On the subway this afternoon I stood by the door next to two young (they looked about late teens) people chatting with each other. At one point one of them looked at me (I caught it out of the corner of my eye) and then whispered something to the other, who proceeded to stare at me and then respond to the first: "I don't know, I can't tell." Fun isn't it, when people try to figure you out in public?
The funny thing is that I couldn't definitively tell you if either was male-bodied or female-bodied either. One had long hair that had been tinted pinkish and also had a beard (not tinted), but typical feminine facial features. The other wore clothes that are more associated with females than males (but you could call the look gender-neutral), had a deepish voice with a gayish lilt to it and definitely had a flat chest. Whatever. As someone who crosses boundaries, I wouldn't sit there trying to figure out how mother nature made them, so I couldn't believe they were trying to figure ME out.
Anyway, I pretended not to see or hear anything 'cause I was curious what conclusion they might reach, so I kept quiet and kept listening. I heard the first one say to the second: "I dare you . . . I dare you to ask when we get to our stop." And the second one shook his/her head and eyed me cautiously. I really wanted to say, "oh just ask me already", but I bit my tongue.
A few stops later they did get to their stop, both stepped out, turned around to give me one last glance and I looked them straight in the eyes and grinned . . . made them both jump a little.