It Takes All Sorts

Part One

She was unlike any girl Kyle had ever seen. She was tall, taller than him, anyway, and wore a black leather biker jacket, Doc Martens boots, slicked-down hair and an attitude. Kyle kept sneaking glances at her as the day went on, and wanted to speak to her, but he couldn’t pluck up the courage. As he packed his bag at the end of class, she turned to him.

“What’s your problem?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been staring at me all day.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have, so cut it out. What’s your name, pretty boy?” She reached out and flicked his shoulder-length hair with her fingers. Kyle felt the heat rise to his cheeks. Pretty boy? He glanced round to see if anyone had heard her, but everyone else had left.

“Don’t call me that.” He said. “My name’s Kyle.”

“Kyle. That’s a pretty name for a pretty boy. Why is your hair so long?”

“I like it that way, and please don’t call me that.” He pleaded with her.

“Tell me why you were staring, then.”

“Um, you’re different from the other girls.”

She snorted. “So?”

He felt like a rabbit caught in headlights. “I like the way you look.” The words rushed out of him before he could stop them.

“What? Are you taking the piss?”

“No, no. I’m telling the truth.” He struggled for the right words. “You’re… I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone like you. You’re different, that’s what I like.”

She looked at him for a few seconds before saying, “Guess we’re both different. You can call me Jack.”

Kyle looked at her in surprise. “Um, is your name really Jack?”

“No, it’s Jacqui, with a q-u-i, but I prefer to be called Jack.”

Kyle watched with admiration as Jack walked out of the classroom, the boys standing back as she swaggered through them, but as he followed her a few minutes later, they moved towards him and the usual abuse started. Suddenly, Jack reappeared, flung her arm around Kyle’s shoulders and turned them both to face the boys, who looked at each other and, without a word, backed away. Kyle’s heart beat faster as she kept her arm around him as they walked out.

“We’ve got to stand up to those pricks. Even a pretty boy like you needs to front up or those dickheads will eat you.” Kyle coloured and Jack laughed. “See you tomorrow, Kylie.” By the time he realised what she had called him, she had disappeared.

Kyle normally dreaded going to school to face the taunts from a group of the boys. It usually stopped with name-calling, but sometimes someone would do something more like grab his bag and empty it onto the floor. He tolerated it because he thought it would only get worse if he tried to fight back.

He had always been small and slender, like his mother. He didn’t know his father. His mother told him he walked out the day she told him she was pregnant with Kyle. He didn’t miss a father, as he and his mother were so close. One of his mother’s sisters, who lived close by, had twin daughters, a couple of years older than him, and the two families spent a lot of time together. The girls happily let Kyle join in their games, and he loved the time he spent with them. The girls treated him much as they would a little sister. He loved the attention they gave him and he would spend most of his spare time with them. Perhaps inevitably, with no male role model in his life, and so much time spent in the company of his two pretty cousins, that the softer side of Kyle would prevail.

The following day, Kyle was walking into school preparing for the usual abuse when he stopped dead and his heart rate went sky high. He watched as Jack sauntered through a crowd of students who moved aside to let her through, like Moses parting the Red Sea. She saw Kyle and walked over to him, smiled and said. “Morning, babe. S’up?”

Something in Kyle’s chest fluttered as he looked at her smile. “Oh, I’m good now.”

“Cool,” she said, “let’s meet for lunch, OK?”

Kyle could only nod, his knees feeling a bit wobbly as he watched her walk away. Life at school improved with Jack around. The bullying stopped, and even Jason Upton, Kyle’s torturer in chief, and the toughest boy at the school stayed away from him. Kyle didn’t feel lonely for the first time in what seemed forever, and he looked forward to going to school, eagerly waiting for Jack to appear. She would put her arm around his shoulders, or thrillingly, around his waist. She didn’t seem to care about the names they were called, and someone scrawled a heart with Jack and Kyle’s names on his locker. If they meant it to hurt Kyle, it didn’t work. He thought it was lovely. He didn’t know why Jack liked him, but it made him feel so happy he didn’t care.

Then, one day, as they were eating lunch together, Jack said, “Do you like science fiction movies?”

Kyle had to swallow the sandwich he was eating before replying, “Why?” He hated science fiction, but some inner sense warned him not to say so.

“The new Dune movie opens tomorrow. Do you want to go see it?”

Kyle looked sideways at her. “Huh, you mean with you?”

“Is there someone else you’d rather go with? Like needle dick over there?” She nodded over to where Jason Upton stood slouched against a wall, glowering at them. Kyle giggled and shook his head. Jack laughed. “Yes, of course, I meant with me. You up for it?”

“Yes, I would love to go with you.”

Kyle felt a ripple of excitement as he thought about what she had said. Was she asking him on a date? But before he could ask, she went on, “Wear something nice, something pretty. I’ll see you outside the cinema at seven, OK? I’ll get the tickets.” She glanced at her watch. “Shit, I’ve got double physics. See you tomorrow, Kylie.” His heart almost stopped every time she called him that. Half out of fear that someone would overhear, and half because it gave him a thrill to hear her say it.

He barely slept that night, scared and excited about what the next day would bring. The following morning, all he could think about was what to wear. Something pretty, she had said. What on earth did that even mean? He went through his wardrobe and there was nothing he could find that could remotely be called pretty. He panicked, then had a lightbulb moment. His mother was at work all day, so he snuck into her bedroom and opened her wardrobe. She had so many clothes, and he took after his mother in size, so surely there must be something in there he could wear.

He flicked quickly through the rack of dresses and tops until he found a few he thought looked pretty and pulled them out. Laying his choices out on the bed, he put most to one side because they were too girly, which left only one, a white blouse that could pass as a man’s shirt until you spotted the small ruffles down the front, the wide sleeves and the tiny embroidered pink roses. He pulled off his t-shirt and put on the blouse, his fingers fumbling with the buttons as he found they were on the other side to what he was used to.

He took a deep breath, then turned to look in the mirror. For a moment, he froze as he thought it was his mother looking back at him. People had told him since he was small that he looked like his mother. Now he saw it for himself. He broke into a smile because he thought the blouse made him look, well, yes, pretty. Twisting from side to side, he admired the way it looked, enjoying the feeling of his hair flicking the collar of the shirt as he moved. He quivered inside as he watched himself in the mirror. Yes, he thought, this was what he would wear to meet Jack, and as he thought about her, he felt his face flush.

He carefully put back the tops he had discarded and was about to leave his mother’s room when his eye fell upon a lipstick on the dressing table, and he stopped dead. What if he? No, he shook his head. He couldn’t, shouldn’t. But an idea, once let loose into the wild, is sometimes impossible to wrestle back into its cage. After all, Jack had said to wear something pretty. He sat down on the stool in front of the dressing table and looked at the array of makeup on the table. He opened a couple of lipsticks that turned out to be a bright red and a deep pink until he found one that looked more natural. Pillow Talk by Charlotte Tilbury, it said. He twisted the tube and thought the colour wasn’t too bright, so he rubbed it across the back of his hand as he had seen them do to his mother in shops. He shivered as the lipstick slid across his skin.

He looked at himself in the mirror and pouted his lips. He held the back of his hand up to the mirror to see the colour of the lipstick, and it didn’t look all that different from the colour of his lips. Should he? Dare he? He brought the lipstick close to his lips with trembling fingers and hesitated for a heartbeat before sliding it across his lips as he had watched his mother do a thousand times. He closed his eyes and sighed as the lipstick caressed his lips. The feeling as it slipped across his lips was divine. It felt so naughty, yet so exciting. Opening his eyes, it surprised him to see how it made his lips glisten and glow, as well as make them look bigger. He giggled to himself as he thought about what Jack would say. She had told him to wear something pretty, so why not?

He topped it all off with his skinny jeans and white trainers. Taking a long look at himself in the mirror, he thought he looked good, and anyway, the blouse could pass for a boy’s shirt unless you looked close.

Kyle fussed with his hair one more time. He had washed and conditioned it using his mother’s conditioner, which he thought smelled so much nicer than the ones she bought for him. She gave up complaining about it eventually and let him use hers. He carefully dried it using his mother’s hairdryer, and then brushed it until it shone. Kyle loved his hair and had refused all entreaties to get it cut until it was down to his shoulders. His mother was a hairdresser and cut it for him. She had been born in Sweden and his hair, like hers, was naturally blonde and straight, falling onto his shoulders. He thought there wasn’t a single girl in school with better hair than his. His mother sometimes tried out a new style on his hair and he loved those sessions with her. It made him feel funny to see his hair done in a feminine style, but his mother put her foot down and would not let him keep it that way. Kyle often kept it in a ponytail for convenience, although he loved to wear it down and feel it fold around his face.

He kept glancing at the clock, counting down the minutes until it was finally time for him to leave for the cinema, so he pulled his coat on over the blouse, and ran out of the house, shouting over his shoulder, “Bye, mum. See you later. I’m off to the cinema.”

He was waiting anxiously outside the cinema at seven, wondering if she had set him up and wouldn’t show, leaving him standing there like a fool. Then he saw her pushing through the crowd, her biker jacket worn over a tight white singlet and black jeans, a black baseball cap on backwards, and his heart did a little rhumba in his chest. Jack smiled as she caught sight of Kyle.

“Hi, Kylie.” She said. “Mmm, nice hair.” Kyle blushed and Jack grabbed his hand. “Come on, let’s go in.” She led the way, and after buying a big bucket of popcorn and cokes for them both, which she insisted on paying for, they found their seats in the back row. Kyle shrugged off his coat and turned to say something to find Jack staring at him.

“Babe, that’s a pretty blouse. Is it really yours?”

Kyle shook his head. “No, it’s my mum’s. I borrowed it.”

“It makes you look sweet. I love it.” She paused, peered at Kyle, before asking, “Are you wearing lipstick?”

Kyle blushed and nodded, lowering his eyes.

“Suits you.” She said, then winked. “You should wear it more often.”

They settled in their seats and Jack whispered, “I have a present for you.”

Kyle’s eyes opened wide, and he stared at Jack. “A present? For me?”

Jack grinned. “Is there anyone else here?”

Kyle giggled, then said, “What is it?”

“Close your eyes, Kylie.”

Every time Jack called him that name, a thrill ran through him, but he closed his eyes and felt Jack pick up his hand. Kyle trembled at the touch of her fingers as she fiddled with something on his wrist. “You can open your eyes now.”

Kyle hesitated, wondering what on earth it would be, then snapped open his eyes. Lifting his arm, he was astonished to see a silver bracelet dangling around his wrist.

“Oh, my.” Kyle turned to look at Jack.

“Don’t you like it?” Jack asked nervously.

“No, I love it. It’s beautiful. But why give it to me?”

“An aunt gave it to me when I became a teenager. I wore it for a while, but it’s not kinda me, if you know what I mean. I thought it would suit you a lot more.”

Kyle felt his eyes tear up. “Jack, thank you so much. I love it. Can I keep it, really?”

“Of course, it’s a present.”

His heart did that little rhumba in his chest again, and he leant over and gave Jack a peck on the cheek. “Thank you.”

Jack grinned with pleasure. “You’re welcome, Kylie.”

Kyle felt the bracelet brush against his wrist as he moved his arm, giving him goosebumps. What did this mean? Was it more than a simple gift? Did it mean Jack had feelings for him? What did he feel about Jack? All these questions spun through Kyle’s mind as he admired the sparkling, delicate bracelet on his wrist.

Jack had placed the bucket of popcorn between them, and as Kyle put his hand in, his fingers brushed against Jack’s hand.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, and pulled his hand away, but he couldn’t ignore the tingle he felt from the touch

The lights in the cinema darkened as the movie trailers began. Kyle settled back in his seat, then sensed Jack moving next to him as she draped her arm across his shoulders. Oh, that feels good, he thought. He leant a little towards her and Jack responded by pulling Kyle closer. He let his head rest on her shoulder, snuggling into the embrace of her arm. It felt to Kyle the most natural thing in the world to be held like this. He wiggled in his seat and felt Jack’s head against his hair. A sigh escaped his lips and Jack said, “Shhh.”

Kyle reached into the bucket of popcorn once more, just as Jack did the same. This time, he didn’t draw away from the touch, and their fingers mingled for a moment, and Kyle let out another, louder, sigh. Jack giggled and drew Kyle even closer, and he felt her stroke his arm with her hand. The movie had begun and Kyle tried to follow what was going on, but didn’t dare ask Jack what it was all about. He wasn’t interested in the film, but he had never felt so happy as now, snuggled into Kyle, feeling her fingers against his skin.

He reached up to touch Jack’s hand on his shoulder, and she gently laced her fingers with his. Kyle thought his heart was pounding loud enough for Jack to hear over the film, but she seemed oblivious, content to leave her fingers entwined with his. He had given up on following the film and wondered where this was all leading. Jack didn’t seem to care what others thought of her, but Kyle was still coming to grips with what was happening to him. He couldn’t explain why, but he liked Jack, and she seemed to like him. After all, she had invited him to come to the cinema and had given him a present. Did this mean they were going out? Kyle frowned in confusion. Would that make her his boyfriend or girlfriend? He giggled inside as he wondered if that would make him her girlfriend. Kyle smiled as he thought he couldn’t care less. He was simply happy to be here with Jack next to him, holding him tight.

He turned, meaning to ask Jack something about the film, and as he opened his mouth, she leant forward and kissed him. He was so surprised he froze, unsure how to react. Jack whispered, “Is it all right if I kiss you?”

Kyle gulped, then nodded, and leant forward to kiss her back. She giggled and then they were kissing each other. Kyle closed his eyes and his pulse raced as Jack pushed her tongue through his lips. He had dreamt about a moment like this, but never thought it would happen quite like this. Kyle forgot all about the film as the kiss went on and on, and his heart was beating so much he thought people could hear it over the cinema. Hormones were racing around inside him and the ensuing arousal made him shift in his seat to make himself comfortable. Jack put her hand on his knee and slid it further up until she brushed the bulge in his jeans. Kyle made a sound in his throat as Jack stroked him, but just then the film finished and the house lights came up. They sat there for a few minutes, holding hands and grinning at each other.

Jack stood up first and helped Kyle into his coat. Kyle turned and couldn’t resist giving Jack one more kiss. As he did, he heard someone mutter, “Queer freaks.”

He turned to find Jason and his girlfriend a few feet away, glaring at them. Kyle felt Jack stiffen, and he put his hand on Jack’s arm. “Ignore them, Jack, please.”

“It’s OK. I can handle little boys like Jason.”

Jason flushed scarlet and made a step toward Jack, but his girlfriend pulled him back. “Just you wait, you freak,” he snarled.

“Any time, any place, you creep.” Jack spat back.

Kyle pulled her away. “Come on. Forget it, please, Jack. Let’s go for a burger.”

He dragged her away, and realising Jack was still fuming about the encounter, put his arm through hers as they walked, and she seemed to calm down. It made him feel good to be alongside her, their hips bumping as they walked arm in arm to the burger bar. They chatted about the film as they ate, although Kyle couldn’t remember that much about the film. Jack did most of the talking, telling Kyle how great the CGI effects were and about how there would have to be a sequel. Kyle spent most of the time admiring the bracelet on his wrist and staring into Jack’s eyes. At one point, he felt Jack’s hand slip onto his knee, and Kyle wriggled in his seat, encouraging Jack to go further.

Eventually, they finished eating and chatting, and Kyle said he needed to head home. They left the burger bar hand in hand and walked around the corner to where Kyle would catch the bus home. Just before the bus stop, Jack pulled Kyle into a shop entrance and pushed him against the door. Kyle giggled as Jack put his arms around him and kissed him. Kyle responded by putting his arms around her neck and leant into her embrace. Jack’s leg pushed forward between Kyle’s, allowing her to slide her hand down to stroke the bulge that was growing once more. Kyle moaned and kissed Jack even harder, driving his tongue between her lips until she sucked on it.

A noise behind them made them stop. As Kyle turned, he saw Jason and one of his mates standing at the entrance to the shop.

“You freaks. You’re going to get what you deserve.” He took a step forward, and Jack pushed Kyle behind him.

“Jason, you’ve been gagging for this moment. Is it me or Kyle you fancy most?” Jack moved closer to Jason until they were face to face. Even in the dim light of the shop entrance, Kyle could see Jason’s face was beetroot red, and a vein bulged on his forehead. He bunched his fists and Kyle knew he was about to hit Jack, but before Jason could move, Jack took a step forward and headbutted him. He fell to the ground, holding his nose as blood spurted through his fingers.

The other boy took a couple of steps backwards in surprise but then moved towards Jack, and Kyle saw a knife flash in his hand. Reacting with a speed and strength he didn’t know he had, Kyle took a step forward and kicked the boy in the groin. He screamed, dropped the knife, and grabbed himself before dropping to the ground. Kyle gave him another kick for good measure before Jack grabbed his hand and pulled him away. “We need to get out of here.”

They ran, hand in hand, as fast as they could, until they had to stop, out of breath. Kyle sat down on a wall, his chest heaving, sucking in air. Jack sat down beside him, breathing heavily, her head almost on her knees. They sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Jack started to laugh. Kyle joined in, but he wasn’t sure why.

“What’s funny?” He managed to ask.

Jack looked sideways at him. “You. Kicking that guy in the nuts. That was outstanding, babe. I said you had to stand up to them. But that was next generation. Come here, Kylie.”

She grabbed Kyle and hugged him, and then they were kissing again. Kyle eventually pushed Jack away. “God, what’s going to happen tomorrow? What’s Jason going to do?”

Jack wrapped her arms around Kyle. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. They won’t come anywhere near us now.”

Kyle wasn’t so sure, but they agreed to walk into school together the next day. Kyle arrived home and sneaked into his room without seeing his mother. He stripped off the blouse and pushed it under his bed, meaning to do something with it the following day. He pulled on a t-shirt and headed downstairs to find his mother watching a film.

She looked up and smiled at him. “Hi, Kyle. I didn’t hear you come in. Good film?”

“It was OK, I guess. Science fiction.”

“I thought you hated sci-fi.”

“Mmm, everyone said it was good, so I thought I would give it a try.”

“OK. Who did you go with?”

“Jack? I haven’t heard you mention Jack.”

“No, Jack’s new.”

“Well, I’m glad you’ve found a friend.”

“Mum!”

“OK. OK. I won’t pry.” She was glad to hear Kyle had a friend. She knew he had some issues at school, and worried so much about him. Kyle was watching the TV, so he didn’t catch the long look she gave him, and the puzzled frown on her face.

The next day, Kyle met Jack around the corner from the school and they walked together through the gates. Kyle was relieved that Jason was nowhere to be seen. As they approached, it seemed every student stopped talking and swivelled to look at them. You could have heard a pin drop as they walked towards the group by the school door. As they got close to the door, one girl stepped forward to block their path and Kyle felt Jack tense, ready for whatever was to happen. Suddenly, the girl broke into a smile and clapped. Someone else followed, then someone else, and it became a ripple, then a roar of applause until everyone was clapping and cheering.

Kyle looked around, bewildered by what was happening. Jack grabbed Kyle’s hand and squeezed it tight. “What’s going on?” he whispered to her.

Still clapping, the girl moved towards them. “Becky over there saw everything that happened last night. It was about time someone put Jason in his place.”

Jack turned to Kyle and grinned. “Told you we had to stand up to those pricks.”