I’d spent the morning staring out the window. Supervising the ‘Boys and Girls’ club wasn’t what I had in mind for a job, but it would do.

“Tay?” It was a soft female voice. I grunted in response. “We were wondering if you’d be the Prince, for the play?”

I turned to see who the request came from. It was Ellie, and she looked frightened by my presence. Not that she should be, I didn’t give her reason to. “‘We’?” I questioned.

From behind the door, Sebastian appeared. “Yeah, ‘we’, meaning us, as if in the rest of the teens, want you to play the Prince.”

“Why, aren’t you man enough?” Cassie sneered through the doorway.

I grinned, “That is a good question.”

Sebastian’s face turned red, as his eyebrows frowned. “I just think you’d be better, is all”, he muttered.

As the remaining workers walked in, I felt their eyes on me, waiting on a response.

I gave them all a sad smile. “I suppose I’ll have to do my best, then.”

After the cheering ended, Ellie waved a meter stick around to catch our attention. She looked less scared now, as if my acceptance was all she needed.

“Alright, now that we have a Prince,” she nodded in my direction, “we’ll need a-”

“I think I’d make a good Princess, if nobody minds.”

All of us swivelled around to see if we had heard right. Cassie was still standing in the doorway, but with a cheeky smile on her face. Cassie and I were the most antisocial people on staff.

My jaw dropped open as she asked again. “No objections? Alright then, thank you very much.”

She then proceeded to sway her way down the hall, and out of view.

“Who the hell does she think she is?” Sebastian looked over at me. “How in God’s name do you stay friends with that bitch?”

“She’s... not a bad person...” I mumbled under my breath.
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“Faggot”

I continued walking. I’ve really got to stop getting lost in here, I mean, it hosts a ‘Boys and Girls’ club, even a 5 year old could find his way around. Must find that library.

“Whoa! It’s a guy with a chest!”

Again, I kept walking. Was my fault for wearing boy clothes anyway.

‘Aha! The Library, here it is. Book... book... where did I leave my sketchbook?’ I sighed, weaving in and out of book shelves. Giving up, I sat down. ‘Sketchbook lost, sexuality known, what else can go wro-’, tears had begin quietly streaming down my face, 'Fuck. I’m almost in high school. I really need to learn how to grow up.'

“Hey, I found this, is it y-” The voice stopped mid-question. I looked up, and saw a girl. Her blue eyes looked at me sadly, as if she felt my pain. “What’s wrong?”

Shocked, I continued staring at her. Medium height, wavy long brown hair that sort of blocked her very lightly tanned skin. ‘A princess?’

After that, we started meeting in the library; I would talk about my problems, and she made me feel safe.

“Y’know, we’ve been meeting for a week and I still don’t know your name.”

“Cassie, yours?”

“You’re Cassie? But everybody says you’re a major bitch- I’m sorry. It’s just, you’re so nice...”

“No problem. And, I guess I am. But I’m not as nice as to be considerate to people I don’t like.”

I blushed. “But there’s nothing to like about me.”

“You’re cute.”
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“Tay! The costumes are done!” I heard Ellie yelling for me. It’d been weeks since I agreed to be the Prince. I shook my head to make the memory go away, and walked into the change rooms with Cassie.

Returning outside, I heard the girls sigh. I had sort of become their ‘Mysterious Prince’, and even the little ones that we took care of were making googly eyes at me. The outfit resembled the one Prince Charming wore, and Ellie had fixed it up so it fit me well. I felt someone link onto my arm, and there she was, Cassie, in a dress. It was beautiful, silky fabric hugged her body in all the right places, and it flowed with her as she walked. I knelt and presented her with the bouquet of red roses I had bought for her.

“What d’you think?” She asked calmly. I gasped, and continued staring. “Well then, would you like to try it on later?”

I opened my mouth to say something, when Sebastian answered for me. “As if, Em would look stupid in that.”

“Haha, you’re right.” I smiled weakly.

“Sebastian,” Cassie used a monotone voice, “I think insensitive people like you shouldn’t be able to talk at all.”

He just stood there, clenching his fists. ‘Fuck’, I thought, ‘she really went too far this time, he’s gonna-’

And then he did. Sebastian lunged forward at Cassie, who didn’t bother moving to dodge. I ran sideways to block her, and took the blow to my face. I went flying downwards, and broke through an old wooden table along the way. Everybody had stopped working and started staring at us. Quickly, I picked up Cassie and made a run for the library.

We changed in the library bathrooms, and sat next to each other in silence.

Finally, she broke it. “You don’t cry anymore, huh?”

I smiled sadly, “No, I don’t.”

“That’s too bad,” Cassie stood up and walked a bit, “it’s cute when you cry.”

“What the heck?” I said, laughing. “What kind of logic is that?”

“Mine.”
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Days before the play, we found Cassie’s dress shredded. Nobody wanted to help her fix it, for everybody agreed with Sebastian.

I was going to leave when I noticed that her jacket was still in her locker. That meant she was still at work. I walked around the building, and saw a light in the library. ‘Ah, that must be her’.

Cassie saw me come in, nodded her head, and then went back to working on the dress. I sat next to her, and watched her sew up the cuts.

She spoke. “You still haven’t tried it on, y’know.”

“It wouldn’t look good on me.” I stated quietly.

“Just wear it, already.”

“No!” I yelled. She looked at me in shock. She’d never seen me yell out of anger. I had started crying, for the first time in weeks. “It’s not that the dress doesn’t suit me... It’s that I have... no right... to wear it...”

Slowly Cassie wiped the tears from my eyes. “You know I love you, Em.”

I didn’t quite understand what she was doing, and because of my stupidity, I fell backwards while she tried to kiss me.

I just stayed there, lying back-down to the floor, opening and closing my mouth like a fish. She sat upright on top of me, and asked why I looked so shocked.

“You’re really against it, aren’t you? I mean, I get it, ‘cause you’re straight and all, but I mean, I’ve told you I love you for weeks, haven’t I?” Cassie looked into my eyes, and I saw the hurt deep inside them. But I really didn’t know what to say to her. I wasn’t against it, in fact, I was all for it. But I couldn’t.

She was a girl.
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In a sense, we forgot that afternoon. Cassie and I went along with our ‘friendship’ as usual, but I knew somewhere that it would- no, should, have been different. If only I tried.
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Our final night together arrived. We spoke in whispers.

“I know you think you’re not cute,” Cassie had started her ‘cute’ talk again, “but if anything, at least believe that I think you are.”

“Well, okay, fine. But you’re the only one who does.”

“Let me be your Prince forever, then.”

And then she died.

The sole sound of the monitor, forever echoing in the back of my mind.