Jack was greeted warmly by Victoria who pulled him into a tight embrace warm with feeling and regard, as soon as he arrived at her door. Though he was slightly saddened to think that really she had greeted him as she would any of her girlfriends. Still, their relationship was new to them both and complicated making Victoria's greeting understandable to Jack, who soon forgot that thought, so distracted was he by the fluttering of his heart as he leaned his head on Victoria's shoulder and Victoria's heartbeat, fast like his own as she pulled him ever closer to her. Jack found himself and any thoughts he had previously had lost in Victoria's strong arms, her feminine floral perfumed scent, her slim figure fitting so well into his arms. Jack was lost in the moment and never wanted it to end, and in truth, Victoria was in the same position. She clung onto Jack and wished more than ever that she could truly understand her own feelings towards Jack, despite her mother's presence, Victoria with Jack in her arms could not help but want to kiss him and hold him tight. Tighter and more lovingly than any friend ever could, Victoria settled for holding him for as long as she could before letting Jack go and introducing him to her mother and father. As Victoria pulled away she playfully tucked a stray lock of Jack's long hair behind his ear.

Jack could not help but feel disappointment as Victoria pulled away from him, but quickly recovered himself as he was introduced to her parents. Both Victoria's mother and her father were cordial in their greeting of Jack though it soon became clear that neither of them were sure how to react to him due to neither was at all sure of which sex he was. Victoria's mother clearly thought he was an effeminate boy but was just as clearly unsure of her judgment. While Victoria's dad was it appeared quite certain that Jack was a girl but not entirely ready to bet on that certainty for fear of causing a scene. After a short while and the usual pleasantries, Victoria's dad left them. Moments later Victoria's younger sister came racing into the kitchen where they had all been standing chatting awkwardly, no one realising just how much more awkward things were going to get in the next handful of minutes.

Jack was introduced to Suzie who was eight years old and full of both energy and questions. Jack was immediately taken with the young girl who wasted no time in peppering him with lots of the aforementioned questions. Suzie for her part seemed to be fascinated by both Jack and especially his long hair. Suzie herself was just beginning to grow hers out of the bob her mother had had it cut to all of the little girl's life. Her hair was not yet even really properly shoulder length which her older sister's hair was. Jack's hair was longer than either of them with voluminous curls hanging down past his shoulders and a little way down his back.

Every question Suzie asked made Jack more and more nervous, he still had no idea how Victoria's parents would react to the gender issue. He was confident that at the moment he had so far gotten away with it. It wasn't really so much lying Jack felt as much as it was people seeing what they expected to see, over the years he had become comfortable like that whichever way he presented. People didn't often question what seemed obvious to their eyes and Jack was fine with that often using it to his advantage, yet he did not like lying to people outright and knew if he were asked directly then he would have no other option than to tell the truth. Predictably that was exactly what happened mere moments later and Jack with a sight revealed that he was in fact a boy, not the girl Victoria's father had supposed him to be.

Suzie didn't seem to care one bit in the peculiar way that often children do. It did not matter in her world and had no real meaning so that bit of meaningless information was immediately ignored by her. She went on talking to Jack as if nothing had happened, without even a pause. The only acknowledgement of Jack's answer from Suzie was a passing comment that not many boys had hair as long or as soft and bouncy looking as he did. In truth, Jack was glad of Suzie's continued conversation. Victoria's mother had gone very silent and Jack felt it would be even more awkward if the room had fallen completely silent, Suzie's constant conversation also helped keep Jack from worrying about what Victoria's mother and later her father would think.

Victoria's mother now only slightly shocked sought and found her daughter's eyes. The look was clear, they would be discussing this later. It now seemed clear the sauce of Victoria's self-proclaimed confusion of recent weeks. Victoria had refused to admit to her mother that there was anyone she liked, but Victoria's mother knew her daughter well, there was no hiding what was right before her. Victoria seemed deeply enamoured with this young man. Though it was difficult to consider him in such a manner, especially standing before him, he wasn't even trying to appear female and yet he seemed so feminine. It wasn't just the hair although that didn't help. It was the whole accumulative effect, the animated hand gestures, the graceful way he moved, even his voice had a higher pitch than she would have expected from a boy. His voice had such a girlish lilt to it, musical like a girl. No boy she had ever met had a musical voice like that. Victoria's mother knew instantly that she would need to have a long and not entirely pleasant conversation with her daughter, and an even less pleasant conversation with her husband, she winced as she thought what he would think of this.

Jack and Victoria stayed in town talking to Suzie for a while before heading up to Victoria's room, Victoria's mother who had not quite recovered from the revolution of Jack's gender did have the presence of mind to caution her daughter before they the left to keep the door open. She could only watch in stunned silence as the two girls, she could hardly think of them as at them as anything but, despite her newfound knowledge of Jack, hands clasped together walked out of the room eager to be at last alone together. Jack was so obviously a girl both visually and often in mannerisms that the truth seemed so incongruous with what was clearly before her eyes that it seemed to outweigh anything else.

Entering Victoria's room it was immediately dear that it was a girl's room, the walls were a light pale pink colour and a number of pale pink scatter cushions were dotted around the room. A vanity and full-length mirror were placed to one side of the room, it was also clear that Victoria at least made an effort to tidy her room. But that was the end of the femininity a heap of forgotten books and a couple of used cups showed that Victoria was far from perfect in keeping her room clean and an all-girl rock band poster was pinned to the pale pink wall. All this Jack took in, in the first few seconds of entering but not before Victoria had picked up on Jack's gaze.

"I know, I know, my mom especially has always had this image of me as a fairy princess or something," Victoria shrugged helplessly.
"I have got her to back down on the outfits at least mostly but I still can't get her or dad to agree to redecorate my room. "

"No, it's very nice, very pretty, I like it. My dad insisted on painting. My room in this monotonous single shade blue colour," Jack scrunched up his face in a look of disgust.
"So I can definitely empathise on that point."

Pulling Jack into a warm embrace Victoria laughed lightly.

"So, what colour would you have liked?" Jack let a slight warm tingly shudder creep down his back as he leaned into the embrace. Shutting his eyes for a moment he took in the sensations and his own overwhelmed feelings. Victoria's body seemed to fit around him well, it wasn't as all-encompassing as Theo's embraces, different but very similar at the same time, just as the two people themselves, but the feelings they invoked remained constant Jack felt every bit as safe, protective and the same sense of belonging in Victoria's arms as Theo's. Victoria's warmth was accompanied by a soft floral feminine scent while Theo had a stronger more masculine scent, a mix of his deodorant and the mint shampoo and shower gel he habitually used, but both were equally intoxicating to Jack. Jack felt the same butterflies in the pit of his stomach as he had around Theo and he already knew that he felt the same pull to be near Victoria as he did to be near Theo.

Jack had to pull away slightly to be able to allow his overwhelmed heart and mind to consider Victoria's question.

"I don't know, a pale blue with maybe a purple or pale pink accents."

"Sounds perfect for you." Victoria told him, only half listening as she pulled him closer to her.
Her arms about him Victoria's lips sought and found Jack's in a bright hot explosion of pent-up passion. Victoria's tongue found Jack's and surprise but not displeasure was visible on Jack's face. Jack was considerably taken aback by Victoria's hasty lust but found her passion heating up his own emotions. Now that they were pressed together like this Victoria and her body had become the sole focus of Jack's world and he could not imagine wanting to change that. Suddenly Victoria's tongue which had been playing a flirtatious game with Jack's own retreated from his own and began playing instead over Jack's lower lip and Victoria's hand which had been placed on Jack's lower back crept under his t-shirt running up and down the soft delicate skin in a passionate massage that allowed Victoria to feel all the small hard muscles of his lower back. A massage that, made Jack moan involuntarily into Victoria's mouth. Eventually, they pulled apart as much for oxygen as anything else and began to marshal control over themselves again, although not before Victoria in the act of reluctantly pulling away had worried Jack's lip playfully with her beat teeth her lust-filled eyes staring directly into Jack's in a dominance filled moment that had, had Jack week at the knees.

"Come on lover boy let's go lie down on my bed and watch something," A naughty glint came to her eyes burning there with intensity. "Never heard of Netflix and chill?"

"V....Victoria I don't think I'm ready for that." Jack stammered out his eyes downcast, shocked by her words.

"I know that silly, I was just joking." Victoria comforted all trace of the lust gone from her eyes and expression, pulling him close in a friendly less passionate embrace and leading him towards her bed. Sitting down on her bed Victoria found Jack a tissue to dab the tears that had begun to roll down his cheeks away. Leaving only Victoria to internally chastise herself for her poorly thought-out word choice.

A long while was spent by Victoria and Jack in this way curled up together watching TV on Victoria's computer with brief interludes of intense passionate kissing and hugs. Until they were interrupted by Victoria's little sister who walked into Victoria's room to demand they both play with her. So from then on the couple spent the day involved in imaginary tea parties and learning the names of Suzie's teddy bear collection, with occasional breaks for Suzie to admire and play with Jack's long sleek hair. Before he left though, Jack did manage to talk to Victoria about Macy's idea of a pre-cheerleading practice and Victoria promised to round up several of the girls for a practice the following day.

It was not long after Jack's departure that Victoria found herself collared by her mother for a mother-daughter discussion, something that Victoria was not at all surprised by. Victoria knew that she had well and truly let the secret of her crush on Jack blow to the wind for all to see as soon as Jack had arrived. Once again Victoria found herself wondering about her self-control around Jack, at best she didn't seem to have any inhibitions and at worst she found herself acting like a horny boy. It was difficult for Victoria to accept as that urgency boys so often displayed was one of the traits that Victoria had always found unsettling, it was not something Victoria was happy to discover about herself. She would do better, Victoria chastised herself wordlessly, not just because that side of herself scared her just a little bit, but because she didn't want to scare Jack away. All unknowingly Victoria knew she had done that already, had hurt Jack like, made him feel small and that what they had between them came with a price. Victoria especially hated that aspect of this, she didn't like that she had made him feel that way and she didn't like the idea of making Jack upset one bit, so she reasoned she would have to do much better at keeping some level of control around him.

"Your boyfriend ... was ... nice." Victoria's mother began hesitantly, in truth the topic was so massive that truly she had no idea where to begin.

"Yeah," Victoria sighed and replied dreamily. "He is isn't he."

This only served to make Victoria's mother more uncomfortable, and less certain where to begin. She decided that as a mother she had to force herself to have this conversation with her daughter and decided on a different more direct approach.

"Is he, a boy I mean?"

Victoria considered for a moment de sore before answering. A pause that seemed to put her mother even further on edge.

"For the moment he has told me he is so he is. But he has got a very feminine vibe to him that does undermine that, I don't think it would surprise me too much if at some point he realises that she is a girl. But until he tells me that then he is a he."

"But his hair." Victoria's mother was trying desperately to take in her daughter's logic and it was already hurting her head.

"I know, and I have seen him in girls' clothes as well, he looked really cute. But clothes and long hair won't and doesn't make him a girl any more than I would be a boy if I shaved my hair and wore exclusively boy clothes. It takes more than that."

Victoria's mother sighed, she couldn't disagree with her daughter.
"Well, I don't know what your father will think. I know he was hoping for your boyfriends to be a couple of years down the line and manly men who he can talk about football and baseball with. Jack seems more likely to want to talk about the colour of the nail varnish you or he are wearing. God help us if he turns up in a dress, I think your father might despair."

"Daddy will just have to get used to the idea that's all, if my boyfriend turns up in a dress, he will just have to lump it and at least be civil. As for sports I don't know about football but I do know that Jack is very interested in baseball and even the wants to try out for the high school baseball team next year."

You will have to be patient with him, Victoria, with me as well, it's a lot to take in. I mean if you were only gay that would be one thing, but this, this is a lot more," Then another thought sprang to her mother's mind. " Are you sure about this, Victoria, you told me before that you thought you might be gay. This isn't some type of rebellion against that."

"No." Victoria told her simply but flatly, she knew in her own mind that what she felt for Jack was far more than that.

"OK, then baby. As long as you know what that. I don't want either you or that poor boy hurt by this I will talk to your father but god knows what he will make of all this." Victoria's mother pulled Victoria into a much-needed motherly embrace after the tying and emotional conversation.

Jack stood outside his sister's bedroom door considering if he really wanted to talk about this with her. Somehow the topic seemed deeply personal and he had been debating whether to talk to Macy about it all the way home from Victoria's house yet he felt he desperately needed to talk about it with someone and he really didn't want to talk about it with his mother, that would be far to awkward. Finally making up his mind Jack entered and began talking almost immediately as if fearing that if he didn't then he wouldn't at all.

"Sis, is it normal for someone to want to move forward when dating quicker than the other is comfortable with?"

Macy wearing a onesie and sprawled out on her bed took a moment to answer. In truth, it was something she and her friends had talked about often but like everything with her brother how to phrase her answer was critical.

"Yeah, it's fairly normal, especially if the couple are alone for any length of time. Attraction leads to kissing and kissing to aggressive petting and sooner or later to somewhere that truthfully neither are ready for, especially at our ages, usually it's the man who tries to push things. A couple of girls in my friendship group crudely put it as guys get too horny far too easily. But that is by no means exclusively guys."

"Thanks, sis," Jack feeling marginally better about everything told her slightly revealed. "It's just with Theo yesterday it was mostly nice and he is very understanding but even then there were a couple of times I could tell he really wanted to take things further and I am really not ready for that yet. Then today with Victoria it was amazing and I really like her but there were a couple of times today where she really tried to push things but I really didn't want to go there yet with her either."

Macy's eyes softened slightly.
"Don't let them, either of them, push you further than you are comfortable with." Tell them to stop and take a step away from whichever it is, give them space to let passion ebb away. Remember you are not obligated to do anything, that should never be a requirement, no matter what anyone says. If either of them doesn't stop when you tell them to, they will have me to deal with and I promise you I will find a way to hurt them."