“Frisky Frogs? Did you hire a limousine to chauffeur us as well?” Owen ribbed Aoife with his words as he pushed open the door of the student union. The temperature difference between the heated indoors and the brisk outdoors forced Owen to put his shoulder into the push bar to get it open.
“Oh come on, Owen, it’s not that expensive. It’s like… what, four bucks?” Aoife pushed her head down to brace against the sudden gust of cold air. The comfort of the heated room was quickly left behind as they waddled side by side down the sidewalk.
“Pft, yeah for like a couple ounces maybe. The lack of prices on everything makes you wanna fill up on every topping imaginable only to show up at the end and get slapped in the face with twelve dollar ice cream or something.”
“Objection! Your honor, the delectable dessert in question is actually frozen yogurt, not ice cream.” Aoife teased as she bravely pulled out a hand from the inside of her coat pocket. She pushed her thumb against the rest of her fingers and raised it up next to her head to open and close the mouth of the hand-judge she had created. “oBjEcTioN SusTaiNeD”, the hand-judge moved with Aoife’s bizarre sesame street voice, like she had squeezed Elmo and Patrick Star together into a vat.
“Oh we’re in court now?” Owen looked to Aoife and flashed a devilish smile, like the very notion of her joke was a challenge to be contested.
“Naturally. A great crime was committed! An utter lie! Slander against the historic legacy of Frisky Frogs frozen yogurt!!! A court case seems only logical, Owen.”
“Well, your honor.” Owen looked towards Aoife’s right hand, the apparent judge in this spontaneous court case. In response, he raised his own right hand out of his pocket and formed it into his own hand-lawyer. “I would like to point the jury towards Exhibit A, the very slogan of Frisky Frogs. I believe it is quote, ‘The finest frozen treat for now and forever’? Note how the slogan says frozen treat, and not frozen yogurt, deliberately blurring the line between frozen yogurt and ice cream to intentionally appeal towards more customers. I believe this shows my client made a simple mistake in improperly addressing the frozen treat in question.” He motioned his hand towards himself, indicating that he was the defendant in their bizarre trial.
“Well!” Aoife raised her left hand to add another character into the mix, the hand-prosecutor. “Your honor, I think the mistake, even accidental, mars the extensive legacy of Frisky Frogs! As such, proper recompense must be made for this act of slander!” Aoife grinned as they continued to walk along the sidewalk. The frozen yogurt place wasn’t a miserable walk usually, only five minutes from the school campus. In the freezing outdoors, however, the walk felt longer than usual.
“Objection! A mistake on my client’s part does not constitute the willing slander of a cooperation! That’s ridiculous, your honor!” Owen motioned the hand-lawyer up and down in the motion of his speech despite the growing coldness of his hand.
“OVeRruLed! I tHiNk AoiFe iS SupEr sMArt aNd CooL so sHe wiNs THis cAsE.”
“Wha- That’s not how court works!”
“It’s how the Aoife court works, buckaroo. The Aoife hand-prosecutor has never lost a case, she’s the best of the best.”
“Does the Aoife hand-prosecutor always work with the Aoife hand-judge? That feels like collusion…” Owen stuffed his hand back in his pockets as they neared the store.
“Oh they’re inseparable.” Aoife smirked, shaking her hands in a vain attempt to warm them back up.
“Seems pretty illegal to me. I might have to report the Aoife hand-crew to the authorities.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Owen pulled his right hand back out of his pocket with a grin. “...perhaps if a different verdict was reached for my client I wouldn’t have to take this to the higher ups.”
“Oh you dirty bitch…” Aoife pulled her left hand out of her pocket and formed it back into a hand puppet. “Case closed, the defendant is found… not guilty.” She dramatically motioned her hand in a sign of defeat.
“Wrong hand.”
“What?”
“That’s the wrong hand for the judge.”
“Oh- shit hold on.” Aoife tucked her left hand back in her pocket and instead pulled out her right hand. “NoT gUiLty!” The hand-judge’s mouth flapped as Aoife once more spoke in the odd cartoonish impression. “They’re hard to keep track of, Owen. The judicial process is a complicated one! Especially when it takes place between both of my hands.”
“Right…” Owen couldn’t help but smile as he reached out to grab the handle of the front door to the Frisky Frogs. It had been quite a while since the last time he’d eaten in one. It had always been a nice treat to enjoy with the family when he was in high school, but after moving out on his own, his ice cream and frozen yogurt could be satisfied much easier by picking up a pint or two from the grocery store.
“...and they say chivalry is dead.” Aoife teased as she walked past Owen, who was holding the door open for her. “Are you one of those kids that had it hammered in at a young age?”
“Holding open doors? No- it’s just polite. You’d do the same, no?” Owen replied.
“Who says I would? Maybe I’d wait until you get close and slam it in your face.”
“Well if chivalry dies, I’ll know where to look for the killer.”
Aoife scoffed, but didn’t even remotely try to obscure the smile that slithered across her face. After they had finished playfully bickering with one another, the two of them walked over to the start of the frozen yogurt station where the different sizes of cups sat in stacks. Aoife went straight towards the largest of the cups and lifted the top of the stack off. Owen stood for a moment in front of the varying sizes, before eventually moving his hand towards the smallest of the sizes.
“Owen, this is my treat.” Aoife plucked the small cup out of Owen’s hands and put it back on its stack, before handing Owen one of the large sizes to replace the old cup.
“Y’sure?” Owen asked tentatively. Whenever another person offered to pay for something of Owen’s, it filled him with a kind of guilt that he could only shake by attempting to find the cheapest of the options.
“Yeah I’m sure! You won us the match, PertinentHorse.” She spoke his username with a slight giggle, finding it difficult to put the name into a sentence without laughing.
“I really didn’t do that much, Aoife. It was just lucky I managed to find a better gun than my loadout at the end.”
“I mean, almost anything is better than your peashooter. Still, you look awfully comfortable with a shotgun.” Aoife was walking just a few steps ahead of Owen as she looked over the options of flavors before her. Some were standard, your vanillas, chocolates, and the swirls of both. The further she walked the more the flavors became exotic, such as lemon pudding, popcorn butter, and kiwi. Aoife’s favorite part of a Frisky Frogs was always the exploration of the peculiar flavors on display. When she was younger, she would try combining the limited edition flavors into colorful abominations that tasted anywhere from downright mysterious to oddly tasty. As such, Aoife proceeded to mix together the carrot cake flavor with the christmas cookie limited edition flavor.
“Oh… yeah I guess so. Shotguns just feel a lot better. It’s nice to feel like there’s a tangible result of shooting someone when you hit them square in the chest with a burst of pellets.” Owen hoped that the teeneagers working the store were bored enough not to overhear and question why they were talking about guns so casually. Then again, if they were teenagers, there was a good chance they could put the pieces together pretty quickly that it wasn’t so much about actual guns and instead the virtual armaments in UMDK. Owen played it safe, filling his cup with mint ice cream, his favorite flavor the first time he went to a Frisky Frog, and the only flavor he has had since.
“They sure look comfortable to you. I’ve only seen one other person pull some stupid shit like that in a competitive match before.” Aoife remarked.
Owen froze in place, much like the steady stream of frozen yogurt that coiled into the bottom of his cup. It wasn’t so much the reference to Witchofthew3st that scared him. It was the reminder that she had yet to read the message he had sent earlier that day. The reminder that when she got home from their lovely outing for frozen treats in the freezing cold, she’d have to process losing a friend that she held dear. Owen knew it wouldn’t feel good for Aoife. It was painful enough from his perspective, with all of the knowledge of why it was necessary. To her, it would feel like a punch to the gut, a rejection from someone that she had just recently asked out. Owen told himself it was necessary. Besides, isn’t ice cream the best way to help with heartbreak? ‘Did ice cream fix preemptive heartbreak?’ Owen wondered.
“I’m screwed if Richie puts me in the team, though. I’m gonna have to grind for hours to get any sort of good augments and weapons.”
“You’d better get started then. I’d be shocked if he didn’t pick you after seeing that frag jump into a drop kick thing that you pulled. That shit was awesome!”
Owen and Aoife moved through the topping bar, stacking candies and treats into the cups full of frozen yogurt. When they got to the register, it was time for them to be weighed. Sure enough, the total came out to be much more than Owen would ever feel comfortable paying for, but Aoife didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, smiling brightly as she paid and led Owen over to one of the seats in the back corner of the store.
“Why does your ice cream smell like that?” Owen asked, a quizzical, yet entertained expression on his face.
“Objection! Froyo, remember? That’s slang for frozen yogurt, if you didn’t know.” A wry grin flashed across her face as Aoife corrected Owen on the name of the frozen treat yet again.
Owen rolled his eyes at Aoife. “Yeah- I know what froyo means, Buttercup. Why does your froyo smell like that then?”
“I dunno. It’s carrot cake christmas cookie with gummy dolphins and Reese's pieces. Maybe that’s why it smells weird?”
“Holy shit did you make a biohazard in your Frisky Frog cup? What on earth is that flavor combination?”
“Ugh, you sound just like my parents. They’d always gripe about what I put together.”
Owen hesitated for a moment before he continued, worrying that he was treading on unsteady ground with her parents. “Sorry, I’ve just never heard of dolphin carrot cookie pieces before. I think I’m more in awe of the innovation before me than anything else. I bet this is what Issac Newton felt when he was inventing gravity.”
“Invent gravity? Owen…”
“Nah I bet he invented it! Before the 17th century everybody was floating around and having fun before that bastard had to come and ruin everything.” Owen joked, relishing in the changing expression across Aoife’s face, from concern to amusement.
“All kids these days do is subject themselves to the boundaries of gravity and mundanity. Back in my day we lived in black and white!” Owen laughed, and the two of them gave idle giggles as they started to dig into their froyo.
Aoife was pleasantly surprised that her mixture of flavors turned out to be decent. Not amazing, by any means, but certainly enjoyable enough for her to savor the experience. The froyo was only half of the enjoyment regardless, spending time with Owen was the crucial second half for her. While he seemed to be holding tight to certain feelings still, Aoife felt like he was one of the best friends she’d been able to make in some time. Her sense of humor and demeanor usually only worked in limited exposure, primarily over the internet or a video game. She might hang out with someone in person once or twice, but that was usually the limit to how much someone would want to spend time with her.
“Issac Newton would have discovered gravity a lot faster if he was a woman.”
“Excuse me?” Owen said, nearly choking on the bite of froyo and oreo mixed together.
“What? One trip down a set of stairs and Newton would have discovered that shit instantly, that’s all I’m saying.”
After taking a second to fully process what Aoife meant, Owen let out a hearty chuckle. The smiles conjured up from her joke lasted for a few minutes straight as they ate their frozen treats and tried not to start laughing over the joke once more. After Owen had managed to go a full minute without smiling over Aoife’s ridiculous joke, he returned to a thought from earlier.
“Your parents fussed over the flavors you picked?” He asked.
“Oh. Yeah they always complained when I would throw together weird flavors.”
“Why?”
“They would always say ‘we don’t want you to waste our money on experiments’ and ‘even if you don’t like it you’re gonna finish it all’. A lot of serious talk for just some froyo, y’know?” Aoife’s tone took a softer sound as she recounted some of what her parents had told her.
“Seems a little intense for dessert, yeah.” Owen added, swirling the frozen yogurt in his cup to mix up the toppings before taking another bite.
“Frisky Frogs was our go-to treat, but even though the store is all about mixing things up, trying flavors and toppings you’ve never had before, they’d only ever get the same thing each time.” Owen looked down to his cup of frozen yogurt as Aoife spoke. Just like her parents, he had always stuck to the same flavor each and every time. Perhaps there was something out there that he would like more, but picking something different came with the risk of finding something he didn’t like as much. Owen had always figured it’s better to stick with the same flavor, since he knew what he was getting into, and it was nice enough. “I like trying new things, though! I’d always try to concoct something completely new to try. Maybe it’s not always great, but it doesn’t matter to me too much that I don’t find the perfect flavor. I like the process of trying new flavors.”
“I guess so.” Owen smiled, raising his spoon towards his mouth before deciding against another bite. He set the spoon back in his cup and hesitantly asked the question that buzzed around in his mind. “Are we still talking about froyo? Or is this about something else with your parents?”
Aoife hummed to herself as she thought of a response. Owen was attentive enough to notice that her complaints about her parents were most certainly not just about froyo. “They just didn’t like it much when I lived for myself. That’s all.”
“That’s all? That sounds like a far bigger deal than you make it sound. Everyone has a right to live for themselves! Why would they have an issue with that?”
Aoife looked to Owen, studying every feature of his face, like she was expecting some sort of hidden message around his lips or under his chin. To her, she was being fairly clear about the implications. Was Owen being respectful so as to not make any assumptions? Or had he truly failed to put two and two together. “They just didn’t want me to live the way I wanted. I know that might sound small, but it was large enough to shove a wedge between the lot of us. We haven’t really spoken much since then.”
“I’m sorry, Aoife…” Owen set his cup down on the table between them and move along the strange circular booth seat to sit next to Aoife. Once they sat next to one another, he made a motion with his arms to ask if she wanted a hug. She rolled her eyes at the nonverbal question, but quickly muttered a “sure” in response. Owen gently wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t really understand how someone could be so comfortable losing their kid over something like that. Just because their daughter is a lesbian! It’s bullshit!”
Aoife smiled, realizing that although Owen had gotten close to the mark, he was still missing it. “Yeah… their daughter. A lesbian.” She smiled to herself for a moment before wrapping her own arms around Owen in response. “I appreciate it, Owen. I really do. Like you said earlier, everyone has a right to live for themselves.”
The two of them broke off the hug in order to have the last few bites of their frozen yogurt. Owen finished his dessert first. He then decided to slip his phone out from his pocket to hold it up in the air in front of them.
“Smile, Buttercup!”
“Wha-”
CLICK
A selfie, immortalizing the tender moment between the two, an enthusiastic Owen and a confused Aoife with the last bite of ice cream in her mouth. The picture might not have been the most flattering, but Owen wanted something to remember this outing, and the candid interaction between the two of them felt like the authentic memorial of their Frisky Frogs adventure.
“...I wasn’t ready.” Aoife pouted.
“That was the point.” Owen laughed.
The short but tender moment between the two of them warmed Owen’s heart. It made the frozen yogurt in early March far more bearable to eat.
“Are you…?” Aoife asked.
“Hmm?” Owen replied, visible confusion twisted across his eyebrows. He set the phone down on the booth next to him, forgetting to slip it back into his pocket.
“Living your life for yourself? You said everyone had the right to that. I’m just making sure that applies to yourself as well.” Aoife stated before leaning back into the booth. Owen took a moment to respond, the question itself sending him into an internal tirade of thought. Aoife collected both her own empty cup, as well as Owen’s to throw them away in the nearby trash can. When she came back to Owen to sit back next to Owen, he seemed to have an answer for her.
“I think so?” Owen replied, earning a quick laugh from Aoife.
“All that thinking just to say that you think so?”
“Fine. I know so. I’m in college, I’m following my dream!”
“Hey, that’s fine! I’m not trying to interrogate you or anything. You’re a cool friend. I wanna know more about you.” Aoife retained a small distance between the two of them as she continued to talk to Owen. There was a nagging sensation she had when the two of them spoke that she couldn’t shake off. It felt familiar, and her curiosities guided her towards unveiling that strange feeling. “I meant it more as an icebreaker. Or a frozen yogurt breaker in this case. Is that a thing roommates do? Icebreakers?”
“Why would I know anymore than you?” Owen questioned.
“You’ve had roommates before me.” Aoife deadpanned.
“So have you?”
“Touché.”
“Besides, you know I didn’t talk much to my roommate. Or see him either, what will all of his Swamp Thunder and Tropical Enthusiasm fueled parties he went to.” Owen finally made the decision to stand from the booth, sliding out from the side and waiting for Aoife to follow his lead.
“Ah, right. Maybe it’s best you didn’t speak to him much. There can’t be much sanity left in someone who drinks that stuff constantly.” Aoife slid out of the booth behind Owen and followed him towards the door. With the cordial “you too” to follow the employee’s “have a nice day”, the two of them left Frisky Frogs to walk back towards their shared housing. “You already know my previous roommates were iffy, so that’s my defense. I’m not sure how most people get to know the other person. Ritualistic truth or dare?”
“Was our Princess Bride sword fight not enough of an icebreaker? Do you not feel like you know me yet?” Owen joked, stuffing his hand back into the pockets of his coat as they walked along the sidewalk back towards the Evrett University campus.
“It was nice, sure, but I feel like there’s not much we know about each other past the games we play.” Aoife said, occasionally stepping too far ahead of Owen only to slow her pace to allow them to continue walking next to each other. Owen regretted the fact that their lack of knowledge of each other was entirely self imposed. In order to preserve the existence of Witchofthew3st as the same time as himself, he needed Aoife to know less. With Witch in the past now, perhaps he really could begin to close the distance between them.
“I don’t mind knowing more about each other. How about we start with your roommates then? You keep mentioning them in vague terms, but there’s gotta be more to it than that.”
“That’s your first question? Jesus… you’re coming right for my throat.” Aoife sighed.
“I am? I-I mean we don’t have to- I can pick something else if you want-” Owen started.
“No, no, it’s okay. I just feel like there’s more to that question than you think there is.” Aoife mulled over a couple of choices in her mind, before settling on one that she felt comfortable saying aloud. “Here, tell ya what. I’ll answer it next go around. After we’ve shared something else with each other. Something a little less loaded.” Aoife laughed, attempting to keep the air light between the two of them despite some of the broiling fears that churned in her gut.
“Oh. Okay, yeah. Something simpler first then. You uh, you ever had a relationship?” Owen asked, saying the first thing that came to his mind. The biting cold of the outside air seemed to have a special grudge against his exposed ears that throbbed in the cold, desperately sending blood flowing through the skin to keep it warm. He thought there was something very fitting, if annoying, about doing icebreakers while walking through the freezing cold.
“That’s your idea of less loaded?”
“I-I can change it!”
“Nah, it’s fine, I really don’t mind answering this one.” Aoife giggled, taking a moment to reflect on her words before she began to voice them. “I have, yeah. But they were all fairly unconventional. Most of them were entirely online, and didn’t last very long at all.” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“Online relationships? Can’t say I could make it work very well, but I know a lot of people who’ve done it.”
“Yeah, some of them were nice, some of them were meh. Usually it would fall apart at the three month mark. Maybe I’m cursed!” Aoife gasped dramatically, before shuffling forward ahead of Owen to reach the door to Friedrich Hall. It was entirely the wrong end of the building, but walking through to the other side in a heated indoor environment was preferable to walking the rest of the way in the cold. “Then again, maybe I’m not. The only irl relationship I had actually lasted six months.” Aoife remarked, holding open the door for Owen this time as he half-jogged into the building.
“Oh, double the online ones then. How’d it end?”
“Ah, that’s another question if you wanna know that. It’s my turn, bitch.” Aoife waved a finger towards Owen, noting how sluggish the motion felt with the slightly numb finger.
“Fine, fine. You’re up, then.”
“Do you smurf on other games as well, or just UMDK?” Aoife grinned. Owen shifted his gaze towards his shoes as they walked the halls. The question was absolutely not what he had expected to hear. Had he been far more obvious than he intended? Owen started to thread through everything he had said and done relating to ULTRA MEGA DEATH KILLER to see if he could pinpoint where he had slipped up. “Oh come on, don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. You said you played The Danger Team before UMDK, but unless they uprooted that entire game since I last played you should not know how to do movement tech like that. The Danger Team is a R6 Siege competitor, there’s no way there’s shit like frag jumping and slide kicks in that game.”
“No, but I-”
“So you are smurfing!”
“Why does it matter if I am?” Owen retorted defensively.
“I don’t know, Owen, why does it matter? You’re the one that lied about it, not me. I’m just not sure why.” Aoife continued to push as the two of them walked up the stairs at the far side of the hall they had been walking down. Another downside of living in the older Friedrich Hall was the lack of elevators.
Owen found it hard to think up an answer. Why did he lie about playing UMDK? Well it was obvious to him, their entire friendship would explode into brilliantly uncomfortable fireworks if she found out that Owen was the same person she’d been friends with for months. But he couldn’t rightly say that to her, so he needed to come up with an alternative lie, something else that could excuse his initial lie. That is, if she didn’t already make the connection between himself and Witchofthew3st. The idea itself made Owen incredibly nauseous to consider. He wasn’t one for lies. He never thought himself good at it, nor did he find himself usually engaging in lying. Yet here he was, 20ft deep in a pit of his own making, shoveled one scoop at a time with his stacking lies.
“I can’t play on my old acount anymore, that’s why.” Owen figured that a lie with adjacency was the best to go with. In a way, he wasn’t lying at all right now. He truly couldn’t play on his other account anymore. He needed Witch to die. “I lost access to it a while back and it felt like too big of a commitment to get back into the game, what with all the time I sunk into it.”
Aoife furrowed her brows as they walked up the stairs towards the floor of their room. The answer didn’t feel right to her, but she figured if it was something he was still obfuscating in lies, he was determined to keep it hidden. “Okay, sure. I guess it’s your turn then?”
Owen felt the looming presence of Aoife’s doubt weighing on his shoulders as the two of them walked down the hallways towards their dormitory room. He wasn’t sure how much she knew, or even how much she suspected, but it terrified him to consider it. His best bet of avoiding the growing anxieties was to push the conversation forward onto the next topic.
“I guess the question from earlier, then. If you’re up for it.” Owen slid his brass key into the lock and twisted it with the same amount of force he always did to twist the latch. The lock was stiff, and required more effort to turn than you’d expect, like it had either rusted through the years or had some old paint stuck inside the mechanism. He walked into the room, leaving the door open for Aoife to walk in after. When she stepped into the room she shut and locked the door behind her and let out a long and steady sigh.
“Alright, sure. But I’m gonna need a pinkie promise, a blood oath, and a nondisclosure agreement from you before I answer.” Aoife shrugged as she pulled her wheeled gaming chair towards the center of the room so that she could still sit while talking to Owen. Owen watched her move, and decided to follow in her footsteps, or… wheelmarks? He also pushed his chair to the middle of the room and sat in the seat with his knees pulled up to his chest and his socks resting on the edge of the chair.
“Is it really that serious? I thought you already confessed to me that you’re the Evrett dorm killer or whatever. Can this really be a bigger deal than that?” Owen wore a warm smile as he spoke. Aoife let out a short giggle, appreciating the callback to their previous conversations.
“Yeah okay I’m kidding about the NDA and all that, but it really is something personal, so I felt a disclaimer might help.” Aoife was slouched in her chair, picking at the leather coating along the right arm of the chair. It had visible wear and tear, most likely from previous picking and fidgeting. “Ugh, I hate all of this fuckin’ dance around it. I usually just wait until people realize on their own and confront me about it but you don’t seem like you’re gonna say anything anytime soon.” Owen scrunched up his nose in confusion, trying his best to follow the line of logic that Aoife laid out before him. What on earth was she talking about? Owen started to wonder if he’d been so absorbed in guarding his own secrets that he’d been utterly oblivious to something obvious staring him in the face.
“I’m trans, Owen.” Aoife spoke plainly, her idle picking at the chair arm betraying her casual demeanor.
Owen thought for a moment. A moment which felt excruciating for Aoife. Trans? Owen had heard the term thrown around a fair bit in online spheres, but he’d never really looked into it. Never had a reason to, he supposed. He’d played a match with someone who was trans about a year back, sure, but they hadn’t really talked much about it. The game was far more important to the both of them. The guy was nice, and when Owen asked, had laid it out in fairly simple terms all things considered. “I used to be a girl. M’not anymore.” It was all the guy said, and it seemed to make enough sense to Owen, so he didn’t ask any further.
“...you wanna be a guy?” Owen asked, thinking back to the conversation he’d had with the guy over a match of The Danger Team.
“Wha- I- You- Huh?” Aoife started and subsequently stopped four different thoughts in the span of two seconds. She was stunned, quite literally, a motionless spectacle of confusion in her gaming chair.
“Is that… should I not have said that? You said you’re trans so I thought-”
“Stop. Owen- stop. Do you even know what you’re talking about?”
“I only met one trans person before… so not really no. He told me that he used to be a girl and then wasn’t anymore so I was-”
“Ah! Oh my god I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or rejoice!” Aoife melted into her chair, holding her hands over her face as she squirmed around, throwing her legs over the right arm of the chair and leaning her back against the left.
“What do you mean ‘Ah!’ I’m the one confused! I feel like I’m saying something wrong but I’m just working with what I’ve got! I’ve never had a reason to learn about any of that stuff!” Owen defended himself. It never felt like something he should push himself into, since it was an entire area that he felt he didn’t belong in.
“Sorry- I’m just trying to process all of this. Most people know what being trans is, even the people who hate it!”
“I just didn’t see any reason to get involved! It’s not like I’ve ever been diagnosed with anything, so it felt weird to push myself into that space!”
“Diagnosed? I- okay so you’re like… clueless.”
“I guess? Aoife I just go to classes and play video games when I’m done, I don’t know what you want from me.” Owen gave an awkward laugh, hoping it would dispel some of the uncomfortable feelings that weighed in his gut.
“Okay, lemme try to clear the air then, Owen. I’m assuming the guy you mentioned was a trans man? Like you said, female to male in his case, which seems like it made some sort of sense to you. Well I’m like… the opposite? Trans woman, make sense?”
“Huh? You mean you were a guy?” Owen asked. When he did so, he noticed the momentary flinch from Aoife that quickly slid off of her, like she expected it as an inevitability of the explanation.
“Yeah. This is like the basic math part of LGBTQ shit if I’m being so honest, but I feel like if I get into the algebra part of it right now your brain will fuckin’ explode.”
“I would like an unexploded brain, Aoife.”
“We’ll keep it simple for now. Yeah, I used to be a guy or whatever, but that is absolutely in the past, got it?”
“You just… became a girl? I don’t- You can do that?” Owen asked, a mixture of curiosity and a blossoming flurry of questions sprouting into his mind. It hadn’t been a consideration, a reality, or even a remote possibility until now. That was something that had always felt reserved for the virtual world, a world where desires could manifest themselves into a reality unlike the real world where rules existed to stunt that exploration. But Aoife was proof that perhaps those rules weren’t as concrete as they seemed.
“What does it look like to you?” Aoife answered, pushing the onus of answering back towards Owen. When he looked at her, it was a no brainer. He hadn’t even questioned her gender once in the time they had spent together. Sure, he had noticed her voice was deeper than the average woman, but he’d met others with deeper voices that almost certainly weren’t trans. She was everything Owen thought was out of reach, she had become her ideal self. It was like she grabbed the reins of her own character creator, and changed the features that didn’t match. Owen wondered how it all worked. Was something like Witchofthew3st within reach? He’d always felt that looking more like one of the many characters that he created would be nice, if impossible. He felt like he stood among a breadth of doors, all of which were opening before him.
“I think you’re pretty fuckin’ awesome Aoife! I think it makes you even cooler than before. Holy shit it feels like my chakras are aligning or some shit, this explains some of the shit I saw online that never made sense!” Owen shot up from his chair and moved towards his desk to grab at where he’d always sat his phone down. Only, there was no phone present in its usual spot.
“Oh fuck me in a frying pan I left my phone at Frisky Frogs.” Owen patted his pockets and checked his coat to ensure he hadn’t accidentally forgotten it inside of a pocket.
“You’d better run fast, buckaroo. They might be closing soon.” Aoife laughed, pushing her rolling chair back towards her desk as Owen moved towards the door and started to put his shoes back on.
“Yeah, yeah, if I have to run through the cold I’m gonna cry.” Owen muttered as he buttoned up his coat and reached for the door. “I’ll be back in a sec!”
Aoife had her own rubix cube of thoughts clicking and turning away in her mind as she absent-mindedly turned on her computer to go through the usual motions of logging onto UMDK. Owen took the news differently than anyone else had. In fact, he seemed to be excited at the revelation, something which made Aoife curious. That sort of reaction wasn’t too far off from her own reaction to finding out about trans people. Aoife started to think back towards more conversations that they had shared in the past, like she was assembling a picture from scattered pieces of a puzzle. Aoife wondered why Owen reacted so passionately, was it possible that-
“Oh.” Aoife was quickly distracted by a notification that popped up on her screen upon her computer starting up. She had it set up such that the UMDK launcher would automatically launch upon starting up her computer. There was an unread message from Witchofthew3st.
[Witchofthew3st: I’m sorry, Femi. I didn’t mean to leave so suddenly last night. Truthfully, I was scared. You said that you like me. I believe you might like Witchofthew3st, but that really isn’t me. I think it’s better for the both of us if I stop things now before it hurts too much later on. Maybe when I figure out who I am, you can meet that person. Maybe you’d even like that person. Love you, Buttercup.]
“...Buttercup?”
Aoife reread the message multiple times, a steady sense of disbelief boiling over into a sickening realization.
“Owen.”