The Polaroid's on the Wall

Chapter 17: Peace and Conflict making

Cyrus POV:

Lunch the next day, I sat with my friends as usual. Marty had just attempted to build a house of cards with Uno and tragically failed leaving all of us crying with laughter whilst he cleaned up the damage. We were so out of it that I didn't even notice Jonah awkwardly stood behind me with his food.

'Hey Cyrus,' he announced himself.

I turned around, 'Hi Jonah,' I addressed my friends, 'Jonah's probably going to be sitting with us from now on...is that ok?'

Libby obviously said yes, Natalie and Marty nodded along and smiled politely whilst Jonah sat next to me.

Walker was open mouthed. (Mouth wide open, mouth wide open, mouth wide open like I was at the dentist)

'Is it ok with you?' Jonah asked him, fiddling with his water bottle.

'Yeah, it's great! Welcome to the clan!' He was waaaay too smiley, even for him, 'What are your preferred pronouns?'

Jonah stared blankly at him before looking at me for help.

'Pronouns are he/him, she/her, they/Them. Words like that,' I explained, god he's so oblivious.

'Ohhhh...' he got it now, 'He/him, but...isn't that obvious? Who would change their pronouns,' he laughed about it but stopped once he saw all of us were not laughing with him.

'You know I like guys?' I started, attempting to explain.

'Yeah,'

'Well everyone else here also likes guys, except you,' I continued, 'And they all also like girls and Libby likes non binary people too because she's not limited by gender,'

'What a non binary? Isn't that something to do with computers?' Jonah scrunched up his face.

I stayed patient, 'Non binary is a term for people who don't identify as either just female or just Male. They identify as both, neither or somewhere in between. It's a spectrum,'

'That sounds docious!' Jonah enthused, 'I didn't know that!'

'Yeah,' I smiled at his support, 'So a non binary person would probably have they/Them pronouns but not always. Some stick with their birth pronouns and others choose the opposite of their birth pronouns or a combination. It's whatever makes them comfortable,'

'I see...' Jonah was grasping the concept well, that's a first.

'They might also change their pro nouns if they're transgender,' I added, 'Technically non binary people are trans but they're not fully trans which is when you "change" to either female or Male.'

'Like me,' Marty spoke up, 'I was born as a girl but I'm a guy,'

'Woah,' Jonah was entering a whole world he never knew, 'I can't believe there's so much I don't know,'

'You have no idea,' I clapped his back, 'But remember to respect trans people, they don't like questions that are personal, just like any other person. So you shouldn't ask them for their dead name or say anything you wouldn't say to a cis person, a person who identifies with their birth gender. It causes trans people a lot of dysphoria.

'I think I get it now...what's dysphoria o-or can I not ask that question?'

'Dysphoria is when we feel upset about being assigned the wrong gender at birth,' Marty put it in Jonah language.

'Ohhhh, ok, now I get it,' Jonah nodded, 'Thanks for being cool about me not knowing,'

'It's fine, school's shit like that, they don't teach kids anything about LGBTQ+ issues,' Marty sighed.