That idea stuck to me when I went to bed. The last class was about to end on a Tuesday afternoon, and my sophomore year was still young. I was sitting at my desk, looking at some school work. My phone was face up next to me, with a video of an upcoming anime trailer on the screen.

“Hey, what’s that? A kid’s show?”

It was Dan. He was a tall guy. Not stupid, but I wouldn’t call him smart either. That’s not to say he doesn’t have talent - he has comedic chops if he tries. It landed his girlfriend with him, she’ll come up later. “I’m not sure I’d call it that…”

I was nervous about going past that. The show in question was rather definitely not a kids show, but I wasn’t eager to start talking about it when people in the room are out to make me look wimpy and… un-manly-like. I don’t like using ‘feminine’ here, it’s a good word that has been rendered stupid by the whims of too many people using it too many ways.
“Heh. Looks like Matt can’t find his man card.” Dan was snarky.
“I mean, he is pretty girly…” called one of the other guys in the room. I can’t remember who it was.
I sighed, and tried to bury my mind into my school work. It didn’t work, because Dan decided it was time for a comedy routine at my expense.
“Hey, hey guys, I have something to say…” Dan led on with his comedy-funny-man persona in full gear.
“So, Matt here can’t get a girlfriend, right? He doesn’t have the man-points to do it. So, what if he’s thinking about switching to the girl side?”
I remember that was quite irritating to me, as it was something people were increasingly often making fun of me with.
“Hmm… that’s a theory right there.” Some guy noted.
“Hey, Matt, maybe you should try it. Is that the key to getting dear friends to come to you?” a third guy added.
I was starting to lose my cool, and began packing a little early.
The other guys seemed to notice that it was really getting to me, and so they decided in a stunning move that would later backfire on them in a remarkably poetic manner to pour it on.
It didn’t last long, though. The situation snapped when someone had the nerve to say:

“Hey, if you want us to treat you like a girl, just tell us!”

I had barely packed my things when that was said - and I was done. “Fuck. You.” was all I said in a loud, angry tone. I stormed out immediately after.

I ended up at home a rather emotional mess, but there’s one thing I should mention before then. Dan’s girlfriend was in the room at the time. Her name is Lily. She happened to be in a crucial spot for this story. You see, she knew me through my older sister who was a senior at the time. She gave word to my older sister of what went down - she wasn’t the most approving of Dan’s choice.

Anyway, me and my older sister had a calm-down chat about the event. Most of it wasn’t important, but the one part that was about the “being a girl” part. Essentially, she mentioned that if they keep it up, maybe I should just try it to throw them off. She was the kind of person who would sometimes make you make a social misstep by doing exactly what you asked. What if I applied that philosophy to this situation?