Ash (trans story)

Chapter Four - Friends, plural.

I wait outside for Zach to arrive. My back leaning against the rough surface of the house, slightly uncomfortable but nothing I couldn't deal with.

It had taken me a while to choose what to wear, but I eventually decided to wear a black shirt and black jeans with my plain, black creepers.

A small black car pulls up and Zach beeps the horn. I walk away from the house, towards the car.

As I approach the car I see someone sitting in the front seat and start to panic slightly. I reach out and open the door to the back seat. I awkwardly get into the car.

'Hey,' Zach smiles at be briefly before turning his head back to the road and starting to drive. 'This is Frank.'

'Hello, I'm the aforementioned Frank. Does that work? Yeah.' The person from the front seat says turning around.

'Hi, I'm Ash,' I smile, feeling incredibly awkward. It's too dark to see what Frank looks like but I can see a rough silhouette with kind of short hair and a smallish nose.

'Lovely to meet you, sorry I haven't said hello in school yet,' I can see their lips turn up slightly into a smile before they turn back and face the road.

'Oh, we go to the same school?'

'Mhm, probably haven't seen me though.' Zach laughs slightly at his friends comment.

'Oh,' I think it would be rude of me to ask why so I accept this fact and shrugged.

We pull up outside the cinema where there is a small group of people huddled near the door. Does three people even count as a group? I'm sure, I have never been a part of a group before and all I really know about 'groups' was that two people do not classify as a group.

Zach parks carefully, paying much more attention to this than he had when driving the entire time.

'He isn't the best a parking,' Frank says quietly after I manage to get out of the car in the most awkward way possible. 'It's always made him nervous,' they shrug and look over their shoulder at their friend.

'Frankie!' A lanky boyish figure throws itself at Frank, nearly knocking the two of them over.

'Hello, Rory,' the slightly smaller of the two laughs. 'This is Ash, Zach's friend.' They push the taller person away from them.

'Hello, Ash. I am Rory, although Frank has ruined this introduction for me and told you my name. He is rather inconsiderate of my love of introducing myself, isn't he?' In the faint light I see a hand snake around Rory's waist as they roll their eyes.

I laugh slightly, 'I guess so.'

'I have heard very little about you, just that you are named Ash and that you share my love of neutral pronouns,' they laugh.

'Oh...um...yeah,' I feel my cheeks heat up.

Zach speaks up from behind me making me jump slightly due to my not being aware he was standing there, 'I thought it would be best for them to know your pronouns, just to prevent any...ugliness? That work isn't right...' his voice tapers off.

'That's ok,' I smile at Rory. 'You use they too?' Rory nodded quickly.

'We should go inside...' a small, feminine voice pipes up from the footpath. For some reason we were still standing on the road of the car park, although it probably had to do with us not making much progress before Rory had jumped on Frank.

Now that my eyes had become adjusted to the light, I see that Frank has his arm around Rory's waist and Rory's head is leaning on Frank's shoulder.

'I agree,' a deeper, unfamiliar voice chimes in and the two people still standing near the door turn and start to walk away.

'They're just pissy because they think we're on a double date and we invited them out of politeness,' Frank says to me and laughs. I nod in response as we make our way into the building of the cinema.

When we get inside I finally get to see what everyone else looks like. Frank is average height, or what I believe to be average height but may be slightly short for a boy. He has messy, light brown brown hair and bright green eyes that sparkle when he looks at Rory. He is wearing a leather jacket which covers most of the grey band shirt he is wearing, dark blue skinny jeans and black canvas shoes.

Rory is definitely shorter than Frank, although their shoes make it seem as though Frank is the shorter of the two. Rory's shoes are black, platformed flats of about six inches making them appear about two inches taller than Frank. They are also wearing high waisted, black skinny jeans with a black, short sleeved t-shirt covered in paint of some kind. They have short, blonde hair but it's long for short hair, it doesn't quite reach their shoulders. Their face is very angular with high cheekbones, rather feminine but more androgynous than anything.

The other two, who I could only assume to be Jack and Tara are facing away from me. One is roughly my height, around five foot six, wearing black pumps, red trousers and a black hoodie. There hair is halfway down their back and a deep red colour. The other is almost the same height as Rory with shortish hair with sides shaven really short, a lot shorter than Rory's but the top and is just shorter than Frank's.

I don't pay attention to whatever film they had decided on going to see and give the money for my ticket to Zach who rolls his eyes and refuses the money.

'First time is free,' he winks before handing me a ticket and I roll my eyes.

I consider getting popcorn and water but change my mind when nobody else buys any form of snack. I follow the crowd, or group, into one of the screens absentmindedly, handing a small man with a rather red face my ticket when asked. I pay very little attention to my surroundings until the lights turn down signalling the film is about to begin.

After the film Tara, Rory and Jack quickly say goodbye having to get home before a certain time or something and Zach, Frank and I clamber back into Zach's car. I realise I hadn't spoken to Jack or Tara, maybe tomorrow.

'You're sitting with us at lunch, ok?' Frank says through the open car window, it was phrased as a question but I know I have no choice in the matter. I simply nod before walking up the path to my house. 'We're your friends now,' Frank calls with an evil laugh as Zach pulls away just as I reach my door.

Friends. It was weird. I never thought I would have friends, plural.