‘You’re not serious?’ Cameron looks like he actually might burst.

‘I’m serious!’ Chase says. ‘Gabi is trans too. They said they wanna hang out. I’ve never had a trans friend before! Not in real life anyway.’

‘Not just any trans friend!’ Cameron holds back a squeal. ‘A FAMOUS trans friend!’

‘You’re really a big fan, huh?’ Bec says, watching him light up.

‘Do you want me to introduce you?’ asks Chase. ‘You could hang out with us?’

‘YES!’ He practically bursts. ‘I mean, um, yeah, that would be so totally chill.’

‘You’re such a dork,’ Bec says with a smile, kissing him on the cheek.

‘Maybe they can help launch your solo Instagram career,’ Josh says. ‘Give you a few pointers? How many followers are you up to now?’

‘I’m, like, three followers from a thousand!’ He beams proudly.

That’s actually really good going considering he only started it a few days ago. He already put up a post about the LGBT+ pay gap. He’s finally doing exactly what he wanted.

‘OK, celebrity,’ Owen replies, ‘don’t forget about us little people when you make it to the top.’

‘Oh, I’ve already blocked your number,’ Cameron jokes.

‘Well, I’m proud of you,’ Bec says, squeezing his hand. ‘Seriously.’

‘I think we all are,’ I say, looking round my small group of friends.

Owen, Josh, Bec, Cameron, Chase.

Everyone but Kellen. Where is he anyway? He should have been here an hour ago.

And that’s when the lights suddenly go out.

‘Shit, what happened?’ I say.

The others pretend to act innocent, but the look on their faces in the gloom gives it away. I know what’s happening now, and so I turn to see him standing in the doorway. Kellen.

He’s smiling as he holds out the cake.

‘Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, dear Zachary,

Happy birthday to you.’

‘Make a wish!’ Owen says.

‘Fuck that, kiss him!’ Josh shouts.

And so I do.

‘Happy birthday, Zach,’ Kellen says with a big grin. ‘For real this time.’

‘What do you mean for real this time?’ Chase asks, confused.

‘It’s a long story,’ I reply. ‘How much time have you got?’

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I think it’s tremendously important to thank the trans community for the impact they have had on me during the course of writing this book. Many of my closest friends are trans, so it made sense that my protagonist would be supported by his trans best friend, too. What I didn’t expect, however, was the extent to which the trans community would become targeted during the course of writing this book. It inevitably shaped the narrative. As much as I wish trans kids could live a life of unashamed queer joy – which had been my original hope for Chase – I know that oftentimes that just isn’t the case. The sad reality is that there are villains like Tiffany out there in the real world, so I hope at the very least these pages are a safe place to see those villains get what they finally deserve.