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Image Credits: Title Picture purchased and licensed for publishing from

123rf.com. The model in this image in no way supports nor conveys the issues and situations brought up within the story. The models use within this work is solely for the representation of looks of the main character of this particular story. ~Sephrena

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*Before…

I feel like crap because I have that chest achy hurt thing from crying/sobbing and my nose feels like I’ve had a cold and used too many tissues and stuff and they call for my flight and I get up and take my carry on and my smart phone rings and it’s Nat.

(Sniffle.) “Hey…flight delayed?”

“Uhm…no.”

“Uhm?”

“Jade?”

(Sniffle.) “Yeah?”

“You want to do something crazy?”

*And Now…

(Sniffle?)…. “What?”

“Do you want to do something crazy?”

“When?”

“Now, right now…today.”

(Sniffle.) “Nat…”

“Jade…I’m here, right now still by your side and my flight’s already in the air.”

(Sniffle.) “What!” (Cough.)… “Why?”

“Because I’m a sucker for romance, I’m a sucker for the little girl, the odd-balls and us lonely hearts.”

“But…”

“Look, just how many times do you think that someone like us is going to have a chance like this?”

“I dunno…” (Sniffle.)

I can see her now on her phone pulling her bag and she’s looking at me her own eyes red from her own tears and…

You ever have that moment when you look into someone’s eyes and you see your best friend there?

Natasha…is my best friend.

She puts away her phone and she looks at me and reaches into her pocket and she pulls out her credit card.

“Do you love him?”

“I…I…I think I do.”

“You think it’s true love?”

I nod… “Yeah…I think it’s true love.” Oh goddess I really hope that it is.

“Well then come on girl-Westley let’s go and rescue your Boy-Buttercup.”

I’m a sobby mess and she makes me laugh out loud with that and I look at her.

“You damned dwarves leading people into all sorts of adventures.”

I put my phone away and grab my carry on and look at her.

“Road trip?”

She grins and I’m grinning too despite everything and we head off to get our tickets redeemed and both of us have our luggage already off and away from us when we check…it doesn’t matter we head towards the car rental place and I’m all nerves that I’m just…we’re just about there when I think I can see my plane lifting off.

Oh there’s no way now but forward.

Nat gets a car a four door Saturn and we head out.

We have the roughest time getting out of Boston itself since I don’t have a real clue to where we’re going and neither does Nat and by the time we’re sure of anything we get caught up in the commute traffic.

And it’s been…well I wasn’t keeping track of time when my phone starts to ring when we’re just getting onto the I-95.

I look at it and it’s mom’s phone.

I let it ring two more times before answering.

“Hi mom.”

“Hi mom! Hi mom, where are you! You weren’t on the plane when we went to pick you up are you hurt!?”

“No mom I’m not hurt I’m okay…”

“You don’t sound okay, you missed your plane and on top of that they mixed up all of your things with some other person. It must have been some other person that does all that comic and science fiction stuff that you do…did you go in a group?”

“Yes mom we went in a group and…”

“And?”

Well…I’m in a car on the interstate driving after Alex with my best friend and for now…for now I’m kind of out of reach of any massive meltdown of me coming out to my family.

“It’s not someone else’s things they’re mine.”

“Yours…?”

I’m tearing up as it’s all starting to come out.

I hear dad in the background. “His?”

Wince…

(Sniffle.)… “Yeah…mine…”

“Yours…?”

(Irate-whine.) “Yes mine!”

“So you’re….”

“Trans.” (Sniffle.)

“Trans…?”

“Transgender…mom…I’m not really a boy, I never was a boy I’ve never felt like a boy not once not once in my entire life.”

“Oh…well that would explain the girls clothes and everything.”

“You’re taking this better than I thought.” (Sniffle.)

“Oh…oh Frankie we knew something was up it’s just your father and I we thought that you were gay?

(Sniffle.) “Nope…” (Cough-snuffle.)… “I like boys.”

“That’s what I meant.”

“Mom… (Sniffle.)…I’m a girl…so you know that means that I like boys.”

“Oh…”

“Mom…?”

“Yes honey?”

(Sniffle.) “Do you hate me?”

“No honey…shocked definitely…where are you? I can get you another flight we’re still at Stanfield.”

“I’m not at the airport mom.”

“Why not?”

“I have to do something.”

“What? Did you leave something behind, lose something, I’ll get a flight over there.”

“Mom no, it’s about a boy.”

“WHAT!”

“I met a boy, a really amazing and awesome and wonderful guy and I need to see him…I need to see him again and tell him how I feel about him before it all changes.”

“A BOY!” she’s yelling into the phone.

There’s some rattling and swearing and it’s coming from mom and dad and then it stops and I hear.

“Wow…kiddo, you’re definitely a girl.”

Dad…Daddy…and he said…

(Sobby.) “What…?”

“Well the only one that has ever gotten your mother that worked up are you aunts and your grandmother.”

(Sniffle-laugh.) “Dad…”

I wipe at my eyes and Nat’s looking at me and I’m sure that she’s getting most of it and she offers me a smile.

(Sniffle.) “Dad…?”

“Yeah…?”

“You’re not mad?”

“No kiddo we’ve know something was up for a long time.”

“But…but I’m not what you wanted…”

“We have exactly what we want kiddo, we have a child that we love.”

(Sniffle.) “Thanks Daddy.”

“You’re welcome but that still doesn’t really clear the air with what you’re doing though.”

(Snuffle-sigh.) “I know…it’s just it’s all really a long story and I have to tell him before it all get too far away from me.”

“Too far away?”

“I’ll get home and he’ll be there and if I don’t say this now then I might not say it…and he might meet someone or we might just fall into being friends when…when it’s not what I want I want more than that.”

“It’s still be long distance.”

“But we could face that, phone and talk and e-mail and Skype and stuff until we hit times when we could be together like we were here.”

“You two just met.”

“Yeah I know.”

“It’s only been barely any time at all Frankie.”

(Sniffle.) “Dad…?”

“Yeah?”

“What if it was mom?”

“………………………”

“Dad?”

“I’m putting you on speaker.”

(Snuffle.) “Okay…”

“There now ask me that again.”

I…huh…oh..

“Dad, what if it was mom?”

I hear mom. “That’s not fair…you’re too young for this…”

“Mom…?”

“Yes honey?”

“Just listen…okay?”

“To what…?”

“To what happened…”

I hear dad murmuring something to her and I can almost see them because he usually only does that when he’s holding her with his arms around her saying stuff in her hair…ear to either calm her down from being upset or angry or when he’s being romantic…it’s that same sound coming over the speaker phone.

I lean into the seat and I put my phone on speaker and on speaker and I hug myself and have my knees up on the seat with my phone balanced there plugged into the dash and I start from the beginning and start to tell them both everything that happened and yeah I’m crying some more and I’m gushing through some of it all too and there’s a few…”OH MOM!” girl-share moments…when I say some of the things like us dancing and the whole wonderful tonight stuff and the things that he’s said and done and the way that he looked sometimes and the letter…my letter…

By the time I’m done I’m crying yet again and mom’s crying on the other end of the line and sniffling.

(Mom-sniffle-sob.)…. “Go….”

(Sniffle-huh?) “Mom…?”

“Go…dammit go…look I don’t like you being there and I’m scared for you but Jade…Jade I’m old enough that I know if I was you and I didn’t, didn’t try I would be wondering and regretting it the rest of my life.”

(Happy-sobby-whine.) “Mom……….”

Jade, she called me Jade…I mean I had told her and dad that through the story but she’s calling me by my name, my real name and she’s telling me to go…

“Mom…I love you so much!!!”

(Mom-sniffle.) “Good…be careful!”

Dad comes on the line. “You have your bank card?”

(Sniffle.) “Yes daddy…it’s…it’s in my purse.”

“Okay we’re going and we’ll put money into your account, pay your way young lady…gas, hotel, meals…your friend is driving you.”

Nat’s like… “She really doesn’t need to; I kind of talked her into this whole thing.”

“Good, we all need one of those friends and yes she does…”

“Yessir…” Nat’s grinning and her eyes are dancing. “So I’m one of those friends?”

Dad’s chuckling and I hear mom say. “Natasha stop flirting with my husband.”

And I’m like… “Mom!”

And we’re all laughing even if mine’s a wee bit off from all my nerves and stuff.

Then mom’s… “Be careful honey.”

“I will I promise.”

We end the call and I sort of uncoil and slump in my seat with this huge sigh of letting things go and Nat looks over at me. “You okay?”

“No…and yes…I just came out to my parents and stuff…it’s not like I can put any of that back in the box.”

“Nope, but aren’t you tired of living in a box anyways?”

“Good Goddess yes…just way too tired of it.”

She grins… “Well I don’t know about you but all of this excitement has me in need of the bathroom.”

Of course now that she mentions needing to pee I have to. “Yeah, let’s stop besides I want to get changed.”

“You have enough in your case?”

“Yeah most of my really girl stuff’s in here…I didn’t want to try to explain all of it to my folks just in case.”

“So, what’d they find in your bags.”

“I didn’t have room for everything in there so yeah some of my girl clothes were in there and I thought that I had them pretty well hidden.”

“But when you went AWOL your folks went through everything?”

“Probably…one of the joys to being adopted is that it kind of comes with over protective folks.”

She shrugs. “Better than having folks that don’t really care.”

I look over at her and she looks at me. “Oh no not me my folks are pretty cool that way and stuff but one of my friends is a girl in a house of guys and they really didn’t want a daughter that much.”

“Really?” Man that would suck.

“Yeah, I mean her family is nice enough and stuff but her dad’s like one of those guys that’s clueless about girls and stuff and her mom’s one of those women that doesn’t really like other women.”

“Even her own daughter?”

“I guess, she’s never been close to her mom except for like fights and stuff and the rest keep her at arm’s length.”

I just shake my head but honestly I can sort of see that there’s a few kids at school that I’d say had shitty home lives and stuff too.

We pull into one of those gas station rest stop places with like the mini-mart and the whole bunch of things like Cinnabun and Taco bell and I get my bag and I go and hit the mini store and use their bathroom and get changed.

Why don’t we have these things home? I mean we have gas stations with the attached stores and all of that but not the rest stops like they have here in the states. These are actually kind of cool and one of the things I really like about being down here.

I think we’re actually in Vermont now?

Though being in the highway and with everything so close and so together down here I really have no idea where we are.

I get my bra on and my falsies settle in and change into a cute t-shirt top but still go with the hoodie I was wearing and I change my undies for my real ones and go with my capris instead of the boy jeans that I was wearing but stay with my socks and my sneakers.

Jade is very different than Franklyn but at the same time like most tranfolk I’m not all that different than the day to day me only that I’m just actually fully being me.

Well as full as it gets pre-transition and everything.

I do use the bathroom and stuff too while I’m there and I kind of get a few looks that have me a bit nervous and edgy from some of the women that come in and out of there but most of the looks are directed at me and then my carry-on bag with that whole curious as to why I’m changing for the sake of being curious. I don’t think that I got read.

I go through the store part and I get some bottles of water and some junk food and some gum…I need gum the last thing that I need is like having bad breath and stuff and I get some stuff too for Nat and I meet up with her at the car and we get ready and head back out onto the road.

We eat and we talk about home and mostly what I think what might happen when I do get home other than likely or maybe being in like serious grounding troubles but more to the whole transition thing and if they’ll start me on that path or let me finally start on that path and then it’s about school.

Oy…yeah I mentioned some of the stuff before with how school was…the kinda jerky people and the way I’m sort of an outsider even in the geeky and not so popular kids and stuff.

If a gay Chinese guy wasn’t all that welcome before in things then what are they going to be like when they find out that I’m actually not gay but a transgender girl?

Maybe I’ll do home school until university.

It eats up the time and I’m totes using up all the conversation air but I think that’s been Nat’s plan.

My stomach does a flip as suddenly I see this sign saying welcome to Portland.

Really? That fast?

We look at a map app in the car’s dashboard thingy and we head first to Maine Medical and I’m looking for Alex’s Van and stuff and after that we head to Mercy Hospital and I see his van parked in the parking lot and we pull in to and get our stub and stuff and we both get out…

“I’m so…nervous.” I wipe my hands off on the inside of my hoodie’s pockets.

Nat looks at me and nod and she rubs my back.

“It’ll be okay, we’ll just go in and we’ll ask for Alex and we’ll be good.”

We’re walking and I’m looking at her. “We’ll be good huh? Isn’t this just a little bit stalkerish?”

“You’re not stalking him you’re trying to be romantic.”

“How come no one ever says that romantic is scary as heck?”

“Because if it was easy everyone would be in love and it wouldn’t be as special.”

We head in through the doors and I’m looking where to go to ask about finding Alex and head over to the information desk?

“Uhm…hi, I’m looking for a friend of mine his name’s Alex Porter he’s here visiting family…his dad was in a car accident?”

“I’m sorry Miss, we can’t give out information about patients or their family the best you can do is wait over there in the lobby-waiting area.”

“Okay…thank you.”

Dummy I should have known that.

“Uhm…Ma’am? Can we use Cell phones here?”

“Oh yes it’s alright to use them here you’ll see posted signs in the areas where we don’t allow cell-phones.”

“Okay…thank you.”

Nat and I both go and we find some seats and stuff and I’m trying to keep an eye out for Alex in case he comes down to leave or get something and I leave him a couple of e-mails.

[Come to the lobby when you can, Jade.]

It’s awhile…a long nervous while with too much water drank because on me and my stupid dry mouthed nerves and I look at Nat. “I gotta go pee, keep a look out for Alex please.”

“I will hog tie that boy if I have too.”

I do the have to pee run to the washrooms and do my business and I go to wash my hands and I actually get a hard shove from my blindside that send me stumbling.

“I told you that was her, I told you that was the little bitch that made me look bad at the Convention and on Facebook.”

I look and it’s Donna and three friends and they all look mad and bitchy and before I can say anything she slaps me in the mouth really hard and knocks me to the floor!