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The day had started alright.
It was the weekend, so Tyler slept in an hour or two more than usual (which was especially helpful since the bulk of his nights were now taken up by the Phantom Realm) and had been able to slip out of the house undetected by his mother, which allowed him some rare alone time.
While he was enjoying the fresh air, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. This was a bit abnormal, as he had the group chat on mute and didn't have many apps on his phone, so he pulled it out and was glad to see that it was a text from Ben, inviting him to come over.
He liked Ben, easily far more than any of the other new 'friends' he'd made from this whole evil dream world situation, so he quickly accepted the invite and started walking to the boy's massive, borderline mansion of a house.
It was a bit of a hike, but he didn't want to catch his mom's attention by going back inside to collect some coins for the bus, so he just made the walk. He could use the exercise anyhow.
Along the way, he felt a small pang of discomfort in his lower abdomen, but he didn't think much of it, writing it off as just hunger since he hadn't eaten anything yet that day. He could ask for a snack when he got to Ben's, it was fine.
Once he got there, things were going fine for a while. Ben made him a little plate of food, the two were hanging out, and everything seemed fine... Until Tyler had to pee.
He excused himself to the bathroom and, with horror, found blood when he sat down.
It wasn't enough that it had bled through to his pants, but his underwear was wrecked. What was worse was that he didn't have anything for it. He thought for a moment about using toilet paper, but that would be uncomfortable and he also didn't want to use so much of the toilet paper when this wasn't even his house.
The thing was, though, Ben didn't know that he was trans. No one in the group did, apart from of course his sister. He was actually a bit surprised that seemingly no one had figured it out, considering that he and his sister were identical twins, but he was comfortable with that. He didn't owe anyone that information.
He was starting to regret that now.
He pulled out his phone and shot Ben a frantic text. He wasn't sure what else to even say, so he just swallowed his pride and asked the most important question at the moment.
boytwin: hey i hate to ask but can you run to cvs or something and pick up some t@mp0ns
bendoesntspeak: Oh, yeah, no problem.
bendoesntspeak: Do you need them for your sister or something?
Tyler took a deep breath before answering Ben's inquiry.
boytwin: no actually its me
boytwin: im trans
bendoesntspeak: Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
bendoesntspeak: It had to be ONE of you, right?
bendoesntspeak: Everything okay?
boytwin: yeah i just didnt know it was starting today and i didnt bring anything
boytwin: if you could also get some underwear thatd be appreciated
boytwin: im a size medium
boytwin: god this is embarrassing
bendoesntspeak: Hey, don't worry about it, man.
bendoesntspeak: I'm heading out now. Don't die.
Tyler sat on the toilet, feeling ashamed and disgusting for a while until he eventually heard the door to the house open once again, followed by a buzz on his phone.
bendoesntspeak: Hey, I'll just leave the stuff outside the door so you can have your privacy.
boytwin: thanks
Tyler opened the door after a moment and saw a CVS bag on the ground, which he quickly grabbed before shutting the door again.
In the bag, he found a box of tampons, a pack of boxers, and, to his surprise, a variety of chocolates, a bottle of ibuprofen, and a heating pad.
He quickly cleaned himself up, put in a tampon, and put on some boxers. Once he was cleaned up, he left the bathroom, left the house to throw his old underwear in the outside trash, came back in, and then found Ben sitting on the couch in the living room, playing a video game.
Ben paused his game, smiled, and waved the other boy over, so Tyler timidly walked into the living room, set the CVS bag down on the couch, and sat next to Ben.
"Thank you..." Tyler said in a low voice. "You didn't need to get all that"
'I wanted to help' Ben signed in response. Tyler smiled at him, a gesture which Ben returned earnestly before passing him a second controller. 'Mario Kart?'
"Oh, I'm going to beat your ass so hard"
'We'll see about that'