𝐡𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥; byler

𝐈𝐈𝐈

or "cover girl"
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8:56 p.m

Will was having a really hard time leaving the house.

It was getting kind of ridiculous: both Jane and Max were waiting outside the door, and he was stuck right inside the living room. 

He knew it was silly, but it was just- going outside would mean he was really doing it. Going outside meant people would see him, it meant that he was actually doing drag.

His stomach was a tight ball of nerves, but with a shaking step he crossed the living room and went outside. 

He was doing it, there was no turning back now.

"Wait. Will, you need a drag name. We can't just call you Will the whole night!" Max said when he was finally by their side.

Jane nodded in agreement: "And it has to be believable, like a real name, if we want people to believe you're an actual girl." 

Will had no ideas. He couldn't really think of himself as anything but Will, if he was being honest. Even when he was called "Bill" by one of his mom's aunts he felt weird, and Bill was a normal way to shorten William.

 He was just Will.

"Ooo! I know!" Jane exclaimed finally, clasping her hands together excitedly. Will blinked a few times, and the lashes made a weird fluttering sound that he wasn't used to. He felt himself blushing: He didn't like being the center of attention.

"It has to be Hazel. It just has to!" Jane said, looking at Max for approval. Max nodded along, a slow smile forming.

" I love it. Like his eyes! yeah, that's perfect. Will, you have to be Hazel!" 

Will blushed even further.
"Well, I guess I'm Hazel than," He said.

Jane and Max squealed, laughing hard.

"Now- Photos!" Max exclaimed, and what followed was a shoot that took over twenty minutes. Max's phone, then Jane's; Timer photos of the three of them, then just Max and Jane: Max and Will, Jane and Will, and lots of photos of just Will.

Usually, Will loathed taking photos. He felt self conscious, and it always showed in the end result. But somehow, dressed in drag, he actually had loads of fun.

He felt more confidant than ever in his life. He laughed, he posed. He smiled brightly at the camera. That shyness he had felt about being the center of attention just moments before evaporated- now he wanted the camera on him.

He felt- no, he knew, that he looked awesome. He didn't care how he turned out in the pictures: because it wasn't him in the pictures, not really. 

It was this girl-

 it was Hazel.

9:34 pm

Finally it was time to start heading to the party, to which they were already late. 

Max blasted loud music from her phone, and the three friends danced along the streets. They didn't care about the people crowding the streets, that stared at them. Will was oblivious; he felt almost drunk as he stumbled in the heels, linking hands with his two best friends.