“We can discuss the details of surgery and all that more when we get to my place,” Charlotte told Bella, “for now, just tell me about yourself.”

“Well… I’m 20 years old, I’ve lived here my whole life, I’m going to college for computer science, and I currently work as a receptionist for a veterinary office.” Bella said, before going quiet while contemplating what else someone would want to know about her.

“How long have you known you’re trans?” Charlotte asked, throwing the girl a bone.

“Since I was 11 or 12, I think. I was young, that’s all I know. I remember thinking about how jealous I was of the girls around me for getting to do all the girly things. I had this moment of clarity, where I noticed that I liked everything about being a girl. I realized I wanted to be just like them.”

“Were your parents supportive?”

“Hah! No! They weren’t outwardly abusive about it, but they did shrug it off my whole life. Never really paying much attention to it. They tolerated it, I guess. Once I turned 18, and started the process to get hormones, they were pissed. I ended up moving out. We don’t talk much anymore.” Bella said, with only a slight hint of sadness in her voice. It was better this way, and she knew it. It’s not like it was an unexpected outcome.

“Do you live alone?” Charlotte asked quizzically. Though, a more honest question would be whether or not anyone would question her not coming home tonight.

“No. I live with Chloe, my roommate. We share an apartment at Summerville Apartments on the west side of town.” 

“Damn.”  Charlotte thought, mildly annoyed, though not displaying so as she focused on driving. It’s nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. But she needed to know more. 

“Oh? It’s good you’re not alone. Assuming Chloe is a good roommate, that is.”

“Um…” Bella paused as she thought. Charlotte found it cute the way she began speaking before she’d even formed any coherent answers. The girl could be so forward, so excited. Then so shy out of nowhere, so lost in her own head. 

“Yeah, I guess so. She doesn’t talk to me much. It was sort of an impromptu living arrangement. Chloe and I went to high school together, neither of us had many friends. I met her in biology class senior year, just before graduation -- she’d moved schools. We got along well enough, and truth be told, I sorta had a crush on her.” Charlotte looked over at Bella, who despite the darkness, she could see was smiling, looking down at her lap. 

“Adorable!” Charlotte practically yelled, laughing at Bella’s demeanor.

“I suppose so…” Bella responded, through a grin and a small giggle.

“I told her about it, but she told me she wasn’t into girls. When I had to move out ASAP, she told me I could move in with her and her boyfriend at their apartment. I’d never met him before, and her and I weren’t insanely close, but she was the best option I had. So I went for it. When I got there, he was gone. Like, seriously, the day she picked me and some of my stuff up to start settling in, I wasn’t greeted by him, or introduced to him, so I asked where he was. He’d cheated, she told me. When she caught him, he left without a fuss. But Chloe was distraught…”

“I can imagine.” Charlotte replied, if only to show the girl she was listening. And listening she was. Bella had low contact with her parents, no friends she’d mentioned, and a roommate whom she barely talked to? Charlotte needed to know more. This girl was enticing.

“How’d it come to pass that you two don’t talk much anymore?”

“Well, like I said, she was distraught. Things got weird between us…” Bella gazed out her passenger window. She hadn’t been paying much attention to where Charlotte was taking her. She didn’t recognize this road at first, but out her window, she saw the bright city below her. They were climbing the mountains on the north end of the valley. She knew that up this way were luxury houses. More isolated from their neighbors than anywhere in the suburbs below, and sheltered by pine unless you looked closely. She’d of course, never actually been up this way. Charlotte really had made a life for herself, hadn’t she?

“How so?” Charlotte snapped Bella out of her trance, as she watched the dark silhouettes of pine trees whip past her view of the bright valley below. 

“Yeah… Sorry. I ended up comforting her a lot. We’d stay up late watching whatever the hell on Youtube, and just talk. She would sometimes comment on how pretty I was becoming since I started hormones. She’s cis, by the way. I figured she was just being nice. But one night, when she’d gotten home late from work, she cuddled up against me on my bed while watching something on my laptop. I got so excited. I put my arm around her, and well, one thing let to another, and I lost my virginity to her…”

“That sounds like a good thing.” Charlotte said, prodding for the girl to discuss more.

“Yeah, I thought so. But the next morning she mentioned nothing of it, and hasn’t since. For the past… God, year almost… she’d been way more distant from me. She hasn’t dated anyone, either. She treats me well enough, but we don’t really spend time together like we used to. Sometimes she’s in better moods, sometimes she isn’t. I don’t know…” Bella trailed off right as the sound of the car’s wheels hitting the slope of a driveway brought her attention to their destination.

“Holy shit…” Bella said, almost under her breath.

“Welcome to my home.” Charlotte smiled proudly, the feeling of superiority over the girl who she was leading back to her place filled her with far too much joy.

Charlotte’s home was modern. A “steel and glass box” type house, as Bella thought of them. Though, it wasn’t quite a box, nor was it entirely steel. It wasn’t huge, not like some of the other homes up here, but it certainly looked modern and expensive. The living room and kitchen were visible, on the left side, through a nearly all glass exterior that extended around the house, and to the backside, where she could just barely see the back patio. Blue light from what Bella could only guess was a pool flickered against the earth and pine trees behind the house. The right side of the ground floor was mostly just a garage, it seemed.

What really caught Bella’s eye was the second floor, which sat entirely to the right side of the house, only taking up about two thirds the length of the floor below. A rooftop patio sat on the remainder of the length of the level, above the living room and dining area. It appeared that much of the upper floor also boasted large panes of glass, but unlike the lower floor, they had metal panels that run vertically along the entire length of the windows that wrapped around the left side of the house. Bella figured these were to provide more privacy, her reasoning being the bedroom had to be on that upper floor. 

It was a lot. Glass and cold bluish-grey steel, the sharp geometrical shape, the isolation amongst the pines up here above the valley. The only thing modest was the rather humble garden with various flowers that ran along the front of the house, and around the left side, following the glass panes all the way back. And the medium sized lawn with a young birch tree planted in the middle. The entire house was surrounded by pines, giving total privacy.

As Charlotte pulled up to the garage, and it began to open, she turned to Bella and told her to get out and wait while she pulled the car in. As instructed, Bella got out, approached the patio and stairs to the front door, and took in the fresh summer night time air. Naturally, it smelt heavily of pine, but it was also still tonight. No breeze, no sounds, no lights to be seen other than the front porch light. She felt truly isolated. Out of her element. She lived in a goddamned two bedroom apartment with a girl who she barely knew anymore. This was nothing like the life she lived…

“Thanks for waiting, dear.” Charlotte’s voice was oddly comforting. The garage door started to close and Charlotte walked up the stairs to the front door and typed in her code. Charlotte held the door open, welcoming Bella in.

Bella stood for a moment, staring into the house. Finally she willed her legs to move, and she walked up the remainder of the stairs and through the front door without saying a word.