The next day of classes came and went, and once I returned to my dorm I remembered it was the day I had promised to meet Dallas. It had been running in my mind all day—seriously, every single class the thought of me going on a date with a boy flashed in my mind. Though it made me nervous, I realized I didn't hate the idea. I would constantly tell myself I was just having fun and messing around while I was stuck living as a girl to give myself some sort of justification for my emotions.
I flopped down on my bed, the quick movement suddenly blowing my skirt up. I blushed, flipping it down again to cover up my panties, before once again letting my fingers slip down my skirt to feel the material once again, letting out a soft moan. I covered my mouth quickly with both hands, silently thanking the universe the other girls weren't in the room.
As if she had read my mind, I heard the electronic lock on our door click, quickly covering my lower half up with the covers of my blanket to hide my boner. Avery then walked through the door with a smile. "Hey, Marco." She threw her room key, phone, and bag on her bed and fell on her back onto my bed beside me. I awkwardly scooted over. Personal space much? "What?" She laughed, looking at my embarrassed face. "This is just how girls are, get used to it." She then reached over and grabbed her phone, beginning to scroll through her instagram. I didn't say anything, knowing I was going to need her and Kelsey's help getting ready for my date with Dallas. I checked the time: 1:25. We had two hours until I needed to be downstairs in the lobby. I swallowed my pride and admitted to her what had happened the night of the dinner.
"I need your help." I muttered quietly, not making eye contact.
"Yeah sure girlie, what's up?" Avery replied without looking up from her phone. I cringed a bit at the nickname girlie, still wanting to hold on to any shred of masculinity left in me at this point.
"I... uh... have a date. With that guy Dallas from the other night." My face flushed bright red.
"Holy shit, really?!" Avery gasped, sitting up so fast her phone nearly flew out of her gasp. I finally turned to look at her, she seemed ecstatic. "When did you get his number?!"
"I didn't, he asked me in person when he walked me back here." Avery beamed as I told her. At least she's supportive.
"Of course I'll help you! Oh my god we're going to make you look irresistible for him!! We need to start now." She leapt up from the bed and grabbed my wrists, and I couldn't help from giggle at how excited she was. "Get up!" She began to lead me to the bathroom, and I climbed onto the counter, facing Avery so she could start fixing my hair and makeup. "Where are you guys going? Like what's the vibe how should you be dressed?"
"Um, I actually don't know." I admitted. "He just told me to dress cute and meet him in the lobby at 3:30." I sighed, and couldn't help but smile as the moment replayed in my head. Avery looked shocked.
"3:30! That's not a lot of time, you'd better start showering now, and you can use my soap if you want, it's the green and pink bottle. You'll smell so good for him." She grinned with a wink, taking off my wig before leaving me alone to shower. I stood in the bathroom alone, shocked. I couldn't believe this was actually happening, but then again, how have the past four days at all been happening?
♛ ♛ ♛
After my shower, I sat on the bathroom counter in nothing but Avery's fluffy robe, my legs tightly crossed as not to expose anything to her as she affixed my wig to my head again, blasting some song off her phone I had never heard of.
"It's Doja Cat!" Avery exclaimed, pinning the wig to the wig cap. I just sat staring at my reflection, clueless. "I can't believe you've never heard of Doja Cat." She muttered, shaking her head.
"Yeah, no way bitch. You're very close to getting evicted as our roommate!" Kelsey, who has arrived while I was in the shower, fake threatened. We all laughed, as she scrolled on her phone. "I still can't believe you have a date with one of the cutest boys in school! Like daaaamn, we must've made you look really good the other day."
"Yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself to be honest." Avery joked, now brushing out my long, deep brown wig to get rid of the tangles.
"I thought you hated him anyway? What happened to the whole 'Oh, I'm a straight boy I'm a straight boy I don't like him' attitude?" Kelsey mocked me. I cringed, that was the question I hoped I wouldn't get asked.
"I dunno," I simply muttered. I really didn't feel like saying anything embarrassing to them right now, so I shut myself up before I started spilling some cheesy shit about his smile, or the way he held me, or god forbid about how we almost kissed. I instead decided to say, "Just having fun like you guys told me to. Girls love playing with guys' hearts, right?"
"Well, we're not all hoes, but sometimes it's fun, sure." Kelsey chuckled. We all fell into a silence as the next song played and Avery began doing my makeup.
♛ ♛ ♛
After my second makeover in four days, I stood in the mirror, turning to admire myself from all angles. My shiny hair was curled and fell down to my waist, which I had to admit was incredibly small, even without a band restricting it. I had been told I had a feminine body type, but I never really believed it until now.
I was still uncomfortable wearing crop tops or super tight clothes, so I wore a mid-thigh length white dress with tiny flowers printed on it. The spaghetti straps of the dress were tied in little bows at my shoulders, and around my neck Kelsey had picked three different gold necklaces to rest on my chest, just above my "breasts." Because the dress had spaghetti straps, the girls said I needed a strapless bra. But, since they couldn't stuff a strapless bra without it falling down, I wore something called a push-up bra, which pushed my flat chest to create the illusion of small boobs. For shoes, Avery picked out some flat, nude colored sandals, and to top it off I wore clip-on hoop earrings and a small, white crossbody bag for my phone and wallet. I smiled at myself, happy that I made a convincing girl. I silently prayed Dallas would stay convinced as well.
"Thanks," I beamed with happiness and excitement for my date, spinning to face the girls.
"Of course, girlie! He'll love you." Avery winked at me as I turned and rushed out the door to make it to the lobby just in time.
I quickly made my way down the stairs to see Dallas standing in the lobby, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white button-down shirt with a red and gray letterman jacket over his outfit, which I guessed he had brought from home. He turned around and flashed me a huge smile when he saw me, and I couldn't help the warm, fuzzy feeling inside of me as he embraced me as we greeted.
"Wow," he exhaled as he pulled away from our hug, looking me up and down. His deep brown eyes gleamed. "You look amazing." I blushed.
"Thanks," I giggled. That was weird, I've never giggled like that. I thought. "You as well."
"Well," Dallas slipped his hand into mine. "Shall we?" I smiled, and squeezed his hand as we proceeded out of the building.
"So where are we going?" I asked to break the tension as we traveled down the sidewalk of the city, the average sounds of rush hour filling the air.
"Don't worry, I know a place." Dallas assured me, which made me a little suspicious, but I kept going. "Anyway, where are you from? In state, or did you fly here?"
"New Jersey, so not too far, but just out of state." I replied, remembering my mother at home and how she had no idea I was acting like this right now: wearing women's underwear, a dress, a wig, makeup, and pretending to be a 15 year old girl instead of the boy that I am. I almost began to panic at the thought of my mom's reaction to all that, but Dallas's voice distracted me.
"Oh, that's not too far. I live here in upstate New York, only about thirty minutes away from the academy." He told me.
"So you could easily still be living with your family then?" I questioned.
"Yeah, but my parents thought it would be better for me to be on the strict schedule and in the environment of a military academy, so I have my roommate of course. His name's Zack, and so far he's a pretty cool guy, we have fun."
"Same, my mom would beat my ass if she knew I was out on a date instead of, like, studying hard right now." I joked. "But I love my roommates, too. Avery and Kel-"
"Avery and Kelsey." Dallas interrupted. "Yeah, I met them. They seem great, but of course you're the one who caught my eye. You're gorgeous." I blushed again.
"Thanks," I mumbled, not really knowing how to take the compliment. I'd never really been on a date before, back home. I just never really got around to it or thought about it. I never thought my first time experiencing it would be as a girl, but hey, you live and you learn.
♛ ♛ ♛
"Okay, open." Dallas removed his hands from my eyes after dragged me blindly up multiple flights of stairs after we had walked about fifteen more minutes. I gasped at the big reveal, I couldn't believe where we were. A rooftop of some building I had no idea I was at, with a few blanket spread out on the floor, string lights hanging across the roof and draping over the area where a romantic picnic was set up, with a beautiful view of the sunset over the city.
"Wow, Dallas, this is... this is amazing," I was almost speechless. He smiled, seeming proud of himself, then settled down on the blankets and opening up the pizza box.
"Thanks, I know one of the guys that works here since he's friends with my dad, and he let me reserve the rooftop for us tonight." He explained as he began to unpack our picnic. I listened, trying to figure out the right way to sit without revealing anything underneath my dress. I settled in an awkward position on my knees with my legs tucked under me, before eventually shifting so my legs were together to the side of me, resting my weight on one arm. As I looked into Dallas's eyes as he talked, I let my head tilt slightly to the side, studying his face. He was definitely gorgeous, and I felt a shiver down my spine as he smiled at me again, but I couldn't tell if it was maybe because of the long hair brushing against my arm. He handed me a plate of a slice of pizza with some garlic knots. "Cheese okay?"
"Sure," I forced out a giggle after accidentally letting my voice slip from my fake, feminine voice into a deeper tone for a moment, taking the plate. "Thanks," I took a bite from the slice, seeing him scoot slightly closer to me, taking a bite from his own slice.
"So how come you're here? At the academy I mean," I asked him before taking another bite of my pizza.
"Uh, I'm not a hundred percent sure." Dallas answered.
"What do you mean?"
"My parents just sort of sent me here unexpectedly. I don't want to be a soldier or anything, I guess that just want to put me in line or whatever."
"What do you want to do? Maybe in your future or something?"
"I think I want to do something in filmography or video production. I just really like editing videos for some reason, that's a little weird." He chuckled nervously. "I like to make montages of fun events in my life, like every summer, or vacations. I'm thinking of making one about my time here."
"That's actually really cool," I commented. "It's not weird."
"Really?"
"Sure, I think it's cute." I giggled again. I'm not sure how those words slipped out, but they felt natural. Dallas smiled, looking into my eyes with warmth.
"How about you?"
"Huh?"
"Why are you here?"
"Oh," I paused, choosing my next words wisely as not to reveal my secret. "I'm normally a really good kid, but I slipped up and shoplifted with some friends and my mom just completely freaked out and sent me here to like 'improve my attitude' or whatever."
"Wow, that's a little intense."
"Yeah."
We continued with light conversation, getting to know each other better, as we watched the sunset and ate our pizza. He offered me a mint once we both finished eating, and continued normally with our conversation, until Dallas stood up, and held out his hand to me.
"C'mere," He beckoned, and I stood up, following him as he brought me over to the edge of the rooftop, still holding my hand as he leaned on the railing, looking out over the city. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"It's awesome. It reminds me of home." I replied, focusing on the skyline. "I used to climb to the top of my apartment building all the time. Not so much recently, but this makes me feel nostalgic." I looked over at Dallas to see he had been focused on me the whole time. The last golden rays of the sun as it plummeted beneath the horizon illuminated his face perfectly, his brown eyes glowing.
"I'm glad. You seem happy." He commented, squeezing my hand harder. I smiled.
"I am."
He leaned closer to me, and I could feel my heart racing, knowing what was about to happen. The problem was, I didn't know if I wanted to let it happen. I had never been on a date before, let alone have my real first kiss. But I didn't stop him for some reason. I couldn't. Not even when he gently laid his hand on the side of my face, stroking my dark, artificial hair. My breath caught in my throat, my mind racing with thoughts, my body frozen. What if he kisses me and I'm so bad at it, he know I'm a boy? What if he sees something because he's been looking at me for so long? What if-
"Can I kiss you?" He whispered. Fuck it, I thought. I don't know when the hell I had become such an impulsive person, but I pressed my body up against his, placing my hands gently on the sides of his warm neck, and squeezing my eyes shut as I went in for a kiss, and goddamn did he kiss good. We stood for a few, precious moments, our lips pressed together, before he gently parted his ever so slightly to suck on my bottom lip gently, and I gasped a little, pulling away quickly before I got a boner, revealing my secret. We stood in silence, before he grabbed my waist, kissing me again, and I melted into his soft touch.
And this time, no matter how much I told myself, I couldn't deny the fact that this wasn't "just for fun" anymore.
♛ ♛ ♛