Chapter 4: Alessandra Curry

 

The morning after the fight during dinner, our parents had us come into the living room. My mother starts off. “Things have been a little tense lately so we’ve decided to take a vacation and see if we can work things out in a more relaxed environment. We’ve booked two rooms at a really nice resort in Mexico.” 

“Seriously?” Pat's eyes go wide as a big smile appears on his face. 

“Yep,” dad says. 

“Can I bring some friends?” Pat asks. 

Our parents exchange a glance before my dad speaks. “I don’t see why not. Just make sure they know that they have to pay for their own room and tickets.” 

“Sure thing,” Patrick says excitedly. I hold in a sigh. The last thing I want is to be stuck with Pat’s friends. I know for sure he’ll bring his girlfriend along. 

“Can Amber come?” he asks. Knew it! Once again our parents exchange glances.

“Fine,” dad says.

“Alessandra, you’re welcome to invite your friends as well. We’ll be leaving the first week in March,” mom says. 

 

---

 

It wasn’t long before we were boarding the plane to Mexico. I wasn’t paying attention when I nearly ran into someone. I look up to see a man with deep hazel eyes and a red beard. 

“I’m sorry,” he says. He has a very deep and dreamy voice. 

“Oh, no you’re fine,” I spit out. 

He smiles. “Here, I’ll get out of your way.” 

I can’t help but smile and bite my lip. “Thanks.” 

He quickly sits down as I squeak past him. 

As I take my seat, my heart leaps inside my chest as Liam stops in front of my row of seats and looks at his ticket and then at the seat before looking up at me all wide-eyed. My stomach turns at the anxious look on his face. He takes a moment before quickly taking the seat next to me. He does his best to ignore my existence and quickly puts his headphones on. Our parents sit a few rows down the aisle. 

To my horror, Patrick and his girlfriend sit behind me. Immediately I feel her kick my seat. Pat’s other friends, Mike and James sit in front of me. Both give me dirty looks. It’s going to be a long flight. 

As the plane takes off and we’re allowed to leave our seats, Patrick gets up and heads for the bathroom. I jump as I hear Pat’s girlfriend, Amber whisper to me. “Hey, tranny. Did you know Pat thinks you’re a freak? He’s so embarrassed to have you as a brother. No one likes you.”

I can’t lie, her words really hurt. It felt like a knife to the heart, causing it to bleed because I know it’s true. I know Pat’s embarrassed by me. Liam acts like he didn’t hear anything. I know he too is embarrassed by me. Embarrassed that he ever hooked up with me. I know he’s afraid if word got out that he’s gay, he’d receive the same treatment that I’ve gotten my entire life. He’d be ostracized like me, ridiculed, humiliated, picked on, bullied, treated as if he were not a human being. 

I put my headphones in and try to ignore her. I’ve never understood why she’s so cruel nor why Patrick likes her. Before long, we land in Mexico. After we get our luggage and get on the bus, we arrive at our resort. Unfortunately, because of Amber, I have to room with my parents. Thankfully the hotel room has separate rooms inside. After we talk to our parents, everyone goes their own way. 

I change into something casual with short-shorts and a t-shirt before heading to check out the resort.

 

---

 

My only goal is to get as far away from Amber and Pat’s friends as possible. I just don’t understand why she hates me so much. What did I do to deserve the way she treats me? She’s relentless. I try to be nice to her, but she won’t stop bullying me. I just can’t understand what Pat sees in her. 

It dawns on me that even though I’m only 20, I can legally drink here. I head up to the first bar I see and stop dead in my tracks. Sitting, sipping on a drink was the guy from the plane. The one that I bumped into. All the blood in my body rushes to my face. Fuck, what should I do? He's super hot, but just know once he finds out I’m trans, he’ll want nothing to do with me. Although, there’s a tiny voice inside that asks, what if he’s different? What do I have to lose? 

I take in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then I take a chance. I pull up a seat next to him. 

“Is this seat taken?” I look up into his dreamy hazel eyes. If I’m not mistaken I see a pleasant smile sneak on his face. 

“No, by all means, have a seat,” he says. God, I have such a thing for redheads. I don’t know what it is, but I find them very attractive. Not to mention his beard. He’s like a civilized lumberjack and that really turns me on. Then my eyes fall down and see the ring on his finger and my heart sinks into my chest. “Are you waiting for your wife?” 

He winces. “No… This was supposed to be our honeymoon, but after I walked in on her fucking this douche name Kyle the wedding was called off.” 

My eyes go wide. “Oh, I’m sorry. That’s awful. I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”

“I was definitely hurt. The worst part is that it seemed like every one of my friends and family knew she was trouble but me. I felt like an idiot. I shouldn’t be burdening you with my troubles. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“You have no reason to be embarrassed. It happens and it’s awful. And I don’t mind listening. Who better to tell your woes to than a stranger?” I ask, biting my lip. 

“True. But even still, it doesn’t make for a good first impression,” he says. 

“It could be worse, at least you weren’t the one doing the cheating,” I say, with a quirky smile. 

He laughs. “That’s true.” 

“I just don’t understand how someone can do that? When you’re in a committed relationship, about to be married nonetheless, how can you even possibly think about committing such disloyalty? If I was lucky enough to find someone who loved me enough to marry me, I would totally devote myself to them,” I say. 

“I know, right? I was willing to give anything for her. It felt like a dagger to the heart when I walked in on them,” he says with a painstaking smile.

“Well, one good thing is that at least you found out before the wedding, right?” I ask. 

“Yeah, thank god,” he says. “I’m Charlie, by the way.”

“I’m Alessandra, but you can call me Sandra,” I say with a smile, holding out my hand. He shakes it with such a firm grip. His hand is big and overtakes mine and yet there’s something gentle about the way he holds it. He returns the smile. 

“By the way, I like the short hair. It makes your face more prominent. You have a very beautiful face,” he says. 

I blush instantly. “Thanks. You’re quite handsome yourself, you know?” 

“I didn’t, but thank you,” he says with a smile. 

Then the worst thing I could possibly imagine happens. Amber walks up to us. She’s got a wicked smile as she approaches. My stomach clenches and my face drains of all its blood. God, why now? Why does she want to ruin my life?

“Oh, there you are Dylan,” she blurts out, crushing my soul by using my deadname. I feel like I got punched in the nose. She then turns to Charlie. “You know he’s actually a guy pretending to be a girl, right? Pretty sick if you ask me.”

I can’t even bring my eyes up to look at him. I’m so embarrassed and humiliated. I struggle to fight the tears. I just want to crawl into a hole and die. “Well, good thing no one asked you. If you don’t mind, I would love to continue the pleasant conversation I was having with Sandra here before you interrupted.” 

My eyes go wide as I look up into his confident face. Did he really mean that? I look over at Amber and she looks like she had just been slapped across the face. She’s completely lost for words. She tries to say something but stops. Then to my surprise, she turns and walks away. 

“God, I hate bullies. I take it she’s your bully?” I nod as I look up at him in amazement. He’s my hero. “She seems like a very toxic person. Why on earth would you associate with someone like that?”

“She’s my brother’s girlfriend. Her name is Amber,” I say, still pleasantly shocked at what just happened.

“Well for what it’s worth, your brother needs to upgrade. I would choose you over her any day,” he says with a smile that makes my heart flutter in my chest. I’m completely lost for words. “So, how long are you here for?”

It takes me a second to realize he asked me a question. “Oh, uh... Well, I’m here with my family for spring break, so just the week.”

His face turns into a frown. “Are you still in high school?”

I shake my head profusely no. “I’m in college, but I’m taking a year off to transition.”

“Oh. Gotcha. How is that going?” he asks. 

“Well, I started HRT but I can’t really afford any surgeries at the moment. I’d like to see what I look like after I’ve been on HRT for a while before I do any surgeries anyway. I know for sure that I’d definitely like to get a breast augmentation, but as far as anything else, I’m just going to take it one day at a time,” I say. 

“Cool. For what it’s worth, I think you look beautiful,” he says. 

Once again, my cheeks flush with heat. “Thanks.”

“So, any plans while you’re here, or are you just going to take it one day at a time?” he asks. 

“Well, other than avoiding my family at all cost, Amber most of all, I didn’t really have any other plans,” I say.

“I would love to spend more time with you. I’ve been looking at some of the things you can do here and it would be nice to have someone to try them with. Have you ever swam with dolphins?” he asks. I shake my head no. “Would you like to?”

I nod emphatically yes. He smiles. “How about we do it tomorrow? Maybe we can also check out some of the old ruins as well. I’m kind of a huge history nerd. I’d also like to do some haggling at the local markets. Although, we don’t have to do it all at once. I suppose we can take it one day at a time.”

I laugh. “That sounds lovely. Let’s make it a plan.” 

He laughs too. “Great.”

“What are you doing tonight?” I ask. 

“Well, I just met this really cute girl with short hair at a bar and I was hoping to spend some more time with her. What about you?” he says with a smile.

“I actually just met this really drop-dead handsome guy with red-hair and I’ve always had a thing for red-heads. I wonder if he likes to dance?” I ask. “I heard the resort has a nice dance club.” 

“I think he’d love to dance, but if it’s the same red-head I’m thinking of, he’s not very good at it,” I say. 

“That’s fine. Neither am I. That’s what makes it fun. We can act like a bunch of idiots and we’ll have so much fun doing it,” I say. 

“Well count me in. I may not be very good at dancing, but I’m certainly good at acting like an idiot,” he says smiling. I can’t help but laugh. “How about we meet back here around 8?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I say.