Detransition, Baby

by Torrey Peters

It wasn’t that they had even been rude. They had simply seen her. Seen a true thing in her that she had spent her life making sure never to show to anyone.

The last two Christmases, she did the same thing: bought a tiny pine tree, set it on her dresser, and decorated it with a string of lights from her local dollar store. Then she spent Christmas Eve alone, thinking about her erstwhile lovers while taking selfies reading beside the tree, as evidence for the trial in which her counsel would plead that no, Reese was not sad, she didn’t care about being alone, like that famous t-shirt said, she was SINGLE AND LOVING IT.