"That's all I ever wanted," he said to his therapist, "I just want to be a real boy." It was the look on his feminine face that really brought the words home.

"And, Leo, your peers see you--"

"As a girl." He had interrupted Dr. Tomlinson mid-thought, it wasn't a question he wanted to hear the end of. "They don't understand what it's like to be...well, me." He sighed inwardly, taking a moment to laugh at the absurdity, causing him to remember a paradox that a friend once stumped him with. "Doc?"

"Yes?" Came his reply, waiting for a complaint or confession.

"If Pinocchio says that his nose will grow, will it?" It was a silly thing to ask, but at the time, it seemed, well, appropriate. All of this talk about being a real boy was nearly exact to Pinocchio's tale, if he weren't a puppet, and he had curves.

"I think it would," the doctor said after a moment of contemplation.

"But he wouldn't be lying." The boy laying on the floor muttered, he found the floor more comfortable than sitting in the stuffy chair that was set out for him, and the chaise lounge was too dramatic for his taste. "Doc, I think my hips are a big problem, literally. Guys can have fairly large hips, though, right? Everyone is different. Do you think that's why no one can see me the way I do?"

"No one sees someone the way they see themself." Is what he said.

“But other people can look at me and see a male,” Leo’s brow furrowed, as he thought more about the answer he was given, “They see me the same way I do.”

“Are you talking about your friends?” Dr. Tomlinson asked, jotting little notes into his spiral-bound.

“Yes, them.”

“Do you have many friends?”

“Not too many.”

“Do you have close friends?”

“The closest.”

“How many?”

“Friends do I have?”

“How many friends are very close to you?”

“Well...there’s one that’s really, really close, one that’s really close, and one that’s kind of, sort of close.” The boy explained, tapping one foot impatiently. It wasn’t that he was particularly impatient, more so that he often tapped his foot when he was thinking. This thought train did, however, make him impatient to get home to that certain really, really close friend.

“Would you care to tell me who they are?” the therapist inquired, eyes peering over the frames of his glasses.

“In any particular order?”

“How about you start with this really, really close friend?” The emphasis that was added made Leo smile.

“You see, I kind of, maybe, sort of, might possibly have fallen almost, a little, probably completely, head over heels, in love with this girl.” Leo produced a goofy grin as he spoke, though the topic seemed of little interest to someone as intellectual as Dr. Marian Tomlinson.

“Her name?”

“It’s Evelyn, to everyone else,” he paused, “But I call her Eve.” He watched Marian’s hand move with the pen across the paper, probably writing her name in his sloppy script. “She’s in the dictionary, you know.”

“Is she now?” The interest on the topic, if there was any, was vague.

“If you look up the word ‘perfect’, that’s her.” Leo fiddled with the multicolored carpet under his fingers, he could feel his face was warmer than usual, but he hoped he wasn’t sporting a noticeable blush.

“Perfect, you say?”

“Yeah, she’s called me that before, like I tell her she is, I don’t really believe that I am, but Eve said it, and she doesn’t lie to me.” Leo sat thoughtful for a moment, before adding, “I never lie to her, and I don’t break promises either.”

“Do you see her often?” Dr. Tomlinson asked, flipping to the next page in his notebook.

“Yes--well, actually...” It took him a moment to think of the right words to explain their situation. “We don’t see each other in person, not the way I see everyone else, I mean, but there isn’t any time that we’re not talking, I mean, my phone has vibrated three times already during this session, and it’s not even half over. That doesn’t make her any less important to me though, she’s the best friend I have.” The amount of speed in which he uttered the last sentence exemplified the importance in which he meant it.

“I can see that, Leo, I can already tell, just by the way you’re talking about her now. Many people would be hesitant to talk about someone they really care about in fear that they’ll be explained as a diagnosis.”

“I’m afraid of that too, I guess. I really care about her, I’m sure I do, and she cares about me, and it’s just the greatest feeling in the world, you know? That someone can care about you that much, it makes me feel important, and needed. That’s not the reason, though. That’s not why I have her, she’s not a person that I could use like that, not even subconsciously. I know that much.” Leo admitted.

“How does she view you?”

“What do you mean?”

“If she were to tell someone about you, what would she say?”

“Well, I think she would start off with, ‘that reminds me of this dork I know, Leo.’ She’s always calling me a dork, I like it though. ‘He’s always saying nice things, and it’s so embarrassing.’ She told me I wasn’t allowed to compliment her while we were in school, because her friends always ask her why she’s smiling. Her friends know about me, though, so they tease her, the good kind of teasing, though. They know if I heard they were teasing her the wrong way, I’d hightail it over there and make them regret it.” He quickly added, “But I’m not violent! I can’t even hurt a fly, no really, it makes me really sad if I hurt anything.” After he had clearly made that known, his therapist spoke.

“So she uses your prefered pronoun? She acknowledges you for who you are?”

“Yes, sir. She’s really good about it, we were talking about the next time I get my hair cut, I’m going to get it cut pretty short, and she told me she was excited about it.” He stopped and sat there with a goofy grin on his face again, almost laughing, “I asked her why, and she told me it was because I would look so handsome. Handsome! Can you believe that?” Clearly he was excited about the whole idea himself, “She’s really amazing about it.”

“Leo, how do you feel when she does that?” A small smile was making itself known on the older man’s face as Leo took a pause.

“It makes me feel really great about myself. I get hopeful, and she makes me want to live, like, really live. We were talking about when we’re older, living together and travelling around the country pretending to be people we’re not. And we’re going to travel around Europe, Italy mostly, I’d love to see where my idol made his masterpieces. I named myself after da Vinci, you know. And she wants us to go see Pompeii, I think that would be insane, just, completely crazy, I really want to go.”
“So, Leo, she makes you feel, pardon my wording, ‘like a man’?” Dr. Tomlinson was definitely smiling, there was no doubt left in Leo’s mind.
“She really does.”
“I think we’ve solved your problem then. Well, I think she solved your problem.”