Flash Fiction Friday #8: Past Life
As he flicked through the letters, a small, handwritten envelope caught his attention and his heart began to thump. Steve had forgottten the existence of this letter. He took out the letter and looked at it wistfully.
“To Future Lila” it said in scrawly, loopy letters.
Hoo boy.
He put down the stack of letters he had in his hands and walked to his couch with this handwritten letter. He was expecting a day full of going through his past bills to find a letter for his post-grad application, not…whatever would turn out to be.
Hoo, take a deep breath, Steve, he told himself.
He opened the letter. There it was, the familiar handwriting of 13-year-old Lila.
“Hey there, Lila.” The letter started.
“Man, I really do hope we would change our name later. It’s so…girly. I hate it. I want a cooler name. Maybe something like Alexandra, so I can be called Alex. Or maybe…
Future me, I don’t tell anyone this, but I want my name to be something…stronger. Harder. Sharper? I don’t really know how to put it into words. I just don’t like the name Lila. It’s so soft and flowery and not me at all.”
Steve chuckled to himself. If only he could tell his past self that there is a word for this discomfort he’s feeling at 13 years old.
It’s called being trans.
Thanks for reading! Flash Fiction Friday is when I get to flex my fiction writing muscle for at least five minutes a day by using this wonderful website called The Most Dangerous Random Prompt Generator. It’s five minutes of writing chaos and I love it.
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