up and gave him this kiss.
It was strong yet not it was slow and yet not and Jessie tasted of cinnamon flavored gum.
“Oh I’m so not getting a w3hole lot of sleep tonight.” Kenyon said softly as they parted.
“Tomorrow’s Sunday we can sleep in.”
Jessie smiled and walked backwards and headed inside and Kenyon found his mind spinning those words around with that…was that like one of those sexy double entendre things?
He headed to the car kissed by that boy that so had him reeling as much as any girl would have in the past.
He slipped into his car and touched his lips…dammit he really liked being kissed by him.
***Brian…………
Never…
Never had he been on a date like this in his life.
Now, he kind of supposed that some people might say that Johnny was too much a guy, too close to it to be that different from the girls that he dated, than Britney.
He’d have to call bullshit on that.
Johnny…despite the name she kept was all girl on the inside. She moved and smelled like a girl, smiled and laughed like one.
She was a girl in al but this effed up querk of chance and biology.
And the kicker?
She was so happy and good with just being a girl, with just being her real self that she didn’t have al the bullshit power games that he’d gotten from Brit.
Johnny was just herself.
And she wanted him to just be himself.
Honestly, there was a few times tonight he had a lump in his throat because of that. There was all these expectations, all these things that some people wanted from him or from guys period that weren’t them, weren’t him.
There’s always this pressure on guys to be some media image thing, to be that guy but a whole lot of people didn’t want the boy that came under all of it.
He’d done everything tonight that he’d never really got to do.
Say.
Have said to him.
Johnny joking with him, telling him he sucked at the racing game but with a sweet smile on her face. Dancing, teaching her how to bowl. Junk food and her…the videogames were her idea.
He couldn’t remember when he’d been on a date that went two ways.
He loved the smile on her face and the thank you as he opened the car door for her. He liked the fact the old school things mattered to her.
They pulled out and drove and Johnny instantly leaned ahead smiling with her face lit up by the dash lights as she went through the radio. “This is G-force thirteen thirty, Chicago loud and proud!”
He looked at her. “I’ve got CD’s.”
“Naw, I love radio, listening to the people’s as cool as the music, it’s just better really.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, radio stations are local, it’s stuff from here from our city and not some big name record company.”
He grinned. “Y’know I’ve never thought about it. I’ve never known anyone that’s thought about it.”
“Well I’m all about the tilting.”
“Tilting?”
“Yeah, like Jessie says. We gotta challenge things and fight for them. Like Titing at windmills.”
“Oh…”
“And air-conditioners.”
He laughed. “Modern equivalent?”
“Yeah, and local radio, mom and pop businesses they all sort of tilt at some of the worst stuff around.”
“Worst stuff around?”
“Big money, or rather big money without a conscience.”
Brian shook his head. “You guys are sooo not like my old crew.”
“Yeah well you can’t force someone to stop being self absorbed and not wanting things to change.”
“Yeah my old crowds all name brand and paying for the label stuff.”
She nodded. “I do too, heck I like some stuff but I dunno, I’d like to see differences made y’know? Better rights, more jobs because people care, more tolerance. That stuff Jessie says.”
“He’s super intense…and so are you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you talk like him, you stepped up to help Honey and Yasmine and you’re good with people too. And you’re brave enough to really be yourself Johnny.”
She blushed and her hair did that fall in front of her face thing that made him want to brush it out of her eyes.
“You get intense when you nearly die for just being Bri.”
He took a breath. “I heard they beat you up in your old school.”
“They put me in the hospital.”
“Oh…”
“Jess got beat into a coma for being different in South Africa…it…it changes you Brian.”
“I’m sorry Johnny…”
She turned and looked at him and she smiled.
Gosh it made him have this Ow my heart thing.
“Thanks Brian…thanks for all of this.”
He blinked and slowed puling into her yard. “Honestly Johnny I feel like I should be thanking you. I never had a night like this.”
She blinked… “Good then…?”
“Best date in my life.”
“Oh come on now…”
He looked at her and he unbuckled his seat belt and he leaned over and he pulled her into a really big hug.
There was that thought of like kissing her but he really just…there were all these feelings that just.
He wanted to hug her.
Hold her.
And that hard lump in his throat happened again when she hugged him back.
Tight and hard like he wasn’t as tough as he’d always had to be.
That he didn’t have to be.
Shaky breathing.
“There’s never been a girl like you in my whole life Johnny?”
“That’s good right?”
He pulled back after a few minutes.
“It tilts.”
Then that’s when he kissed her.
Comments
Thanks - I really needed
that. I was starting to get the shakes.
T
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
“It tilts.â€
I am absolutely choked up after reading this. That's the kind of date I would love to be on ...
Being together despite social BS tilts.
I really did love Brian getting it.
*Great Big Proud Angel Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Tilting
As always you can touch on things just right to make us think and yet feel too. Sooo sweeet!
Hugs
Grover
Kids, teenager-times and self discovery.
Kind of what I wanted for this along with some fighting the good fight.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
"It tilts"
Wow, I mean seriously Bailey, just wow.
I don't know what else to say - this was just incredible.
Thank you, I needed this.
Dallas
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Thank you Dallas, I'm trying to still keep that in there.
Since this is the prequel series of sorts to Tilting at Air-conditioners. It felt though like the right thing at the right time for that end line for this chapter.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
The ending...
I love it.
Thank you Thliwent :)
I was going for the TV show like end for the chapter.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Happy Happy
Nice sweet chapter, love the whole crew, great as always
*hugs*
-Elsbeth
Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.
Broken Irish is better than clever English.
Thank you so much Elsbeth:)
Not the whole crew but I'm trying to break it into more managable character bites.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Great Chapter
*sigh* I continue to live vicariously through Johnny and Brian's date. Great date. Great last line as always. Great chapter.
*hugs*
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
It was a pretty good date Jemima.
Best either of those two had been on. Kinda of nice though to catch a Brian sort of view on the differences.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
It's always nice to see more
It's always nice to see more of Jessie and the crew. Squires is one of my favorites of yours and that's saying a lot. This chapter was really moving and sentimental and I loved it. I even went back to read Tilting at Air Conditioners which I also enjoyed immensely. Keep up the great work Bailey.
*hugs*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
I like Squires because I get to write important non-tg inclusive
characters. I still like the TG mainstay but the gay kids, the lesbians, the gender queer and intersexed and all those things plus kids like Sam who's deaf and Nick who has Social Anxiety Disorder and even the whole race stuff is important to the way want the story to feel
And are important characters.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Agree
the "outcasts" are declaring themselves to be as good as anyone and discovering their strength.
Really love seeing another chapter of this tale
The date night was sweet and it's great to see them able to enjoy it without any interference from the self declared school "elite".
This passage really struck me: "Well there were going to be a lot of people unhappy about the otherwise odd kids banding together and not exactly being the target rich environment that they adored so much."
YES! There is strength in numbers and in self perception. "The otherwise odd kids" are no longer odd. They've declared themselves to be ok and more. They've gotten together because there is strength in a group who supports each other.
Thanks for another great chapter!
Yes Woody, the Alphas will be unpleased.
But things do change no matter how much people what things to stay the same...even if they thin they'll somehow lose by others being equal.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
looks like..
a really good night for the crew.
great job, thanks
TY LoneWolf.
It's a good way to tie up this part of the story.
*Hugs and Howls*
Bailey Summers
Sounds like a lovely......
Time was had by all! I'm thinking though Jessie's having some conflicting feelings he's going to have to resolve, as to just where he stands on his gender and orientation. Thank you Bailey for coming back to this one hon! Loving Hugs Talia
Yes Jessie will have to come to terms with things.
Now we do know some of the way he is from Tilting at air-conditioners but there is still stuff to write about in between.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Being themselves
There were no demands, no expectation, there was only the chance to be themselves and enjoy the time together.
Others have feelings too.