I almost jumped out of my seat as someone loudly knocked on the door of the girls’ hotel room.

“Oh, that must be Zach!” Maria said. She sprang to her feet and ran over to open the door.

“Nice of you to join us girls,” she said as Zach came in. 

“Hey! Damn, the gang’s all here,” he said as he saw me sitting there. “You good, man? You’re looking kind of red.”

“Must be sunburn,” I muttered, avoiding eye contact.

Zach raised one eyebrow but didn’t comment further.

“So, anyone else hungry?” he asked. “We could get room service or order a pizza or go down to the restaurant by the lobby or try some local restaurant nearby. Although I looked earlier and there’s nothing within walking distance except for like a Denny’s and a Burger King so we’d probably want to drive.”

“I’d rather just order something,” I said. After recent events, the last thing I wanted was to go interact with strangers. 

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want our princess to get sunburned again,” Maria said. I shot her a glare as she snickered.

“Alright, we can order in then,” Zach said, missing the intense psychological warfare happening right in front of him. “I kind of want to try getting room service just for the novelty, but also it’s way too expensive. I mean, fifteen dollars for a grilled cheese sandwich?”

I saw an opportunity to finally not be the one getting roasted. “Well, Zach, I’m sure one of these days you’ll grow up and discover foods besides grilled cheese and mac and cheese and chicken nuggies.”

Zach snorted in disdain. “I’ll have you know I actually prefer tendies, thank you very much. And I eat other things! Like, uhh… buttered noodles.”

“When was the last time you ate a vegetable, dude?” I asked.

Zach thought for a moment. “Yesterday?”

“Corn, potatoes, and ketchup or tomato sauce don’t count.”

His brow furrowed. “Wait, really? Lame. Uh, in that case… I’m not sure?” 

“Damn, dude. How are you still alive? How do you have muscles?” I poked my finger in the direction of his bicep.

“Well, having testosterone in his body probably helps,” Maria helpfully added.

“Hey, don’t bully him,” Zach said. “I’m sure he’ll go through puberty one of these days.”

I couldn’t help but shudder at the male pronouns and the idea of me with muscles and a beard and stuff. Unfortunately, Maria definitely noticed.

“But which puberty?” Maria teased. I made the bold decision to, uh, stare straight ahead and act like she hadn’t said that.

“What’s that even supposed to mean?” Zach asked.

“Just ignore her,” Jenna said. “She’s being weird.”

“When is she not?” Zach joked. Maria elbowed him in the side. “Ow!”

Seeing them side by side, Zach and Maria really did look like a perfect couple. I tried to ignore the jealousy bubbling in the back of my mind after thinking that. They were my friends. I should be happy for them.

I guess I didn’t quite succeed in burying my emotions, because Jenna had noticed something. “Hey, you okay?” she asked softly while Zach and Maria were distracted trying to find something worth watching on cable TV.

I shrugged. “I’m fine,” I lied.

“Okay. Just let me know if you need me to talk to Maria. She, uh, isn’t exactly great at being tactful and I know she can be kind of mean. She doesn’t mean anything bad by it. She just doesn’t know how to leave things alone. I think that’s just how she interacts with most people that she likes.”

I felt my heart rate increase after hearing that last phrase. “S-she likes me?”

“Well, duh,” Jenna said. “I mean, she wouldn’t want to go on vacation with someone she hated, y’know? She likes everyone here.”

“Ah, okay,” I said, secretly disappointed. So Jenna just meant that Maria likes me… as a friend. Yeah, that sounded about right.

Zach and Maria had apparently given up on finding any decent cable shows, as Zach turned the TV off. “Hey, I’m gonna call a pizza place in a mo,” he said. “Is everyone okay with a large pepperoni?”

“Zach.” I said. “We literally talked about this earlier today. I’m a vegetarian, remember?”

“Oh, doy,” he said, lightly slapping his forehead. “Sorry. Uh, what about a medium cheese and a medium pep?”

“Can we get a salad?” I asked.

Zach laughed, but stopped when I didn’t join in. “Oh, you’re serious?”

“Eating a salad is a pretty normal thing to do, Zach,” I said.

“Salad sounds good,” Jenna weighed in.

“Alright,” Zach said. “I mean, I’m not gonna eat any of it, but knock yourselves out. So, two pizzas and a salad? What kind do you want? They have, uh–” he flipped over the tri-fold menu they had left on the room’s desk along with a bunch of tourism brochures ”–Caesar, house, Greek, and Italian.”

“Let me see that,” I said. He handed me the menu. “Okay, let’s do Greek.”

“Damn, fast decision,” he said.

“Well, the Italian has salami in it and the Caesar probably has anchovy in the dressing. I guess that’s one benefit of being a vegetarian–on a lot of menus, most of the choices are already made for you.”

“Ew, anchovies,” Zach said. 

 Maria elbowed him again. “Hey, I like anchovies!” she said.

“Alright, weirdo,” he said. “So, one cheese, one pepperoni, and a Greek salad?”

He nodded. “Alright, gimme the menu back.” A moment later, he had dialed the number and started ordering over the phone.

Maria watched him for a moment before she seemed to get bored and came over to sit by me and Jenna. “Hey, so Zach said you forgot to bring a swimsuit?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I mumbled. This really felt like another setup for her to roast me.

“I brought two. You wanna borrow one?”

I looked up at her in shock. I must have misheard that, right?

“Sorry, what?”

“Do you want to borrow a swimsuit?” she repeated.

“Well, uh… what kind are they?” I asked. 

“I have a one piece from when I used to be a lifeguard, but I think it would probably be too tall for you. Pretty sure my torso is longer than yours. Uh, the other one is a bikini. The bottoms are basically just a speedo, so that could work, right?”

To be honest, my plan had been to avoid swimming altogether. I hadn’t been on hormones for very long–less than three months, at this point–but it was long enough that my nipples were at an awkward stage of puffiness. I wish it was more normalized for guys to wear tops to go swimming.

“I appreciate the offer, but I think I’m just not gonna swim,” I said.

“Aw, really? But it’ll be funnnn. When was the last time you were in a pool?”

I thought for a moment. “Uh, I think when my mom made me take swim classes at the community center?” I shuddered thinking about treading water in that ice-cold Olympic pool at seven am. 

“I think you should come!” Maria said. Then she leaned in closer and whispered. “You can wear the top too if you want.”

In an instance of perfect timing, Zach had just gotten off the phone and walked over. “I heard something about tops? What are you two getting up to while I was gone? Leave you alone for five seconds, I swear.”

“Maria’s just being weird again,” Jenna said.

Maria shot her a dirty look. “Hey, I was trying to be nice.” She turned to Zach. “I was just checking if, uh, our friend here wanted to borrow my spare swimsuit.”

“Oh. Wait, is it a bikini? Dude, you should totally wear it. That’d be hilarious. And if we go swimming after dinner you probably don’t have to worry about, like, tanlines.”

I shook my head rapidly. “Look, I’m fine just chilling in one of the rooms while you all go swimming.”

“Stop ganging up and pressuring her, you two!” Jenna interjected. I appreciated the intent but, uh, not the wording.

Zach looked at Jenna and half opened his mouth before closing it again, then awkwardly chuckling. “Sounds more like the three of us are ganging up, right? Haha, he looks like a girl.”

There was a moment of intensely awkward silence.

Finally, Maria spoke. “Zach, have I recently told you that you’re dumb as hell?”