"Though I felt incomplete, and lonely. I would always try to hide it. My family were very religious people. Went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. I always tried to be the perfect kid for everyone and hated every second of it. My name was Roberto. My friends and family called me Robby. One day, mi madre found a job being a maid at some big shots house and my dad urged her to take it. Some time she would take me with her and that's when I first met them. The Mancini boys."

Though she was talking she still fully immersed in her cooking. I dared not to talk because I didn't want to cut her off. Besides I want to absorb everything about he story. Not a lot a people get to truly here a Trans person real story. And I would love to know how my friend became to be the beauty she is today. So I stayed quiet and listened.

"We quickly became friends. As years went on we became closer and closer. Around the summer before middle school me and Mike got especially close. Me and Mike had something different and before I knew it, I fell head over heels in love with him, of course he didn't know at first. He made me feel normal. Like being myself was ok. Once I figure out that I was gay. I felt the need to tell them first before anyone else. Weird right? You would think you would tell your family first, but no I wanted to tell my three best amigos. So before the summer ended I came out to them. And they were okay with it. They literally praised me and held me. Hell they were there when I told my parents.

Now my parents didn't take it well, as expected. But growing up with them I kind of expected to be rejected so it didn't hurt as much. I was kind of numb to it I guess. And though I came out to everyone I still felt incomplete, and I could not for the life of me figure out why. Middle school came around and I was known as the towns fag, however no one really fucked with me because I had the Mancini's protection. Sadly, they couldn't stop the whispers. I hated the whispers. I have always been the type of person to want people to tell me there problems with me in person. And it always bothered me that they all would smile in my face, but say the cruelest things behind my back. I absolutely hated it. In order to let got of all that pent up rage, I decided to join the boys in there training. There crazy ass father made mandatory for them to learn how to fight. And they had convinced me to start as well, because you never know what homophobe might decide to get physical. During that second summer all did was train with the boys. Me and Mike would even do private lessons together. One of the lessons got a little too hot for me and I kissed him."

"You kissed him?" I said. I know I said I wouldn't say anything but I always expected that Mike was the one who made the first move.

"Yep, right on the lips, and you want to know the best part." She said. I leaned forward. "He kissed me back. He was the first guy I hade ever kissed and my first....ya know. We were head over heels, ya know. Or at least I thought we were. He wanted to keep our relationship on the low. So we couldn't tell anyone not even his brothers, and I hated lying to Tate and Tim. But I did as I was told and said nothing. I hated feeling like his secret, but I lived every single ounce of live he gave me. He was my best friend and my lover."

I could see her smile as she cut up the vegetables. It was so sad. I could tell that she loved him and the others very much and she was so hurt by what they did. Whatever it was.

"There fathers birthday was coming up quickly and they need some type of money quick to get him some expensive ass gift. They had heard about some underground fighting arena where they can get a quick buck. So me and the three pendejos decided to go. We all signed up for a match and we won all of ours. After us there was a girl fighting and she was beautiful. She was fighting some gringo with tattoos. With in the first round she knocked him out cold. I can honestly say she was the first woman to ever make my heart skip a beat. I wanted to meet her so badly, I could hardly stand it.

Mike was jealous, but I could care less. So I asked around about her and found out the she was a trans woman. She fought with men but trained with women. From hearing that my urge to meet her grew even more. I never really understood why. There aren't a lot of open LGBTQ+ people in this community and i really wanted to talk to someone who could honestly understand me. Don't get me wrong the boys tried there best to listen, but they could never understand, not even Micheal. As soon as she stepped out of the ring I approached her. Her name was Emily. I introduced myself and she had already knew who I was. The joy the erupted in my souls was indescribable. She said she wanted to sit down and talk to me properly so we exchanged numbers and decided to meet the next weekend. And when we exchange numbers, I knew something amazing was going to happen and I marked that as the start of the end of Roberto."