"I am not a girl," Abey thought to himself, but then realised how ridiculous this sounded as he clearly knew that he was a girl.
He knew that he liked watching My Little Pony, Horseland and Angelina Ballerina among other programmes. Abey knew that he liked playing with Brittany, especially dress-up, pretend and with their various dollies. He understood that he liked wearing dresses and clothes that made him look pretty. But at the same, he had the conflicting thoughts that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't a girl but was in fact a boy.
"I mean, I have a set of icky boy parts," Abey thought as he looked down at his genitals, noting that they were smaller, but figured it must be because he had no hair down there.
But this didn't sit with him as he wondered why it was that he thought boys were "icky" especially boyfriends.
Finishing his business, Abey stood and pulled up his pants and underwear, flushed and exited the stall. As he did so, he shifted his thoughts to his cousin. He knew that his cousin's name was Arnold, that he was an "icky" boy and that he had a twin, who was named Anthony, preferred to be called Tony and worked in the Jewelry section of some department store.
Abey knew that his cousin was preparing to go to a local college next fall. He knew that Tony had no aspirations to further his education. And he knew that both of his cousins could be bullying, intimidating Jerks sometimes and not just to Abey, but other kids as well.
Shutting off the water that she had been using to wash her hands, Abey looked into the mirror and thought that she looked like she might have lost a couple more inches in height since she had gone into the stall, but found her mind clouding over as to how one measures inches. Unsure about this, she turned away from the mirror and headed for the paper towel dispenser to dry her hands.
Exiting the bathroom, she saw Arnold tossing something into the trash and for a moment, she thought she saw a glint of something metallic, which made her think of the costume jewelry she and Brittany loved to play with. Before she could dwell too much on what she just saw, Arnold, without really looking at her, tells her, "Come on, squirt. Jodie's brought the food," and taking Abey's hand, he led her back to the booth where Jodie was handing a sandwich to Brittany.
Taking a seat next to her friend, Abey immediately began eating the seafood and crab sandwich placed before her. As she ate, often talking with Brittany, she wondered what it was that led her to believe that she was an icky boy. She thought that maybe it had something to do with what Arnold had tossed in the trash bin, but something about that didn't quite feel right. She thought about her parents and her cousin's parents, both of who were out of town for something they called a retreat, and attempted to remember if with set of grown-ups had ever, in any way, treated her like a boy.
She knew that Jodie's family had never treated her like a boy and always treated her like the girl she was. Thinking, "I am not a boy. I am a girl," she felt something strange inside her mind, almost like something shifted.
But what it was that shifted, she wasn't certain as she finished her dinner and then yawned, suddenly tired and only wanting to go home.
Across from her, Jodie, who was snuggling up to Arnold and feeding him potato chips every once and a bit, commented, "We should get going soon," when she saw Abey yawning and the look of exhaustion on her youngest sister's face.
A nod from Arnold and he whispered something that almost sounded like, "And when they're in bed, we'll have all the time to ourselves," to which Jodie giggled and gently pushed him away in a playful manner.
Abey, watching all of this, merely looked at her best friend and as the two shared a private look on how icky boyfriends and older siblings were, Jodie and Arnold began disposing of the bits of paper and other trash. Climbing out of the booth, Abey allowed her cousin to take her hand without complaint and as he led the way out of the restaurant, the last thoughts of her ever being a boy slowly drifted away into the ether of the subconscious, forgotten entirely.
Watching the teenagers and two kids go, "And what fun I could have with those two kids. Especially since they are little girls," he thought in greedy manner, the man in the grubby, grey longcoat stood and went to the trash bin the teenage boy had thrown something glittery in.
Quickly he looked about, making sure that he wasn't being watched and when he was sure that there was nobody else in the restaurant except him and the staff behind the counter, he ran a hand through his yellowing beard and began to pick through the trash until he found what it was that he was looking for. Returning to his table, he pushed the food to the side and began to study his find, wondering why it was that the teenage boy had thrown it away.