Those words spurred Whit on her way home. She felt fearful, exhausted, and yet empowered, all at the same time. She wanted to sing her truth out to the world, and she wanted to hide in her bedroom closet forever. She wanted to tell her parents, and she wanted to deny herself yet again. She wanted to lock Dusty back inside his hole, his coal cellar, his place where he should stay buried, but she was aware that he was full of life and hope and could not be stuffed back down inside ever again. She became aware that, just like her body, or even more so, her soul could not shrink back down again. It had blossomed just as her chest had, and she’d deal with it somehow. She might bind her chest, but she would never bind her identity ever again.
She ignored the cold, though she knew her nose was t
