Somebody Told Me by Mia Siegert

Author:Mia Siegert [Siegert, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fiction-Young Adult, young adult fiction, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Sexuality, Gender, Identity, Abuse, Bigender, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Courage, Family, Family & Relationships, LGBTQ+, Mental Health, Nonbinary, Relationships, Teens, trauma
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
Published: 2020-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

14 Aleks

Aunt Anne Marie tapped on my door and poked her head in. “Alexis?”

Aleks, I wanted to say. I didn’t bother. There was no point in trying. No matter how many times I corrected her, she would misgender me twice as much in response.

“You have a visitor.” Her tone was polite but less than thrilled.

I sat upright on my bed. Aunt Anne Marie stepped aside and there he was in the doorframe: Dima. In his hands, a plushie of Haniel, the archangel of joy from Synthetica. It was absolutely adorable, with outstretched arms that made her look ready to give anyone a hug. He walked in and handed it to me. “This is for you.”

I looked at him, perplexed. “Wha—”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “About what I said right after Mass . . .” His voice trailed off. I followed his eyes to the bedroom door, where my aunt hovered.

I cleared my throat. “Can we, uh, can we have a little privacy, Aunt Anne Marie?”

“I’m not sure how appropriate it is for a young woman and young man to hang out together in a bedroom,” Aunt Anne Marie said guardedly. Was that a part of Catholicism or a part of her? Had she always been so . . . rigid? How would she act if she knew I’d had sex before? Or that my parents were cool with it?

Dima glanced over his shoulder at my aunt. “If it’s any comfort, Mrs. Moore, I can promise that I’d never be interested in dating your niece.”

Niece—a reminder that he didn’t know.

Never interested—something that made my aunt look like she wanted to puke.

Shockingly, Aunt Anne Marie shut the door. I gestured to the bed and Dima sat on the end of it, flopping back.

“It’s hard, you know? The . . .” he struggled. “The gay stuff. It’s hard. You know what that’s like, right?”

“Honestly?” I rubbed my hands. “It’s probably not what you’re going to want to hear, but not really. My parents are pretty chill about me being queer and bigender. My aunt and uncle—”

“Bigender?”

I flinched. Damn. I’d half-hoped we wouldn’t actually get into this. But I’d said the word anyway, I hadn’t just said queer, and it didn’t seem fair to either of us to try to walk that back now.

I took a deep breath. “Sometimes I’m a girl, sometimes I’m a guy. When I’m a guy, I use the name Aleks. A-L-E-K-S.”

“That’s Russian.” He looked more surprised by that than by the gender reveal.

“I know.”

“Huh. Why’d you go with that instead of just A-L-E-X?”

Random question, but okay. “A lot of girls are Alex with an X. I felt like I needed something else to distinguish me. Insecurity, I guess. Most of the bigender people I’ve met online do the same. My dad thought I was a bit dramatic. I kind of am.”

“That’s cool,” Dima said. “Also we spell it way better.” He turned on his side. We were so close, I could almost feel his breath. It was absolutely incredible to have this amount of intimacy despite a lack of physical contact.

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