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Stiles sat despondently in the only place he could think of that would have no one in it-the lacrosse locker room. Since it was only third period, everyone was in fourth hour class and he was thankfully, blessedly, alone. For now, at least. His binder felt like it was stifling him as he struggled to control his breathing while his chest heaved with ragged sobs. He knew he'd have to face everyone sooner or later, he just wasn't sure how he would do so.
Stiles was rushing to his next class when a heavy, familiar hand descended onto his shoulder.
"Not now, I'm late!" Stiles tried to shrug out of the grip but the boy was much smaller than Jackson, the captain of the lacrosse team and his daily nemesis. The hand persisted, even stopping him completely and pulling him aside to a corner. Normally sharp blue eyes peered into his own brown ones with unnatural concern. "What do you want?"
Stiles was shocked to see a dark blush creep over Jackson's face and an awkward look settled into the face that normally held only sarcastic contempt.
"Um...Stiles, you're um-" Jackson leaned forward and whispered into Stiles ear, his warm breath ghosting over his ear. "You're bleeding through your jeans and people are starting to notice."
Stiles backed away, blood draining from his face. Jackson reached out as if to grab him again and Stiles bolted. When he came back to himself, he was sitting in the locked bathroom stall in the locker room.
Stiles didn't know what to do. Jackson and him weren't really friends, the jock only put up with him because Stiles's best friend was dating the best friend of his on-again-off-again girlfriend Lydia. Jackson wasn't necessarily his bully, and sometimes Stiles believed that Jackson enjoyed their verbal sparring as much as he did since most people just kissed his ass instead of actually trying to be real friends. But even at that most of their conversations began and ended in insults. There was nothing stopping the school asshole from revealing his most closely guarded secret to the whole school and making him even more of a social outcast than he already was. It had been hard enough ensuring that everyone in the town of Beacon Hills was in the dark about the new Sheriff's daughter Gizela Stilinski's past and only knew about his son Genim when they moved in at the start of sixth grade. Only Scott, his mother, and his doctor knew the truth and Stiles wanted to keep it that way. But now that whole town would know and they might have to move again after five years of Beacon hills life because people weren't always accepting.
Stiles was jerked out of his thoughts by the soft sound of footsteps on the cheap tiles. He held his breath, maybe whoever it was would just go away.
"Stiles?" Jackson's tentative voice echoed off the walls. "Are you in here?"
Stiles couldn't stop the soft sob that slipped from his chest. He was already feeling terrible. He had nothing to change into and he was getting his period a week early so he didn't have anything to use but toilet paper and the stain on his jeans was definitely noticeable and he didn't want to spend the time to try and wash it out in the sink. Now Jackson was coming to gloat.
"Stiles, I know you're in here."
"Leave me alone," Stiles choked out. He wanted to go home.
"I can't just leave you here, so come out," Jackson replied. Stiles felt his throat tighten and his vision blurred. Of course Jackson couldn't just leave him alone. Jackson could never leave him alone, could he? Not when he was exhausted from insomnia or sad because Scott was ditching him again, or even when he hadn't done anything in particular. Jackson just couldn't let him be miserable at his own pace. He ripped the door open and faced the larger boy, wishing his voice was steadier than it was.
"Why not? You just can't leave me alone can you? You have to make me feel even worse than I already do! So please just go, and have a laugh with the rest of your friends about Stiles the fake boy, but just leave!" Stiles was shaking and his head hurt and his hands clenched with the emotions flooding him. Tears were dropping from his eyes and trailing down his face. It was then that he noticed the shocked and somewhat ashamed look on Jackson's face. "Well, say something!"
"I brought you some...stuff, for, you know..." Jackson dug into his backpack and came back with a maxi-pad, some tampons of various sizes, and a pair of clean underwear along with Jackson's basketball shorts. Stiles stared wide-eyed at the bundle in Jackson's hands, the bundle of everything Stiles needed, but didn't reach for it. Jackson sighed and looked away, pushing the bundle forward. "Please, just take it so I don't feel like such a jackass?"
"Why?" Stiles whispered, still reeling from the unexpected turn of events. Jackson looked sad but determined when he met his eyes even though his blush was still coloring his face. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because...I think of you as a friend, and...I guess I'd want someone to do this for me if I was in your situation," Jackson pressed forward. "Lydia told me what to carry in case she or Allison ever needs it, and I wasn't sure if you had any clothes to change into other than your gym uniform so..."
Stiles reached out with shaky hands and took the proffered bundle and clutched everything to his chest as if it were the most precious thing he could think of.
"Take as long as you need, then we can go to lunch. If you want me to wait for you, that is," Jackson waited for Stiles's decision. Stiles nodded after a pause and Jackson smiled a small smile at him. "I'll be right out there."
"Thanks," Stiles retreated back to the stall and waited for Jackson to move to the main locker room before he started to remove his jeans. When he finally reemerged while tucking his jeans and old underwear into his backpack, Jackson was waiting for him. He took in the sight of the smaller boy in his too-long basketball shorts and Marvel t-shirt, and noticed that Stiles had washed his face clean of tears.
"Are you ok?" Jackson broke the awkward silence after a few minutes.
"Does anyone else know?" Stiles blurted. Jackson went with the change in subject easily. "Did anyone, you know, see? Cause if they did-"
"Stiles. I haven't heard anything, and I'd be the first to know," Jackson crossed the room and gently placed his hands on the shorter boy's shoulders. "And even if they did, nothing bad will happen to you. No one will make fun of you unless they want to get fucked up."
Stiles crumpled under the weight of the unexpected kindness. He surged forward and hugged Jackson tightly, but briefly.
"Thank you," Stiles said as they parted with a brief bro-pat on the back. "When I came out in fifth grade, I was tortured by the other kids, and the teachers didn't-didn't help me. My dad's boss starting making these horrible passing comments about how his bad parenting was the cause and people told me it was just the death of my mom that fucked me up. So...thank you for not saying that. Or whatever."
The awkward silence started again.
"Did you really think I'd use the fact that you're transgender against you? Am I really that much of an asshole?" Jackson asked curiously.
"Well, yeah. I guess I kind of thought you were," Stiles said sheepishly as they made their way out of the locker room and headed to lunch as the bell rang. Students flooded into the hallways.
Jackson knew that he and Stiles generally weren't kind to each other, but he always that Stiles enjoyed their little chats. Maybe he should try actually hanging out with Stiles without everyone else. Try real conversations instead of hurling verbal barbs at each other.
"So..." Stiles began nervously. "I don't think I need to ask you not to tell anybody right?"
"Tell anybody what?" Lydia materialized next to Stiles, causing his heart to jump. Stiles opened his mouth to answer when Jackson cut him off.
"That he watches Real Housewives all the time," Jackson replied smoothly. Lydia shrugged nonchalantly and jumped into her own rant about their chemistry teacher and how he seemed to think that Lydia had to have cheated on his test because she got a perfect score. Scott joined them and pointed at the shorts Stiles was wearing. Stiles waved him off, the unspoken 'we'll talk later' floating in the air between them as they walked into the cafeteria to meet up with Allison.
"Stiles! Where were you in English?" Allison asked, concern radiating from her. Stiles had to smile at her easy mothering of him. She was a good person.
"Had a migraine and had to skip. I feel better now though," He assured her at her worried expression. "What'd I miss?"
Jackson kept his word, and no one found about Stiles as life went back to normal. It became harder to hide his transgender status as he filled out from testosterone and Stiles figured his friends and classmates would accept him or not, and that was their problem, not his. Even so, it would be two years and many movie bro-nights with Jackson and Scott before Stiles came out officially to the rest of his friends, to much support and general surprise that the talkative boy had managed to keep such a big secret for so long.