I hurriedly rummaged through the deep pockets of my beige coat before pulling out a set of unorganized keys, one of which was supposed to open the door to my apartment. I let out a big sigh as I carried the bags of groceries I had just bought inside before closing the door and slumping to the floor. Being a woman had made me significantly physically weaker than when I was a man, and performing everyday tasks took more energy. Like how every time I needed to use the tallest cabinets in the kitchen, I needed to grab a chair and climb on top of it. After a pause to catch my breath, I removed my brown loafers and headed toward the kitchen to put away the groceries. The fall weather had made the wood laminate floor of my apartment cold to touch and my feet, even though wrapped in a pair of nude tights, remained curled the whole time.
After finishing up in the kitchen, I turned on the lights in my room and was welcomed by what could only be described as a symphony of absolute chaos. Weeks of dirty laundry piled on one side of my bed played in harmonious cadence with panties and bras that hung from my desk and peeked out of drawers. It seemed that the only thing about me that had changed was really my gender. I had been asking myself this question for the past year I have been living as a girl, why didn’t anything else about me change, like where I lived, my age, my race, my personality, or my interests? How could things have played out so similarly? Why hadn’t I turned back into a guy? As I would come to find out those first few weeks after transforming into a girl, life was more or less the same and it was in no rush to provide me any answers to my questions. I didn’t go to the mall with a group of girls or get asked out on dates by guys. I was still very much a homebody who enjoyed gaming and watching long niche-topic podcasts on YouTube. From what I could piece together based on old high school yearbooks and photos on my phone, I was never popular as a girl either.
I brushed the melancholic feelings aside before taking my jacket off and lounging face up on my bed. The white long-sleeved dress and nude tights I had on brushed against the bed sheets in such an elegant way that I felt a little better about myself. Was I doing this whole “woman” thing correctly? I eyed the hot pink bed sheets curled up against my nylon-clad legs. These were one of a few things to change during that day my sex changed. I received very few memories of my life as a girl that day, and I had just been winging it this past year to get by. There were a few situations where my parents and friends would give me disconcerting looks when I couldn’t recall a particular event but for the most part, they didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary. Looking at the pink bed sheets and then doing a quick panorama around my room with my eyes, perhaps there was a girl living here underneath all this. That was when my phone buzzed to life.
Nick Nguyen was a long-time friend of mine who I had grown up living in the same neighborhood with and we hung out a lot as kids. We used to collect and trade Pokémon cards before moving on to Yu-Gi-Oh and then basketball as teens. Even as a girl now, and looking back on past photos, my relationship with Nick appears to be untouched and we still share the same friend groups and general interests. Lately, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nick wanted to be more than just friends. During the few times we had met up this past year he would always offer to give me a ride or pay for my food which I would quickly say no to but sometimes he was overly insistent and I had no choice but to concede. Regardless, we still had good conversations together and it would flow so naturally I’d sometimes forget that my life wasn’t always like this, that I was wearing dresses, and tights and had periods now.
I checked my phone to see who had messaged me and unsurprisingly it was Nick. He usually liked to text me at night when we were both off from work.
“Hey, are you free tomorrow night? I’d love to take you out to this new Japanese place I found! Let’s make it a date!”
I grit my teeth and cursed under my breath in a very unladylike manner. I felt betrayed by the male sex. It seems guys really would just ask girls out on dates even without any indication given that she feels the same way. As a former male, I could understand where he was coming from. Even I must admit to still sometimes being stunned by my beauty in the morning when I see my reflection in the bathroom mirror. At the same time, however, Nick was my friend, and we shared a bromance for most of my life, not a romance. I threw my head back against my pillow in frustration, my long black hair spilling out over the bed in all directions. Perhaps it was the female hormones circulating in my body but to my disbelief, I was genuinely considering going on a date with a man. I realized that I had been so bogged down with work in my office job that I never really considered how I felt about men since becoming a woman. I certainly found men more attractive than before but not to the extent of being in a romantic relationship with one. I spent a good half hour just thinking about what to reply. I gave another look at my pink bed sheets and decided to ultimately give my female life the second chance it deserved. I replied back to Nick with a short yes of an answer to communicate my interest yet not seem overly eager. In any case, tomorrow was going to be interesting I thought to myself, that much was for sure.
The sudden deafening screech of a car horn awoke me from my zombie-like daze. The driver behind me was in a much clearer state of mind than I was while also being an asshole. The clock on the dashboard of my car read 6:25 pm and I had just left work for the day. “Distracting” and “absent-minded” are good terms to describe how my day in the office went. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the date I had agreed to go on with Nick tonight. It was my first as a girl and I didn’t know what to expect. The rush hour traffic did nothing to help but give more time for my restless mind to play out different scenarios about how the evening might go. At the end of all this, I hoped Nick and I could remain friends just as we have been for years. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt my cheeks flush red as I thought about what might happen if we became more than friends.
I arrived home in one piece after a stressful drive and got ready for my date. Nick had offered to drive me, and he would be arriving soon at the lobby of my apartment complex. I took a quick shower and contemplated my outfit for the night. Would I wear a dress with heels? Should I wear pantyhose or go bare-legged? How much makeup should I put on? Needless to say, I put more thought into this outfit than any other before since my time as a female. I ended up settling on a casual semi-sheer white blouse with a pair of high-waisted jeans. I thought the outfit was cute yet functional, and that it was conservative enough to not give Nick any wrong ideas. I tied my hair back in a ponytail (something I had learned about a month after my transformation) and applied light natural makeup to my face. Once done I put on my brown loafers and beige jacket before grabbing my purse and heading downstairs to meet Nick who had just arrived.
Standing in the middle of my apartment's ground-floor lobby was Nick dressed like he was the best man at a wedding. His normally curly hair was slicked back into professional lines while his normally scrawny body was made more defined by the navy-blue suit he wore. His normally relaxed demeanor was replaced with a serious and nervous temperament. Nowhere did I see the goofy and nerdy friend that I grew up with.
“Hey! How’s it going? I like the suit.” I stated as I approached where he was standing. I tried my best not to be intimidated by his oozing determination. I could feel he had more than just dinner on his mind.
“Oh, this? This is just what I wear to work, it looks more expensive than it actually is. That’s my philosophy in life, fake it till you make it! OK, how about we get going our reservation is in 15 minutes. You look great by the way!” Adverting his gaze as he finished that last part of his sentence.
My cheeks turned a little red at the sudden uninspired compliment. I tried my best not to become flustered, but I found it very cute and endearing seeing my friend trying his best to act polite and charming. Deep down inside I also enjoyed the attention I was getting.
The car ride to the restaurant was awkward, to say the least. Perhaps both Nick and I were feeling so nervous that we couldn’t communicate and have fun like we usually do. With my purse seated on my lap I found myself clutching it hard like it was a life preserver. If we were having this much turbulence on the car ride to the restaurant, I couldn’t even imagine how I was going to survive the whole night.
If there was any consolation to the evening, it would be the amazing food and design of the Japanese restaurant we ate at. Amazingly carved pieces of salmon and sashimi graced our plates, their color a vibrant pink hue. The charred flavors of the torched sushi topped with a spicy sauce mixed with salmon roe made my already big eyes double in size. If I didn’t have the appetite of a girl, I would have tried everything on the menu.
Nick was able to reserve us a private table which was almost like its own room, being covered on all sides by a curtain. As the night progressed, I was admittedly more focused on the food than I was on Nick, and I noticed the ever-increasing feeling of uncertainty written all over his face. We exchanged pleasant small talk about the food or our work, but I could tell Nick wanted to talk about something else.
And then it happened.
“I like you. I like you a lot.” Nick blurted out of the blue. I almost spat out the Miso soup I was drinking. My eyes visibly widened but I was too embarrassed in the moment to make eye contact with him. Given his behaviour throughout the whole night I can't say I was surprised but it was his innocent tone that threw me off. He sounded like he really meant it.
His declaration of love continued for a few more seconds while I just awkwardly sat frozen, unable to process most of what he was saying but understanding the general gist of his feelings for me. After what must have felt like an eternity he then asked in the most naïve and childlike tone I had ever heard come out of his mouth “So what do you think about me? Would you be my girlfriend?”
My brain must have short-circuited as I struggled to say anything. A million different questions began circling inside my head. Do I tell him the truth about how I am not really the childhood friend he remembers? If I say no to him, could we still be friends? Do I even like guys? Am I a man or a woman? A clear image suddenly formed in my head. It was my lightbulb moment that gave me enough clarity to form my response. The image was of a girl, not just any girl, but of my first love when I was a man. The details of her face were no longer clear in my mind, as the memories of my life as a guy had gradually faded over the months, but I knew more than anything that I had wanted to be on this date with her. Not as a girl and not with Nick.
With my eyes wide open and face redder than the sashimi elegantly plated in front of us, I gathered the courage to finally lock eyes with Nick and yelled a forceful “NO!” The lights suddenly flickered as the room became silent.
Nick’s face visibly became very upset very quickly and I couldn’t help but look away out of guilt. I myself had been on the receiving end of many rejections from girls I had liked in the past, so I sympathized with his pain. He slowly got up from the table and walked out of our booth.
“What the fuck?!” What the hell is going on here?!” I heard Nick scream in a loud yet distraught voice. Fighting to hold back tears that were forming.
I quickly got out of my seat and what I saw was not good. Time had stopped once again.
Time seems to always find a way to freeze in the most inconvenient of moments I thought to myself, unable to comfortably deal with a very distraught Nick and investigate the petrified sushi restaurant concurrently. What was fascinating was that this time I wasn’t alone in my immunity from the temporal anomaly, Nick, although visibly scared and shaken up, walked freely around the restaurant. I was worried however that we both would begin to change as I had into anything the higher powers desired. I had yet to find any rhyme or reason for these occurrences. “Again, why now of all times?” I thought in my head.
After five minutes of waiting and checking the outside street for any activity, I decided it was time to come clean with Nick. However, when I found him sitting down back in the booth, head buried in his hands out of disbelief, he looked visibly different.
His hair, which had been slicked back the whole evening began to uncurl and lose its shape. It even looked to be longer, with strands of hair touching the back of his neck. His frame also looked smaller. While it was hard to make out with his suit on, he now looked more like a teenager who had been asked to try on his dad’s clothes. A sinking feeling began to grow in my mind as these changes felt all too familiar. I asked him to stand up to confirm my suspicions. He obeyed almost too quickly as if he knew something was happening to him and that he needed help.
My face again became one of utter shock. Nick who had been a tall 6’0” before now couldn’t have been an inch or two taller than I was. I wish it had just been his height, but his figure, gestures, and posture became increasingly feminine the longer I looked at him.
“What’s happening to me? When did you get so tall?” Nick finally asked. I felt a sudden moral obligation to give him an answer as I owed him for everything that happened tonight.
“Nick, listen to me. What's going on now happened to me before sometime last year. I woke up and time had suddenly stopped, people were frozen on the street just like now and only I was able to move. But that’s not all. I was originally a guy, and we were friends, but something turned me into a girl, and it’s been months that I’ve been stuck like this.”
It felt inappropriately relieving to finally get that off my chest and tell someone. Although it didn’t appear to register at all as Nick began to act hysterical, pacing back and forth along the length of the restaurant. He walked so far that he was out of my field of vision for a second and then a loud thud echoed across the lifeless restaurant.
I quickly ran to him to check if he was okay and found that the transformation had claimed his feet now too. A pair of black stiletto heels were now affixed to Nick’s feet where his dress shoes had been seconds earlier.
“What the hell is this shit?” He exclaimed grabbing and shaking his foot like a toddler, trying to get the feminine attire off. I was slightly relieved that no ankles had been twisted but my relief quickly turned into horror once again as the changes progressed even further.
A familiar glint caught my eye around Nick’s heeled feet. The white cotton socks he was wearing began to thin out and take on a dark sheen that moved up his thinning legs like a shadow. The navy-blue material of Nick’s suit and pants began to darken until they were as black as the night sky outside. The material had seemingly changed as well, becoming thicker and more elastic as it began pulling tighter against his body, giving me for the first time a good look at his feminizing physique. He seemed to notice it as well as he looked down and found something in between man and woman, flesh and fabric.
“Are you doing this? Please let me go! I don’t want to be a girl!” He pleaded out of sheer desperation. I was shocked by the sudden accusation and didn’t know what to say. Was he right? Had I somehow caused this? What were the odds that I would remain unfrozen again the second time this anomaly had hit? I remembered what I was thinking about just before this started happening. I had wanted to go on a date with a girl I liked in my previous life as a boy. Was reality now adjusting Nick’s gender based on what I wished for at that moment?
A high-pitched scream which was distinctly female now brought my attention back to Nick. Amazingly, his suit jacket had lost its sleeves and had begun to merge with his pants to form one solid article of clothing. Nick’s pant legs began to recede in length and moved further and further up, revealing slim legs encased in sheer black pantyhose. I remained stunned at this whole process as I had never seen clothing magically form and reform like this. Once his shrinking pants had reached the tops of his now plush thighs, they merged at the seam and with his former jacket combined to create what was unmistakably a dress.
While forming, the black dress had bunched up around Nick’s expanding hips and revealed the white lace panties he now wore. My eyes however were immediately drawn to the very visible bulge beneath the panties which began to slowly shrink and disappear without much of a fight. I looked at Nick, but he refused to meet my eyes out of sheer embarrassment while he slowly pulled the hem of his dress down to cover his underwear and the control top of his tights.
As Nick’s transformation neared its conclusion, large breasts erupted from his chest and filled the cups of his black sweetheart neckline dress. His hair, which now touched the tops of his breasts, tied itself into a neat bun, something which I have never had the technique to pull off during my entire time as a girl. Suddenly, as if reacting to a bright light, Nick’s face began to squish and contort into a more feminine shape. I also squinted my eyes, unable to watch as the last vestiges of my friend’s physical identity were erased.
And then silence. When I opened my eyes I found Nick, now very clearly a female, sitting back in the booth once again with her sleek nylon-clad legs crossed in the most feminine manner. That’s when I noticed something was off, her eyes were wide open, but she didn’t blink. I gave a gentle nudge on her shoulder, but she remained stiff. To my amazement, Nick had somehow managed to cross back into the frozen reality where everyone else was, but at the cost of his manhood. I took a closer look at her new face with longing eyes. While my female face shared many similarities with my male counterpart, I saw very little of Nick in this female version of him. Smoky mascara and thick eyelashes accentuated the cat-like eyes of this new Nick. Her thick pillow-like lips bigger than my own were painted a blood red.
Longing eyes began to turn lustful as I realized how attractive Nick had become. It was as if someone knew exactly what my type was, and they were playing a sick joke on both of us. Almost as if bewitched by her beauty and exhausted from the roller coaster of emotions I had just experienced, I suddenly wanted to be with her, with Nick. I brought my head close to hers and tilted it to one side, our faces, an inch apart, before closing my eyes and kissing her on the lips.
Kissing Nick on her petrified lips was a little strange as there was no reciprocity from her end. However, my emotions at that point had hijacked any kind of moral argument I may have been building in my head as I went it for a second kiss, this time deeper and more passionate. My long jet-black hair spilled all over her shoulders and breasts which her dress teasingly exposed.
A sudden tug at my jeans stopped my one-sided make-out session halfway and I opened my eyes. I quickly scanned the restaurant to see if anything had changed but everything still seemed to be on pause, dozens of pieces of sushi floating in mid-air suspended on chopsticks held by hungry customers. The tugging sensation returned and I immediately drew my attention to my feet. The jeans I had been wearing all night had now wrapped their denim fabric around my feet. I took my shoes off to get a better look and to my surprise the pant leg opening had sealed itself, becoming one continuous piece of fabric.
I was in disbelief that the changes were happening to me now after finishing with Nick, although it appeared to affect just my clothes. I watched as my white blouse started to thicken and turn a youthful peach color, the sleeves receding and exposing my hairless porcelain white skin. The buttons on the front began to merge with pink fabric while I felt the cold metal of a zipper form somewhere on my back. I had now found myself wearing a fancy dress very similar to Nick’s. I gasped and felt my breath escape my mouth as the dress finished its transformation by pulling tight against my body.
A sudden shivering in my legs made me realize that I was no longer pants. I glanced downwards and saw my jeans lose their denim blue color before pulling tight against my legs and thinning out into a light brown nylon. I could see my panties beneath the newly formed tights and was surprised to see them different too. Gone were the boring purple cotton panties I had put on this morning; they had now become a racy red and thin see-through pair adorned with lacy trim.
I started to realize that I was being dressed up for this supposed date as well. As my transformation neared its end, I began to worry about what would happen after time unfroze. Looking at the subtle coy smile on Nick’s face I wondered if he would like me retain his memories. If not, what was our relationship as two women like? My hair began to move on its own like Nick’s had, but instead of being tied into a neat bun, they were curled into elegant locks instead. I seemed to have put a lot of effort into this date now with Nick. A tickling sensation ran across my face as heavier makeup was applied on top of what I had started with. A quick lick of my lips and I realized a thick waxy lipstick had been applied too.
A sudden flicker of the lights and the slow crescendo of car engines reanimating outside meant that I was running out of time. The people around me began to move in slow motion as their speed began to catch up to mine. I walked back to my table to finish my meal with Nick before realizing that I was still barefooted. The nylon around my feet wrinkled as I curled my toes in response to the cold tiled floor of the restaurant. I spotted a pair of nude heels where I had left my shoes and I assumed those now belonged to me. Wasting no time, I proficiently snapped them on my feet and sat back down at my table, as if I had been wearing heels my whole life.
“So what do you think? I told you how I feel now what do you feel about me?” The new velvety voice of Nick asked once again.
I was immediately brought back into the moment. The same question asked by two different people of different sexes, but they were also the same person. It was a confusing mess. It was also shocking for me to hear another person’s voice come out of Nick’s body and I stared at her face before giving her my response. Her eyes were fiery and passionate, nothing like the unsure gaze of my former friend and at once I knew she no longer had any memory of her former self. I could feel her dangling her heels underneath the table, her long stockinged legs rubbing against mine in a playful yet sensual manner. The lustful feelings I felt before suddenly reignited in a fiery passion, fueled all the more so by the sexy outfit I now adorned. Throwing all questions and doubts out the window I leaned forward, my breasts hovering just above the table, and gave her a peck on the cheek.
