Standing Up to Life

Chapter 6:

WHEN I CAME out of shock I ran through a checklist in my brain about how my body felt. It really didn't feel like anything was seriously injured, but I didn't get up right away because it just seemed like too much work at that moment...

"Miss, are you okay?" I turned my head to see a ski patrolman standing next to me.

"Umm..." miss? Well, I didn't want to seem like a freak so I decided not to correct him. "Yeah, I just decided it was more comfortable on the ground." I said with a slight chuckle that sounded a lot more like a giggle. I got up from the ground and walked a few steps. "Yep, nothings broken except my pride."

I looked down the hill and saw Amy walking up the slope to me. She was almost up to where I was. In the meantime the patrolman was nice enough to recover my skis for me. "Are you alright?" Amy asked me.

"Yeah, like I told him, nothing's hurt other than maybe a little pride. But at least it was a pretty spectacular dive!" I said with a wry smile.

The patrolman said, "It was a pretty good one. I was worried that you were actually hurt from that one. Well, since you're not, I'll leave you two ladies to continue. Have a good day."

Amy stood with a bemused expression on her face. "You know Brandon we could have some fun with this..."

"Umm... let's just worry about me not killing myself the rest of the day!" I said laughing.

"Oh alright, you're no fun!" She replied. "But we need to fix your hair real quick, your headband is really crooked now!" She did that and we started down the slope again.

Fortunately for me there weren't any other mogul sections on that trail and we had a pretty uneventful trip back down the slope. As I skied down the slope I was deep in thought about the day so far. On one hand part of me was screaming, 'YES! YES! YES!' I mean, I wanted to be a girl, I should be happy that I'd been referred as such two times that day right?

On the other side I had a healthy dose of fear. What would Amy say if she knew I wanted to be a girl? What would her parents say? What would my parents say? And obviously what would the kids at school say?

We got down to the bottom and Amy looked at me curiously. "Brandon, don't worry about them calling you a girl, it's not a bad thing. I personally don't care what they call you; you'll be my best friend no matter what. Plus, no one from school would care if they saw you here today. And, my parents both really like you and they don't care what you look like either."

"Best friend? Really?" I asked. I heard all of what she said, but my brain got suddenly stuck on that part.

"Yes, you really are my best friend Brandon. I know I haven't ever come out and said it to you, but I've said it to my mom plenty of times." We put our skis in a ski rack and walked into the lodge at the base of the mountain. She found a couple chairs by the fireplace that we could sit in for a few minutes while we kept talking. The rest of the room was pretty vacant.

"Brandon, I talk to you over the phone more than anyone else. I tell you more than I tell anyone else, you really are my best friend, and I'm not just saying that." She told me.

I knew without a doubt that she meant it and that I could trust her probably more than any other person on the planet. "Thanks Amy, you are definitely my best friend too. I just never realized that you felt that way about me as well. It's kind of strange though isn't it, a guy and a girl being best friends, but not having any interest in dating each other?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I really don't care one way or another as long as you don't." She said.

"I certainly don't, I couldn't think of a better person to have as a best friend myself." I said.