2:24pm Saturday - David
Okay, this wasn't the plan at all. But I can make do.
I don't know how to make myself look good in a dress. But Gavin has a body that would suit fashion. Everything I want to wear begs for a figure like he has. Tall, slender, toned muscle, even width hips and shoulders. He's got great potential, and I'm not going to let today end as a bitter defeat. Yeah, he might have been spooked by the stakes, that's maybe a little obvious now with half an hour of hindsight. But, I want him to at least think of this as neutral rather than calamitous.
A quick run to the nearest thrift store and twenty bucks later, we've got our "prize".
Stealing a look I've seen on some insta reels, I'd grabbed a soft, dark blue A-line dress I thought was his size and a black, calf length cardigan. Good ol' hiding the body's features, to get away with an elegant silhouette.
I couldn't pull off that trick since I'm built like a brick and look exactly as feminine as one. A short king, was what people had been politely calling me recently. It's not the compliment they think it is, but I don't think I would ever have the words to explain why…without weirding my friends out.
I finally return to my front door, slip the key in and sneak a look inside. Just in case Gavin was hiding ready to ambush me or something.
Nope, he's still where I left him: enjoying jazz in the comfy chair.
I should ask him how to properly enjoy jazz, he just seems to vibe with it more than I do. Maybe I should ask him to teach me how to sing, I know he's got pipes on him when it comes to singing. Maybe understanding music at all would be a first step.
"I'm back…it's punishment time." I could have sold that better, but this was supposed to be my time to fake disappointment and give responsibility to someone else to make me look like a girl. Even if Gavin did a bad job I would have an excuse to bandy about to calm my delicate heart if I looked hideous.
Hopefully that wasn't going to be the case for Gavin today.
I laid the clothes on the couch for him.
"I asked a friend for advice." I lied so smoothly; you couldn't even tell I had been practicing that line the whole walk home. "I'll give you the room to change and be back in five." And began walking away both hoping things would go well and Gavin's mood would be restored and hoping that he would look gormless so I would be vindicated to never try something like this again. If ladies fashion looked bad on Gavin, seemingly the ideal shape for it, I would never try it myself (safe in the knowledge I was about as far as one can get from that ideal shape).
I stood about my bedroom for a few minutes before hefting the full body mirror to take it out to the combination kitchen/lounge room.
As I returned and saw Gavin transformed, I declared him an enemy for life.
He looked adorable.
The dress suited his frame concerningly well, the cardigan did exactly what I envisioned and implied a lot more bust than he had. All in all, he looked like a casual lady ready to do her weekly shopping or meet friends at a café.
My only solace was that once I set down the mirror and let him take the look in, I caught him crying.
For me, being transformed like this would have been a dream come true. But knowing what I did about Gavin, this was probably really weird.
2:32pm Saturday - Gavin
This is really weird.
David just brought out a mirror, I should have expected he try and make the humiliation complete.
But…
I look amazing.
David said he'd gotten advice, I didn't want to out myself…but I wanted to ask who it was from cause they knew how to make me look amazing (even if I was still plodding around in a man's body).
I look relaxed and stylish.
How come I couldn't come up with a look like this just without the dress and start dressing non-binary? That would be way more believable than telling people I was trans. It was probably too late to do that now, I'd known David and the rest of the guys for a year and a half, they'd notice if I started dressing different without a girlfriend to impress or something.
Wait…would David let me keep this? Wait…he said…dress up like this for the day…am I cooked, chat? What if someone else comes by to hang out? I didn't exactly announce my plans to anyone. And David's house is still the defacto hang out spot. And most everyone's not working today. How do I explain myself?
If I'm honouring the bet, I either have to walk back to my car and be seen by god knows who, and then everyone in my building…nope that's not possible. So I just have to camp out here the rest of the day.
Fuck, I hope this is just how today ends. Just being confused by jazz until the sun sets, putting my dude disguise back on and trying to forget how much I love how I look right now.
I had to sit down. This was too much. The swish of the dress against my legs was also too much. Like I'd been thinking for the last few years, I just wish I'd been born a girl so I could enjoy the stuff I like and not be judged. So I could dress and act like girls were allowed to dress and act.
I didn't even look like myself in the mirror. That wasn't even my face. And all I'd done was taken off my beanie. How could my face change that much?
"You okay, Gav?" David had picked the mirror back up like it weighed nothing and had started to put it back, I was a little sad I wouldn't be able to keep looking at my femme-sona David had so expertly revealed.
Now with nothing but my own lap to look at and the jazz to listen to, I felt incredibly conflicted. I should first find something to do with my hands, but also I needed to work out what David planned to do next. He had said this was for the rest of the day, was he planning something even more sinister next? I had never known David to be untrustworthy, but who bets dressing like a lady as a punishment while studying literal feminism? I had half a mind to send his professor an email complaining about this and somehow get him flunked in that class as revenge.
Would it be revenge?
I was struggling to not smile and I kept running my hands over my thighs. The vision of what I looked like kept playing over and over in my mind. I almost felt like I had the grace to pull off being a girl for real. Could I just come clean to David? Just say what had happened?
The front door burst open. I froze mid thought.
For a split second I had hoped David was just pulling a sick joke and had climbed out the sixth story window to re-enter the front door. But nope, it was Aaron. Daft as a brick Aaron. Unsubtle as a thundering fart Aaron. Built like and as welcoming as a brick shithouse. I hope he won't say anything.
"Fuck, you're a cutie. What's your name?"
Ahh.
Nope.
I don't own a brain anymore.
All I have is a puddle of mush and a smile.