“Murphy, honey!” My Mom calls, but it’s a saturday. “Murphy, you’re going to miss the bus!” This snaps me awake. I sit up and find my head steady with no sign of a hangover. I look down in apprehension. My boobs are back! I jump out of bed and find my room back to normal. I walk into the bathroom and look into the mirror. I touch my face and squish my cheeks to make sure it's real. I’m back. 

“Murphy!” My mom calls again. 

“I’m coming!” I yell. Gosh I don’t have a second to enjoy it. I glance at the clock and see that I have five minutes. I quickly pull on a pair of looser, faded blue jeans with a baggy crew neck sweatshirt. I pull my hair back and rush downstairs. 

“Ok here you go.” My mom says, handing me my lunchbox and water bottle. I hurry into our mudroom and shove my lunchbox in my backpack.  I quickly pull on my socks and vans as my mom calls, “Your breakfast is in your lunchbox!” 

“Thanks!” I answer as I’m running out the front door while slinging on my backpack. I jog down the sidewalk to my bus stop and see that Tyler is already there. 

“You didn’t wait for me.” I say as the bus pulls up. 

“You got up late again.” He says climbing up the stairs to the bus. 

I laugh. It’s good to be back. 

“Murphyyy, hey!” Giana calls as she strides over to our morning bench. Sammy follows in her wake.

I smile but my eyebrows flit down slightly. “Hey. Why are you so excited to see me?” I ask.

She smiles as she plops down next to me. “Cause I haven't seen you in a week.” She then turns to Sammy to talk about something they had to do for homework. 

So when I was a boy time kept moving? That doesn't make sense. Who was here as me?

“So your fever finally went down yesterday, right?” Sammy says leaving over Giana. 

They both turn to look at me. Was I sick? “I think so.” I say. 

“I can’t believe you got the flu so early in the season.” Sammy leans back on her hands, “It’s mid September.”

The flu? So I was supposedly sick for the past week. I shrug in response to Sammy’s statement. Could this all have been a fever dream? No way. I think of Finn and how real everything felt with him. There's no way. 

“Oh!” Gia says suddenly, as if shes remembering something, “Did you hear about Friday?” 

“Oh yeah..” Sammy says as her eyebrows raise and her smile turns to a frown. 

“No, what happened?” I lean in

“Damien felt up Kat at a party, and she’s taking him to court.” Gia answers

My mouth falls open. So he’s a dick no matter what.

“Wow. Kat’s brave.” 

Kat is our local lesbian who takes no sh*t from men. Obviously Damien hadn’t caught on in time that she was the wrong target. I don’t think I would’ve been able to come out if I had been her. Wait… I was her? Should I do something? 

A sweet voice pulls me back to reality, “Hey guys.” Finn says. 

I whip my head up. We make eye contact, but I quickly look away. 

Gia and Sammy say hi back and they begin to talk about the party, 

“I’m really sorry about Damien. I never knew he had that side to him.” 

“Oh don’t worry about it Finn, it's not your fault!” Gia says as Sammy said,

“Too late.” Sammy still has a frown as gia hits her arm. 

“No, no Sammy's right. I should’ve known.” Finn sighs. 

“Well I should get going,” Finn says, not meeting our eyes. 

As he walks away, Gia begins to lecture Sammy about her rudeness. 

Finn. I find myself getting up and chasing Finn down as he’s heading towards his home room. 

“Finn, wait.” I say as I come up next to him. He turns head and he gives me a small smile. 

“Hey.” Suddenly Finn grabs my shoulder and moves me out of the way of two crazy freshman boys. 

I look at him and blush. Dammit. 

“I’m really glad you weren’t there on Friday.” Finn says as he lets go and looks down at me again. My eyebrows furrow in confusion, “That came out wrong. Just with the whole Damien thing…” He scrambles, “I did want to hang out with you, but I’m really glad that you’re ok.” 

My heart pounds. My vision rapidly blurres. I’m not ok. I quickly bow my head so that Finn wouldn’t notice. Luckily, we were already at his homeroom.

“Thanks Finn. I’ll see you later.” I manage out. 

“Yeah. I’ll see you later.” I hear him say as I quickly turn and make a beeline to the bathroom.