"Preston," Nikki sighed, "Fries are not a vegetarian option."

Preston blinked, "Fries are meat?"

"No, buddy, they're not meat," Nikki smirked, "but they're not exactly a full meal, are they?"

"Crap, you're right," Preston scoured the menu, looking for other options, "You could get a BLT. That's got lettuce and tomato on it." Nikki cocked her head, "Lettuce, tomato, and..." Preston furrowed his brow, "Mayonnaise?"

Nikki shook her head and chuckled to herself. "Okay, Preston. I'll get the LT with a side of fries. But next time, I'm choosing the restaurant."

Preston blushed and looked back at the menu. Honestly, maybe he should have let Nikki choose the restaurant this time as well.

The restaurant they were at was called Jugs, and it was decorated like a cross between a dive bar and a gentleman's club. Preston had heard about it from another vlogger, and thought it looked awesome. Apparently the owner had based the aesthetic around the three Bs: Beef, Beer, and Beautiful Jugs.

Now that he was here, sitting across from Nikki, the place felt a lot less cool. It almost felt... extremely lame.

A table of guys across the room erupted into raucous yelling. Preston winced, but Nikki didn't seem bothered. 

"So, do you want to start filming?" she asked, "We could do the intro here." 

"Oh, yeah, sure," Preston reached into his pocket for his phone, then realised he didn't have any pockets.

Nikki winked. "Rookie mistake."

Preston fished his phone out of the purse Nikki had lent him and started filming. It wouldn't be as high quality as Marcus's camera, but it was fine for a casual vlog. 

"Ayo, what's up fam! It's ya boy Pres-- uh..." He coughed and stopped the recording. "Sorry, that was a bad one."

Nikki nodded, "That’s okay. Ready when you are."

"Thanks," said Preston.  He started a new recording. "Yooo, what's good, fam. We're here at Jugs. We got NikkiBeauty--" Nikki waved, "--and me, it’s your buh. Uh, it's your bes Proyston. It's your Proy..."

He shook his head and started again. "We got NikkiBeauty in the house, and I'm David Dobrik. No, I'm not. It's ya Pred's boyfriend."

Nikki reached out and quietly took the phone away from him.

"It's ya boy, Preston," she said. Preston nodded shamefacedly.

"I think I had too much to drink," he said. Nikki glanced at his half-finished Bud Lite, "I dunno. Just feels weird to say that for some reason."

"That's okay. You don't have to say it if you don't feel comfortable," she said. 

Preston bit his lip and nodded. After a moment, Nikki reached out and squeezed his hand gently. It felt nice.

"I think it just feels weird because I'm all dressed up like this," said Preston, "And you did a really good job making me look like a girl. So it feels dumb to say "Its ya boy." And, uh... it’s transphobic."

Nikki raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it's definitely not transphobic for a boy to say ’It's ya boy’. But thank you for the compliment."

"Of course, dude. No sweat," said Preston, even though he actually kind of was starting to sweat. He had just thought of something, but he suspected that it might be a really, really bad idea. He looked at Nikki cautiously. "Maybe I could say... it's ya... girl?"

Nikki's eyes narrowed. Her grip on Preston's hand tightened in a way that felt both comforting and threatening.

"As a joke?" she said

"Uh..."

"Holy shit! It is you!" someone exclaimed from right next to Preston's head. He flinched and whirled around.

The voice was coming from none other than the toothy, grinning mouth of Colton Keese.

Preston's jaw dropped. Colton Keese was an idol to him. He was only twenty-one, and he had already achieved so many amazing things: he had over a million subs on YouTube, and he had over 900K on TikTok. Not only that, he had collabed with Jake Paul!

And now he was right in front of Preston, with that trademark wide smile his squad always roasted him about.

Colton Keese turned away, yelling across the restaurant, "Yo Shelton! Hunter! I told you it was him!"

He turned back to Preston, "Dude, I saw your prank video. It was so funny! And there are actually people like that! Hahaha!"

"Haha, yeah!" Preston  said excitedly. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was going for! It's like... a meme, right?"

"Hell yeah! Hahaha!" Colton Keese slapped Preston on the shoulder, "It’s like a meme, dude! So funny!"

Colton's friends reached the table and immediately started laughing along with him. Preston recognized them instantly. Shelton and Hunter, two of the funniest guys in Colton's crew, Team Keese.

"Holy shit!" said Shelton. "It’s that guy from the video!"

"I think you mean that girl from the video!" said Hunter. 

"Hahaha, yeah I think you mean that GIRL from the video!" said Colton. All of them burst out laughing, including Preston. 

Colton pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Dude, I can't believe we bumped into you right when you were doing another prank! We gotta collab, man!"

"Hell yes!" said Preston. Visions of a million+ sub count flashed through his head, "Dude, all three of us should collab!"

"What?" Colton laughed, "What do you mean all three?"

"All three of our channels!" Preston said, "You, me, and..." he turned to look across the table and faltered, "Nikki?"

"Yeah, not interested," Nikki said coldly.

Preston looked back and forth between Colton and Nikki. “Nikki, can I talk to you for a moment?”

In an impromptu huddle on the far side of the table, Preston crouched down next to Nikki and intensely whispered, “Nikki, what are you doing? This guy is a huge deal. This could be massive for both our channels.”

“He’s also an asshole,” Nikki responded, not bothering to hide the disdain in her voice. “You can do whatever you want, but I’m not working with this guy.”

Preston stood back up and turned to Colton. “Sorry about that, dude! Anyway, I’d def be down for a collab! Yeah!”

“Wait, who’s the chick? I feel like I recognize her from somewhere.”

“Wait, it’s that one trann-I mean, it’s that one makeup YouTuber!” one of Colton’s friends--Preston wasn’t sure if it was Hunter or Shelton--blurted out.

“Oh yeah, you’re right.” He squinted at Nikki. “Damn, you really look like an actual girl. Do you still have a dick?”

“Whoa, what? Huh?” Preston said. “Nikki is a girl, dude. Why are you surprised she looks like one?”

Nikki stood up and started walking away, her jaw tightly clenched.

Colton glared at Preston. “What the fuck, dude, what are you, some SJW? Jesus, no one can take a joke anymore. I can’t even ask a simple question.”

Preston stood there for a moment, conflicted. “Whoa, sorry, dude, I’d love to collab and you can find me on Twitter at PrestonVlogs, but I think I need to go check on Nikki.”

He found Nikki sitting in her car outside, resting her head on her hands. She looked up as he approached and he could see that she’d been crying.

“Hey, you okay?”

Nikki sniffled before pulling out a tissue and carefully wiping under her eyes. “I can’t stand guys like that. I’ve heard enough about him to know he’d probably say something shitty.”

“What was he talking about, anyway?” Preston asked. “You’re obviously a girl, but he seemed to think you were crossdressing like me or something.”

“It’s because I’m trans. Some people don’t care about what you look like or how much work you’ve put in; as soon as they find out you’re trans they’re just gonna be assholes. Honestly, I wish I had just gone stealth, but I thought coming out might help young trans girls feel less alone or something. I should be used to this kind of shit by now, but it’s still always a surprise when it happens face-to-face.”

“Oh, you’re trans? Cool.” Preston still didn’t really know what that meant, even though he had tried to read about the subject. “So, uh, how’s the… gender?”

Nikki giggled. “It’s good.”

He paused a moment. “Okay, to be honest I still don’t really know what that means. I tried to read about it, but it made my brain hurt. Maybe, uh, you can explain it to me? If that’s cool, if that’s chill I mean, I don’t want to--I mean, you’re not my professor or whatever, obviously you don’t have--but like, it’d be--”

“Sure, I can explain,” Nikki said, straightening up. “This might not be the best time, though. I think I need some alone time, if that’s okay. Feel free to DM me later.”

“Uh, okay! So are you homing head--I mean, heading home?”

“Yeah, I think so. Do you need a ride or anything?”

“Nahh, I’m good. I can get Marcus to come pick me up. Oh, or an Uber! Oh wait, but I’m still dressed like a girl. What if they think I’m a girl and don’t stop? Are there girls named Preston? Me? Am I a girl named Preston?”

“Well, you definitely shouldn’t try to drive. You really are a lightweight, huh?”

“Nah, I weigh like 150 pounds! That’s a lot for my height, ya know? Anyway it was, like, really cool to meet you! Uhh, I think you’re cute.” Preston immediately cursed his overactive drunk mouth.

Nikki put her hand over her mouth, but from her eyes you could tell she was smiling. “You’re not too bad yourself, PrestonVlogs. Now if you can stop leaning on my car so I can pull out, that’d be great.”

“Oh! Sorry! Byeeee Nikki!” He waved as she pulled out of the parking spot and drove away.

“Huh, wait, my boy clothes are still at her place. Whoops! Oh and I think I left my purse in the restaurant.” He stumbled back into the restaurant and sat back down in the chair his purse was draped over.

Glancing around, he saw Colton and his friends had returned to their table at the other end of the restaurant.

“Hey, Colton, sorry about that but I’m back! I think Nikki went home, but we can talk more if you want? I really love your videos, man.”

Colton glanced up at Preston, an initial expression of annoyance quickly smoothed out by a practiced brilliant smile. “Thanks, man, I owe it all to the fans. Actually, there is something you can do for me. We can even starting filming right now if you’re down.”

“Whoa, really? Sure, that’d be awesome! What did you want to film me doing?”

“Oh, it should be super easy. We just need you to go into one of the bathrooms in this restaurant. That’s it!”

“Oh, sure, man! I can deffo use a public restroom for the honor of being in a COLTON KEESE video! Like, that’s nothing. It’s such an honor!”

Colton smiled again, before pulling out his iPhone. “Okay, remember, just walk straight to the bathroom and go in. And… action!”

Preston looked around for a moment, until he spotted the sign for the restrooms. He walked over, slightly unevenly, as Colton followed with his phone.

Glancing back and forth between the two bathroom doors, Preston was momentarily conflicted. Usually he used the boys bathroom. But the symbol for the girl’s bathroom had a stick figure in a dress. He was in a dress!

“Come on, dude!” Colton shouted. Preston hesitated a moment before pushing open the girls’ room door and going in. He could hear Colton crowing with laughter behind him as the door swung shut, the noise suddenly cut off as the door closed.

Looking around, it wasn’t really like what he had been expecting. It pretty much just looked like the men’s room but without any urinals.

He heard a toilet flush before a woman came out of one of the stalls. She glanced at him for a moment before going to wash her hands.

He had just sat down to pee--girls were supposed to sit, right? And he was in the girls’ room?--when he heard the door swing open.

“Hey! Young man! You’re not allowed to be in here!”

Peeking out of the crack between the stall door and wall, he saw a harried-looking middle-aged woman wearing a tie and a nametag that said MANAGER - LORRAINE on it.

“We had someone report a man in the women’s room. Come out now or I’m going to have to contact security.”

Preston stood back up, pulling his dress back down into place, and then stepped out of the stall, his hands raised in surrender.

Lorraine looked confused. She walked along the row of stalls, pushing open each door and glancing inside. By the time she got to the end and turned around, her expression had changed to one of exasperation.

“Goddamnit, not another false report. These goddamn influencers can’t keep getting away with wasting our time like this.” Before Preston could say anything, she stormed out of the bathroom. Faintly, through the wall, he could hear her yelling at someone.

Confused, he decided to finish using the bathroom before going to see what was happening outside. He exited to see the manager taping a sign up on the wall, and Colton nowhere in sight.

The sign read BANNED FROM THE PREMISES and had a grainy photo of Colton standing outside the bathroom.

“Huh, weird.” Preston shrugged and returned to his seat to finish his Bud Lite.

---