Dustin couldn't help but be reminded, as he stared at the ceiling, of all his different flaws. Her flaws...

It was an awkward subject, almost painful subject, for Dustin to think about, especially when Puck got mixed into this...

Jenna Rolland though...

Jenna had implied that she wanted to go to the dance with him...hadn't that been his dream since the beginning of High School? ...Hadn't it?

Yes.

Puck was just...a minor...distraction- a day crush, exactly.

Dustin couldn't deny he was crushing on Puck after literally jacking- would it be called Jilling since he had a- anyway, after literally doing that to her calling him...

Dustin shuttered.

Why had he put lustful thoughts to that nickname? Puck called him that all the time how the hell was he not supposed to get uncomfortable around her now if she used that name every five seconds?

Dustin sighed. He just needed time to allow this crushing sense to die down...to allow Jenna to take her place in his heart...

With Puck it seemed so easy though...like Dustin only had to please her, that he didn't have to appeal to an entire friend group because frankly, Puck didn't seem to have that many friends; As for Jenna...

Jenna was top ranking in Middle Brough High School; She had all the gossip all the time and friends surrounding her to appeal to her as to not get their drama posted to the entire school, though it still quite frequently happened.

Dustin was in a bit of a pickle...

He let out a groan and threw his hands over his face in frustration, kicking his legs out to remove the tension in between them before sitting up quickly and grabbing his phone when he realized he had literally just called Puck and said just about two words before hanging up. So, it was natural that Dustin's phone was littered by texts from Puck when he checked it.

Puck: You Okay?

Puck: You sounded a bit rushed when you hung up, everything alright?

Puck: Ponytail?

Dustin let out a small squeak.

Puck: ...

Puck: Dustin?

Dustin's eyes shone bright as he saw his name on screen, recognizing that Puck hardly referred to him as this and taking it in as a special encounter.

Dustin: Sorry yeah, the biscuits started burning.

It wasn't a lie . . .

Puck: You bake?

Shit.

Dustin: Sometimes

Puck: Oo Can I have a biscuit?

Dustin squeaked once again.

Dustin: Sorry, they're burned

Puck: I mean can you bake some for me some time?

If this keeps up then the biscuits will be baking quite frequently

Dustin: Yeah, sure

Great...now I need to actually know to bake.

Puck: I'll hold you to it, Ponytail!

Dustin shuttered before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

Dustin: Mind you, I just burned this batch so I can't guarantee I'm a good baker

Puck: A biscuit is a biscuit

Is it though?

Dustin: I guess it is

Puck: Shit, they're calling me inside the theatre, I have to go

Dustin: Ah, alright, bye

Puck: Byyyye

Dustin smiled before clicking his phone off and sighing, laying his head down on his pillow and then rolling onto his side, drawing his knees close to his chest as his phone lay a few inches from his face.

Why were emotions so difficult?
So confusing
So...yes, confusing was a good word...

Dustin then stared up at his ceiling.
It was better this way at least...better being able to like girls without...
Without the bigotry and closed minded people and-

Oh god.

Puck knew he was trans.

This sudden realization made Dustin's heart-rate pick up.

Did Puck even like people who were trans? Or just guys? What if she was gay? Puck seemed like she could he gay...if that were the case then Dustin had the sex just not the gender...and Jenna...it wasn't like Dustin could just keep this from her if they actually went anywhere other than friend-zone-station...but for some reason...Dustin felt like Puck wouldn't care...maybe because she hadn't cared when he had told her...she just sat with him...in the girl's bathroom...Would Jenna have done that?

Who knows.
Jenna had been the problem in that case.

It was so much easier to love this way in one aspect, but in the other aspect, love was difficult in general...it was better than it had been before...well, before he moved here.

Before Dustin had moved to New Jersey was before his dad had gotten work here and before he had come out to his family as Trans, and before he got the surgery.

He had lived in a small town in Kansas...and at that time he went by the name that had been on his birth certificate from age zero to age eleven, Destiny.

Dustin's Head swirled at these thoughts as he usually kept them in a dark corner of his mind.

Kansas has been a nice place to live...rolling fields, never ending with corn and sunflowers...but it was also a...well, a red state.

And Destiny was Gay.

Being gay wasn't particularly looked up at in his town...

And being Trans especially wasn't.

Destiny hadn't realized she was trans until around age ten...and by that time she had just recently been outed as gay...and had started going home with quite the fix of injuries...

Destiny came out to her parents a bit later and was quite surprised when they accepted her.

This seemed to make some sense though as they had been born and raised in California, a blue state, not to say that either of these parties all had the same views...just most of them tended to have very set views on homosexuals and transsexuals.

This was also the time that Destiny admitted that she hadn't just been falling at school but had been getting hurt and that she wanted the surgery.

So many emotions at this time had come but also luck.

Luck that provided a new job for Destiny's dad in New Jersey...luck that gave Destiny a chance to start over in a new sort of body and voice and name, to start over
as Dustin Kropp.

He hadn't realized at the time though that his name was a pun.