“Ugh. I’m bored.”

Paige Vanderlay flopped onto her bed, throwing a pillow at her friend, Riley Beaty, who laughed.

“How can you be bored when your nails are so pretty?”

“I don’t know, Riley. I don’t know.” Paige stood up and brushed the lint out of her leggings. She paced back and forth, deep in thought.

“We should do something crazy,” she concluded. “Come on! Both our parents are out of town until tomorrow. It’s only 5 o’clock. Let’s do something.”

“Okay.” Both Paige and Riley wondered internally as to what this would be. Their options were limited, most notably by the fact that Paige and Riley were merely aliases for Peter and Ralph. But both Paige and Riley thought of themselves as boys in name only - the time was coming when they would no longer have to hide.

As it was, Paige and Riley only really remembered they were boys when they looked down. And they knew that would not be a problem someday. It hadn’t for sometime, really. Neither had worn briefs to school since at least eighth grade (both were juniors). They kept a joint list of the hottest guys in their grade (updated monthly), and their knowledge of ballet and football had passed each other in the opposite direction years ago.

But for all the girly energy pervading Paige’s bedroom, neither of the occupants could think of something to do for about ten minutes. Finally, Riley jumped up.

“I have my license now. We should go shopping.”

“Where?”

“We gotta go where no one would recognize us.” Riley thought for a moment. “There’s a JC Penney’s about a half hour away, it’s never crowded. Let’s drive down there.”

“Alright,” Paige agreed.

Both were very nervous as they scanned the top floor of the store. Rows and rows of girls’ clothes stretched as far as the eye can see, but shoppers were sparse.

“Let’s find the dresses section.”

Both giggled as they were able to riffle through the dress racks without interruption. Both knew their dress sizes by heart, and they took turns trying on beautiful outfits, complementing perfectly the bras and panties they wore beneath their “boy clothes.”

“You know what I just thought?” Paige wondered aloud, as Riley slipped out of a lime green skirt.

“We don’t have any real dresses.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. We have leggings and jeans and shirts and shorts and rompers and even ballet tutus. But we don’t have a single real dress.”

“Wow,” Riley fingered her hair. “I never thought of that. Now’s the time to buy one. How much money do we have?”

“I have $50.” Paige whipped a Grant out of her pocket.

“Me too,” Riley said, producing two twenties and a ten.

“We each can probably buy one dress,” Paige declared. The two girls set about looking for their pieces.

“I like this orange one,” Riley said, fingering a sundress. Paige chose a white cotton dress perfect for summertime. Both headed to the checkout to make their purchases.

And that’s when they saw it.

Both Paige and Riley dropped their dresses in sync as they gazed upon the most gorgeous article of clothing either of them had ever seen. It was a strapless black number with a tight bodice and a flared skirt that made both of them nearly explode with delight. Both ran over to the rack to investigate further.

“This is...”

“Oh my...”

Both were lost for words, even more so when they figured out the dress was exactly their size.

“And we’re the same size. Awesome!” Riley exclaimed.

“I don’t see a price tag,” Paige said.

“Let’s ask the checkout lady.”

“Are you sure?”

“Come on! This dress...” Riley’s voice trailed off. Paige nodded and the two girls strutted over to the counter.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Paige asked. “How much for this black dress?”

The cashier was a little caught off guard, but eventually warmed. “That will be $90,” she smiled.

The two girls nodded, conferred, and agreed to split the cost. An hour later, they hung the dress up in Paige’s room, and simply admired its beauty.

“So who’s gonna be the first to wear it?” Riley piped up.

“I don’t know. It’s too pretty to wear.”

“Somebody’s gotta wear it.”

“I guess. We’d be letting the dress down if we didn’t.”

“Exactly right. So who’s gonna wear it?”

“How about we flip for it?”

“Alright.” Riley took a coin out of her pocket and gave it a whirl, calling heads. It was tails.

“Yes!” Paige pumped her fist and began pulling down her jeans. She soon wore only her underwear, and carefully the girl stepped into the dress, zipping it up and smoothing the skirt while she looked all the while at the mirror. Both Riley and her were mesmerized.

“You look stunning,” Riley observed.

“I know!” Paige beamed, and even though the cold night air of April swept into her bedroom through the open window, she felt infinitely warm.

“It’s my turn now!” Riley declared, and began undoing her jeans.

“Wait a minute!” shrieked Paige, still lost in her beautiful, girlish figure. “I’ve been wearing this dress for two minutes. You can’t just take it from me! You can’t do that to a pretty princess!” she giggled and blushed.

Riley sighed. “Paige, my girly-girl,” she said, putting her arm on her friend’s shoulder. “Clearly, this dress is driving us apart.”

“Clearly,” Paige concurred. “Something must be done.”

It took a half hour, but the two girls drew up a deal. Each girl could have the dress for a week, and Riley would go first, although Paige could keep the dress on for the rest of the night.

The two girls watched TV for a while and talked music and boys before Riley tired and opted for bed. “Good night, Paige,” she said. “Now can I have the dress?”

“Fine.” Paige reluctantly stripped out of the gown, into her bra and panties, while Riley slipped it into her bag, folding it ever so carefully, trying desperately not to harm the thing which she so dearly loved.

At home, she quickly disposed of her boy clothes and found her cutest bra and panty combination. Once this was on, she added a few twists: panty hose, which she rarely wore, a headband, and a black petticoat that added a little more flair to the dress when she put it on. She was in love with the girl she saw in the mirror; transfixed the way Paige had been, and immediately loathed the fact she would have to share what was now her most prized possession.

One day, a few weeks later, after Riley had sadly given up the dress after her designated week (she now wore it virtually non-stop - at one point, when her parents were out of town again, she webcammed her parents with the dress on - but a sweatshirt fit so neatly over it they would never know!), she decided to do some ballet to cheer herself up. As she carefully fitted her tutu over her comfiest yoga pants, she looked across the street to Paige’s house (which she could see into on a clear day) and saw, clear as day, the girl twirling about in the dress.

The dress. Riley wanted it now more than ever. It represented something to her. The dress stood for princesses and dances and dates with cute boys. Even the tutu she was wearing had nothing on the girly sensations that washed over her when she looked down and saw the flared circle enclosing her delicate legs.

So what did she do? She stole it. After a late-night pedicure session at Paige’s, she took the dress, and hid it in her bedroom, saving it for a night home alone.

When that night came, Riley was jubilant, and Paige seethed with anger. The former finally would get an opportunity to slip into the outfit that had dominated her thoughts for four days. The latter found the dress missing, and had no idea where it went. Paige’s every moment was filled with dread that her parents had found her out, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced across the street and saw her best friend’s hourglass silhouette in the window dressed in a black skirt.

But at the same time, Paige was not overly thrilled either. Her best friend had taken the dress from her, and it was her week to wear it. Betrayal! Angrily, Paige stalked over to Riley’s house aiming to teach her a lesson. But a better idea crossed her mind.

So what did she do? She stole the dress back. She waited for an opportune moment, and took the dress and returned it to her bedroom and hid it in her closet, confident Riley couldn’t find it.

But she did. And suddenly everything had changed. Both began freely stealing the dress from one another, the week-at-a-time system be damned. And so the subtle element of distrust crept into Paige and Riley’s relationship, and for seven long months they kept it inside, until one late November morning when their parents were out of town again when out of nowhere Riley threw the door to Paige’s bedroom open and yelled...

“Where’s the dress, Paige?”

Stunned, Paige played dumb, trying to keep up an illusion that had disappeared. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought you had it.”

“No! I don’t! Give it to me!”

“Well, you’re going to have to take it from me, then!” A sassy tone infected Paige’s voice, and she tossed her lengthening hair. “And besides, I need it.”

“Well, I need it too, probably more than you!”

“Why?”

“Because I’m coming out to my parents at Thanksgiving dinner!” The words burst from Riley’s mouth like a shotgun blast, even moreso because Paige had been planning on doing the same thing.

Paige again tried to hide her intentions from her friend. “Don’t you think the dress is a little overkill? Why don’t you go with something light? Like a fall theme - jeans and a jacket?”

“Paige,” Riley said adamantly, “that dress is the prettiest thing I own, and when I talk to my parents, I don’t want them mistaking me in any way for a boy.”

This moved Paige, and she revealed her own idea of coming out, which also involved the dress.

“Now this is a problem,” Riley ventured.

“It really is.”

“I want to wear the dress, and so do you.”

“That’s what I’m gathering from this.”

“So who’s going to?”

“I don’t know.”

Their conversation had gone nowhere. Both wanted their coming-outs to be perfect. Both Paige’s and Riley’s parents were writers, and both were always travelling, so neither had any intent of budging from their zero-hour date in which they would reveal their true selves.

“We have to settle this in a fair way,” Paige declared.

“And that would be?”

“A competition of some sorts.”

“Alright, what kind?”

“It has to be a girly competition.”

“Absolutely!”

“I’ve got it!” A light bulb went off in Paige’s head; she had a girly game she and Riley could play that could fairly decide which of them could wear the beautiful dress on the big night.

And, like everything about the saga of the dress, it was bizarre.

“Here’s the game,” Paige explained to her girlfriend. Both wore girly jackets and jeans as they stepped into Mrs. Vanderlay’s two pairs of high heels.

“Only you could have thought of this!” Riley chuckled. It seemed like, with the dress situation out in the open, she and Paige’s relationship was back to normal again.

The two girls surveyed the length of Paige’s living room. “Ten times. Back and forth. In high heels.” Paige said. “Winner wears the dress, loser may wear whatever they please. Deal?”

“I don’t know how you put me up to this, but alright then,” Riley laughed.

So the two girls raced. Each walked deliberately, back and forth, the length of the living room, stumbling occasionally, but never falling down. Riley grabbed the early lead, at one point gaining almost a full room-length on Paige, but she stumbled and Paige was back in the twenty-length race.

Back and forth the girls strutted, looking like idiots, laughing, giggling at the absurdity of it all, forgetting their quarrel and once again feeling like girlfriends rather than basic bitches.

They headed into the home stretch. “I’ve got you now!” Riley exclaimed. She set her eyes on the end of the living room for the final time when Paige picked up steam.

“That... dress... is... mine!” she shrieked with laughter, and she and Hannah dove into the fireplace that marked the end of the room, out of their minds with hysterics, and called it a tie.

“Let’s flip for it, I guess,” Riley shrugged when the laughter subsided.

“We don’t want a repeat of last time, remember? Our friendship was almost...”

“It won’t happen again.” She cut Paige off, pulled a quarter out her pocket, and examined it. Tiredly, Paige removed her jacket, and stood in only her bra and jeans.

Riley flipped the coin. It sailed in the air for an eternity, and she waited anxiously for it to hit the ground. But it never did. She looked directly at Paige’s closed fist, and then turned to look at what her friend saw: their parents, home early.

And as their parents froze in place, Riley seized the dress from its hanger, pulled down her jeans, stepped into it, walked over, and pecked her father on the cheek, sashaying upstairs in the dress both her and Paige would happily wear to parties, proms, and first dates for years to come...