I slowly pulled into my childhood neighborhood subdivision as I sighed with relief that the 4 hour car ride was nearing its end. Thankfully the normally tedious and totally draining experience had been made far better by the fact that my boyfriend Mark was tagging along to spend the summer with me at my parents house, well his were off on an extended job overseas. It made me happy I wouldn’t have to spend an entire break without seeing him again. I had spent most of winter break constantly messaging him back and forth at the slightest notification. There was just one small problem with all this…..

“So run me through this again” He asked as I started to pull into my parents driveway.

“It’s pretty simple, we just have to pretend to be just friends around my parents. It shouldn’t be that hard to do. If I’ve kept up the act of being their son around them for 3 years of college then the two of us can keep up this act easily”

“Yeah, but Sarah I’ll have to call you by your-“ 

“I know I know” I said, cutting him off. “You’ve got my express approval okay. Just another part of our silly little act here” 

“I’ll just find a way to avoid having to ever say it” he shot me his comforting smile as I parked the car and turned it off. I stepped on out stretching as I looked around to see anything new around. It looked like mom had already planted a variety of followers that had already bloomed in all sorts of bright colors. I was glad to see she had kept up the garden work for all these years. 

Mark also got out as he took a look at the unfamiliar scene around him, I couldn’t help but smile at him finally being the one in an unfamiliar environment. “There’s my boy!” I heard a loud voice as I turned to see my father exiting the front door ready to help with unpacking.

I shot a look at Mark as my dad called for me, noticing an upset look on his face for a second before he switched back to a more happy expression. God, normally I’d be happy to see him get all protective over some asshole misgendering me but this time I was purposely trying to not be seen as a woman. I’d rather never risk my parents being awful to me over finding out the hard way.

My dad gave me a hug as he looked me up and down. “Still in a hoodie even though summer has begun?” 

“Dad….. when have I not been in a hoodie” I tried my best to slip back into a boy voice as I made my usual point when questioned and dad just shrugged and mumbled something about me getting heat stroke at some point. Although his attention quickly shifted to Mark.

“You’re my son's friend who we’re having stay over the summer, right?

Mark nodded “Yeah, don’t exactly know who else I could be after all” 

My dad chuckled as he went and opened the trunk of the car and opened it. Shit I thought, quickly running to catch up with him. I didn’t want the chance for him to look through my luggage at all. Some of the clothes I could obviously excuse, but others there was no chance at all. Not to mention I had my HRT buried deep in one of the luggage bags. 

Thankfully unpacking wasn’t too bad, after all I had two decently strong men helping me the entire time. I learned from my father that my mother was off picking up my little sister and brother from a pool party, and should be back within an hour. Mark and Dad were getting along pretty well already thankfully. I think in my brain I had always envisioned my dad being the sort of man to be very protective of his daughter when it came to her having a boyfriend but…. Oh yeah I’m not out at all. I reminded myself that silly little thoughts like this were likely far from the truth.

After moving all of my bags into my room I took another good look around at the room I grew up in. The walls were painted a deep dark blue which I had always not really cared for, as a little girl I had tried to convince my mother to change it to something brighter but she insisted that “blue is perfectly fine for a young man like you” of course back then I had no frame of reference for what I was feeling so I just accepted the hand I was dealt. 

I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was there and thankfully no one was, the two boys must have still been in the basement helping set up the fold out bed/couch for Mark. I crouched down and started unzipping a luggage bag, I smiled as I pulled out my Blahaj. I had bought her initially as part of the internet meme but had quickly realized that there was more to the online obsession besides a meme. The plushies were just great for cuddling, given she didn’t get as much attention now that I had Mark. Still I had to give her credit for being something to hug onto as I cried a lot in that first year.

“Hey I just helped finish….. Damn that’s a big plush!” 

“Eep!” I cried as I jumped up a little bit as I quickly turned around to see my father had walked into my room. “I-I uhhhh…..” I quickly tried to hide the plushie behind my back to no avail. “Y-Yeah I packed a plush…. Okay” I stammered.

“I guess you never really outgrew then did you” my dad mused. “Don’t get why you're so embarrassed, unless you don’t want your friend to see. That must be it”

I laughed awkwardly as dad managed to come up with an excuse for me. “Yeah…. I wouldn’t want him to think I uhhh”

Dad gave me a thumbs up as he started to walk to another luggage bag and go to open it. “N-No I’ve got this! I’ve just gotten a bit too picky with organizing it all” I quickly rushed over to stop my father from discovering anything. Damn it there’s no way I’m going to be able to excuse this, it's way too weird. My dad gave me a concerned look but just then we could both hear the garage door opening. Mom, Athena, Tyler must be back then. 

“You should probably go help them with anything they might need. I’ve got myself covered. I'm a grown adult after all” Dad gave me a confused look before he stood up and went to walk out of my room. 

“Whatever ya say champ, I’m just trying to help well I still can” he said looking over his shoulder for a second before he walked out of my line of sight.

As soon as I was sure he was downstairs I walked over to my room's door and locked it with a sigh of relief. It was time to get this room somewhat livable again. 

Thankfully it didn’t take much actual time to get my room feeling comfortable like it used to be. After finishing up all of that I happily made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. I could see Mark sitting down at the dinner table, with Mom, Athena, adn Tyler crowding around him. Athena and Tyler were twins, fraternal twins to be specific. Despite that the two got together shockingly well, by now both of them had entered their junior years of highschool. Something I wasn’t exactly happy to hear as it made me feel even older than I actually was.

I quickly moved around the dining table and grabbed a seat pulling it as close as I could to Mark as I went to join in on the conversation. “You know I was almost convinced I was being lied to that my son even had any friends at college for a little bit. He never named any of them and he didn’t go to bring any…. Oh!” Mom quickly realized I was right there as she was speaking and cut herself off. 

“That’s a really mean thing to say about your oldest child isn’t it mom?” I pouted at her as the attention at the table shifted from Mark to me.

“It could be worse, she could be trying to show me something like embarrassing baby photos” Mark joked. 

“Your making it sound like one of those scenarios were two people are dating and a parent-“ 

“No no we’re not dating at all!” I blurted out, trying to cut off Athena before she could say anything else to put suspicion on either of us. Despite this I was already feeling a little hurt even saying that about him. We’ll just have to find room to be all romantic, well not being suspicious then I thought to myself. I felt Mark's hand go to hold mine under the table as we intertwined fingers as I continued to talk with everyone.

After a while my father also joined in at the table bringing with him a couple of boxes of pizza he must have gone out and got. We all spent dinner time talking about how things had been going for each of us. All of my family asked questions of me and Mark though. Things like “how’d you two meet? Why is he the one friend you decided to invite over out of all of them? Did I get a girlfriend yet?” All of these questions I had somewhat practiced with Mark as answers to go over, but then. 

“Oh guess who I ran into a few days ago!” Tyler asked me.

“Hmmmm I’m not sure” I tried to think of who would even be left in town that I might even know well enough for him to bring on up. “Uhhhh Chris?” I guessed. Chris was an old childhood friend I had gotten along with well until the last half of highschool. Not out of anything particularly nasty, just the two of us both falling into our own respective slumps. Something I didn’t recover from till I got into college and managed to start HRT. 

“Exactly! Or well….” 

“Or well what?” I asked him before starting to take a sip of water.

“This might be kinda surprising to you but, you see when I ran into…. How do I put this well” Tyler trailed off a puzzled look on his face. 

Athena sighed “She’s Chloe now” 

I choked a little bit on the sip of water I was taking as she said that. What…. What did I just hear? I started coughing as I tried to get the water I had accidentally gotten down the wrong pipe on out.

Mark quickly got up from his chair and went to give me a bit of a pat on the back as I started to stop coughing. “Sa….. are you good now?” He said catching himself from nearly saying my name. 

“I-I’m good” I said as I looked around the table, both of my parents looked as surprised as I was. Both Athena and Tyler looked a lot less surprised. 

“Didn’t know you’d react like that” Athena said. “I’m sorry…” 

I sat there still, my hand tightly gripping Marks as I let the info sink in. My childhood best friend was also a girl? How did I never notice, I thought I’d be able to tell given I of all people should know what a closeted trans girl looked like but….. now I had to add seeing her as a list of things to do this summer. Besides trying to take Mark on dates around my hometown. 

God this summer was going to be eventful I could tell.