I hear pounding on my door. I roll over and look at the clock. It's 3 in the afternoon. I'm trying to take a nap. The pounding doesn't stop so I get up to answer.
I swing open the door to see Alex, ready to kill someone. The second the door opens, she glare at me.
"Hey! What's wrong? What did I do?" I back up to the couch and sit down while I wait for her to close the door and follow.
"He said that I was a freak. He said I was unnatural. He broke up with me." I'm confused so I say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Who?"
"Gods! You are so dense! Jamie! He said that, being genderfluid, I'm an unnatural freak who should die. He said that if I was going to continue my freakish lifestyle, then we couldn't be together. I'm just never gonna be happy, am I?" She gets up to throw my things.
"Please don't, " I say as she tries to throw my coffee table. She ignores me.
"Okay, or throw it. That works," I mumble. She sits back down. I look at her a scoot away from her a bit so as to stay out of the line of fire when I ask, "So, can I hear the whole story?"
"So, today I am male." I nod, making a mental note to change my pronouns. "He called me his girlfriend, but, you know, technically, I'm not today. I would be his boyfriend. I corrected him on this fact and he was outraged. But you should have seen his face. Priceless! So he pulls me off to the side because we are out with his friends, and tries to tell me to stop screwing around!" He cuts off with a bitter laugh.
"Then, when I made it clear that I'm not screwing around, he loses his crap and breaks up with me." He rolls his eyes. "Can you believe him?"
I shake my head. "No. I really can't. I don't see why it's a big deal." He agreed with me.
Alex glanced over at me then narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. He shook his head.
"Let's watch T.V.," he finally said. I shrugged off the strange behavior, albeit reluctantly.
~~~***~~~
The next time Alex even uttered a word to me, it was about 1:30 in the morning. He was half asleep. He looked up at me and whispered, "Will you take me to bed, Magnus? Your lap is the most uncomfortable thing I've laid on." I smiled bitterly.
"Sure, Your Highness." He smiled with his eyes closed and hummed his approval at the nickname.
I gently laid him in his bed and turned to leave when Alex asked, "Magnus? Could you-I mean, would you mind... laying with me?"
I was a bit shocked at the request. "Uh, sure, okay." I was sure that I was bright red and was grateful for the darkness. I walked over to the bedside and lifted the covers. I laid down in the bed and Alex curled up into my side. At first, I was tense, not knowing what to expect, but then I relaxed. He curled deeper into my side and I smiled, drifting off to sleep.