Austin was thirteen and Ally was eleven. He was proud of his age, and thought of Ally as a little sister that he had to take care of. He walked her to school, he held her hand, he licked the sprinkles off her nose after she ate ice cream. Austin never thought about boys and girls and all their differences.
The only thing he knew was that Ally wore dresses and he wore jeans. She cried all the time and he never cried. Her hands were soft and his hands were rough. That was the way it was supposed to be.
Then things changed.
Ally became popular with the boys at school. Austin noticed it, even though she didn't. One day a boy asked Ally if they could be friends. Austin calmly pushed the boy into the lunch table and said, "I'm her best friend."
Then Austin got taller. Tall enough that he could rest his hand comfortably on top of her head. It made her seem even more like a little sister to him. After all, she was only eleven.
Their parents used to let them have sleepovers at Ally's house. Her parents would make them promise that Austin would sleep on the floor and Ally would stay in the bed. After the parents left, Austin would ignore the rules and climb into the bed. As he grew taller, he would stretch out his legs and take up more and more of the bed. As they grew bigger, the space between them grew smaller.
At night they would stay awake and read stories out loud. Ally's voice was sweet and soothing, and often put him to sleep no matter how interesting the story was. He liked the sound of her voice so much, he asked Ally to teach him how to sing, too. She put a hand on his stomach and his chest and taught him how to breathe correctly, how to sing the notes from the back of his throat. They practiced in her bedroom, late at night, softly and quietly. Their voices grew stronger. Soon, Austin was singing her to sleep, singing in the shower, singing whenever he could. They fell in love with music together.
Austin' voice started to deepen. It cracked occasionally, but he told himself it was because of the singing practice. He didn't notice it happening until Ally played an old recording of his voice and said that he'd become a tenor.
"You can hit the low notes now," she said, excited.
Their voices were different then. When they sang together at night, his tone went deep and hers went high, and her parents started to yell at them for being too loud, since Austin' voice was more resonant and easier to hear.
Ally started to treat him differently. It started with little things. She asked Austin what he thought of her clothes. She tried on different clothes for him, called it a "fashion show." He said he liked ponytails, so that was what she did with her hair.