Don't fool yourself. They'll find out eventually. You know you can't keep this a secret from anyone. It shows in your eyes. It shows in your hands. It shows everywhere on your body, the way you creep around like making yourself small enough could make you disappear. No amount of shoving

things behind drawers and under mattresses and into backpacks will cover the way you comb your hair down every morning, like maybe someone could be fooled. Do you really think they're tricking them? Do you think there's a chance they won't see? Even now, it's obvious. Maybe they can't tell what, but

the shame radiates out of you, enough to taste it in the air. When people see you, they recognize you, and that you're sick with it. Everyone will find out eventually. And don't even pretend you don't know how they'll react, and what they'll think of you. You've seen it before. You've

seen your friends sneer at their phone screens, laughing at the videos they see of men wearing dresses. That's all you are to them. You'd be a man, wearing a dress, prancing around just begging to be laughed at. And your parents? Think of every time you've seen a trans

character on the TV. The way they squirm in their seats. The way they look away from the TV, averting their eyes from what they see as lesser. And that's how they'd see you, too. Something to be avoided, ignored, brushed off. Do you really think you can hide from that?