The fire was roaring and the others were too. In a laughing way, anyway.
“And damn it, I never went to that alleyway again!” Butterfly chuckled.
“Wow, never thought you were the kind to smoke the good stuff, Butterfly! You're a bit of a bad boy, aren’t you?” Red Panda put his arm around Butterfly in a drunkenly way.
“Yeah, I’ve done all kinds of crazy stuff! I’ve even done crazy stuff back when I was a-” Butterfly stopped talking abruptly.
Noticing this, I looked at him and cocked my head to the side and said, “What’s wrong? What...were you before?”
Butterfly sighed and continued, “I wasn’t who I am now when I was younger. I was a lot more…”,He paused and took a deep breath, “I was a girl. Like an actual one. I had the body and everything. My voice was even higher than this. And I had curves like a Greek statue. But, I changed. For the better, of course. I hope you guys don’t judge me for who I am now.”
To be honest, I was surprised. He looked pretty much like a male. No difference. But I guess that’s the point of the whole thing, right?
“Actually, I still have these damn tits holding me down. Haven’t gotten the surgery to remove them yet.” He added. The boy put his hands to his chest and squeezed, revealing that there was a bit more skin there than we all thought.
Red Panda suddenly grabbed Butterfly’s hands and put them together.
“Butterfly, I think I might be able to help you with that.” Red Panda looked at Butterfly with stars in his eyes.
“What? What the hell are you talking about? How the hell can you help me?” Butterfly squinted at Red Panda with an amused smile.
“I can pay for your surgery. I can make sure that you are the person that you want to be. I can pay for all of it, Butterfly. And if they botch it, which I will make sure will never happen but if it does, I will personally fire them and pay for you to get a much better surgery done by better people.” Red Panda’s monologue made Butterfly back away a bit, causing Red Panda to frown.
“Red, thanks for the offer. But I know that that is never going to happen.” Butterfly gave Red Panda a sad frown.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Red Panda’s reaction made the sides of my lips droop as well. I looked at the others. They seemed to be just as invested in this story as I was.
“I...don’t have anything to pay you back with. It’s not fair if I don’t pay you back.” Butterfly pulled his hands from Red Panda’s.
“Butterfly, you don’t need to pay me back. It’s fine! I can pay for everything if-”
“No! You can’t just pay for everything like that without wanting me to pay you back, damn it! Why the hell would you do that for me? For someone like me?” Butterfly stood from the log in a fit of rage. We all leaned back in unison as if we gasped as one.
“Why? Why can’t I? Why won’t you let me help you? What did I-”
“Because I don’t deserve it!” Butterfly yelled before running off to an empty tent and closing the flaps. We all looked at each other, surprised. And then we looked at Red Panda. He had the face of a man who had just watched an elephant get shot or a puppy get run over. Surprise with a large amount of empty sadness.
“Someone should go get him. I’ll go.” Wolf got up from her seat and ran to the tent, whispering softly to Butterfly who, in response, hit the flaps which smacked Wolf lightly on the face. She fell back and shook her head.
“I can’t believe that just happened. Sorry about that, man, but I’m going to bed.” Bear got up and walked over to an empty tent and got inside.
“Me too! So sorry, Red!” Axolotl ran over to Bear’s tent and waved as he got inside.
“I believe I should be getting to bed too. Panther, care to join me?” Owl looked to Panther. Panther nodded and the two walked to another tent and went in.
All that was left was Wolf, Red Panda and I. Wolf and I looked to each other. She pointed to the tent and raised an eyebrow at me. I slowly made my way to Red Panda and put my hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, I think we should be going to bed now. And I think you should too.” I said to him, staring into his half-empty eyes.
“No, I think I’ll stay out here instead. You both go to bed. I’ll be fine.” Red Panda turned his head to me and smiled. But it was so sad and empty that I had to look away. As I looked away, I spotted a small tear leave his left eye and roll down his cheek.
“Okay.” I nodded and walked over to Wolf, who took my hand and together, we went to the last empty tent.
I got inside first, realizing how big the tent actually was on the inside compared to the outside. Wolf got in after, her hair swinging as she climbed in. Wolf grabbed the blanket that was next to us and opened it up. From between the two flaps, I could see the orange of the fire and despair filled Red Panda, who covered his face with his hands and sat on a log.
“Do you think he’s going to be okay out there?” I asked Wolf as she crawled under the covers.
“Yeah. He knows what he’s doing. He just needs some time to calm down.” Wolf responded, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I nodded and got under the covers with her. It was awkward, being under the covers with a girl. My parents and I didn't have any siblings so no cousins or sisters. I never really interacted with girls, anyone for that matter, so I was nervous. But I could tell she didn't care when I heard her snoring. In an effort to finally get some well-needed rest, I closed my eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.
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