Luis
10 years ago when I first started high school and was in musical theater, if you had told me I would have joined a boy band calling themselves Bt, or boy toys, because I got second place in a Justin never sound alike contest, I would have laughed in your face. But now, it was a reality actually, I’ve already done 2 performances with my boyband, still it was all strange to me. Especially since, well I’m a girl and they think I’m a man.
I was snapped out of my thoughts as our leader, but 1, Constantine, shook me. “You doing alright Lu? You look like you saw a ghost or something?” he said.
They called me Lu, short for Luis, not really, it’s short for Lucy, “Yeah, just thinking is all” I said looking back down at my note pad.
Constantine chucked, “You know you don’t have to keep writing songs, you’ve only been here for 3 months.” he said with a smile. I knew he meant well, it just felt like I was just some chick in a band, not a part of one.
“I guess so” I said, as he reached out a hand to me, I grabbed his arm as he helped me up.
We walked out of the little changing room, going back to the group. We all have had a long day, this was our second official performance we somehow landed.
Before anyone could say anything, our van pulled up around, as our manager, Beatrice rolled down the passenger side window. “Come on girls, pile in back” She said in her usually serious tone, even though she acted like she hated our guts, she was more of our mother than anything.
And in the driver’s seat was sitting William, the eldest of the band, but bt 2, he was 45 I think? Constantine had told me that he and Ryju one day had just found him singing sea chanties by his boat, and hired him on the spot.
We all piled in as I sat in the back, right behind Ryju, but 4, him and Constantine were the first two to start this band. And honestly Ryju did most of the hiring, but he put Constantine as the leader, which was admirable in a way.
To his left sat Constantine, and to his right sat Kyle, but 3, he was the “emo” of the group, he didn’t say anything and honestly was the most normal here surprisingly.
In front of them were just two seats, sat Yumi and Vinnie, bt 7 and bt 5, Yumi was a nerdy petit boy, he only said he was petit because his testosterone didn’t kick in properly when he transitioned, but I digress. Vinne was the softie of the group, on stage he acted like a sweetheart, but he swore even worse than a sailor, worse than even William.
My mind refocused to the very back where I was sitting in the middle, to my left was Garret, bt 9, I have no idea how he got here, and nobody seemed to have an exact answer, but he was here longer than me, but he was changed to bt9 as i became bt8. but he was the quiet grumpy one, he was sweet, but he rarely talked about himself.
And finally, on my right, Duke, bt 6, he was, in simple terms, very friendly, the lover boy of the group, the one who dyed his hair pink and always wore a rose in his hair. The one who constantly flirts with fans and band mates, at least he doesn’t discriminate. But he also knows when enough is enough at least, but his teasing is persistent.
He looked over my shoulder at my notepad in my hand, “Whatcha got there wildflower?” he said with his cocky smug smile.
I closed it, looking at him, “just writing lyrics…”
Ryju immediately spun around excitedly, smiling with his cartoonishly pointy glasses on his head, “Let me see!”
We kind of went back and forth as they tried to take it from me as Garret was obviously annoyed but didn’t say anything. As I tried to get it back.
“For the love of god! All of you shut the hell up!” Vinnie yelled from near the front, which got everyone to now argue with one another now.
“ALL OF YOU! SIT DOWN!” Beatrice yelled from the front seat looking back at us now.
We all immediately scattered sitting back down in our original seats and or back to sitting normally. She glared at us, not saying anymore, as I felt a chill down my spine, I’m pretty sure everyone else felt the same as well. Beatrice turned around facing the front again, crossing her arms sighing, holding the bridge of her nose.
William smiled at her, “Good job” he said, still driving, she side eyed him, and he immediately shut up. “Right, Sorry.” he finished.
— — — — —
As we got back to our suite in the city, everyone was back to doing their own thing. Ryju and Constantine go back to their room, Vinnie goes into the fridge to eat. William tried to help Beatrice with anything she needed, being very obviously smitten to her. Garret went onto the porch to smoke as Vinnie and Duke relaxed on the couch.
I looked around for Kyle until I saw him, he was about to leave, “Where are you going?” I asked him.
He turned around to look at me, “I need more hair dye, my roots are growing in”
I looked at his head, “I don’t see them”
He sighed before taking off his headphones revealing his bright orange hair under it. I chuckled to himself before he gave me a not amused look, “Sorry” I said.
“I'm just going down the street” He said, reaching for the door handle.
“Can I come?” I said abruptly.
He turned around, raising an eyebrow, “You need more snacks or something?”
I nodded with a smile as he scoffed in amusement, “alright, Come on lets go” he said walking out the door.
— — — — —
As we got to the little convenience store, he started walking around as I went over to the apparel.
I took a baseball cap off the rack as I looked at it, I took off my current backwards cap, letting my long hair fall, as I tried the other hat with a local river on.
I looked at myself in the mirror, I shrugged before noticing more about my features, going closer to the mirror.
I sighed, my lashes were getting too long, I would need to cut them, and my acne was going away, revealing my more feminine round face. I didn’t necessarily care if I was a girl or boy now, or whatever I was.
I took off the hat, leaving my blue baseball cap tied on my belt strap on my pants. As I put the hat back on, I found a sweatshirt with the same design, so I decided to try it on. I looked at my hoodie as I was about to put on the new one I found.
I heard someone clearing their throat before I turned around, it was Kyle, having a cartoonishly surprised frown. I completely forgot what was wrong before I looked down to my tank top showing my body figure, my boobs and waist.
I pulled the sweatshirt over my chest, “hey Kyle..” I said nervously.
“So you’re a, well, you know..” he asked looking at me while I struggled to put my sweatshirt back on and put my hair back into my blue backwards cap.
“Yeah…” I said, “You’re not gonna tell anyone right?”
He thought about it, “hey man, in reality, I don’t really care, I mean, you’re a chick but you know, you’re a part of our band now so” He shrugged, “Doesn’t seem to matter when you do a good job at singing already.”
I processed what he said, “I guess you’re right.” I responded.
There was a pause before he said, “does anyone else know?”
“Well..” I started, “Beatrice knows, I think, either she doesn’t care or when she was taking measurements didn’t think about why my chest was bigger than a normal guy or how my waist was smaller.”
He chuckled at the fact, before he responded, “are you going to tell anyone else?”
My smile faded thinking about it, I held myself before responding, “I don't know yet… maybe give it time before I tell them…”
Kyle nodded, seeming to understand where i was coming from, he sighed, “lets just pay for the stuff I got..”
I looked at him, “Are you going to tell them?”
Kyle looked at me, thinking, “Nah, I like you, and everyone else seems to, don't worry about it.” he smiled a bit.
I sighed in relief.
– – — — — —
Kyle and I had gotten back to the suite, as he immediately went to the bathroom. Yumi was still awake laying on the couch watching TV, “You two were gone a bit” He said looking over at me.
“Yeah” I said rubbing the back of my neck, “I just wanted snacks and he had to pry me from the shelf”
Yumi Chuckled, seeming to take my excuse, before his gaze went back to the TV.
I sat on the side chair, reclining the seat, “God I feel like my dad…”
Yumi chuckled, “You want a beer or something?” he said as we both laughed.
Garret came in from the porch, surprised we both were not asleep.
Yumi immediately catches on, “You wanna watch tv with us Garret?”
Garret grunted, walking over as Yumi sat up on the couch as Garrett sat next to the arm on the chair, resting his head on his hand. “You two should be asleep”
“You should be too,” I said back to him as he grunted.
“Whatever, let’s just not stay up too late” he said in his serious tone, rubbing his neck, sighing.
I rested my head on the chair arm, curling into a ball as my hat was barely on my head now. Before I knew it William put a blanket over me before sitting down on the floor.
“There you go kiddo” he said with a friendly smile, as I smiled back at him.
“Thank you William” I responded back to him
Soon enough everyone came out, sitting with us, watching a crappy movie, sitting on the floor or standing.
Garret ended up just standing from his seat, standing behind my chair and watching the TV like a dad. Beatrice sat on the couch next to Duke who was sitting with one leg up. Constantine and Ryju were sitting Infront of the couch watching the Tv. And Kyle sat on the floor next to me.
Kyle looked at me, before whispering, "You going to tell them?"
I looked at him, then back at everyone, how everyone was just enjoying each other. Then I thought back to the times we always rough house, how we play and joke with each other like boys.
I looked down at Kyle before softly shaking my head, as his expression was confused.
I responded, "I feel like I'm going to stick with what I said in the connivence store, when we get closer I'll tell them... Just right now is not the best time to.."
Kyle sighed and nodded with understandment, like he had did in the connivence store
