Runnin' Away With Me (Part. 2)
By Sabrina G. Langton

***

Author's note: Lotsa red, a lil' backstory, oh, and a lil' music... Here's Part 2 of my nice sexy story about a crossdresser who still doesn't know why everything thinks she's a woman. I hope YOU like it...

***

I was in the shower, everyone was out, I was alone in the house. Alone in the house for the first time in years. I had music on my phone and my eyes were closed, the water streaming on my face. I didn't want to wet my hair, it looked so perfect but I had to, I had to immerse myself in the water. I was a little confused. Maybe I was a girl on Halloween years ago when I was seventeen. Well, I was, but maybe I was really a girl, a girl everyone knew. Maybe last Christmas everyone expected me to go into the City all dressed up with Jenny and Mitch, it was so much fun. It was my favorite day ever.

"Ever."

Jenny wanted to see me, it had been so long. We finally made plans for Christmas. After the Rockettes Show, we went to Macy's, I bought a bra, it was beautiful. White lace, expensive, soft. I bought Jenny one too, her Christmas present, we were going to match, Mitch said he couldn't wait until she wore it for him. He had a huge smile on his face. Gorgeous Mitch with his short dark hair, his light beard, his licensed NFL Giants sweatshirt wrapped around his big body with his hood up, he was actually having a better time than me and Jenny. Little dark-haired Jenny in her new red dress, holding hands with me in my new green and white skater dress and red nails. Mitch loved the show, the dancer's legs in stockings and heels, shopping in Times Square. He said he didn't want to go back to North Bergen for a while, he wanted to stay, see the Christmas Tree, FAO Shwartz, people-watch. He said he loved hanging out with two sexy women, he felt so popular, holding hands with two women carrying even sexier lingerie in their little bags. He said Christmas was already here for him.

I remember hugging him and saying thank you for taking me, not leaving me in my boring apartment Upstate, I felt like I was impinging on their time together. I was always the third wheel, whether I was dressed as a starlet or not. Even living far away I was the third wheel on the phone, the three of us complaining about some movie or friend who we didn't see anymore.

"Are you crazy?" He told me, we were in Bryant Park watching the tourists ice skate, we were having fun. I had a paper cup of hot mulled wine warming my hands, my little green gloves. "Sabrina, we love you, Christmas would not be the same without your red hair, your terrible jokes, or your embarrassing observations."

I laughed, "Well thank you, I think." And we laughed, and we watched, and we drank our wine.

We sat on a bench, we were talking to a young couple with three very young children. The wife loved our accents, our dresses. She loved our nails. We had long red nails, with holly leaves on them, it took so long at the salon but I enjoyed myself. I liked that the women, called me Miss, asked if I wanted tea, asked if I had a boyfriend, they said they loved my hair color, they wanted to style it.

The couple were from Omaha, Nebraska, they were in for a family get-together. They missed New York but they were so happy to come back and see their friends, and see the sights. They wanted to move back but Omaha was so open, with so much room, they had such a big house. They used to live in Queens, they thought it was so beautiful this time of the year, just a little crowded, nothing like Omaha. We talked to them for quite a while, looking at the lights. I was playing with their kids, having a catch with a stuffed elf. I shooed away a huge Elmo and Spiderman. Everyone was watching me, I smiled I was having fun. The next morning I would miss this, upstate and by myself again.

"Can we all take a picture?" The wife asked. "I want to remember you three." I stopped an older man and asked him to take a picture of us. We posed. He took about fifteen. I was behind the bench, then I was next to Jenny with our arms around each other, then I had two of the kids on my lap, They had my long hair in their hands. I sent everyone the pictures. I have two people from Nebraska in my contacts. We all do.

We were in the middle of Broadway we were going to eat, someplace different, someplace we would never be able to find again.

"Hey! Turn around quick," Mitch took our picture, Christmas lights above us, heavy traffic, and people behind us. Click, and then we ran, ran to the other side, I ran in five-inch platforms. That picture was now in my Mother's living room, full of fingerprints, people have looked at it, asking who was the redhead with Jenny? 'What? That's Sabrina, she had on a new dress, she had long lashes for the holidays, she looks just like Pam if Pam was older and wore long lashes and had red hair. Ha.'

I heard my phone, I jumped out of the shower, it was Carson.

"Hi, want me to pick you up?" He asked, he had a nice voice. I was liking him a lot already.

"Oh, I don't know what we are doing."

"I miss you, when are you leaving for Phoenix?"

"Um, tomorrow, tomorrow morning." I started to feel sad. Only Jenny and Mitch ever missed me. Carson, I saw just sixty minutes ago. "Okay come and get me."

"In an hour?"

"In an hour and a half, I will be the one with the red, red hair, you can't miss me."

"Ha, I am missing you already."

***

The closet and drawers were empty, everything was packed up for the move. My mother packed everything in boxes and bags for USPS, for the plane. I had a few things in my backpack, nothing I could wear for Carson. I had my perfect blue-flowered bag at Jenny's. It had a couple of things inside it, just a couple. I originally thought I would only wear the contents of that bag hidden in the bathroom and then maybe under my clothes on the plane. Just to feel like me. Just to get prepared for Phoenix.

Ring. "Hi, Jenny, Carson's getting me in like eighty minutes, I need an outfit."

"Wow, you two are a thing already, ha, come on over, wear something of mine, we can get dressed together."

I put on more red lipstick and some light makeup. Just a touch more mascara on my eyes, I brushed my brows with a tiny brush. And then I snuck over, I found my nude platform pumps near Pam's bedroom against the wall. I was in the purple flannel again, and completely naked underneath. I went to the back door. It swung in. "Oh, Sabrina, I'm sorry come in. Jenny! Sabrina's here!"

It was Jenny's mom, I have known her since I was six. Seventeen years ago. I met her the same day I met Jenny, the same day I met Mitch. Did she know my femme name? Did she actually recognize me? I was distracted, I saw a picture up on her fridge of me and Jenny and Mitch at Grand Central Station, I met them for lunch before they caught their train to Boston. We went out for oysters and martinis. It was at the beginning of summer, two summers ago, on their way on vacation. Was that picture always up there, I don't remember seeing it before. I haven't been in this house in a long time. That day I was with them for fifty minutes before the train came, I was dressed so nicely in a mini skirt and boots, I took a bus from school, my first time. I wasn't nervous, I had a book, ear pods, and dark sunglasses. My bag was covering my nylon knees.

I was distracted, even more, Jenny's rabbit made its way around my legs. "Hi, Mr. Visicious." I bent down, I pet him, I scratched his ears with my long nails, then he ran around me again. I pat the top of his head before he sniffed and ran off.

Mrs. Dreyer was getting ready to leave, she had her pocketbook in her hand. She walked closer, she was going to ask why I had long lashes, long nails, why was I a girl all of a sudden, what happened. I moved up, she reached out and took my hair in her fingers. She had to look up at me, my heels were five inches tall. "Sabrina, this color looks incredible on you, I wish I had your hair."

I smiled, Jenny walked in. "Next time I'm going red too."

"Make that three."

*

'But it was just my imagination
Runnin' away with me
Tell you it was just my imagination...'

I loved Jenny's room, it was all purple, it had a row of American Girl dolls on a shelf above her bed, lace curtains, a pile of Cosmo magazines, Sid's cage on a beautiful paisley tablecloth with all of his toys and alfalfa. She had two beds and two huge mirrors, we would kid that there was one for each of us, and, most importantly she had music playing. Our favorite song. We had a playlist of thirty-five different versions of the same song, almost all, so similar, that we tended to drive Mitch crazy while we listened to them all.

'...runnin' away... with me'

And of course, we almost always sang, Jenny in her perfect soprano, me a little gravely, quieter...

We were looking in my blue bag, there was nothing to wear for an outside fair, with dogs and cats and of course rabbits. The skirt and top I had on last night was the only real outfit I had taken with me, it was now in the wash.

"What were you thinking? Where are all your clothes?"

I wasn't thinking, and I didn't remember. "Um, I think they are probably all wrinkled, some are in Phoenix already. I sent them ahead."

"Why wouldn't you bring clothes with you? We still got a day and a half. We still have the trip to the airport. Was the plan to run around naked all weekend with your boobs and heels making Carson happy."

Jenny went to her closet. Full of outfits, beautiful clothes, shoes. I was always jealous of it, jealous of her taste, her presents, her life in this wonderful room. We were almost always two girls in here, for years, hiding from her mother, playing in her closet. Letting me imagine I was her sister, her best girlfriend. She put a white dress on the other bed, a denim jacket, a nude bag to match my heels. "Okay, you're done, my turn." She was going to be in a brown peasant dress and black booties. We were going to look fantastic. "Your hair looks great still, you washed it?"

"I did."

"God, you are so good at styling it now, remember how I always had to fix it for you? Ha."

We stood in front of her mirrors, we undressed, she picked out a few items from my bag, a pair of white panties, my perfect white bra, nude pantyhose, I slipped on the white dress. It came about three inches above my knees, it was short-sleeved with a crew neckline, no cleavage. I put on a white embroidered collar to cover my seams from the breast forms. I slipped on my heels, the denim jacket, and pulled my red hair out of it. It was so long, getting longer, I bent forward and brushed. When I stood back up, in front of her mirror, it cascaded around me. My smile grew.

"Jenny? Is it just my imagination running away with me?"

"Ha, you are such a dork, no your hair looks amazing. No wonder Carson can't wait to see you. He did nothing but put his face in it last night, your ears must be so sore. Ooh, Let's send some more pictures to Gracie, hold your blue bag." We posed, we made faces, we played with our colored hair.

I noticed a bunch of framed pictures hanging on the inside of her closet door. "Last summer? The day you got Sid?"

"Mmm-mmm, of course." I walked closer there were three more, all from the same day. "You told me, surprisingly, that was the best day of your life, then we went to Radio City at Christmas, and then that was your best day. Haha. God, I was so glad."

I was looking, I was thinking, "I remember this, we picked him up at the shelter, he was tiny, we were there last night." I started remembering more from the night before. We went to Jenny's friend's house, to Meg's, where we had our hair and nails done, then we went to visit the animals. "We met Carson there. He is in this picture." I had my finger on his face, next to the two of us with Mitchell and Sid. I was all in white and beige, I had the same outfit on as last night. I was wearing the same pumps.

"Of course we were, that was the plan."

"The plan?"

Jenny shook her head, she pushed the closet doors open wider, she was pointing to another one of the pictures. "Here, we started at Meg's just like last time. I wish we dyed your hair then. Next, we went to the shelter." She pointed to the one I was touching, holding the rabbit. "Then we went to Rumba Cubana on 45th. I think we even ate the same exact meals, well at least the three of us did, haha. And then we went dancing in the back. Look."

"I don't really remember that."

"Well sometime before that, the shots made an appearance."

"Oh? I don't do shots, that's one of my rules." I bent down, I was looking at the other picture of us in Rumba Cubana's backroom, from last summer, we were with so many people. I only recognized two people, someone from grammar school and one of the dancers. The colored lights were on, the place was packed. It must have been packed last night too.

"Well last night you were having fun, you were with Carson, and you were doing shots. Rum. Tonight no shots, remember your rule."

"Wait, I had my nails painted gray last time too?"

"I guess, c'mon let's go he will be here soon." Jenny finished putting on her makeup, she sprayed some perfume. She was looking down on me through her mirror. "Are you going to get up?"

"Mmm," I stood, "Um, you know your mother didn't say anything about me wearing makeup, I was wearing these heels too." I put on some of the perfume I found in the bathroom, I now smelled like her mother again.

Jenny turned around to look at me, her hands on her waist.

I was looking in the mirror, I put in my thick gold hoop earrings and a couple of bangles I found in my blue case. She then handed me her big beige bag. "You don't think it's weird she didn't say anything? Your mother always says something. Why didn't she ask me about being a girl?"

"Sabrina, will you stop, you are starting to freak me out, now c'mon."

I put a couple of things inside the bag. I put on a pair of big dark glasses I found on Jenny's vanity.

"What do you think?"

"Mmm, nice, but Carson is going to want to see your eyes."

"He can take them off of me. Um, speaking of taking things off, you can't believe how great this morning was." I smiled, remembering making love with him, and forgetting about the pictures.

"I heard. We all heard." She then suddenly hugged me, her arms around my neck. I held her around her waist, she was quiet for a couple of minutes, then she looked up at me. "Ugh!" She was crying, "Okay let's go out you can tell Mitch all about him." I closed my eyes and let Jenny pull me outside while wearing her white virgin dress.

***

"Hi girls!"

"Hi," Jenny and I said in unison. Mitch's parents were walking the dog, heading toward town, heading to the fair. I stayed back, I felt embarrassed being in such a feminine outfit. Soon Mitch came out of his house, another Giant's jersey, another hat. He hugged me and then he grabbed Jenny. We waved to the neighbors, I started playing catch with little Trey from down the block, his parents talking to Mitch's parents. I looked over at them all talking, I seemed so far away, then the giant beach ball hit me in the head, it bounced high.

"I got it." Trey ran and then kicked the ball towards me. "Sabrina, kick it high, I want to catch it." I did but it wasn't easy in my pumps.

Jenny laughed as I did a high kick. "Look Sabrina is trying out for the Rockettes again. You will never be flexible enough Red, haha."

Before I went to college, Jenny would take me out dressed up shopping, and visiting. I would get so nervous once we got near the block. I used to sneak through Trey's parent's backyard. I didn't want anyone to see me so fancy in my new outfit walking through the front door. I didn't want to cause a scene. I slipped in the back, it was the corner house, I would walk through the yard and then hop over the fence. Sometimes I was in a flouncy dress, it almost always got stuck, always got caught on something. I ruined so many skirts and blouses.

I would make believe I couldn't move and the fire department would have to come and save me, would have to slip my cotton dress off of me, then the fence. 'Oh thank you, gentlemen,' I would imagine saying to them, 'I don't know what I would have done out here all night almost naked.' I then imagined I took them into my bedroom, following me while wearing only my lingerie, and gave them all something to remember, something they could tell the other firemen at the firehouse. The ones who couldn't be bothered. I would be a legend, a great story to tell around the dinner table.

'Just my imagination
Runnin' away with me'

I would stand by the back of the house, I would listen for my mother, then I would sneak in the back door, take a quick shower, and put on the most exquisite lingerie I had hidden under the bed. I would then get paranoid and look out my bedroom window hoping no one was still up and out watching me. I would slip under the covers, sucking a lollipop and reading one of Jenny's borrowed Cosmos.

"Bye Sabrina!"

"Oh, bye"

Trey ran off with his parents, giving me a high five as he passed. How did he know who I was? He used my name. I was starting to get confused again, then we heard the beeps.

Beep, Beep.

*

'Each day through my window I watch her as she passes by
I say to myself, "You're such a lucky guy"
To have a girl like her is truly a dream come true
Out of all the fellows in the world, she belongs to me'

"Can we make a quick stop at our friend Meg's, I want her to give us a blowout?" Jenny was in the back with Mitch. She was leaning on the front seat between Carson and me. "Sabrina can always use a blowout."

They laughed, and soon Carson was pulling his Chevy into Meg's driveway.

"Do we have time?" I enquired, I didn't want him to be late at the shelter.

"We're fine, we don't have to be there 'til four." Carson held my hand as we walked in.

Meg's house was big and it had a salon on the first floor, it was quite nice looking. There was beautiful Italian tile on the floor. There was a big couch, a TV, and a couple of chairs for those who were waiting, then toward the back, she had three styling chairs. They sat right in front of a huge mirror and a shelf filled with combs and brushes and dryers.

Meg smiled as we walked in. "So, you too are loving your hair, am I right."

"You are SO right, but Sabrina thinks she's imagining everything, like she's in some weird dream with cherry red hair, ha."

I was of course looking in the mirror, Carson was next to me. It was the first time I was relaxed all weekend. I loved coming here. Meg used to paint my toenails when I was younger when I was less of a girl. She thought it was great, she used to tell me I was going to be her best customer. Right now, I was one of her happiest.

"So today!" Jenny was talking loud over the hairdryer, "Is the day we get it right. Meg's, the shelter, Cubana, then we dance, we have more fun and then we say goodnight!"

I just smiled, Jenny had another plan. I would do whatever she wanted, I always wanted to be with them. I had only seen Mitch and Jenny once since last summer. Only at Christmas in the City, since she got the new rabbit. I was a terrible friend sometimes, but I had my reasons, bad ones, but reasons. While I was watching Jenny I was getting sad fast, realizing for the first time I would be so far away from her. Once I was in Phoenix, I would be without the three of them. My heart was starting to break. I felt something in my chest, I was going to cry.

I was shaken out of my disruptive thinking. While Meg was blowing and brushing my perfect red, Carson started putting his fingers through it. "This is all I want to do."

Meg laughed, "What? Make a mess."

"If that's what this is called then, correct."

Carson then kissed me, I watched in the mirror. First, on the side of my head, he had a mouthful of hair, then my ears, and finally my lips. Meg shook her head and hovered the dryer above me. I felt like I have known him for so long. His lips now kissing my face and neck. I felt so comfortable around him, it was making me sad, happy and hard again that I would be saying goodbye to him on Sunday.

***

There were so many kids outside of the shelter. There was a food truck and an ice cream stand, both were busy.

"You two can go over there, and you three can go inside by the office." Carson was getting us ready for the people coming into the fair. We were all surrounding him, he had his arms around me. He was pointing. My mother and sister would be with the cats, Jenny, her mom, and Mitch by the rabbits and small mammals and he and I would be by the dogs.

"How long have you been a vet?" My mother asked him.

"Mmm, let me think, seven years now. This is my favorite shelter though, and there are a lot of them in North Jersey. Plus, this is where I met your daughter." He smiled at me, I was surprised I was part of that answer.

"This is mine too, this is where we found Sid, we should have taken him to visit today." Jenny laughed, and we all went to our respective stations. Others were working already and children were milling about inside the shelter already.

*

The two of us took a few of the kids into the back room to pet and play with some of the dogs. I loved watching children with animals, that was the reason we first came here. Jenny and I were completely surprised when she walked out with a rabbit, she fell in love. So did I.

There were two other people from the shelter there. We said hello and I bent to pet some of the dogs, I remembered coming last night. I remembered petting this same brown and white dog. She rubbed against me, my long nails now tickling her side, her stomach. I have been here three times, I have been here in the same outfit twice. Jenny was weird sometimes, she always wanted to recreate situations, and things, she always wanted to make them better, get them correct. Our graduation from high school, plenty of past Halloweens, even going to see the Marvel movies, me as Pepper Potts, Mitch as Captain America, and Jenny as... Wonder Woman. She would argue with everyone when we got inside. She would have screaming matches in the ladies' room, it made us laugh, she was always Wonder Woman.

We have even play-acted the day she met Mitch so many times, I played the next-door neighbor, Trey's mom. I had to say, 'Finally a little girl on the block, there are too many boys.' That's what she said, I had to use a high Jamaican accent, I was great at it now.

We never recreated the day I met Jenny and Mitch in boy mode, but we always redid the day Mitch met Sabrina. We would be playing Monopoly, me in this pink dress with flowers, little pink flats. Jenny had on a denim dress and sneakers. We were cute, her mother and sister were out shopping. We were drinking cream soda and eating pretzels, we were both eleven years old. Trey's mom was keeping an eye on us, calling every once in a while through the back door. 'Are you two alright?'

'Yes, good, we are playing a game.'

'Okay, tell your mother I played the game with you.'

We laughed, it was nice, I liked being a girl. We had on strawberry perfume. I didn't want to tell Jenny that in my mind I was always a girl, that was the way I was born. 'Girls' like me were born not made, I didn't care what people said or wrote, I came out of the womb a 'girl.'

Mitch walked in holding a football, wearing a Giant's t-shirt, surprising us. He stopped and he watched, he was looking at the board, the play money, he was quiet. Jenny smiled at him "Mitch, do you want some cream soda?"

"Sure."

She got up to get him a bottle, I didn't want to look at him, it was the first time he saw me in a dress, I felt stupid, silly, embarrassed.

"Sabrina, it looks like Jenny is winning, she is always winning, ha."

I looked up at him, he knew my name, "Mmm-mmm."

Jenny walked back in, we played a different game, we played with Mitch, and we heard Trey's mom outside the door. 'Do you have a boy in there?'

"Yes, it's Mitch," Jenny yelled back.

'Okay, cause your mom is coming down the block, tell her I just left.'

"Okay, thanks." I went into Jenny's room and changed. It made me sad, but I was happy Mitch met the real me. And it was, what is the correct word for it? Easy... Holy fuck it was so Easy.

*

End of Part 2 of 4