Hey! Thanks for the reviews, you guys! They always make me feel so good :) Anyways, this chapter is a little short, but I should have the last one uptonight or tomorrow (I've been trying really hard to finish this before I leave for camp on Sunday O.o)

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"What is it?" Andy asked, trying to peer inside the duffle bag, wondering where it had come from. He didn't remember Mimi having it when they had come in.

Mimi was smiling disbelievingly. When she started pulling items out of the bag, Andy's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

Black skirt. Lime green t-shirt with long, pink mesh sleeves. Chocolate-brown wig. Pink stilettos. Make-up.

"How—?" Andy asked, astounded.

"… Never mind that now," Mimi said, smiling. She held out the skirt. "What do you say, Angel? Think Jason can handle the real you?"

Andy took the skirt in his hands. The thought of wearing this in front of Jason was terrifying. But yet….

Maybe it was time.

He nodded grimly and took the bag into a stall to change.

Angel unlocked the stall door and stepped out, looking dolefully at Mimi who laughed and clapped her hands together. "You look adorable!"

When looking in the mirror, Angel saw herself. Not Andy, but Angel. Not an insecure little boy, but a confident queen.

Though inside, she was still terrified.

"What if he… totally blows me off?" she fretted as she applied some eyeliner. "I'm not sure if I can handle that…."

"You can handle anything, baby."

"How do you know?"

"I hear things."

"Like…?"

"That time those dick-heads jumped you and instead of freaking out like any normal person when they're about to become the victim of a hate crime, you knocked one of them out with your platform shoe and clawed the other with your nails so badly he needed stitches."

Angel snorted with laughter, remembering the incident. It certainly hadn't been funny at the time; in fact it was one of the most frightening moments in her entire life, second only to when she received her HIV results. But looking back, it was no less than a miracle that she had gotten out of the incident with little more than a ripped stocking and a broken nail. And the fact that the two butch dudes had been overcome by a skinny guy in drag was pretty darn funny looking back.

Remembering it gave her confidence. She looked at her reflection and smoothed her skirt, slipping into the shoes. They were one of Angel's very favorite pairs. How Mimi had managed this, she had no idea. It was positively brilliant.

The first time Andy walked in heels was when his cousin Christi came to visit one summer. That girl was super-tall and had really huge feet, like size twelve. One night, Andy was feeling a little under the weather and decided to stay home when everyone went out to dinner at a restaurant he didn't like anyway. Like with his sister's make-up, something made him want to walk around in his cousin's shoes. They were just so darn cute! She had these four-inch, spiked, red heels that Andy strapped onto his own feet. He took a wobbly step on the carpet. Laughing, he kept them on, trying to walk all over the house, even on the stairs. It was so much fun. In the living room he turned on music and shook his ass like a girl in a music video and sang and danced and clip-clopped around in those silly shoes.

When his family came home, he was already in his room, all traces of forbidden fun gone, pretending to have been reading the whole time they were out.

Mimi left the bathroom first, nervous for Angel. She caught Maureen's eye. She smiled, and Maureen winked at her. Mark, who Maureen had attached herself to like a leech at the beginning of the evening, was now sitting on the other side of Collins. Guess those two weren't getting back together after all, surprise surprise. Collins watched the bathroom door expectantly.

Behind the door Angel steadied herself. Her heartbeat had picked up and she felt like she was about to puke up the butterflies in her stomach. She took a deep breath, gave a small, quiet cough, and opened the door, letting Mimi guide her back to the table.

Jason and Misty were whispering, Angel assumed, about her sudden melt-down. They looked up at Mimi. "Is he okay?" Jason asked. Then he appeared to notice Angel. He gave her a strange look.

"Who's this?"

Angel gave a weak half-smile. "Don't recognize me, Jason?"

It took a moment for Jason's expression to change, and when it did, it was only a subtle difference. He looked extremely confused for a second, staring at Angel, taking in the wig, the skirt, the shoes.

Then he burst out laughing.

He laughed loudly and uncontrollably. "Andy?" he gasped, hysterical. "What the hell?"

Oh my God, Angel thought, he thinks it's a joke.

Misty didn't though. Misty wasn't laughing. She nudged her fiancé. "Jason," she whispered, shaking her head at him. His laughs reduced to chuckles and he wiped his eyes, which had been streaming from laughter.

"What the hell, Andy?" he said again, still sort of smiling. "You can be so weird!"

"I'm not trying to be weird," Angel said, crossing her arms. "Jason, there are a few things I have to tell you."

Jason's grin was disappearing pretty damn fast. "What do you mean?"

Angel took a deep breath. No turning back now.

"I mean, this is me." She spun around, giving him a good look at her. "This is how I dress. This is what I am, what I've always been. I've been lying to you since you got here. I borrowed my friend Mark's clothes. The shoes I borrowed from my friend Roger, because as much as I positively adore these pink ones, I doubted you'd agree. I borrowed Roger's girlfriend too, just incase I said something dumb that I couldn't get out of. I love Mimi, but I'm not in love with her. I have a boyfriend. His name is Tom Collins and I love him more than life itself. Speaking of which, I also have AIDS, which, I might add, I did not get from shooting up heroin or being born with it, but from sleeping with a guy. Yes, Jason. A guy. A guy who definitely didn't love me as much as he said he did, but that's all behind me now. So let's see. You know my biggest mistake and my favorite pair of shoes. What else is there to cover? Oh yes, the fact that I drum on the street! Not in a club. Not in a band. On the sidewalk with homemade drums made of old tubs. I don't care anymore what you think of my lifestyle, I refuse to lie anymore, and you can take it or leave it."

Jason's eyes were wide and shocked from all this information. He sputtered a moment, then choked out, "Andy…."

"And, one more thing," Angel said, leaning her elbows on the table, her face close to Jason's. "My name is not Andy. Andy is dead. It's Angel, and don't you ever call me anything else, honey."

Misty put her arm around Jason, who appeared to be completely shell shocked. He shook his head slowly from side to side as if he couldn't believe it.

Angel bit the corner of her lip. She wasn't really feeling well. Things were starting to tilt a little. A cough tickled her throat, but she tried to push it back down. She met Jason's eyes. She had always been able to read him that way. His eyes revealed everything. And right now his eyes revealed…..

"It's disgusting," Jason said in a very quiet voice. "How…. Why..? It's… wrong, oh god, Andy! What the hell happened to you?"

Angel closed her own eyes for a moment to fight off a wave of sadness and disappointment. She had known all along that it was coming. But it made hearing the words no less painful.

"Let's go, Misty," he said in a horribly superior voice, standing up and wrenching his eyes from Angel's.

She wanted to just let them go. Save some dignity, be too proud to give him any sort of reaction. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of crying or getting angry….

But she couldn't help it.

"How can you be like this?" she shouted, her face flushing. "You were happy to see me ten minutes ago! It's still me, Jason, I'm still the same person under all the—" She began to cough. "All the—" She couldn't stop. "Makeup and…. Oh, damn it!" She leaned against the table to keep standing as she coughed harder and harder….

"Angel!"

It wasn't Jason's voice, or Misty's or even Mimi's. It was Collins's voice and Collins's arms that supported her and Collins's chest that she let herself fall against. She could barely breathe she was coughing so hard, and her eyes watered. When did he get here?

Someone—Mimi—held a glass of water up to her lips. She tried to drink, but was coughing too much to get it down. She would have collapsed had Collins not been holding her.

"I… can't… breathe…," she wheezed, feeling torturously dizzy. She just kept coughing and coughing and could hardly get enough air in to support it.

Collins, terrified, shouted, "Someone call a doctor!"

It was the last thing Angel heard before losing consciousness.

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Okay, so another cliffy, but I swear, I'll finish before I leave! Pretty please review!