𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐈𝐒𝐇// 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐗𝐎𝐂

𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. ✭ 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟑

MARCH, 1978; EDDIE

"These are the fallopian tubes." Mrs. Stockton pointed at the diagram she had taped onto the blackboard. Her pointer stick thwacked across the laminated human form.

Chance and I exchanged looks, eyes wide from the knowledge shoved into our skulls that day. Fifth grade was the year all the kids learned about basic human anatomy.

All the boys were told was that we just needed to invest in a stick of deodorant, body odor was lurking around the corner when it came to our puberties.

The girls were dealt the worse hand, our teachers informing us that they were destined to bleed every month until old age. Then they were still expected suffer through menopause. As expected, Chance took the news the worst between the two of us.

"My life is ruined." She cried on our way home, wiping at her face. "It's ruined and it hasn't even started yet!"

"It can't be all that bad, Chance." I comforted her, holding both of our schoolbooks in my arms. We walked along the train tracks that cut straight through town. "Once you get it then you know you can have a baby."

"I don't want a baby!" Chance sulked, kicking a cluster of rocks off the tracks. "I was barely just born born myself. I shouldn't have to have a baby yet. I don't want to. I won't." She proclaimed stubbornly as her face glowered. "You're so lucky, you don't even know it. All you have to do in life is be a boy."

"Being a girl is nice too." Offering a few pros, I put my arm around her shoulder. "You get to have long hair and play around with it and wear dresses."

"How thrilling." She scowled, resentful against life, against me, but most of all against her own body. "What are you gonna say I can do next, play with dolls, do my makeup?"

"Those were on the list." My jokes didn't make her feel better like they usually did. Chance only brushed them off, wallowing in her misery.

"Everything's changing." Her anger with the world melted into sadness. She looked downwards, casting her eyes on her beat up shoes. "What if- What if things don't stay the same between us? What if one day you wake up and decide you can't handle being friends with a girl? And- And what if you just turn into all the other boys at school?!"

Chance was on edge, stressed beyond her years. Her ponytail was loose with flyaways, frazzled to match her mood. This is what she was so freaked about. She was worried, genuinely worried that as time passed and we began to look different, I would ditch her.

At that moment I realized I could never know what it was like to feel the pain of being a girl or bleeding endlessly or having the life sentence of femininity handed to me.

But what I did know is that the whole time Chance ventured through those things, I was planning to be right by her side. All I could do was be there for her. Through good times and bad.

"You can't get rid of me that easy, Dummy." I replied, ruffling up her hair. "You'll have to chase me away if you want me gone so bad. Now stop being such a girl and race me to the end of the tracks!"

"Fine!" Chance let out a giggle through her tears, beaming at me.

"Go!" Giving her a push forward, I ordered. "Run! Run already! I'll give you a five second head start!"