A couple of days later I walked into the diner one night. The doorbell chimed as I opened it, but the jingle was drowned by the sudden eruption of applause from everybody in attendance. I froze for a quick second, thinking I came in at a time when they were cheering for something, maybe someone's birthday, until the unavoidable fact that every eye and smile was directed at me hit me square in the nose.

I put two and two and figured the ovation was precisely because of the state of my nose. I'd been fitted with a nasal splint and the majority of my face looked like one giant bruise. It hurt a lot and even while hopped up on painkillers I was having trouble sleeping. Although that might also have something to do with the fact that I had to keep my nose raised for that, and I was not used to it. I was a side sleeper and sometimes I even burrowed most of my face into the pillow.

Not to mention, and here was the kicker, the doctor told me to stay off of hockey for almost two months. Coach Martel had allowed me to participate of the practice drills, so long as they involved no contact. I was bored, frustrated and in pain, and a good combination that did not make.

I could tell dad was a tad bit gleeful for the hockey ban and maybe that was why he was treating me nicer. Or it might have something to do with the conversation we had.

Meanwhile my dear brother laughed his ass off once he saw me on FaceTime for a couple of minutes before he had to head out to class.

All this family support was killing me.

The town's support, though, that was killing me in a different sense. Everywhere I went I got pats on the back, handshakes or applause. I didn't deserve any of this. All I'd done was get my face smashed by some burly dude with more anger issues than even I had. I hadn't saved the town from some big bad villain, or joined the Army or the Peace Corps. Anything worth any admiration.

I gave the people at the diner an awkward wave and asked them to please stop in the most Canadian way possible, which involved a lot of thanks and sorry. Finally I was able to sit down on a corner booth and hide my bruised face behind a menu. I already knew what I was getting, but I really wanted to put a barrier between my nose and all the nice people who felt so bad for it.

"Quite a shiner you got going on," a familiar voice said. I looked up and from the rim of the menu saw Lena Lee's smirk. "Did you ice it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Does everybody in this town solve every problem by icing it?"

"Pretty much. If there's one resource we have aside from oil is ice."

I pursed my lips into a tight line.

That was precisely the second topic that robbed me of sleep for the past two nights. I tossed and turned in bed, thinking about what dad had told me and envisioning a future where his company went under. What would we do then? What could I do? I was the useless member of the family. Dad would keep working forever if he had to, no matter what anyone said or did. Work was what had kept him going even after mom's murder and my kidnapping. Miguel was studying Finance and Business at college right now, and he was so good that he already had love calls from a few big companies in the Orlando area and beyond.

I didn't even know what I wanted to wear the next day, forget about choosing a career that could feed me and keep dad from worrying about me.

I texted my brother about it earlier this morning. I wanted to have a longer, more meaningful conversation with him that would not require the use of a camera so that he could focus more on what I said than on how I looked. I wanted to know if he also knew about what was going on and had hid it from me, if only to get pissed at him for a few minutes. And then I needed advice. A whole lot of it. But I didn't know if to broach the third topic that had kept me wide awake with him, or if that'd be to court even more trouble.

"Charlie?"

I looked up, startled when I saw that Lena Lee was still in front of me. Her eyebrows were up and her hands on her waist.

"Um, sorry. What was that?"

"Are you hiding out here or meaning to order something?"

I looked down at the menu and shook my head to myself. I didn't need to read it, so I closed it. I had to snap out of it. Between my nose and my dad's company taking a nose dive, pardon the pun, I didn't really have time to think about the third thing. A thing that was more a who than a thing. A who with golden curls atop his head, a dimple in his chin and the most wicked eyes I'd ever stared into.

"Ah, yes. I'll get a chocolate milkshake and a cheeseburger, please."

I stared after her once she was done taking my order down to the details of what I wanted in the burger, wondering if I could trust her enough to share a little bit of this mess. It'd be nice to have a girl friend to give me some perspective. But then again she thought I was a gay boy, so the advice she might give wouldn't be necessarily applicable. I put my head in my hands and, surprise, not only did it send shockwaves of pain all the way down to my toes, it also didn't relieve me from the burden of realizing I had a teeny bit of a crush on a guy who thought I was a guy who probably liked girls and probably thought I liked girls, too.

My phone went off and I nearly jumped off the seat. I picked it up and realized it was a call from my brother. The call I'd been waiting for since the morning. The phone slipped from my hand as I attempted to pick it up and I caught it mid air by sheer reflex.

"Miguel?" I almost sounded breathless when I picked up. "Oh, thank God you finally called me back."

"Whoa, did you break another limb or something?"

I'd also been loud, apparently, because a couple of people turned my way. I thought about speaking in Spanish, so they wouldn't understand the conversation, but you never knew who spoke the language around and anyway, even though I did use it with him or dad on occasion, I'd become more comfortable with English after almost ten years of living in the States. It was best if I took this somewhere private. Somewhere private with heating.

I made a bee line to the bathroom and checked that it was empty before speaking.

"Did you know the reason why dad moved us up here?"

There was a pause on the other end where all I heard was something shifting. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't play innocent now. Dad finally told me the Bernal Oil is in trouble. Is that true?"

"Ah, Carlota-"

"And none of you thought about telling me before I had to completely change my life and even turn into a boy?" I asked before he was able to say much more. I took a deep breath. "Because hey, maybe that might have eased the transition more than a forced haircut, you know."

"Well, uh, cat's out of the bag now," he said. "I guess dad must have told you."

"Yeah, and we barely ever talk, so imagine how betrayed I feel by you right now." I could imagine him cringing, but by the fact that he wasn't quick to feed me with any excuses I guessed that he already knew things would turn out this way the moment they both concerted to hide this key family fact from me.

I stomped my foot even though he probably couldn't hear it from the other end of the line. "I feel like a fool. Every complaint and tantrum I've thrown for the past three months was just childish. On top of that I don't know what to do to fix this, other than to keep playing hockey so this town starts to like at least one Bernal man — except I'm not a man." Oh no, the dam between my brain and mouth had broken. I kept going, "And guess what? I suddenly find myself very frustrated by this new role I have to play because I can't get one of my teammates from my mind and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it as long as he thinks I'm also just a heterosexual boy. How's that for having a good jolly time up here in good ol' Canada?"

"What?"

"What?"

The second what caught me completely off guard. I whirled around so fast I nearly toppled myself. I held out my hands, searching for purchase and though I held on to a sink for dear life, my phone went flying in the air until it landed with a crash and slid a few inches. It rested almost by somebody's feet. When I looked up at the somebody my heart started hammering in my throat. The conversation flashed in my mind and I wondered if this third party had heard any of the incriminating parts.

And then the third party turned out to be Lena Lee. Who was gaping at me with a good measure of incredulity.

Here's the thing, I took my role as defenseman of the Bears very seriously, and there was no better defense than diversion.

So I asked her, "What are you doing in the boys bathroom?"

It didn't deter her one bit. After flapping her mouth open and closed for a couple more seconds she responded with, "So you're not a boy?"

I drew in such a sharp breath that it was a wonder there was still any oxygen left in the room.

"You heard that?" I asked with a thread of voice.

Her pretty face scrunched up in thought. She looked down at the floor and upon finding my phone there she bent down to pick it up. I took it back from her tentatively, half expecting her to start swinging at me.

"Are you transgender?"

I blinked. Well, I hadn't outright made a mention of what I considered myself but uh, I couldn't dig myself into a deeper lie.

I swallowed a thick lump of ice. "Um, no. I'm just a girl."

Nothing happened for a few seconds. I glanced down at my phone and saw that the screen was smashed. The thing might be dead. Just like I'd be in the next five minutes, after everybody in the diner and in town found out what a liar me and my dad were. I'd been hoping Miguel gave me advice on how I could help the family get out of this one, but I might have just made it worse.

"What?" Lena Lee screamed.

I cringed. My hands went up in defense. Nothing happened.

I cracked one eye open. She'd made her way into the men's restroom and locked the door shut from the inside with her body.

She whispered, "Do you mean my first kiss was with a girl?"

I struggled to compute for a hot moment.

"Wait, that was your first kiss too? No way."

"What do you mean no way?" She shook her head. "I'd never really had a crush on any of the guys in town and then you came along and... you turned out to be a girl." Her eyes went wide as saucers and her glasses started slipping down her nose. "Does that make me a lesbian?"

I didn't know what to say.

"I uh, don't know. You might have to experiment some more."

Her eyebrows went up. "Are you flirting with me?"

"What?" I jumped. "No! I'm not, I was just saying. I don't know. This is all a mess and-"

Then Lena Lee started laughing. She laughed so hard that for a moment I wondered if Miguel had swapped bodies with her. And just as if this were him making fun of me I failed to see how this was any funny. This was a fucking disaster and I was freaking out.

She doubled over and held herself upright by the knees.

"Uh, are you going to tell everybody?" I asked.

"Tell everybody?" she asked, near hysterical. "You're kidding, right? The town worships you right now. The Bears need you in the team. And if word got out of what happened we'd both get in a world of trouble with our parents, no doubt."

I could have fainted.

"Oh my goodness, thank-"

She interrupted me by raising a finger. It was actually her evil smile what shut me up.

"As long as you tell me who the boy in your mind is."