Cow Chop Imagines/Reader Inserts

Adventures In Not Being A Girl (Or A Boy)

JoeXNon-Binary!Reader, T, 6800 words, includes discussion of gender, gender identity, being trans, sexuality, coming out. Warnings for being forcibly outed

Reader is non-binary. She isn't a girl or a boy, she's somewhere in between. She's okay with she/her pronouns (but won't admit that she prefers they/them), dealing with gendered language, gendered clothing, and the expectations that come with being thought of as a girl. The one thing that doesn't work, is bathrooms. She would do anything to avoid using a women's or men's bathroom, instead relying on gender-neutral restrooms. In order to gain that at the Cow Chop LA office, she comes out to Brett. She doesn't expect nor want to be out to anyone else, but that choice gets taken away by someone she never thought would do that. 

Wowie, sorry for the long description. 

Hi, I'm Sara. Your friendly neighborhood queer person. I'm non-binary, and I personally do prefer they/them pronouns. 

If anyone wants/needs to talk about any of the things brought up in this work of fiction, feel free to message me. I can discuss things or send you resources. 

I'm here for anyone that needs me <3 

I hope you enjoy this piece.

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Coming out was tedious, frustrating, anxiety-provoking, and all around sucked. I was back and forth about it, but what sucked more was not feeling comfortable enough to use the bathroom in my workplace. If there was anything I really, truly missed about the old Cow Chop house, it was the fact that the bathrooms weren't gendered.

Back in the house not only were the bathrooms normal house bathrooms, and in turn weren't gendered, they were private. I was an artist and a writer, putting the two together to create a comic series that was successful, but wasn't nearly enough to live off of. Aleks, my cousin, had offered me a position editing for Cow Chop, and I took it. I only ever used the upstairs bathroom, which was apart of the spare bedroom.

In the house I never had to deal with the issue of gendered bathrooms. Now that we were finally in LA, and in the studio, I was faced with a women's bathroom and a men's bathroom. The only other option was the bathroom by the entrance to the studio. That one at least was for anyone to use. Problem was it made no sense for me to go all the way to that one unless the other two were being used, and Brett had jokingly commandeered it from day 1.

It had started as a joke, but a couple of the guys still insisted that it was only Brett's bathroom. Deep down I knew it wasn't a big deal for me to use it but the teasing that would ensue defeated the purpose of why I wanted to use it.

Not that they knew what they were doing.

No one in Cow Chop, not even Aleks, knew that I'm non-binary. No one knew that I didn't identify as either male or female, and I had fully intended to keep it that way. It was easier to answer to she/her/hers pronouns. It was easier to just use the women's bathroom.

It was supposed to be easier.

Since moving to LA I learned what places had gender-neutral bathrooms and I made excuses to go there throughout the day. Thankfully the two food places were well-liked so no one complained about me going there.

My roommate, Ollie, was one of the few people that knew about my gender. If I was close enough by I would stop home and use the bathroom there, and he had quickly become used to me running in and out. "You know, if you said something to Brett he'd probably help you out. Come up with an excuse for you to have access to his bathroom." Ollie said offhandedly.