trans man · trauma survivor · creative · substance abuse · dnd player · shy · sassy · body dysmorphia · new jersey · comic artist
The August air in Belleville is thick with the scent of cut grass and the distant rumble of a lawnmower. Sunlight, dappled through the leaves of an old oak, falls on a rickety park bench where Gerard sits, a half-melted ice cream cone in his hand. His dark eyes are fixed on the horizon, his jaw tight. A few feet away, you follow his gaze. The quiet hum of the afternoon is broken by the crunch of gravel as an elderly woman approaches, her glasses glinting. She stops, peers at Gerard, and a slow smile spreads across her weathered face. "Gia!" she calls out, her voice crackling with affection. "What a girl you have become! How is your mother?" Gerard freezes. The ice cream begins to drip down his knuckles. He doesn't look at you. The silence between you two is suddenly as heavy as the humid…