David giggled. They got on together, the boys still joking. David stood and listened and softly laughed. She had a real spot in her heart for dudes making stupid jokes.

Her stop came and she said, “This is me. Goodbye, boys.”

“Wait,” one said, as the train screeched. “Are you a guy?”

Her smile froze. “Huh?”

Betrayal rose off the boy like smoke. “Are. You. A. Dude?”

The doors opened. “Fuck you!” David yelled, and the entire car recoiled at the noise. She clambered onto the platform.

She shook her fist and bellowed, “You fuckin’ heard me!”

Rage continued to sizzle and spark in her body after the doors closed. I’ve never done something like that before, she thought, heaving on the steps. She hadn’t. Sure, David had been a guy-guy back in the day, an annoying profane dude of a dude, but she had always been gentle. Everyone had always said this about her. David had always been very gentle.

She didn’t know where this anger had come from.

Later, she’d understand the alchemical processes that fear and life upheaval could enact, allowing an entry point into the elusive escape velocity that can allow personalities to change. For better and for worse, and sometimes for worse still.

But now, she was only scared of herself. And scared, too, of course, of the world around her.

“Oh my God, you’re a walking lake!” Iris ushered David in, put a mug of hot tea in her hand. “Okay. Let’s see,” she said, as David shivered and sipped and dripped on her hallway floor. Iris was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and blue bangles on her wrists. Her same old white glasses. “I’ll lend you some dry clothes. You go into the bathroom right now and take a hot shower. I’m getting pneumonia just looking at you. I have makeup remover in there; trust me, you’ll need it. Are you hungry? I’m hungry. We could order in.”

Fifteen minutes later, David was sitting on Iris’s couch in a green sleep shirt and pyjama pants with feathers on them. Iris was in the kitchen. “I don’t have much booze in the house. Just some shitty whisky that doofus-head left. I’ve been trying not to drink it, which means I drank everything else, so I guess you get to reap the rewards.” David hadn’t asked for alcohol. “You like Chinese food, right? I got a bunch of shit while you were in the shower.”

“I do,” David said quietly. “I do. Thank you again.”

“You bet.” She mixed whisky Cokes.

David stretched her feet out. “So, how you been?”

“Well, doofus-head left a month ago, so pretty shitty. I’m starting to get over it.”

“I’m sorry,” David said. She’d seen Iris post about this, had sent her consoling messages, had tried to hang out, but their schedules never clicked, and anyway, Iris had a lot of friends in this city for screaming and venting purposes. Iris had always made friends fast that way.