Ty accepted that he was different. He had to.

He always felt like a fraud dressed as a ‘normal’ person. It felt wrong. He might as well have been naked as conspicuous as he felt trying to blend with crowds. No matter what he tried, he was sure that other people saw it, too. The way they gave him sideways glances even when his hood was pulled low, casting his face in shadow.

It couldn’t be his wearing a sweatshirt in the middle of a California summer.

Dressing as himself out of his element wasn’t much better. He’d learned that very quickly. The only comfort there being that whatever people thought, he came by their reactions honestly. They were reacting to him and not a badly concocted disguise. That… wasn’t always a good thing, though, really.

He longed for nights. The clubs and neighborhoods that were familiar and welcoming, if only after dark. Where people weren’t like him – because wouldn’t that be a trip? – but they accepted him, and that was even better. Because his choices weren’t for fashion or statement, they were for self. He simply was, and he really wished sometimes that people would just let him be.