Alex by Zoe Storm

Author:Zoe Storm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: transgender, romance, identity
Published: 2022-04-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten: Ash

The following evening was Saturday, the day of Roger’s birthday party.

He had asked the whole triathlon team, and some of his other friends from university, to meet at a club just outside town; I decided to go there by bike since it was less than a half hour’s ride from my house, and this way I wouldn’t have trouble finding somewhere to park – and also to avoid getting breathalysed on the way back. Not that I planned to drink alcohol that evening, but with college parties you never know.

As it turns out, I didn’t need to worry: the whole group was carded upon entering the club, and those who were of drinking age had their left hand stamped with the club’s logo. When I asked I was told that the official policy of the club was that when ordering drinks one had to show their hand to the bartender – no stamp, no booze. I thought it was an ingenious way to solve the “how do we tell if someone is old enough to drink” problem.

Roger had reserved a whole room at the back of the club specifically for the party, and with good reason: our group was about two dozen strong, about two thirds from the triathlon club (including all the seniors) and one third from Roger’s classes; about half were girls, and I knew most of the people there.

And greatly disliked some of them.

The seniors from the triathlon team, for instance. They formed a close-knit clique, and looked down on everyone they considered to be beneath them; this of course included all the juniors, the sophomores, and especially the freshmen such as me and Roger – Roger because he excelled at sports and was seen as an upstart trying to make the seniors look bad, and me for the opposite reason, because according to them I wasn’t good enough to be part of the team. Of course the feeling was mutual, at least on my part; and probably Roger’s, too, but he was always the type to invite someone he didn’t really like to a party to avoid having to make a scene (which in this case would mean explaining why he’d invited everyone from the team except from the seniors).

The leader of the senior clique was a guy named Charlie. He was the one I most disliked: he was the stereotypical jock, and was always ready to insult anyone and everyone, usually with homophobic slurs. He’d been called on his words and behaviour many times, but since he was the star of the triathlon team he was basically untouchable. Ah well, it was no big deal, we just had to bear it for a few months more: graduation was coming up, so he and his cronies would be gone before long, and all the juniors seemed like cool people.

As we made our way towards the back room I took a look around the club; it was late afternoon so it wasn’t that busy yet, and the music was playing at a low enough volume to allow for normal conversation.

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