You're a Boy by Melanie Brown

“Take a seat, please.”

“Thank you.” I smiled pleasantly to the woman who was about to give me my first job interview.  Yes, I said first.  I know. I know. I’m eighteen and a high school senior. I should have had my first job interview years ago. But I just didn’t feel like it. I’m just being honest.

I live in a dirty little oil town in West Texas. It’s where all your domestic oil comes from. There just hadn’t been any jobs for me. Oh, the oil field had plenty of jobs. Jobs if you didn’t mind losing fingers or limbs or your life and coming home smelling like you need to be steam cleaned. And that’s if you have an engineering degree!

Everyone starts at the bottom. There’s a reason that position is called “roughneck.” Nature, or specifically my parents, gave me a small frame and delicate features. I wouldn’t last five seconds on a rig, either from the rough work or the fellow workers.

We quickly dispensed with the pleasantries. My interviewer, Please-call-me-Joan, was easy to talk to, and I felt relaxed despite my initial nervousness. 

Joan picked up my job application form again and smiled at me. “So this is your first time applying for a job? How exciting for you. No need to be nervous.” She chuckled. “The main qualification for this job is to be pleasant, and you seem to have that in spades. I see one problem on your form. I’ll go ahead and correct it.”

Feeling a cold shaft of dread, I leaned forward and asked, “What problem is there?” I looked at that form at least twenty times before I came in for the interview.

Joan smiled. “Nothing serious. Just a typo. For gender, you checked ‘male’.”

I said, “Oh, that’s correct.  I’m male.” I get confused for a girl a lot.  I know if I cut my hair, it would lower that confusion a bunch. And my dad, who is a pusher on local rigs, is constantly harping about my hair. And I’m actually glad I don’t have any facial hair growth.

Joan looked down her nose at me. “Seriously? You’re a boy? Are you sure you’d like this job? We can’t discriminate, but we assumed this job would largely appeal to women. You would be in our in-store kiosk selling things like small jewelry, perfume, nail polish and the like.”

I grinned as I leaned back in my chair. “That’s perfect.” No physical labor, no smelly, obnoxious co-workers, no hydrogen sulfide gas that, if inhaled, you’re dead before your body hits the ground.  No, this was perfect.

Extending a limp hand towards me, Joan smiled and said, “Well, that said, Jerri, you’re hired.” I stood up to shake her hand.

After a quick handshake, I sat back down with a grin. “Thank you, Joan. I really appreciate this chance.  Do I um, do I have to wear anything in particular?”

Joan said, “Oh, thanks for reminding me.” She turned and opened a drawer on her desk. She pulled out what appeared to be a shirt in cellophane.  “We do ask all our associates to wear this shirt.  Isn’t that a pretty color? Anyway, we recommend you get at least one more using payroll deduction. My guess is you wear a small.”

I took the wrapped shirt and felt horrified.  It was pink! A bluish pink, but still pink. The package was labeled gender neutral, but it looked feminine to me. I was probably over-reacting, but the shirt sure wouldn’t help with any gender confusion..

After handing me the shirt, she continued, “For pants, what you normally wear for school should be fine as long as it’s clean and doesn’t have holes in it. Though your hair is long, I can tell that you take care of it. And most of your customers at the kiosk will be other students. When does school start again?”

I thought a moment and then replied, “In about three weeks.”

Joan smiled. “That will give you plenty of time to get used to your job before having to deal with the afterschool mob. Follow me and I’ll show you the kiosk.”

We both stood up, and I followed her from the offices out into the store and up to the kiosk. It was towards the front of the store where shoppers would see it first. Joan waved her hand to indicate the free-standing glass cases and cashier desk top.

She said, “The kiosk is designed to appeal to the impulse shopper. As you can see, small items like nail polish, bracelets and perfume. The products sell themselves. We need you to be here to smile and take their cash.”  Joan grinned at me. “You’ll get three breaks, morning, afternoon and lunch.”  She handed me a pamphlet. “Take that home and read it tonight. That’s the employee handbook.”

I thumbed through the few pages of the booklet. The pictures all depicted women as sales staff.  Well, it was a women’s clothing store. I learned later that the only other male employees were Vic, the janitor and Stan Horchester, the CEO.  I bet they don’t wear pink shirts.

Joan turned towards the woman working at the nearby counter. “Sarah.  This is Jerri, who’ll be running the kiosk starting tomorrow. Could you take a few moments to show her…. Sorry, Jerry, that just slipped out. Show Jerri how to use the POS system?”  It wasn’t lost on me that she first referred to me as female. And in this case, POS stands for Point of Sale.

Sarah gave me a warm smile. “I’d be happy to Joan. And welcome to the team, Jerri. Oh, I love your hair!” 

I’m not female, dammit. I smiled nervously. “Thank you.”

Joan looked at me and smiled. “You’ll spend the rest of the day here with Sarah.  She’ll show you how to use the cash register and how we generally operate around here. Sarah, let Jerri handle a few of the sales. Tomorrow, when you come in, come to the office and get your system.  Connie, our IT person, will show you how to hook it up.  See you tomorrow, and welcome to the team.” She turned and walked away.

Sarah rolled her eyes at the retreating Joan. “Welcome aboard. Relax. You’ll like it here.” Should I tell her I’m a guy in case she got the idea I was female, or just roll with it? In a way, does it really matter? “So, are you still in school?”

I nodded. “Yes. Senior this year.” I shifted nervously on my feet. There are no chairs around as sitting on the job is not allowed.

Sarah smiled and took a sip from her Starbucks cup. “That’s great.  College plans?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think we can afford it.”

Nodding, Sarah said, “I hear ya, girl. I’m taking night classes at Commercial College to learn office management. The corporate offices in Midland are always hiring.” There it is again.  I’m not a girl. When do I tell her?  I don’t want to embarrass her.  I mean, it’s not like she’s being evil. We should have a good laugh afterwards. 

And then she casually asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?”

Where did that come from? It’s an emphatic no, of course.  And how nosey!  I sighed.  She’s just making conversation. Instead of forcefully saying “Of course not!” I smiled weakly and said quietly, “No, I don’t.”

Sarah chuckled and, with a knowing smile, said, “A cutie like you? I don’t buy it. But if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”

“Jerry?”

We both turned to look at Tommy Thompson.  His real first name is Burt, but everyone calls him Tommy. We’ve been friends for years.  We’re both gamers and sci-fi geeks.  His dad owns an oil field rental company.  Hey, why buy a blowout preventer when you can just rent one?  His dad always gives me funny looks.

I grinned and said, “Hey Tommy. Doing some back-to-school shopping?”  The store did sell menswear and men’s jewelry. 

“Naw,” said Tommy. “I’m here with my Mom. I drove her up here.  Are you working here?”

I leaned against the counter. “First day.  I’m actually going to be working in that kiosk there.”  I pointed.

Tommy wrinkled his nose. “Serious? You should call Zane. His dad is hiring some hotshotters. Heard the pay is pretty good.”

Shrugging, I said, “I might.” Yeah, right. The last thing I wanted was to drive around in a pickup that reeks of a thousand people smoking in it, navigating remote dirt roads in west Texas and New Mexico, with a broken air conditioner, all to take meter readings on wells. No thanks.

“Well, there’s my mom. Catch ya later, dude.”

I waved to Tommy’s retreating form and grinned.  He’s a great friend, but he doesn’t even take his own advice.  He’s working at Texas Burger and managing one of the stores. He’s not out there in the dirt and the heat.  He’s smart.

I turned and saw Sarah grinning at me. I narrowed my eyes at her. “What?”

Sarah just shook her head.  She pointed where Tommy had stood and asked, “What’s wrong with him?  He’s gorgeous!”

I chuckled at her crazy comment. “We’re just good friends. We met way back before the first grade.” She just shook her head.

An hour went by with nothing. Nobody stopped by.  I was all set to ring up my first sale on Sarah’s POS terminal. I took advantage of the peace to use the head, as my former Navy dad refers to it. I entered the men’s room, and there was no shouting and screaming.  In the past, I have had some people object to which room I use.  Even when I show them my driver’s license, they’re not convinced. I’ve even had the police called on me once.  That was embarrassing.

On returning, I saw a young woman at the counter.  She seemed familiar. As I walked behind the counter, I saw who she was. “Cindy!” I exclaimed. She’s been my best friend since the eighth grade. We’ve always just clicked on almost everything. Except gaming. I keep trying, but she’s just not interested.

With a wide grin, Cindy said, “Hey, Jer!”  She gave me a surprised look. “Are you working here?”

Smiling back, I said, “Yep.  I’ll be at that kiosk tomorrow.”

Pointing at her head, she said, “I got these earrings there last year.”

“Cool.  You need to come back and see what I’ll have to sell.”

Leaning against the kiosk’s counter, Cindy said. “I’ll check it out right now.”

Sarah said, “They haven’t brought out Jerri’s stock yet. So it’ll be tomorrow afternoon before she can sell anything.”

With a grin, Cindy looked at me and silently mouthed “She?”  I smirked and nodded. Cindy giggled.  Sarah continued, “I guess you two know each other?”

I laughed. “Kinda.  Since middle school.”

Cindy took a pose like she was studying me.  She looked at Sarah and said, “I’ve been telling Jer for years if she’d just smile more and wear a little make-up, she’d be very pretty.”

Cindy has said this before at times to get my goat. “Knock it off, Cindy.”  She smirked at me.

Sarah looked at me with a grin. “She’s right, you know.”

Laughing, Cindy asked, “You want me to help you with that?”

I scowled, folding my arms. “I’ll let you know.”

Chuckling, Cindy rapped her nails on the countertop. “See ya later, Jer.”  She turned and left the store.

Sarah looked at me and nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt.”

I shook my head.

                    *

The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful. Sarah let me run the register most of the afternoon. It’s actually pretty easy to use. I only had one other classmate encounter, but she was in too much of a hurry to chat. Just as well as I don’t like her anyway.

I was so relieved when five o’clock finally rolled around. The store closes at six. Some stores in town stay open later, but not this one.  At five, Sarah started shutting down her counter. She had to take the register back up to the office to turn it in along with the money. This process takes almost an hour, so we can expect to leave around six each day.

I was down on the floor opening the boxes that held the items used to stock my kiosk. I heard someone lean hard against the counter with a grunt.  A gruff voice said to no one in particular, “Does anybody work here?”  I sighed and stood up.

I immediately recognized the person leaning on the counter. “Hey, Zane. Sorry, but the store is starting to close. Did you need something?”

Zane scowled at me.  “Would I be here if I didn’t?” He then slowly recognized me and said, “You work here now?”

I nodded. “Well, specifically that kiosk,” I said pointing.

Zane laughed. “I’m not one bit surprised to see you in a job like this. You always were a pussy.”  Sarah returned at that moment.

Looking serious, Sarah said, “We’ve closed this counter, sir. Did you need something?”

Zane leaned on the counter again and growled, “Dammed right. I was looking for a present for my girl.”  Zane has always been a rude asshole.  His dad owned a chain of gas stations around the area.  His girlfriend, Jennifer, was a stuck-up bitch.

Sarah again said, “I’m sorry, we’re closed.  We open at 9 am.”

His voice tinged with anger, “How does that help me now?  Her birthday is today.”  He pounded on the counter.

I put in, “No need to get physical. Hey, I’d suggest going to Juan’s Pawn.  They’re open until 10. They have a large jewelry selection that I’m sure your girlfriend will like.”

Zane laughed. “What would a soy boy like you know about girlfriends? But you’re right. I should have gone there first. You probably just lost a customer.” We could only hope.  With a last pound on the countertop, Zane walked out.

Sarah was looking at me funny. I asked, “Was I wrong to send him on his way?”

Shaking her head, she said, “No. That was good to get rid of him.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “They why are you looking at me funny?”

“He called you a soy boy. What’s that about?”

I sighed.  “I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to say this all day, Sarah.  But I’m not a girl.  I’m a boy.

                    *

End Part 1

Copyright 2025 by Melanie Brown