The Shape of Her Silence

Jess hadn’t expected things to feel normal, but somehow, they did. She still had to fake her way through daily life, but she was getting used to it. Waking up in the apartment, going to class, even dealing with Leanna’s occasional sarcastic comments. It was all starting to settle into a routine.

And then Kevin dropped a bombshell. “So, I’m seeing Hannah,” he announced casually over coffee one morning.

Jess choked on her drink. “What?”

Kevin grinned. “Yeah. We’ve been hanging out a lot, and, well… one thing led to another.”

Jess wiped her mouth, still coughing. “I leave you alone for five minutes, and you’re dating my—” She caught herself. “Uh, my roommate?”

Kevin shrugged. “She’s cool. And she likes me.”

Jess groaned. “Oh, my god.”

Kevin smirked. “Relax. You should be happy for me.”

Jess wasn’t sure what she was feeling. Watching Kevin flirt with someone from her new world made her feel like a ghost in both. On one hand, Hannah was great. On the other… this was Kevin. Her best friend. Dating someone in her apartment. That was just—weird.

“Fine,” Jess muttered. “Whatever. Just don’t make it awkward.”

Kevin laughed. “No promises.”

—---------------------------------

Meanwhile, things with Leanna had… shifted. After the bathroom incident, something changed between them. They weren’t exactly friends, but they weren’t enemies either. Leanna didn’t press Jess for answers, and Jess didn’t push Leanna about her past. Instead, they found a quiet sort of understanding.

Like now, as they sat on the couch, watching TV after class.

“You still suck at dressing yourself,” Leanna noted, eyeing Jess’s hastily thrown-on jeans and hoodie.

Jess scowled. “Excuse me?”

Leanna smirked. “You have a whole new wardrobe, and you still dress like a college freshman who just rolled out of bed.”

Jess crossed her arms. “I did just roll out of bed.”

Leanna sighed dramatically. “Hopeless.”

Jess threw a pillow at her, but Leanna just laughed. It wasn’t much. But it was more than Jess had expected when she first walked through that door.

—--------------------------

Not everything was going smoothly though. Jess had noticed it right away, how guys started looking at her differently. It was one thing when Hannah or Olivia teased her about being “cute.” But random guys? That was a whole other nightmare.

At first, it was just stares. Then the occasional, “Hey, what’s your name?” And then came the catcalls:

“Damn, sweetheart, looking good today.”

“Hey, gorgeous, why don’t you smile?”

One guy even had the audacity to whistle as she walked past the student union.

Jess gritted her teeth, forcing herself to ignore it. She’d seen this happen to other women before, but experiencing it? That was different. She wasn’t used to feeling like an object. Like some prize to be won.

And when a guy in her statistics class casually slid into the seat next to her and said, “You’re in my group now,” without even asking. She’d spent days brushing it off. Pretending it didn’t matter. But this? This wasn’t harmless. This was someone claiming her. Jess finally snapped.

“No, I’m not,” she said flatly.

The guy blinked. “What?”

Jess grabbed her backpack and stood. “I already have a group.” She didn’t, but that wasn’t the point.

The guy scoffed. “Damn. No need to be a—”

She didn’t let him finish. She walked out.

—------------------------------------

That night, back at the apartment, she vented to Leanna.

“Is it always like this?” Jess demanded. “The staring, the comments, the entitlement?”

Leanna glanced up from her laptop. “Yep.”

Jess groaned, flopping onto the couch. “How do you deal with it?”

Leanna shrugged. “Depends. Sometimes I ignore it. Sometimes I tell them to screw off. And sometimes, I just… expect it.”

Jess frowned. “That’s depressing.”

Leanna smirked. “Welcome to womanhood.”

Jess sighed. She had thought the biggest challenge would be hiding her secret. Turns out, just existing as a woman was hard enough. And that was the part no one warned her about—not the shock of the mirror, but the thousand quiet humiliations no one ever thought to explain.