Wrong Number (Cake Hoodings)

15 *

{ f i f t e e n }

Luke was gutted. He was also upset that he even had to feel gutted, because humanity is stupid.

He knows he shouldn't wake up, feeling extra girly, almost surprised he didn't grow a pair of boobs overnight because of how much he felt like a girl, and feel gutted. But that's how he feels, because like he said, humanity is stupid, and today is Thurday.

Thursday is a school day.

He didn't even want to get out of bed, but his step dad was shouting him, yelling that he made breakfast and that he was going to give him 10 minutes to come down and eat it before eating it himself.

Luke forced himself out, cringing at the dryness of his lips and applying some lip balm that he bought and kept next to his small bed in a box. He opened a drawer in the back corner of his room, looking at all of his more feminine clothes and sighing.

Was it so wrong that he wanted to dress like a girl when he felt like a girl? Why couldn't people just accept that?

He looked to his large black hoody hanging over the frame of his single bed and sighed. He looked back into the drawer, picking out a grey t-shirt with long black lace sleeves and slipping it onto his body.

He slipped out of his boxers and looked into the drawer again, deciding against girly underwear even though he wanted to wear it and feel pretty. He grabbed a clean pair of boxers and looked at them before looking into the girly drawer.

Luke felt tears pooling at his eyes as he forced himself to slip the boxers on. He just wanted to wear clothes meant for the gender he felt like on the inside, why did society think that was so wrong? He grabbed a clean pair of tight black skinny jeans and pulled them up his legs. He put on socks and grey converse before looking at the hoody and grabbing it, running down the stairs before his stepdad ate whatever breakfast he had made.

*

Luke felt intimidated as he got to school. He had never felt like this in school, of course he had female days in school, but never so bad that he wanted to stab everyone who used the wrong pronouns.

His step dad actually called him 'boy' in the car and Luke had gone crazy, telling him that he wasn't a boy, that today he was a girl, and his stepfather understood and gently apologised. Luke felt terrible when he slammed the door of the small car shut, because his step father had  been so accepting and understanding and most of the time Luke didn't appreciate it like he should've.

When he got into the hallway, he felt small again. He looked so different today, he hadn't put his hair up in it's usual quiff, instead he straightened it, letting it fall across his forehead in the form of a messy fringe.

And if he'd lightly put some concealer on some of his acne scars and spots, then who needed to know?

He felt pretty and girly and like himself, and that's what was important to Luke.

"Hey, Luke." Michael smiled and Luke returned it, tuning in the code of his locker before rattling it open. "You look pretty today." Michael told him quietly and Luke could feel the sympathy Michael felt pouring out of him. Michael understood.

"Thank you Mikey," Luke whispered back, smiling widely even though his cut lip was still sore. He got all his books and put some stuff he didn't need into his locker before slamming it closed, turning the dial to a random number so it locked again.

He ran his hand over the charcoaled part of his locker door as he looked back to Michael. "To class?"

Luke nodded and fell in line next to michael, he knew what was coming though and he was dreading it. He kept his head down, watching his feet and where he was walking. The hoody felt heavy on his shoulders, hiding the t-shirt that was keeping him sane right now.

Luke was playing with the sleeves of the hoody, rolling the fabric in his hand and keeping Michaels leg in the corner of his eye as they travelled through the hallway. Luke could almost feel the hit before it came, his stomach churning as soon as a jock was louder than the rest of the group to catch their attention.

It really didn't take long for the inevitable to happen.

"Is that lace?" His head shot up to the tan jock is his music class as his hand was yanked back and he automatically reached out to grabbed Michael. His fingers brushed Michaels torso before he was stumbling into the group that he really didn't like.

He looked down at his hands to see that, instead of playing with his hoody, he had been absentmindedly playing with the lace. His face flushed.

"You know that you're a boy, right?" One girl asked him in a serious tone, looking more than confused. "You can't wear lace." Her brows furrowed as she looked at his arm again. He pulled it back to his side and slipped his hoody over the lace, feeling his heart rate increase as his legs wouldn't move.

"Cat got your tongue?" The tan jock asked him with a laugh, leaning against a locker. Luke felt an arm pulling him by his waist, he panicked thrashing slightly until he turned to see Michael glaring at the people standing closest to Luke.

Michael pulled his best friend away, listening to him choke on his words as he talked about how much he hated who he was inside, how much he hated that he couldn't control who he was.

Michael picked up all the broken pieces, just like always, telling Luke that he was perfect, inside and out, and hugged him until Luke was okay again.