Epilogue
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Content warning:

Spoiler

Mention of sex.

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“Chloe, are you ready?” I called up the stairs. “We’re gonna be late!”

“Coming!” she called back, and descended the staircase at a run. “How do I look?” she asked, spreading her arms wide.

I looked at her, taking in her appearance – ripped jeans, black boots, and a purple T-shirt with SUN VULCAN emblazoned on it along with a stylised drawing of the sun setting behind a volcano – and nodded. “Really good. Shall we go?”

She nodded back enthusiastically. “See you later!” she said, opening the front door.

“See you later, girls!” Mom replied from the couch, and Dad waved at us; Tony, for his part, took advantage of Dad’s momentary distraction to boot his character off the stage in the video game they were playing.

“GAME!” the TV loudly announced.

“Darn, three to four,” Dad said. “Ah well. Have fun!”

“Bye, Emily! Bye, Chloe!” Tony shouted.

I waved at them, and Chloe and I left the house, getting in the car and starting the drive towards our destination.

It was mid-summer, about six weeks after the end of the school year. I’d had no further problems with anyone in the last two weeks before school let out, and last I heard the administration was working on the paperwork so I would be able to officially attend as a girl during my senior year. Not that it made any real difference, though: I was already dressing in the clothes I wanted and presenting as a girl full time, and I had no plans to change that, even if the name change fell through for some reason; but it felt good to have an official confirmation of the fact that I was a girl.

I hadn’t talked to Troy after our final confrontation: I’d spotted her a couple times in the corridors during the last two weeks of school, but we’d ignored each other, and I hadn’t seen her since she graduated.

I was still seeing Josh regularly, of course: now that we weren’t busy with schoolwork we hung out almost every day, either at my house or his, just spending the time being together. Sometimes we hung out with Chloe or Tony or Josh’s cousins, playing games or going to the movies or whatever; sometimes we spent time on our own, doing our summer homework and generally studying. Or “studying” if we were alone in the house. (Once we managed to get over our dysphoria and hang-ups, and find what worked for us, we’d discovered that being intimate was very fun indeed.)

That day, we were planning to go to a Sun Vulcan live show, which was to be the first one in a proper music venue (instead of pubs or cafés or the like): apparently the band had been steadily growing in popularity, to the point that a local promoter had hired them to replace a bigger and more famous band which unexpectedly couldn’t show up for their gig. They were given only a few days’ notice, and it had been incredible to see Flynn, Quinton, and Ryan scramble to put together a show on such a short deadline; Josh and I had stepped in and helped them, running some minor errands so they could focus their whole attention on organising the show, and to thank us they’d invited the two of us, Chloe, and our friends from school to the show, giving us free tickets.

And, speaking of friends, I stopped the car in front of Aggie’s house; she was already waiting for us on the sidewalk.

“Hi Aggie!” I said after rolling the window down. “Ready for the concert?”

“Of course,” she nodded in response. “Since you sent me the link to their Bandcamp, I’ve spent the past few days listening to their music on repeat. It’s really good, I can’t wait to hear it live!”

“You won’t be disappointed,” Chloe smiled as Aggie climbed into the car.

“Where to next?” Aggie asked.

“Directly to the venue,” I replied. “Josh is picking up Mark and Nick, and we’ll meet there.”

Aggie nodded in agreement. That was how we’d arranged things: there was no way we could all fit into one car, and Josh lived closer to Mark and Nick than I did, so it made sense.

We spent the next half hour just making conversation and generally chit-chatting, until we reached the venue the concert would take place at. As I turned from the street into the parking lot, I could see the others were already there; we found a spot, and got out of the car.

“Hi, Emily,” Josh said when I approached him. “How are you? Did you sleep well?”

I nodded. “Yeah, quite well, thank you,” I replied; then grinned, leaned in so only he could hear me, and added, “Still a bit sore from yesterday, but, you know.”

He grinned back. “Is it a good soreness or a bad soreness?”

“A good soreness,” I replied. “I could go for some more, actually.”

Josh looked around, and when he turned back to me he had a pretend-shocked expression on his face. “Right here? Right now?” he asked.

I punched him in the shoulder. “Dork,” I said.

“Hey, get a room, you two!” my sister Chloe called out; I turned around and stuck my tongue out at her.

“I’m willing to bet they did get a room,” Aggie added with a giggle.

I sighed deeply. “Oh, Aggie, don’t you start too.”

“Oh, what’s this?” Nick said, stepping close to us. “Are we making fun of the sex-havers? I’m in.”

I frowned. “Aren’t you a sex-haver too? You and Mark?”

“’Course,” he shrugged. “But I just can’t pass on the opportunity to give a friend a good ribbing.” Mark nodded in agreement.

I groaned, and punched him in the shoulder; but secretly I was glad I’d been able to make such good friends, and to keep them even after coming out – I’d heard too many horror stories about that.

“Come on, the show’s starting,” Chloe said. “Let’s not be late.”

We all nodded, and followed my sister inside, showing our tickets to the guy who was manning the doors. “Have fun,” he said with a nod as we filed in.

Like the previous time – but with twice as many people this time – we took up position along the far wall, where we would have a good view of the stage and the music wouldn’t be as loud; we kept chatting among ourselves until the lights dimmed and the show began.

As Josh’s cousin Ryan, Sun Vulcan’s frontman, said his introductions and began playing, I found myself thinking about the past.

Six months earlier, I’d resigned myself to staying closeted until I finished my junior year, and then coming out at the start of my senior year. I’d resigned myself to give up on making friends, until I could truly be myself. I’d given up on finding love.

That was before I’d met Josh.

By sheer chance, I had found someone who pushed me to be the best version of myself, and who had helped and supported me all the way. And I, in turn, had helped and supported him: instead of being two ships passing each other in the night, we’d found each other.

And I stood there, listening to the music, standing side-by-side with my boyfriend, I felt I’d been quite lucky.

“Alright, folks, it’s almost time to say goodnight,” Ryan said into the microphone. “But first, we have a surprise for you: a new song.” The crowd cheered, and he waited a bit for the noise to die down before continuing, “That’s right. No one has ever heard this song before, it’s debuting today; and I want to dedicate it to two special people. This is for our cousin Josh, and for his girlfriend Emily. Here’s A Special One.”

I turned my head to look at Josh, and by the expression on his face he was as surprised as I was: neither of us were expecting this.

The crowd cheered again as Ryan strummed his guitar, and then launched into a slow, melancholic ballad, which slowly built up in volume and complexity; several people in the audience lifted up their cellphones, and started moving them in time with the music.

I glanced at Josh again, and he turned to me, smiling and offering me a hand.

“Wanna dance?” he mouthed.

I smiled back, stepped forward, and kissed him.

“Yes, I do wanna dance,” I said, after stepping back. I grabbed his hand, and we moved away from the wall, so we could have a bit more space.

“Let’s go.”

 

 

The end.

 

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And that's it! We're done here. Thanks for reading, folks, and I hope you've enjoyed this story 😊

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