"Who the heck?" Cheeto says and I raise an eyebrow. Zir and I just arrived at the school, and as I follow zir gaze, I see Jesse with someone else. She laughs as they talk to her. They seem a bit too old to be going to our school, but you never know.

I shrug. "Let's ask."

"Uhm. The stage is all yours." Cheeto steps aside, pretending to hold a door open for me.

I sigh. "Just because I'm extroverted and you're not?"

"Yes."

"Fine. I'll do it."

"Great!"

We approach the two, Jesse notices us a few feet away and turns to wave at us. The other person looks our way as well, rather surprised.

"Hey." I greet Jesse with a hug. She smiles. God, I could lose myself in that smile.

I don't, though. Instead, I ask who she's talking to and she introduces us to Dina.

She saved me from some weird guy a few days back. She explains.

"Really?" Cheeto asks, and Dina tilts her head.

"What did she say?" She asks and nods as Cheeto translates it to her. "You could say it like that, yeah."

"Well, thank you from me as well then." I smile at her and she laughs.

"No need to thank me, really." She says with a shake of her head. "Girls supporting girls and all that stuff, I couldn't have forgiven myself if I let him get any closer than he already had. Anyways, are you Cheeto and Lewis?"

Cheeto nods.

"Hey, I've heard some things about you! Which one's which, though?"

"I'm Cheeto," Cheeto explains. "And he's Lewis."

"Cool, great to finally meet you! Uni starts a bit later today and I wanted to meet up with both of my partners, that's why I passed by here. And when I saw Jesse, I decided 'Hey, I have time, I can take a minute to talk to her!' and apparently, she could as well, so..." Dina smiles. "Not sure if you three still have a lot of time, though."

I check the time on my phone. "Uh, nope. Not really."

"Alright. See you around, I guess!" Dina says with a wave and a smile, mainly directed at Jesse, but us as well.

As all three of us walk into the school and she's out of hearing distance, I tap Jesse's shoulder. "How come we never knew about that?" I ask in a curious tone.

She tilts her head. About what?

"The whole thing with the weird guy, Dina... All that, you know. I'm not mad, by the way, just asking."

Jesse shrugs. I never got to tell you, I guess.

"Dude, you know she never talks about herself." Cheeto grins.

"Yeah, okay, fair enough." I say, returning the expression.

~

"So..." I chuckle. "Then I said to him: 'First you call me a slur only queer people can use, then you get suspiciously close to me and now you're threatening to beat me up? Are you sure that I'm the gay one?'"

Cheeto and Jesse burst into laughter.

"Dude, where the fuck did you get that courage?" Cheeto asks.

"We were in public, that's why."

Jesse nods. Makes sense, but he could've like, followed you.

"Huh. Smart of me to absolutely not think of that."

I mean, you're a guy, so I assume you weren't raised with the knowledge that any day, a creepy man might come up to you and assault you in a dark side street. She says with a shrug. Though it is a problem for all genders, women are just trained to avoid these situations.

"True." Cheeto takes a sip from zir water bottle.

I'm speechless. How do they talk about these topics like it's absolutely nothing? Sure, they were both raised with it – Cheeto of course isn't female but zir parents believed ze was for at least sixteen years, Dahlia probably still does– but they look and talk like the knowledge doesn't affect them at all. Before I say anything else, the bell marks the end of the break.

"Ah, I forgot to tell you!" Cheeto jumps from the table ze's sitting on. "I have to go earlier – as in right now – today because of an appointment at the doctor's. Nothing dramatic, just a check, but just so you know I'm leaving."

"Oh, alright." I nod and hug zir goodbye. "Thanks for letting us know."

Jesse hugs Cheeto as well. See you on Monday.

"See you. And have fun this afternoon!" Cheeto says, referencing the fact that Jesse is coming to my house after school today. "This is an order, by the way!" Ze shouts halfway across the schoolyard as ze leaves.

Jesse gives zir a thumbs-up.

hihi

edit: WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THE ITALIC WRITING BECAME ITALICN'T WHEN I PASTED IT HERE WHY DID I JUST FIGURE THAT OUT MYSELF