"Lia, I can't do it. She'll hate me, I know she will," Toby ran his hand through his long, feminine hair. Lia grabbed her friend's shaking hands, noting that he was too scared to even call her Leia. She stood on her tip toes and then pressed her thin lips to the males stressed temple.
"Yes. You. Can." Lia said forcefully. "You are strong, you are brave, and you don't deserve to pretend like this anymore. You can't live two lives," she quipped sternly. She kept to herself the thought that she didn't know if she could handle keeping this secret from Ms. Michaelchon. The woman had became like a surrogate mother to her, seeing as her real one lived up on Mount Olympus.
"What happens if she kicks me out?" Toby whispered, tears brimming in the corners of his chocolate brown eyes.
"We'll go to my dad's old apartment, okay?"
Toby nodded and took a deep breath before he removed the frilly dress that his mother had forced him to wear. He grabbed the clothes that he and Lia had bought earlier that day after they had returned home from camp. "Let me help you with the binder, after all it is your first time wearing one."
"Alright, I get it, I'm super-duper sheltered for someone who's transgender," Toby stuck his tongue out as they slid the constricting article of clothing over his regular bra, causing him to gasp out at the sudden lack of oxygen. He giggled before wriggling slightly to make it a slight bit more comfortable. "C'mon, we have to do this before my mom gets home!" he squealed. Grabbing his friend's hand the dragged her to the bathroom.
It took almost half an hour to work the dye into the young males hair. But when they were finished, it looked amazing. Toby's eyes were filled with excitement as he ran his hand through the now short, and bright blue locks. "This is amazing! You did so amazing! Thank you!" Toby nearly shrieked, hugging his best friend. Lia just smiled before she pushed her friend out of the door and towards the clothes that they had bought yesterday.
When Toby was finally ready, his hair was short and bright blue, he was wearing a Skull Candy shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans.
"How do I look?" Toby asked, striking a ridiculous pose and wiggling his eyebrows at Lia.
Lia fell into peals of laughter before gasping for breath and giving a serious reply.
"Amazing. You look absolutely amazing. And so manly too." Lia stuck her tongue out as Toby wrinkled his nose angrily.
"Alright, how long 'till your mom gets home?" Toby looked up at the pink, rhinestone covered clock above his bed.
"Twenty minutes."
"'kay. You wanna do something?" Lia asked, plopping down onto the pink bedspread.
"No." Toby replied in a clipped tone, sinking onto the bed beside her. Lia noted that her friend's replies were getting shorter and shorter, so she stopped pestering him.
They simply sat, shoulder to shoulder, in complete silence, until they heard the door creak open in the front room.
"Here goes nothing" Lia said squeezing her friend's hand as she stood up. Toby's eyes shone with a fear so palpable, Lia almost hugged him. But there was no time. It was now, or never.
They walked together, Lia slightly in the lead, to the doorway, where Toby's mom had just finished hanging up her rain-slicked coat, and was now holding a bag of groceries.
"Oh!" She exclaimed as the two friends rounded the corner. "I forgot you two got home to-" her eyes fell on Toby's new attire.
"Christina. Where did you get those?" she demanded, anger flashing in her eyes for a moment before she paused, trying to pick back up the peppy mom routine. "They look so ni-" her eyes fell on Toby's short, blue locks.
Before she had the chance to do anything, Toby opened his mouth and spoke, keeping his hands woven behind his back as he shifted his weight back and forth on his feet. "Mom, before you say anything. It's not Christina, I'm not a girl. I never really was. I'm a boy and my name is-" her eyes only became more angry as she stared at her 'daughter.'
A hand slapped across his face, striking the slightly pink cheek that had been pampered for so long. It came again and again before the woman was beating her son. Lia's heart beat against her ribcage as she calculated the moves that she could make to save her transgender friend. She threw herself in front of the abusive mother, throwing Toby out of the way. Toby scrambled for the phone and dialed the number that had been pounded into his head since he was a small child.
"911, what's your emergency?" a light female voice questioned.
"My mother snapped and is beating my friend and I," Toby said around a swollen lip that made most of his words come out strange and peculiar. He prayed to all the gods that would listen to him that the operator could understand him.
The hand fell upon Lia's head twice before Ms. Michaelchon realized that it was no longer her own child who cowered in front of her. She stepped back, breathing heavily, before rounding on Toby.
She ripped the phone from his hands, slamming it into the receiver.
"How could you? How could you? I have no daughter!" She screamed into Toby's tear-streaked face. He opened his mouth to protest that that was exactly what he was saying. "No! No! You were always my perfect little girl! And…" she paused, unsure of what she meant to say.
"And you will stay that way!" She said, contradicting her statement of only seconds prior. "You are staying mommy's little girl. We are going to fix this. Together." Her voice was quiet now, scaring Toby more than the screaming had.
Lia whimpered from the floor as blood trickled down her forehead.
Ms. Michaelchon grabbed Toby's arm, fake nails almost breaking his skin. She pulled him off of his knees and dragged him across the carpeted living room floor to the kitchen.
"Stop!" Toby sobbed. "What are you doing? Where are you putting me?"
"You are going in the closet, where I can lock you in and keep you there!" She replied, before shoving Toby into said closet.
"Stop." Came a weak voice, seconds before Ms. Michaelchon slammed the door. "Stop!" The woman turned to see Lia, face and pale hair stained scarlet with blood. "You can't put Toby in there."
"Oh can't I?"
"No. Didn't you see him calling the police?"
"Why, yes, I did. But did you not see me take the phone from her?" Ms. Michaelchon replied, almost yelling by the time she reached the last word. Lia froze, realizing that she had no clue if her friend had managed to actually get a police car to come.
"No, Lia's right. The operator said that she was sending a police car. They could arrest you. You not only abused your own daughter, but her poor, half-orphaned friend as well." Toby was standing now, eyes blazing defiantly.
The crazed look disappeared from Ms. Michaelchon's eyes. Her face slid from surprise to terror. She stumbled back a few steps, catching herself on the counter. The door shook and cracked as several uniformed officers burst into the room.
"Hold it right there" a woman shouted.
"Ms. Michaelchon, you're coming with us," one of the other officers said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs. She approached the deranged woman, and turned her around, pressing her against the wall. As soon as Toby knew that he was safe from his mother, he bolted over to his friend as fast as his legs would allow him. He fell down next to the girl who was holding her eyes in her hand.