Written by xXBabyxKittyXx A/N; hey guys. So, I thought I'd post this to give y'all a look at my writing style. I'm used to writing smut so this is a little different for me, please keep that in mind but hopefully you'll enjoy!

"Valerie! Are you ready yet?" My mother's voice called up the stairs. I groaned, rolling over onto my back. I grumpily got up from my bed and opened the door to find her already standing there.

"That's not my name," I muttered. "It is legally and unless you plan on changing that, that's what you will stay," she told me.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. "And what did I tell you about your clothing for tonight?" She groaned.

I peered down at my attire and shrugged. "To not wear what I usually do," I shrugged. She pinched the bride of her nose, sighing.

"You know what, it's too late for you to change now, get in the car."

She's always doing this. Nagging me about my inappropriate style and whatnot.

Let me explain the current situation;

My mother was invited to some high school reunion shit and she decided it was a great idea to drag me along to show me off or whatever her reason was. She wanted me to dress like "the girl I am" rather then my true self.

She's one of those people who think it's just a phase. But she doesn't understand. You can't unless you go through it yourself.

She never respects my pronouns or my name, she's always calling me her and she rather then he and him.

Honestly, whoever someone calls me she, her or Valerie, it hurts. It's like a knife stabbing you right in the heart and every time, it brings you closer to the dark voids inside your mind.

I don't want to be there; no one does but you can't control other people. You can't change them.

As I sat in the car, I shoved my headphones in my ears and blasted KISS to avoid any further conversations with my mother.

After what felt like hours, we arrived at this fancy ass restaurant. Great. Not I'm going to get judged by everyone.

"Leave your phone in the car, I want you to socialise with people," mother instructed. I sighed but did as I was told, slipping my phone under the seat so it hopefully wouldn't get stolen.

We walked inside and a woman with white-ish hair walked over, smiling widely.

"Michelle! I'm so glad you could make it!" She beamed, hugging my mother. "It's great to see you, Karen. You look amazing," she said happily, holding the woman out at arms length.

A man with scruffy mouse brown hair waltzed over, slipping his arm around Karen's shoulder. "Michelle, it's been so long. How are you?" He asked, his voice deep.

"I'm fantastic. It feels good to see everyone again," mother responded.

I could feel eyes burning into my skull. I nervously rubbed my arm, looking down at my Nike's.

"Who's this then?" Karen's voice questioned. I felt my mother nudge me, but I didn't look up. I couldn't. I knew they were judging me.

She sighed barley audibly, speaking, "this is my daughter, Valerie. Valerie, be polite and say hello."

I looked up for a brief moment then back at my shoes. I couldn't speak.

"She's a little rude," the man scoffed. "She's not normally like this. She's just annoyed with having to come. Let me have a word with her."

Mother grabbed my arm and drug me away from the couple to a secluded area.

I glanced up at her to see she was fuming. "That was very rude. I don't want you to be like that this whole night. You will introduce yourself to the people I talk to as Valerie, my daughter otherwise I'm taking your phone."

"Yes ma'am," I mumbled. "Good."

She walked back to the room of people, me trailing behind her. "Esther!" She exclaimed. A black haired woman turned around, her green eyes scanning the crowd for who called her.

"Oh my goodness, Michelle!" She ran over and hugged my mother. Her grin grew so much that it looked like her face was gonna split in half. I giggled a little at the thought.

"And who's this?" I was pulled from my dumb thoughts by Esther's voice. Here it goes. "Hi, I'm Valerie," I said, quietly. "My daughter," my mother said, grabbing my shoulders and squeezing them a little.

"She doesn't look like much of a girl. Where's her breasts?"

My jaw dropped so low I swear I could feel the carpet graze my chin. Who the fuck asks someone that?!

"She binds them with bandages. She thinks she's a boy," my mother muttered. Esther snickered. "She'd make great friends with my son then. He likes to dress in women's clothes and wear make up."

Right about now, I wanted to fall into a hole and cry until all the moisturise was out of my body and then just lay there until I die.

"I need to go to the bathroom," I whispered. I left my mother's side and pushed through the bodies, until I found the bathrooms.

For a second I debated whether I should obey my mother but then I thought, fuck it.

I pushed the door to the male bathrooms open and immediately locked myself in one of the stalls. I knocked the seat down and sat on top of of, bringing my knees up to my chest.

I let myself cry silently, letting out little sniffle here and there. Once I thought I was okay, I unlocked the door and stepped out, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

My hair was messed up, my eyes red and puffy. I looked terrible. Not even just now, in general. I hated how I looked.

I turned the tap on and splashed some cold water on my face.

The door opened and I gasped, running into one of the stalls. I peeked out space between the door and the wall to see who had come in and my god, was I shocked.

I'm not sure of the gender but fuck, they were beautiful. Jet black, shoulder length hair, beautifully applied make up that made their crystal blue eyes pop and drawn eyebrows. They had a very curvy body shape and they looked perfect in their long sleeve, black, belly cut shirt, Beetle Juice style pants and black Converse.

"My god," I mumbled. Their head shot up and I clamped a hand over my mouth. "I know someone's in here," they said. Their voice was feminine but masculine at the same time.

I felt bad for staring and I didn't want to make it worse so I stepped out of the stall. Their eyes scanned over me and they smiled once they met their eyes with my own.

"Staring at me, cutie?"

I didn't know what to say so I kept quiet. They chuckled a little. "What's your name, darling?" I remembered what my mother told me.

"Valerie," I spoke. I saw them cock their head to the side a little, eyebrows furrowed.

"That's not your name. I mean your real name."

My eyes met with theirs again. "Um, Vincent," I said, barley above a whisper. "Well hi, Vincent, I'm Devin," they greeted.

I smiled shyly and bit my lip. "I know what you're thinking. I'm a guy," he informed me.

"Uh, why?" I asked softly.

"Why what?" He cocked his head to the side again.

"Why did you ask my real name?"

He sighed. "I watch people. Well, I watch their eyes. Eyes are the window to the soul, where you can see emotions. I saw in your eyes how much it hurt you to say your name was "Valerie", meaning that you have skeletons in your closest. Also, I heard how yours and my mother were talking about you."

"You have to call me Valerie. Otherwise I'm going to get in trouble," I sighed. Devin threw his head back, laughing. "You care more about getting in trouble then you do being yourself? Who cares? Take a chance and let go," he said.

I thought about it for a moment. What's the worst she could do? All she did was say she'd take my phone. Plus, I'm eighteen in a month. Maybe I should listen to Devin...

"Will you help me?" His eyes brightened. "Of course! How much do you care about your mom?" I rose an eyebrow. "Not all that much. Why?"

A sly smirk formed on his face.

"Because I have a plan."

Without another word, he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the bathroom. He intertwined our fingers and walked through the crowd of people, up to the microphone.

He tapped on it twice before speaking into it.

"Hello everybody! Can I have you're attention please?" The people in the room stopped talking to each other and looked up at us. My face started to head up because of all the attention.

"Devin! What are you doing up there?!" Esther squeaked. I glanced over at my mother to see her angrily glaring up at me. 'Get down here.' She mouthed.

I ignored her and turned my head back to Devin.

"Hey! So, my name is Devin Sola. Biologically, I'm male but sometimes I like to dress up like a female. And this."

He motioned to me with his free hand, "this is my boyfriend, Vinny Mauro. He's originally born a girl but is now a guy. Just thought I'd let you all know."

Devin dropped the microphone and started running out the venue, with me behind him. A smile broke onto my face.

People know who I am and for once, I don't care. I couldn't help it, I started laughing. I was so happy.

Devin joined in, pulling me over to a daisy field. "Holy shit, this feels great!" I exclaimed, spinning around. I fell back into the daisies and he fell on top of me.

We kept laughing until we calmed ourselves down. Devin smiled down at me before gently pressing his lips to mine. Something inside me told me to kiss back, so I did.

Once we parted, he rested his head in my chest. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer to me.

"I have a question," I said, breaking the silence. Devin's head shot up and he looked worried. "What is it?" His voice was soft, scared.

"Will you go out with me tomorrow night?" He smiled widely, kissing my lips for a brief second.

"Yes. Yes I will."