I pass em the phone and watch as e scans the screen quickly. “Wow, that’s pretty cool. You’ve never gotten a submission request before?”

I shake my head. It’s funny because this is what the Diary is supposed to be, but it got lost in all the fake stories and my own ego.

“You should publish it,” Devin says, sticking a cupcake in eir mouth.

I should publish it. It’s everything the Diary needs to stop being some pipe dream of mine and become a real staple of the trans community.

Okay, maybe not everything, but it’s definitely a start, which I guess is all I can really ask for.

“I’ll have to message her back and tell her how to submit,” I say, scrolling through her blog to get a feel for her.

“Are you going to open up submissions to other people too?”

I should, but what are the odds that anyone else is going to submit? I published hundreds of fake meet cutes because I was so certain the only way trans people would feel represented was if I made them up. But maybe there are meet cutes for more of us after all. Hell, maybe it doesn’t end with meet cutes, like Becca said, and there’s whole worlds of possibilities for trans love stories.

Maybe it’s time I let people tell their own stories for real.

Devin passes me another cupcake, and I take it, relishing the sweetness of it all. Our story may not be conventional, but it’s so much better than I ever thought it could be. I can only hope that what everyone else brings to the Diary will be enough to carry it forward, to make it something so powerful and important to the community that it won’t matter what any trolls have to say.

And looking at Devin, I feel some of the tension dropping out of my shoulders. Maybe the biggest mistake I made this summer was trying to steer everything when the wind probably knows what’s best without my meddling. It’s time I take a step back from the Diary and let it run its course.

I’ve given my followers all the happily ever afters they need from me, so it’s time for me to have my own.

Friday, August 10

MeetCuteDiary posted:

Hey, everyone! We’re officially open for Diary submissions. If you’d like to submit anonymously, you can do so by going on anonymous and sending us an ask. If you want your name credited to your story, please include what you’d like to be addressed as and your blog address in the ask or shoot us an email (the address is in our bio)!

Thanks!

Mod Becca

“Can you see me?”

“I can see you.”

“Hold on.”