The walk back to Blake’s house is relatively uneventful, thankfully. We manage to sneak out of the school mostly unnoticed, although we do run into a couple of people. They give Blake some odd looks, but I think it’s mostly at her clothes more so than anyone actually recognizing her. 

I’m really happy with how well everything went with her coming out to our friends. It honestly gives me hope for when I come out someday in the future. I thought about coming out myself, but I didn’t want to take away from Blake’s moment. Today is her day, and while I’ve also had my own personal earth-shattering revelation that is going to take me a while to fully process, I want to keep things focused on Blake for now. If anything, it helps distract me from thinking too hard about just what I’ve been repressing for so long now. I mean, god, eighteen years of living like this and holding all of this down, just for it to be thrown in my face like this? I--

No. Nope. Remember. Focus on Blake. Okay.

As we get to Blake’s front door, she hesitates just before opening the door. “I know I shouldn’t be nervous, but I still am,” she whispers to me.

“It’s going to be okay, Blake. Your mom will definitely be really supportive, and I’m sure your dad will too,” I whisper back reassuringly.

“I know, but I’m still anxious. This will be their first time seeing me. The real me. What if they don’t like what they see? What if they miss the old me?”

I pull Blake into a hug and rest my chin on top of her head. “That won’t happen. I think they might need some adjustment time, or at least your dad will, but they’ll both see how much happier you are now and that’ll make them happy too.”

Blake rests against me, snuggling her head against my chest and smiling. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I know you’re right. It’s all going to go okay.” She looks up at me, gratitude in her eyes. “Thank you, Angel. For everything. For being here today. For liking me back. And especially for transforming me.”

“Of course, Blake. That last one was sort of an accident, but the rest I’d do anytime. It’s like I said: I just want to see you happy.”

Some tears build up in the corners of Blake’s eyes. She leans up and we kiss again. Another in a long line of wonderful kisses that we’ve shared today, and just like the others I love every bit of it. “Okay,” she says with renewed confidence, “Let’s do this!” And with that, she opens the door and we walk inside. “Mom! Dad! I’m home!”

Inside is Blake’s dad in the living room, scrolling on his phone. Both of Blake’s parents work from home since they both work at the same IT company, and it always really shows that her dad never has to leave the house often considering how he’s still dressed in his pajamas.  He looks up as we walk in and I can see his expression get increasingly more confused as, instead of the child of his that he’s used to, he sees a girl there with me instead. 

“Uh--” is all he manages to blurt out before Blake’s mom walks in from her office. She’s at least dressed in actual clothes, but they’re definitely still pretty casual. “Welcome home… Blake?” she says, her sentence ending as a confused question when she also takes stock of Blake’s new form. “Wait, wait, wait. Blake, is that you??” 

Blake rubs the back of her head sheepishly and nods. “Yep. Um. Hi, Mom!” Blake’s mom immediately sprints over and pulls her into a big hug, practically lifting her off the ground. It’s actually surprising the height difference between the two of them now that I think about it. Blake is a good four inches or so shorter. I wonder how the family genetics ended up somewhere like that, especially considering Blake's dad is about the same height as her mom. 

“Oh my god! It finally happened! You kissed a girl!” Blake’s mom laughs ecstatically. She drops Blake down and takes a good look at her, grinning happily. “And just look at you! You look so, so…” Tears build up in her eyes and she wipes them away, her smile quivering with emotion. “Oh Blake, you look absolutely beautiful!”

“Oh, Mom!” Blake chokes out as she tears up as well. She buries her face into her mom, who wraps her in another hug. “Do I really??”

“You really do, hunny. Just as beautiful and precious as I hoped you’d turn out.”

“Uh, just, wait a minute Sandra,” Blake’s dad finally manages to pipe in. “That girl there. You’re saying she’s our Blake?”

Sandra looks over to Blake’s dad and nods. “Yes, she is. It’s the family curse I told you about, remember, Liam? I transformed when I was younger, and now Blake has too.”

“That… That was real?” Liam stammers, his eyes widening.

Sandra raises an eyebrow. “Of course it was real! You’re telling me you haven’t believed me this entire time?”

“No, no, I believed you. That said, actually seeing it happen is a bit of a shock.” Liam leans back into the couch and drops his phone at his side. “Unbelievable. Our son has turned into a girl.”

“Um, actually, about that,” Blake interjects. She breaks away from her hug with her mom and looks to both of her parents. “I was waiting until this happened to tell you both, but I was never your son. I’ve always been a girl.”

Sandra looks confused. “What do you mean, Blake?”

“What I mean is that I’m, um, I’m transgender, mom.”

Sandra crosses her arms and tilts her head. “Transgender?”

“Oh, I’ve heard about this on the news,” Liam pipes in. “Boys and girls who were born with the wrong bodies and go through medical and surgical procedures to change their bodies to be the gender they want to be.” He scratches his head and looks at Blake quizzically. “You’re saying you’re one of those, Blake?”

Blake takes a deep breath and straightens her posture. “You’re sort of right, Dad. It’s true that when I was born, the doctor said I was a boy and you both then raised me as one.” She grabs onto my hand and I give her a squeeze. “When Mom told me the curse would turn me into a girl, I at first believed her because at the time I thought I was a boy too. A boy who wanted to be a girl. But I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and introspection since then and now I think I never really was one to begin with. I’ve always felt sort of out of place and like I had a feminine soul.”

“So you’re saying that on the inside, you think you were always a girl. Is that what you mean, Blake?” Sandra asks. 

Blake nods and smiles. “Exactly! My body before, my old body, was all sorts of wrong. Mostly because I had been going through the wrong puberty. I was uncomfortable and felt like something wasn’t right on a deep and personal level.”

“And now you don’t?” asks Liam.

“I don’t. This body now, it finally feels like mine. I love everything about it already, even though I’ve only had it for a short time.”

Sandra and Liam sit quietly, pondering Blake’s words. They both look at each other and exchange wordless glances. Then they look at Blake and their serious expressions soften. “I think I kind of understand, Blake,” Liam says finally. “Not entirely, but it sounds to me like before you were unhappy with who you were. As a boy. And now that you have this new body, you don’t feel like you have to pretend to be one anymore and can be more like your actual self. Right?”

Blake nods excitedly. “Yes, that! Exactly that!”

“I… I think I get that. A lot,” Sandra says quietly. “It sounds like how I used to feel when I was your age, Blake. I never really thought it had anything to do with my gender, but I remember feeling bland and uninterested in a lot of things before I transformed. It wasn’t until I turned into a woman that I really felt color seep back into my life.”

This time Blake looks a bit surprised. “You mean, you think you’re trans too, mom?”

“Yeah, I think I am.” Sandra sighs and chuckles softly. “Wow, what a surprise. I thought I’d already had everything about my life change years ago when I transformed, and now I feel like I’m discovering a whole new side of myself. There’s even a name for it!”

“That’s how I felt when Angel first told me about trans people too!” Blake says, gesturing to me.

“Oh, right! Angel! I forgot you were here this whole time!” Sandra rubs her arms nervously. “I, um, I’m guessing Blake already filled you in on the whole family curse then?”

“Oh yeah, she told me about it a month ago. She’d been trying to get girls to kiss her so she could transform and I found her upset about it after school one day. I comforted her, she told me about it, I helped her realize she was trans, and then I decided to help her find a girl to kiss.” I look at Blake and smile bashfully. “And today I, um, finally succeeded in getting her that kiss.”

“That’s great!” Liam says, standing up off the couch finally. “Who’s the lucky girl?”

Blake’s face gets beet red. “About that. It’s, um. The girl is…”

“It’s okay, Blake. I’ll tell them.” I look to both of Blake’s parents and squeeze Blake’s hand tight. “It was me. I’m the girl Blake kissed.”

“Wait, what? It was you?” Liam scratches his head in confusion. “But you’re a boy, right? Unless…”

“Oh wow. Angel, are you trans too?” Sandra asks, covering her mouth with one hand in shock.

“I, um. Yes, ma’am. I am.”

“Oh my god. And the curse recognized you as a girl and transformed Blake after she kissed you? That’s incredible! That’s amazing!” Sandra shakes her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe it. The three of us, all transgender! What are the odds of this happening?!”

“Evidently higher than I thought, or we’re really lucky outliers,” I reply with a laugh.

“I think I need to sit back down,” Liam says, plopping back onto the couch. “This is. Wow. This is a lot to take in.”

“It’s alright, Liam, I don’t blame you.” Sandra sits down in a chair and pulls out her phone, tapping away furiously. “God, I have so much research I need to do now. I need to learn all about myself and my newfound people!” 

“Oh, wait, um, don’t tell anyone else that I’m trans, though, okay?” I add, gesturing to myself. “Not even my parents. I don’t think I’m ready to come out to them yet.”

“Yeah, of course, absolutely, Angel,” Sandra agrees with a nod, her eyes still on her phone.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Liam agrees as well. “I think I’m going to be too busy dealing with all this here with Blake for now anyways.”

“About that. What are we going to do about school and stuff?” Blake asks.

“Oh, right!” Sandra says, looking up from her phone. “I completely forgot!”

“Do we pull Blake out of school?” Liam asks her. “We can’t just send her back to school and pretend like she was always a girl, right?”

“What did you do after you transformed, mom?”

“Well, I transformed after I was already done with school. I wasn’t even in college yet. So what I did was I adopted the new name mine had been transformed into and started living as a girl.”

“Wait, wait, hold on.” Blake tilts her head curiously. “What do you mean the new name yours had transformed into?”

“Oh, well, the transformation not only changed my body, but it also changed all of my identification and legal documents. As far as anyone was concerned legally, I was now Sandra Rose and I’d always been a girl. So I just kind of settled into that new life for myself and slowly adjusted and learned things that I hadn’t learned about being a girl growing up.”

Blake’s jaw drops and her eyes widen. “It changed all your identification documents? Wait, so, does that mean that my--?” She pulls her wallet out of her jeans and takes out her driver’s license. Immediately she yelps in surprise. I look over at it and nearly do the same. On her license is a picture of her exactly as she is now, except wearing a blouse that I’m pretty sure she doesn’t actually own. It has her same name as Blake Rose, but her gender marker has an “F” in place instead of what I assume used to be an “M”.

“Wow, Blake, that’s crazy.” I shake my head, barely believing what I’m seeing. “You’re not even going to have to update anything legally! It’s like you’re barely going to have to transition at all!”

“Transition?” Sandra asks me.

“Oh, it’s the process a trans person goes through where they go from living life as the gender they were assigned at birth, to living life as their true gender. It involves different things for different people, but usually involves updating legal documents, changing their name, coming out to friends and family, and sometimes medical and surgical procedures.”

“Oh. Huh.” Sandra looks over to Blake and laughs. “I guess you’ll be able to skip out on all that!”

Liam holds his chin in his hand. “That does give me an idea though.” He looks at Sandra. “What if we informed the school about Blake being transgender and told them we were going to pull her out of school for some time as she ‘transitioned’?”

 “Oh! And then we establish an alibi for her and a more ‘realistic’ reason why she’s a girl now!” Sandra exclaims. 

“Exactly! Because there’s no way anyone is going to believe this whole ‘family curse’ thing.” 

“Oh, definitely. I kept that to myself for a long time anyways. Only my family and friends knew.”

From there, Sandra and Liam start planning out what they’re going to do for Blake’s time out of school for her “transition”. I don’t really pay that much attention, though, since it doesn’t involve me. Instead, I think about just how easy this is all going to be for Blake. She got to magically become her true self, all of her documents got updated instantly, and now she’s going to get time out of school to adjust to everything and prepare for living her new life as a girl. It’s honestly the dream, and thinking about it makes me feel a pang of jealousy and envy in my heart. Especially when I think about how my own transition is going to be in no way nearly as simple.

Blake notices me silently brooding and grabs both of my arms, shaking me out of my inner thoughts. “This went really well, Angel!”

I nod and smile. “So well. I’m really, really happy for you, Blake.”

Blake pulls me into a hug and sighs with relief. “I’m so glad you were here for this. I’m so, so thankful for everything that’s happened today.” She sniffles and squeezes me tight against her. “I think this just might be the best day of my entire life!”

Seeing Blake get emotional helps pull me out of the negative mood I was starting to fall into and I start to tear up as well. I hold her close to me and rest my head on top of hers. Things might not be the same for me, and I’ll have to deal with that when I do, but for now I just want to stay in this moment with Blake. I want to remember how happy she is right now, how happy it’s making me to see her like this, and keep this day as one I’ll always remember as one of the biggest and most important days of my life.

“I’m so happy I finally get to be a girl, Angel,” Blake cries with a happy sob.

“Me too,” I reply warmly. “You deserve it.” And I mean it. She really, truly does.

Hopefully, someday, I get to be one too.