NOVEL WEB 4 Arms
“I’m out of my mind right now,” Hunter said as he stared up at the ceiling and periodically spasmed. “I really shouldn’t have eaten a whole one, huh?”
“Yeahh. Well, I hope you’re having an okay time at least. Let me know if I can get you anything, okay?” Mel said.
“Could you get me some water?” Hunter asked, closing his eyes. “Oh, and maybe some crackers. Or chips or something.”
“Sure thing!” Mel said.
“I’ll just put this down next to you. Try not to bump it,” she said a moment later. “Oh, Jess, do you have any crackers or–”
A little bit later, Hunter was eating pretzels. He didn’t quite remember how they’d gotten into his mouth, but presumably Mel had brought them over. They tasted incredibly salty but in a good way.
“Hey, don’t forget to hydrate,” Mel said. “Hydrate or die-drate.” She giggled.
“Mel, you’re a comedic genius,” Hunter said. He lay back down on the floor and might have fallen asleep.
He suddenly blinked up at the ceiling, then propped himself up on his elbows to look around.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Mel said. She and Lilah were both sitting on the couch under a fuzzy blanket, watching what looked like a documentary about sharks at almost zero volume. “Jess had to go to bed cuz she has to get up early for her job tomorrow.”
Hunter scooted back towards the couch and tried to lean against one of its legs. It was wood and uncomfortably hard.
“What if you sat on the couch like a normal person?” Mel said, laughing. She shifted over to make room. In a great feat of physical coordination, Hunter managed to push himself up far enough to back into the now vacant spot, and a moment later he had been included under the blanket.
Hunter sat there, half-watching the show about sharks while turning something over in his mind. “Mel? Can I tell you something?”
“Sure!” she said, turning to face him. Hunter realized suddenly just how close together their faces were. He tried to lean back against the armrest to open up the distance, without much success.
“I… I really enjoyed earlier.”
“What specifically?” Mel asked. “We did a lot today. Was it the burrito? Personally, I was disappointed. I–”
“Mel, NO, I don’t mean the burrito. I mean… you know. The… dressing up or whatever. I don’t know what to call it. Sorry. This is weird, isn’t it? I’m really sorry, never mind. Just forget I said anything.” He laughed nervously, and Mel had rarely heard a laugh that sounded that miserable.
“Hunter. Hunter. It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not weird. I mean… it kinda reminds me of myself in the past. Like, the idea of looking like a girl really appealed to me.” She laughed. “It’s probably extremely dumb of me that I didn’t figure out I was trans sooner.”
Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, feeling too awkward to maintain eye contact with Mel any longer. “God, I… I mean, it’s normal for you, though. To feel that way. Cuz you’re a trans girl. Obviously you’d want to look like a girl. But I’m a guy. It’s weird, right? It’s, like, I’m telling you about my fetish or something. I’m really sorry. Oh god, this is probably offensive to trans women, isn’t it?””
“It’s FINE!” Mel almost yelled. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. “It’s fine. Really. I think that people should ideally be able to embrace those parts of themselves that don’t conform to gender expectations placed on them by others. I don’t think it matters if you’re trans or if you’re, say, a cis crossdresser. You don’t have anything to feel bad about. You’re not hurting anyone. If it makes you feel good and doesn’t make anyone feel bad, then in what way is it wrong?”
“I probably would hurt people, though! Like, people might accidentally think I was a trans woman and I could end up acting as a bad representation of trans women. Or people would be grossed out just by looking at me.”
“Being grossed out by someone just because they don’t look like a completely typical gender-conforming cis person isn’t having violence done to you. Your own hatred making you get angry isn’t the same as someone else attacking you.”
Hunter sighed and seemed to sag into the couch. “You’re probably right. I’m sorry, I just… I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, seriously,” Mel said. “Do you want a hug? You seem like you could use a hug.”
“Uh... yeah, that sounds good,” Hunter admitted.
Mel leaned over to wrap him in a tight hug. He tried to lean back to avoid his torso accidentally touching her breasts and potentially making her uncomfortable, but the armrest left no room for escape. While his eyes were closed, he felt two more arms join the hug and blinked to see Lilah crouched in front of the couch to get in on the hug, her tattooed arm wrapping around his left shoulder.
Hunter closed his eyes again and briefly let himself just enjoy the feeling of physical human contact. It really wasn’t something he got a lot of in his everyday life, and until just now he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it.