Chapter 32 - My Own Worst Enemy

October 12^th, 2022

The door to David’s new apartment flung open as she kicked it from the outside. It impacted heavily with the wall and she groaned as she and Craig attempted to wiggle her beat-up, old love seat through the door frame. She hadn’t even finished moving in and was already forfeiting the security deposit. Fantastic.

“Where you want it?” Craig asked, sweat beading down his face.

“Just put it past the kitchen for now. I’ll organize later,” David grunted as they wiggled it through the kitchen and dropped it haphazardly in the living room among the various boxes waiting to be unpacked. “Here, sit down for a bit,” she gestured to the couch. She took a deep breath, and scrunched her nose. The apartment had a dingy smell to it, and she hoped she’d get to the bottom of that soon, “I owe you. Let’s have that beer I promised you.”

“Sure,” Craig nodded, flopping onto the couch. He glanced around the apartment, “Ya know, I think this place is better for you.”

“What do you mean?” David asked, removing the beers from the fridge she had placed to chill when they had started moving. They were the perfect temperature now.

“Well, I dunno. Just suits you better. I think it’ll be a nice place to rebound,” Craig mused, accepting the beer. David flopped down on the couch next to him, “Kinda reminds me of our dorm.”

“Yeah, cause living in a dorm really helped my dating life, right?” David scoffed.

“Nah, that aint what I ... OK, it’s a good point,” Craig laughed as they clinked the bottles together and took a drink.

“Besides, I’m not sure when I’ll ... rebound from that. For lack of a better word,” David muttered.

“I know I said this already, but I’m sorry man,” Craig said, glancing over, “Cheryl really fucking did you wrong. And I know you hurting now, but I gotta admit, I’m glad you finally splittin’ with her. Truth is, I never liked her. I know you blocked her, but I thought it might pick up your spirits to know she got banned from Facebook for those pics. She’s bitching about it on other sites, or so I hear from the grapevine.”

“Well, she posted pictures of me,” David muttered, holding up her hand and ticking off as she did, “I get fired from my job and nowhere else will touch me. My mom told me that dad’s officially written me out of the will now, but I know he’s loving this. He gets a whole new reason to hate me just before he dies. Fuck, the spite alone might keep him going for another year now. Oh, and I’ve been dis-invited from Thanksgiving at my grandma’s. So yeah, I guess, ‘banned from Facebook,’ might at least be a start towards what she deserves.”

Craig paused, the grin fading from his face. David hadn’t had a chance to tell him about the family stuff yet. “Yeah ... well, fuck dude, I’m sorry,” Craig intoned apologetically. There was a moment of awkward silence where Craig took a more than healthy drink of his beer. “Speaking of job,” he continued desperate to change the subject, “You think any about my offer? I can absolutely get you a job at Golden City. Fuck, it’d be great! Working together, going out to karaoke after! It’d be just like old times.”

“It might not be just like old times,” David mumbled as her entire chest seized with anxiety.

“OK, meaning?”

David closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Do you want to know why Cheryl posted those pictures?”

Craig shifted and looked extremely uncomfortable, “Cause she a fucking asshole? I dunno. I mean, I don’t judge you at all, just so we’re clear. Was it her clothes?”

“No ... they were mine,” David admitted, “Ever since the pandemic started, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by something I used to be able to keep stuffed down. I didn’t really have a name for it before, but last month I finally found it,” she looked into Craig’s eyes and did her best to keep the tears out of hers, “I’m transgender.”

Craig blinked. “Like ... woman in a man’s body kinda thing?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that ... but yeah,” she said, gritting her teeth, waiting for him to get up and walk out. He didn’t, instead his eyes glazed over like he was lost in thought.

“So that’s what Cheryl found,” David continued, “I bought my own clothes to just ... kind of start experimenting and seeing how I felt. I’ve crossdressed in secret for years, thinking, ‘Oh this is just a phase, I’ll grow out of it.’ Turns it wasn’t,” she felt like a floodgate had opened and she couldn’t stop explaining now that she had started. Her best friend deserved to know who she was. “Cheryl caught me, and I came out to her. I thought she took it well ... at least until the next day when I woke up and had two hundred notifications.” She cringed at the horrible memory.