It was a scorching June day when this all took place. I was 13 and living alone with my single mom. I was homeschooled, but not sheltered from the world. My mom was my hero - my dad was gone before I was even born, so she raised me solo without any help, all while owning and operating her own successful salon. We did well for ourselves, had a nice house with a pool. Despite her busy schedule she always made time for me, and even though I was homeschooled I never felt coddled or alone with her parenting. I based a lot of my personality and work ethic off of her. Hell, people always told me I looked just like her, too, and was often confused as her daughter. Didn’t help that I had shoulder length shaggy hair and a short and slim body. To say I wanted to be like my mom was an understatement.

I rolled out of bed at ten in the morning, which was later than I usually do but it was summer break, after all. I greeted my mom in the kitchen as I poured a bowl of cereal and sat down on the couch.

“Morning Avery,” she said, “when you’re done with breakfast I need you to do the dishes, okay?”

I gave her a loud mhm as I shoveled Cheerios into my mouth. Her phone began to ring and before I could ask her who it was she answered the call and walked away. I finished eating and immediately started loading the dishwasher as my mom walked back into the kitchen.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“It was your Aunt Jen,” she responded, “she’s coming over for a bit, and Joey will be here, too.”

Joey was my cousin, and the closest thing I had to a sister. We came from very similar backgrounds, with our dads being out of the picture and being raised by working, independent moms, although she went to public school. A year older than me, we were super close growing up but had grown apart in the couple of years since her and my Aunt moved about an hour away. Since then, she’d gotten noticeably meaner to me whenever we were together, constantly calling me a momma’s boy and even calling me a girl. I used to think she was playing, but after enough times of her being rude I stopped trying to be friendly.

“Aw man…” I uttered.

“Be nice. They’ll be here in about half an hour.” my mom responded.

“Wait, I still have to do laundry and change! I’m not ready!”

“You need to finish the dishes first. You were supposed to do them last night. It’s not my fault you slept in.”

I groaned and stared at the sink full of dishes in front of me. I scrubbed as fast as I could, trying to get through them all as quickly as possible. It still took me probably 20 minutes, leaving me just enough time to get my laundry started. I rushed to my room and took my pajamas off and threw them on top of the large pile of dirty clothes I had acquired over the last couple of weeks. In my closet I found the one pair of pants and shirt that weren’t dirty and threw them on. I struggled to fit everything into my basket, but it made it into the washing machine with a couple of minutes to spare before they got there. The doorbell rang and I heard my mom welcome the pair inside. I walked over and gave my Aunt a hug and said my hello’s to Joey.

“Um, what are you wearing?” Joey asked me very loudly, looking down at my pants.

My only clean pants were patchwork bohemian-style harem pants handmade by one of my mom’s friends. They were a bit effeminate, but unisex nonetheless. Granted, the woman who made them exclusively makes and sells clothes for women.

“They’re just pants, it doesn’t matter!” I sneered back at her.

We all made our way to the living room where my mom set out snacks. The adults caught up with each other while Joey and I mostly scrolled on our phones. We would politely but quickly answer any questions they threw at us about school or what we had been up to. Joey and I didn’t really say a word to each other. Aunt Jen looked at the time on her watch and turned to Joey.

“Oh, Joe, did you still want to go swimming?” Jen asked, “You should probably go before it rains soon.”

Joey shot up from her seat like she had been waiting to hear that for hours. Without hesitation she started removing her shirt and taking off her shorts in front of us to reveal a teal bikini she had been wearing the entire time. I was shocked and my face became red with embarrassment as I tried not to look. I thought she was a pretty girl, in the way a close cousin would, but I hadn’t seen her in something so grown up like that bikini. She caught me looking sheepishly away.

“Are you joining me?” She asked sternly.

I really didn’t want or expect to. “Uh, no thanks.” I responded.

“You’re really gonna leave me hanging?” She folded her arms and shot me a look.

“Oh come on, Avery,” my mom chipped in, “go join her.”

I begrudgingly got up, trying not to make my mom mad. I went to my room and searched for my swim trunks. I had a couple pairs somewhere. I dug through my dresser drawers and double checked every inch of my closet, but for some reason I couldn’t locate any. I definitely hadn’t worn them in months, so there was no way they were with my dirty clothes. I exited my room and shouted to my mom.

“Mom! Have you seen my trunks anywhere?”

“No, when did you last have them?”

“I don’t remember. It’s been a while. Can you help me look?”

I could hear her angrily get up and come my way. She told me to keep looking in my room while she checked the laundry room. Not only could I not find my trunks, but anything I could even substitute was in the washing machine, whether it was gym shorts or even my boxers. After a few minutes we met in the living room, no trunks to be found.

“Sorry, I guess I can’t join you.” I shrugged towards Joey as I sat back down. She let out an audible groan. My mom kept standing, looking inquisitively. She eyed me up and down with a stern, yet knowing gaze.

Well,” my mom let out a sigh, “I guess you’ll just have to borrow one of mine.”

I felt my stomach drop. Joey let out a small gasp and then a couple of giggles. Aunt Jen looked on with a polite smile.
“What? You can’t be serious, that’s so embarrassing!” I pleaded.

“It’s only us here, it’s not like we’re going to the beach with strangers,” Mom said sternly, seemingly mad at me for my ability to magically lose clothing, “You don’t have anything to be ashamed of, right?”

“Yeah!” Joey said loudly. “They’re just bikinis, it’s no big deal!”

Her laughter faded as my mom dragged me into her room and shut the door. She went into her closet and brought out what felt like 50 different swimsuits and put them on the bed. My mom was a pretty lady, I’ll admit, but seeing all these bikinis with sexy cuts and designs was more than a young teenage boy wanted to see of their mom.

“Mom, please.” I begged while staring at the assortment in front of me.

“You are going to swim with your cousin and that’s final. I don’t know what’s happened between you two but it’ll be good for you to go out there and be alone with her. And maybe you’ll even relate to her better if you’re in her shoes, or in this case my swimsuit.”

“All she’s going to do is make fun of me for the rest of my life about this, calling me the boy who had to wear his mom’s swimsuit.”

She held them up to me on the hanger, trying to visualize how they’d look on me. “You don’t need to wear the top, only the bottoms,” she said, trying to reassure me. That almost sounded worse than wearing the whole thing. Going out there in just bikini bottoms, so exposed. I may as well be wearing panties.

“Don’t you have any, you know, non-bikini things?” I stammered.

She groaned and shuffled around the pile on her bed and pulled something out. “It’s been a while since I’ve worn this, I think it’s small on me. But it should fit you fine,” she said, handing me something.

It was a dark purple one piece swimsuit with a floral print flounce that covered the chest and went off the shoulder. It was less revealing than any of the bikinis she had pulled out, but it still felt wrong imagining myself wearing it. I reluctantly accepted it, and mom stepped out of the room to let me change. I stood in front of the mirror and stripped down, afraid of what was about to happen. I stepped into the swimsuit, pulled it up and made adjustments where I needed to. Damn, it fit like a glove. Looking into the mirror was like looking into an alternate dimension. It’s amazing how just a change of clothes can alter your entire look. My hair was the same, my facial features were the same, but there was no helping it: I looked like a girl. I tried to tussle my hair in a manly way, but it was too long and only helped to emasculate my looks.

With much hesitation, I exited the room. All I heard initially was the rambunctious laughter of Joey, who didn’t even try to help my embarrassment. Mom and Aunt Jen tried to hide their giggles, but the smiles on their faces told me all I needed to know.

“Ha, oh man! You look so cute! I knew you were a girl!” Joey blurted out.

“Alright that’s enough, go swim before it rains,” Jen demanded, “just ignore her, Avery, you look good.”

“You’re lucky mom told me not to take any photos” Joey giggled.

I walked with my head down as we went out back to the pool. Why was I even doing this? Joey jumped in and splashed me as I was slowly walking down the pool steps. I sat down on a step, in no mood at all to swim or play. Joey started to swim laps around the pool as loudly and as obnoxiously as possible. After a couple of laps she saw that I was still sitting down and swam right up to my face.

“Alright, so do you want to talk about the boy you like first? Oh, or there was this really cute skirt I saw at Kohl’s the other day that would look so good on you!” She kept going on and on with girly clichés.

I had enough and splashed water in her face. She seemed surprised and angrily splashed me back.

“Jerk! What the hell was that for?” Joey screamed at me.

“Why am I even out here if all you’re gonna do is make fun of me?” I can’t believe she was actually mad at me, “I didn’t want to come out here and I definitely didn’t want to wear this!”

“You need to lighten up, it’s just a joke, okay?”

“Joke? You make fun of my hair, my clothes, and now this! We used to be so close, but all you do is make fun of me now…”

Joey paused. She could tell I was getting really upset. We’d never talked about how things had changed between us, and this was the first time either of us had mentioned it out loud. As I sat there about to cry from embarrassment she changed her tone drastically.

“Look,” she put her hand on my shoulder, “I’m sorry. I like riling you up, it’s nothing serious, okay?”

I wiped away a tear that started to form, “You never used to be like that,” I sniffled.

“Alright, I guess it’s time for some girl-talk,” she sat down next to me. I gave her a sarcastic look for her comment. “It’s hard to admit this. After I moved away, I realized how much I missed hanging out with you. Even though it wasn’t that far away, I realized how much I took our relationship for granted. I’m sure you get it, we were as close as any siblings could be. With so much time between seeing each other, it was natural we would change. I got into different interests and made new friends to try and balance life out without you around, so of course I changed. But I wasn’t the only one who became different, ya know. With every passing visit I noticed how much you became like your mom. You acted like her, started to talk like her, you started letting your hair grow out. You have always clung to your mom, but when I wasn’t around it seemed like you were starting to become her. It was hard to see someone I thought of as a brother become something so opposite to that. I think that the more I saw you, the angrier I was that you had changed. I started teasing you, making fun of those things that I thought were girly or different, all because I couldn’t accept that we’d drifted apart.”

I sat there in silence, stunned at what Joey had just told me. I wanted to get angry at her, but I knew that I, too, had done the same thing to her. As she got meaner to me I did everything I could to scrub the old me away, getting rid of any semblance to my old self.

“I’m sorry, Joe,” I said quietly, “I’m sorry you no longer saw me as a brother.”

“I guess I should’ve been more mature about my feelings instead of bullying you, but that’s just how kids are,” she laughed at her own comment, “Well, I guess we still are kids, huh?”

We sat there in silence, the water seemingly getting colder.

“You do look a lot like her, ya know,” Joey looked at me, “I know that’s not something a lot of teen boys want to hear, but I mean it as a compliment. Your mom is a very pretty lady.”

I smiled. Hearing that meant the world to me.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

With the air cleared between us it was easy to just hangout in the pool and swim. We started striking up conversations like we used to, catching up to any major events in our lives that we never told each other over the last few years. I was still conscious of my swimsuit, but I started to also see the humor in my situation.

“I want to ask you something, Avery, and I don’t want you to get mad,” Joey stopped her laps to say to me.

“Okay, what?” I responded.

“You’re really rocking that swimsuit, I’m actually surprised. So…. Do you do this often?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” she took a second to gather her words, “you know? You’ve got long hair, you do look a lot like your mom, you have some ambiguously girly pants, you seem to have feminine traits…” she paused again, “I guess I’m asking if you dress like a girl usually?”

“What? No,” I quickly responded, “that would be weird.”

“I was just asking. There’s nothing wrong with it. I just figured that if you spend so much time trying to be like your mom that maybe sometimes you dress like her, that’s all.”

“Did you think that I do?”

“Honestly, I’m pretty shocked that you don’t,” Joey giggled, “Your mom owns a salon and has a son who clearly wants to be like her. If I were her I’d be dolling you up every chance I got.”

I was taken aback by her comment. It sounded ridiculous and I wanted to get mad at her, but it somehow made a lot of sense.
“Well, this whole swimsuit thing was her idea. And when she took me to her room she seemed all too happy to pull out dozens of bikinis like I was going to do a fashion show,” I admitted.

“Oh my god, did you try on bikinis?” Joey asked excitedly.

“No, I really didn’t want to, that’s how I ended up with this,” I tussled the flounce.

Joey seemed visibly disappointed at what I said.

“Well you never know, there’s always a possibility that one day she’ll give you a makeover out of the blue. Your face is pretty girly, but I can see it coming to life with some touch ups.”

“Yeah,” I quietly said. My mom was very proud of the work she did and the business she built from the ground up. I was always glad to listen to her talk about the inner workings of the beauty industry, even though it all went over my head. The more I thought, the more it seemed like she was really trying to get me interested in makeup and her business, but to what end I couldn’t say.

“Maybe I should’ve done it myself, back when we were younger,” Joey suddenly said, “it’s not uncommon for sisters to dress their little brothers up.”

“What makes you think I would’ve let you?” I playfully asked.

“I’m sure I could’ve coaxed you into it,” she responded confidently, “although looking at you now I’m sure it would’ve been very easy!”

I gave her a light shove and she splashed me back. Our laughter got drowned out by the sudden rolling of thunder, and the sky quickly turned from blue to gray. We made our way onto the back porch as hard drops of rain pattered onto our heads. We wrapped ourselves in towels and decided to hang back under the porch awning, sitting on the rattan sofa and continuing to have light conversation. My mom brought us out some late afternoon tea to warm our soaked selves.

“Are you excited to start high school?” I asked Joey. She stared distantly towards the pool after I said those words.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “I’m a bit nervous, but all of my friends are going to the same school. I’ve signed up for some advanced classes, but I’m not too worried about those.”

I noticed a lack of enthusiasm in her answer. “You don’t seem very excited,” I said bluntly.

“Well, that’s kind of why we’re here today.” Joey directed her gaze towards her mom through the window, “It turns out mom’s job is expanding. She’s been offered a new position and a huge raise, but she’ll have to relocate to the Atlanta office that’s opening next year.”

“Oh.” That’s all I could muster.

“The plan is to move next summer. I’ve only got a year left to spend with my friends who I’ve known since kindergarten. And us, too. We’ve barely seen each other these last few years and now it’ll be even less. It just seems pointless to get excited about high school….”

I put my hand on her back. I could sense how upset she was by this. We had just rekindled our relationship, too, and I didn’t want that to go away again.

“I don’t want to seem selfish,” I said, “but if that’s the case then we have to make good use of the time we’ve got left.”

Joey perked up a bit, “Yeah?”

“Yeah! I’m gonna miss you when you’re gone. I know we’ve still got a year but with how little we see each other already we’ve gotta make it all count,” I tried to lighten the mood with some enthusiasm. Joey sat up straight and flashed me a smile. We hugged, the first time in years. As she left the embrace, her smile became more mischievous.

“Well we’re already here, so we should make today really count, right?” She asked.

I was a bit confused, “Sure, but I’m not sure what else to do. I didn’t plan anything, and it doesn’t look like the rain is going to let up any time soon.”

Her face had completely lit up now and her eyes had gotten wider. She stared at me, as if I was supposed to read her mind. That’s when it clicked in my brain.

“Wait, are you serious?” I said as my face started to turn red.

“Pleeeeeease!” Joey was practically begging, “You’re going to look so good!”

“I don’t know,” I was flustered. I wanted to hang out with her, but I didn’t want to commit to being treated like a girl, “I mean my mom is here and your mom is here, won’t that be weird?

“They won’t mind! I’m sure they’ll find it cute!”

I had to really sit and think of my options. She’d never let it down if I said no, but she would also never let it down if I went through with it. I had managed to mostly forget about my current situation with the swimsuit, but in this moment I became all too aware of what I was wearing. I was already deep in the well, I might as well keep digging down with Joey.

“Okay,” I said softly.

Joey clapped with excitement. She grabbed me by the arm and took me into the house towards our moms.

“Hey kids, are you done swimming?” my mom asked from the table.

“Yes! Actually, I was talking to Avery and he is going to let me give him a makeover!” As Joey said it my face only got redder.

“Oh, really?” My mom was surprised to hear this, but intrigued. Aunt Jen also seemed to be intrigued. “That’s awfully sweet of you, Avery! And very brave!”

“Mhm! Aunt Emma, do you have any makeup here I could borrow? And maybe even some clothes for him?”

“I thought you were just doing makeup, you never mentioned anything about clothes,” I softly said, knowing there was no way to fight Joey on it.

“Oh Avie, it’ll be fine! There’s a bathroom connected to the guest bedroom, that’s where I keep all my extra supplies. Feel free to use whatever you like. And in the bedroom closet there are some plastic bins stacked up, and they’re filled with most of my old clothes I’ve been meaning to give to you, Joey. He and I are pretty similar in size, so anything in there should fit him just fine!” My mom said, winking at me.

“Thank you so much! You’re gonna love how he looks!”

“Have fun, girls!” said Aunt Jen. My face was practically a tomato at this point. Their laughter grew distant as I was dragged to the guest bedroom. Joey closed the door and immediately went into the bathroom to change back into her shorts and shirt from before.

“Aren’t you going to get out of that swimsuit? You can’t really wear anything over it,” she said.

Without saying anything I went into the bathroom. Seeing myself in the mirror again it became apparent why she wanted to do all this. It really wouldn’t take much to make me look like a girl. Hell, I was nine steps there already. I started to take my swimsuit off when I made a realization.

“Hey, Joe, I don’t actually have anything to change into. That’s how I got into this mess in the first place,” I shouted through the bathroom door.

“Right,” she thought for a moment, “You can just use my bikini then, it’s hanging up in there and should be totally dry. It’s basically like underwear.”

I turned my head and saw her teal bikini hanging by the shower. I slowly made my way towards it, like it was some forbidden artifact. A 13 year old boy usually didn’t get this close to them, but these were here in front of me, for me to touch….and wear. I snapped out of it and went to the door.

“Don’t you have anything else?” I pleaded.

“Hold on,” Joey went silent as I heard the sound of a door opening and faint rustling around. A while later she reappeared, “Crack the door open, I’ll hand you something.”

I did as she asked, and what she had handed me were two pieces of clothing. The first was a grayish black pair of women’s spandex shorts. They were very short, but overall a much better option than a bikini bottom. Where was this earlier? I might have preferred to wear this rather than the one swimsuit. The other piece was a matching sports bra.

“Um, do I have to wear the bra, too?” my words nervously left my mouth. That was a word I had never said out loud.

“Please just do it? It’ll make it a lot easier when trying stuff on.”

All I was doing was delaying the inevitable. I took her at her word and I took off the swimsuit and put the shorts on first. They were much tighter than anything I had ever worn, but fit nonetheless. I stared at the bra for a moment, contemplating all of the events that transpired that day to make this happen. I figured out how to slip it over my head and adjusted it so it fit as well as it could. It fit snug to my chest and was relatively flat but some light padding on the front gave the illusion of two very small boobs. I couldn’t bring myself to look in the mirror. With much hesitation, I opened the door.

“Not bad,” Joey said with a smirk, “but we’ve got work to do.”

She grabbed a desk chair and moved it into the bathroom, then she ushered me to sit down. Joey scrounged under the sink and in the closet for any item of makeup she could find and placed it on the counter.

“Alright I’m going to spin you around, I don’t want you to see yourself in the mirror until we’re done,” she winked at me, “You’ll probably want to close your eyes for most of this, too.”

I did as was told.

“I don’t want to go overboard. You’ve got fairly feminine facial features, so I want to highlight your natural beauty,” she said with sincerity. She started talking a lot, clearly to me but not expecting an answer. She sounded like mom describing her work. First she mentioned foundation, which was something I was aware of because of my mom. I felt these plops of cold liquid on my face which were then tickled on by a brush. My face felt stiffer than I was used to after. Joey continued saying things that were practically foreign to me, like concealer, but it went on my face anyways.

“Time for your eyes,” I heard her say. All of a sudden the top of my eyelids were being patted by a brush. Once she finished, she mentioned mascara. It was difficult to keep my eyes closed as she applied it, but even more so as she moved onto the eyeliner. She mentioned doing my eyebrows and I was worried she was going to shave them, but thankfully she just applied some kind of powder on them with a brush. After that it was fairly straight forward, adding some light color on my face and she was almost done.

“I’m going to apply some lipstick, okay?” she asked, “This is nude lipstick, it’s very natural looking and won’t be bright red like in the movies, I promise. Open your mouth just a bit please,” Joey took her time applying it, “Done. Feel free to look!”

I opened my eyes to a very proud looking Joey standing above me. I turned around to face myself in the mirror and was shocked. The person I saw was clearly me, but there was almost no mistaking it: it was a girl. My face looked radiant, my skin was clean, and there was color where there wasn’t before. I kept winking my eyes to see my lashes done up in mascara, and I couldn’t stop touching the blush on my cheeks.

“I can’t believe it,” I quietly exclaimed.

“What do you think?” Joey asked proudly.

It was hard to admit, but I was genuinely impressed. After years of hearing my mom discuss her business I finally got it. As I stared at myself I understood the magic she and her employees can do by totally transforming someone. I had spent years idolizing my mom and trying to be like her, and at the moment I was mentally kicking myself for never having gone through something like this with her.

“This is really me….” I said turning to Joey, “It’s amazing. This is incredible.”

“I knew you’d love it,” She responded smugly, “you already look a lot like your mom, but I wanted to highlight what made you you. Your hair is fairly girly already, but androgynous enough that I didn’t want to make you seem like a man wearing makeup."

She didn’t need to worry about that, if anything my medium-length hair only helped to accentuate the look. There was nothing manly about this look.

“I think I could do a bit better, but I don’t want to waste all evening on it. We still gotta get you dressed, after all,” Joey said, gesturing me towards the bedroom. As much as I wasn’t looking forward to it, I definitely wanted to get into something less revealing than what I was currently in.

Joey had already pulled the clothes bins out of the closet and had thrown some articles onto the bed. There was a bit of everything: shirts, shorts, skirts, dresses, and even some bras. It was like looking at a mountain of clothing that I had to scale my way up, and by scale I of course meant wear.

“What do you want first?” Joey asked.

“First? I take it we’re not just finding one outfit,” I said, defeatedly.

“Of course not, look at all our options.”

“Well, I’m not really sure about any of this. My experience with girls' clothing only goes back about three hours.”

“Okay, why don’t we start with….” she said, reaching into the pile, “...this.”

She pulled out a navy blue dress with white polka dots all over and a bow tied around the waist. It was medium length and looked almost like something a woman in the 50’s would wear, just a bit more modern.

I stared at it with some hesitation, “What do I do?”

“It’s not that hard, you just step into it. There’s a zipper on the back I’ll probably have to help you with.”

I took it from her and stepped into it. She zipped me up and grabbed the bow and tightened it as much as possible without hurting me. Her face had become a slight shade of red at the sight of me. “Oh my gosh,” she said, “you have such a slim waist.”

I had to step in the bathroom and look in the mirror. Once again my jaw had become agape at the sight of myself. I knew I was slim, but Joey had managed to accentuate my waist to an absurd level. I stepped back into the room to see Joey holding out her phone.

“I know earlier I said I wouldn’t take pics of you in the bathing suit but please can I take some pics now? It would be a shame for this to stay hidden!”

“Are you going to keep them private?” I asked.

“Of course! They’re just for me. Now do a pose.”

I wasn’t sure what to do, so I tried to put my leg out a bit and stand up straight. She was clearly annoyed that I didn't know exactly what to do. She motioned for me to do a twirl and I reluctantly did so. She never said to stop so I kept on going and going until I got dizzy.

“Alright, that’s good. I think I may have gotten your shorts in some of those spinning pics, but that’s alright,” she said, “let’s find something else.”

Joey grabbed one of the unopened bins and dumped it all on top of the clothes already on the bed. “Let’s look together, if anything catches your eye just grab it.”

I wasn’t sure what kind of things would grab my eye, so I let Joey take the reins on this search. She pulled out another dress, this time a purple minidress with a white cropped cardigan. I got out of the blue dress and slipped this one over my head and buttoned the cardigan. Joey went ahead and moved my arms and legs how she wanted and then took some photos. This dress was shorter than the last and I was trying my best to hide my shorts. When she was finished I got out of it immediately, and she could tell I didn’t like that one.

“That was alright, but it didn’t really suit you. Let’s keep looking, and again if you see anything you like just let me know,” Joey said. I still wasn’t sure what to look for, but after moving some clothes I saw a black and white striped sweater that I remember my mom wearing years ago.

“How about this?” I asked, holding it up.

“Oooo, that’s cute! Good find,” Joey said with a smile, “let’s find something to go with it.”

In no time flat Joey found a black skirt with some lace along the bottom and handed it to me. I put both things on and was surprisingly comfortable. The skirt wasn’t long, but it also wasn’t tight and let me breathe. The sweater was very soft and warm, which felt nice after being so exposed, and it reminded me of my mom. Joey could see my enthusiasm for this particular outfit and used that to get me to make some good poses and to smile wide for the photos.

“This is the best set yet, it’s only a shame we don’t have any shoes. What a great find, Avery, you look so good!” Joey complimented me enthusiastically. The sudden confidence boost I felt provided motivation to continue doing this. Fairly soon we were picking things out left and right, and getting creative with our ideas. We did a series of outfits where I was wearing jeans and shorts with all sorts of crop tops and covers. It was nice to wear types of clothing familiar to me, even if they only helped to highlight my feminine side. I was trying on things I had never even heard of before, like rompers and camisoles. I was having a blast just being with Joey, it felt like the old us. Time passed faster and faster with each dress and skirt I tried on, and I loved all the compliments Joey was giving me.

Before we knew it, close to two hours had passed since we had started. Our pile of clothing had turned into a warzone as we ravaged through each bin and threw things all over the place. Joey had opened the last one when something in it caught her eye while going through it. She pulled out a long, folded zipped up bag and when she undid it, it revealed a long pink dress that sparkled when it hit the light.

“This is beautiful,” Joey said, mouth open wide, “You have got to try this on.”

She handed it to me and I looked at it. It was very fancy, I couldn’t tell when my mom would’ve worn this, or if she ever did. It was about floor length from what I could tell, and a bit stiff in the middle. I looked at the back to see what seemed like laces running down in a pattern, tied neatly into a bow.

“It looks like a corset. Once you’re in I’ll have to tighten it real good,” Joey said, looking at my confused face, “This is a bit more complicated, Avery, and I’ll need you to trust me on this.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with a puzzled look on my face.

“You’ll have to get out of that sports bra and put on a real bra.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, I think the chest area is going to be too big on you. We’ve gotta fill it in like you have boobs to make it stay. And then I think it’s a bit too revealing around the neck and shoulders, and your sports bra has a lot of fabric that’ll get shown off and ruin the whole piece.”

“So you want me to reveal more skin? You’re sadistic.”

“Well maybe you should’ve just put my bikini on in the first place, wouldn’t be dealing with this issue now,” Joey said while sticking her tongue out at me. She then tossed a lacey purple bra my way and told me to put it on. She had to help me clip it in the back, but even without stuffing it it gave the illusion of boobs. I once again found myself slipping into a dress, but it was much tighter than anything I had tried on at that point. Joey started pulling on the laces, and with each tug it felt like my lungs were going to collapse. There was a slit in the dress that revealed my right leg. Joey finished helping me out and took a step back to admire her work.

“You look stunning! It’s like you’re going to prom,” she said like a proud mother, “Oh if only we had done this sooner, I could’ve really done your hair and your nails and maybe even found you some shoes to match. The possibilities are endless!”

It was nice to hear Joey sound so enthusiastic, even if her being happy meant I had to wear my mom’s old clothes. Although I had been having fun, too, despite the circumstances. I went to look at myself in the mirror and almost didn’t recognize who I was staring at. The simple look of my makeup didn’t match the high standard of this dress, but I looked and felt gorgeous nonetheless. Once again Joey began to take glamor pics of me, directing me to do sexy and flirty poses, with my leg sticking out and blowing kisses to the camera. I was really feeling myself. In the middle of our photoshoot we heard a knock at the door.

“Sounds like you’re having fun in there. I hate to break it up, but dinner will be done soon and then Joey has to go,” it was my mom.

“Okay,” we both said in unison. We looked at each other, knowing that we didn’t really want to stop. We also knew that I couldn’t go out and eat dinner in a fancy dress like this, even if our moms found it funny. Although I didn’t actually have any of my own clothes ready, so either way I would have to be going to dinner like a girl. Joey seemed to have planned for this already and handed me a pile of clothing that was sitting off to the side.

“Put this on,” she said, “let me know if you need help with those.”

She pointed to a tangle of black string at the top. I unfurled them to reveal that they were fishnet stockings. I shot her a look of bewilderment, and she told me what to do. She said I could pull them over my spandex shorts, it wouldn’t really matter. I did as was told and grabbed the next thing. It was an army green miniskirt with a belt and cargo pockets along the side. If it weren’t for the fact that it was a skirt, it looked like something I would wear in my regular day. I zipped it up and buckled it. It was very short, and made me feel a bit insecure. Lastly was a charcoal black, loose-fitting knitted sweater. That was pretty straight forward, and because it was oversized it was pretty comfortable. Joey finished off the look by adjusting the sweater so that my left shoulder was entirely revealed, tastefully showing off the purple bra strap and just a bit of the lace. She then took a hair clip from the bathroom and clipped some of my hair up in the back, leaving some strands in the front of my face and keeping the general shagginess in tact.

“Before we go,” Joey said, “sit straight up on the edge of the bed.”

I did as she asked and she stared at me, looking me up and down like an inspection.

“I can just barely see your shorts under the skirt. I should make you change into something less visible like panties, but that’ll take too much time,” she winked at me. I stuck my tongue out at her and we left the bedroom.

Joey walked into the kitchen, where our moms had just finished setting the table. “Mom. Aunt Emma. I wasn’t sure how long you were going to keep this a secret from me, but I have finally found my long lost cousin, and your long lost daughter - Avery!”

My heart pounded and my face was slightly red as I revealed myself. I tried to strike a cute pose as I walked with a feminine gait. Mom and Aunt Jen erupted into laughter and applause, almost like they were more impressed with the result than they anticipated.

“Avery, is that really you?” My mom asked, bewildered, “You look so pretty! Joey, your makeup is amazing. I wish I could offer you a job on the spot.”

“That outfit is fabulous, honey,” Aunt Jen, “you must’ve spent a lot of time on it in there.”

“Nope!” Joey exclaimed, “Just one of the many great outfits me and her put together!”

“No kidding. How many things did you try on? Did you take pictures?” Aunt Jen asked. Joey quickly pulled out of her phone and showed our moms the dozens of things we had spent the last few hours putting together. Joey went into great detail about finding matching pieces, and how I even chose some things for myself, to their surprise. They couldn’t stop laughing and smiling, constantly complimenting me and saying how pretty I was. Joey got to the pictures of me in the pink dress and our moms both let out subtle gasps.

“Was this in the closet?” My mom asked. Her laughter had stopped and her mouth was wide open.

“Yes, it was in a bag in one of the bins. I’m sorry if we weren’t supposed to touch it,” Joey sounded apologetic in trying to explain herself.

“No, it’s fine, it’s just…” My mom took a second to collect her thoughts, “I thought I had lost this dress years ago.”

“Is it your old prom dress or something?” Joey asked.

Our moms looked at each other knowingly. “Not exactly,” said my mom, “About 20 weeks into my pregnancy, I got an ultrasound and was told with almost 100% certainty that I was going to have a girl. I couldn’t have been more excited, and I could only think about what our future would look like together. All the ups and downs moms go through with their daughters, I was ready for it all. Not long after, I learned that an old family friend, Mrs. Weise, was sick and about to close her shop before going to a retirement home. She was the greatest seamstress in the world and made the most beautiful dresses you had ever seen. She made our mom’s wedding dress, both Emma and I’s prom and homecoming dresses, she even made all the costumes for our school musicals when we were kids. I couldn’t imagine a world where my daughter didn’t get to wear a Weise custom made just for her. I went to Mrs. Weise and pleaded with her to make something special for my unborn daughter. She was a particular woman, and hated dealing with what-ifs, and she did her best work when she knew the girl personally, but I didn’t have my baby’s measurements or even eye color. Thankfully she understood my plea but was still hesitant, and in her old age she couldn’t just make magic out of nothing. So I told her that I wanted it to be a prom dress, for when my daughter was grown up and in high school, and to make it easier on her she could just use my measurements from when I was 17 if she had them on file. Mrs. Weise agreed and five days later she presented me with this beautiful pink dress, and I was shocked by how very modern and different it was from anything else she had made. Maybe she was future proofing it, or maybe the simplicity of it is what made it beautiful. It ended up being her last piece, because only a couple days later she went into retirement and then passed away not long after. I cherished that dress, and I had big plans to reveal it when my baby turned 17 and I was going tell this long story about the amazing Mrs. Weise. Of course, after another ultrasound the doctors corrected themselves. They misjudged a few weeks prior and I was, without a doubt, having a boy. And that boy’s name was Avery.”

Joey and I stared in disbelief. My mom was on the verge of tears, not out of sadness but out of remembrance for her old friend. She stared lovingly at the pictures on Joey’s phone.

“So you mean to tell me…” I started, but my mom put her hands on top of mine and looked me in the eyes.

“That’s your dress,” she said with a smile.

I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. Mom had shown me her old prom dresses stored at grandma’s house countless times when visiting, and even as a young boy I was in awe of their beauty. All she ever said was that they were handmade and very special to her. She had never mentioned any other dresses, but to hear that there was another and that it was meant for me was life changing.

“You never told me you thought I was going to be a girl, though?” I said to my mom, puzzled that she had been hiding that.

“I never wanted you to think that I was disappointed just because you were a boy,” mom said, “no child wants to hear that their parent planned a whole life that ended up being different just because of how they were born.”

“But you held on to it for so long, what were you planning to do with it?” I was genuinely curious.

“I wasn’t sure,” mom responded, “I offered to give it to Jen for when baby Joey grew up, but she knows how special these dresses are, plus there was no telling if it would fit her when she got older. I guess I just hoped that maybe someday the right opportunity would present itself when I could pass it along meaningfully.”

The tone of the room changed suddenly when Joey turned to me and giggled. “Your son is literally in a miniskirt! Now is the perfect time!”
I gave her a light shove and laughed back at her. Mom and Aunt Jen had started to laugh too.

“I really thought I misplaced it years ago,” Mom said, looking back at the picture of me, “You know, I thought I was going to be the one to do the makeup for this dress.”

“You still can!” Joey said while pointing at me, “I’m sure Avery would love that.”

“Stop that!” I batted her hand down.

“Well what else could you really do with it?” Joey asked.

Mom looked up at me. I could tell that this dress meant so much to her. I stared back down at the pictures of myself wearing it, and I could tell it also meant a lot that I was wearing it. It was exactly where it belonged.

“I think we should keep it here,” I said.

“Oh so we can play dress up every time I come over!” said Joey.

We all laughed and decided we should probably eat dinner. The conversation that night was very lively and filled with laughter. Joey kept showing off all my pictures, all the while mom and Aunt Jen kept asking me questions about it. It was hard to hide how much fun I ended up having, and they could tell. They kept trying to ask me embarrassing questions, like how it was wearing a bra, if I tried on panties, what my favorite clothes were, etc. Joey was more than happy to chime in and answer for me whenever I took a millisecond too long to respond. Very casually the three of them started to refer to me as a girl and I began to play along, too. We spent almost two hours talking after dinner until Aunt Jen realized they had to go. Joey realized she had forgotten to take pictures of me in my current outfit. She took a selfie of the four of us, and when she asked me if she could post it I reluctantly said yes.

We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs by the door. Joey was very talkative, clearly stalling their departure.

“Hopefully we see each other soon,” Joey said with a semi-sad look on her face.

“We’ll definitely try, okay?” I reassured her.

“And we’ll do this again right?”

I hesitated, but I knew I couldn’t lie. “I’d love to.”

“Maybe we’ll have to bring some of Joey’s old clothes for you next time, Avery!” Aunt Jen laughed.

I laughed too as we waved them out the door. Mom and I were exhausted from talking, but in the best way. We turned to each other. Just a mother and her son. Wearing girls clothes.

“Well, you sure seemed to have fun tonight,” mom said to me.

I adjusted my skirt down and laughed, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“It’s late and I do work in the morning so I’ll probably go to bed soon.”

“That’s fine,” I said when suddenly something hit me, “Oh man, we left an absolute mess in the guest bedroom.”

My mom nodded her head, almost expecting as much. “Okay, I’ll help you clean it up.”

We both tried to fit as many things back into the bins as possible, but it proved difficult as everything got unfolded. It was a tedious process, but we made good progress.

“Avery,” mom said while packing clothes up.

“Yeah,” I responded.

“If you wanted me to give you a makeover you could’ve just asked.”

My face turned red. “Um, thanks, but this was Joey’s idea.”

“I know. You just seemed more enthused by it than I thought you’d be.”

“Did you think I wanted you to?”

Mom winked at me without saying anything,

“Well, you are the best at what you do, mom. So if you ever need a subject to experiment on just let me know?” I said, winking back at her. Her face blushed at my compliment. After getting most things sorted all that was left was the dress.

“I think I’m going to take this,” she said while zipping it back in the bag, “It shouldn’t just live in this old closet or a bin.”

I nodded. She knew what best to do. We exited the bedroom and stopped in the hallway.

“I’m going to hit the hay, so are you all good?” Mom asked.

“I think so,” I replied, “I’m probably going to lie down, too. It’s been a long, weird day.”

Mom smiled and kissed me on the head, “Goodnight, my pretty baby.”

I smiled back and watched her walk towards her room. It felt good to hear her call me that. I caught my reflection in a window and admired my outfit one more time. I never realized how stylish I could actually be when trying. Granted, these aren’t even my clothes, or meant for me for that matter. Wait a minute. These aren’t my clothes? These aren’t my clothes!

“Aw, are you kidding me!?” I said loudly. My mom stepped out of her room, looking concerned. “What’s the matter? Is everything alright?” she asked.

“I never threw my laundry in the dyer…” I said with my head down in defeat, “I’ve still got no clean clothes.”

My mom let out a small chuckle. “Oh dear, they’ve been sitting in the washing machine for hours all soaked. They’ll take a while to dry.”

“I know, it’s my fault.”

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna need to borrow my pajamas, too?”

“Ha, no I’ll figure something out. Goodnight, mom.”

I went ahead and threw my clothes in the dryer and hung up some stuff that needed to air dry. It was mentally draining to realize I had forgotten entirely about my laundry. I went into my room and tried to see if there was anything I could wear to bed, but I literally had nothing. I was a particular sleeper, I had to either be in my own pajamas or very little to get comfortable. I guess I was still wearing those spandex shorts, and those would have to suffice. I plopped down onto my bed without changing, getting exhausted thinking about taking off my skirt and fishnets. Maybe I didn’t actually want to take them off because I didn’t want the day to end. It seemed like such a shame to stop after we were having so much fun. I wish Joey was still here and we were still trying stuff on for fun. That’s when an idea popped into my head, and I shot up from bed.
I tried to be as quiet as possible while walking through the halls, just in case my mom was still up to hear me. I went into the guest bedroom and softly closed the door. I thought about just going through the bins again to find something to sleep in, but I knew what my mission was. I went into the bathroom to see if it was still there, and sure enough it was. Joey had forgotten her bikini and it was still hanging up, completely dry. She had made a big deal about wearing it earlier, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I did it now, right?

Despite being by myself I was more nervous to try this on than anything else when I was with Joey. I had stripped down and cautiously pulled the bikini bottoms up. It was like wearing nothing, or it certainly felt like it to me. There were ties on the side that I used to properly adjust it. Not a bad fit, but it wasn’t complete. Trying to get the top on was like speaking a different language, but eventually I figured out how it went on my neck. It was fairly loose, but there were ties on the back as well that I could adjust. I desperately reached behind me, using the mirror to get a better view. From this angle it made it clear I was indistinguishable from a girl from behind. Eventually I grabbed the ties and pulled the top into a much better fit. I glanced at myself in the mirror, unsure what to do. Nobody was here to give me compliments, and I wasn’t going to take pictures of myself like this. I tried to strike a few poses, but it was hard without Joey’s direction.

I tiptoed back into my room, making sure that my mom didn’t catch me sneaking around the house late at night in a bikini. I pulled my blanket up around me and fell asleep hard and fast. So many thoughts drifted back and forth through my head, my dreams started to become a continuation of the day. I dreamed that all four of us were finding outfits for me to wear, and most interestingly I dreamed I was at prom at some imaginary school I didn’t go to. I don’t remember much, but I was in the pink dress and everyone said how much they loved it.

I woke up with a headache. My mind was spinning, so much so that I gave myself a shock when I looked at myself and saw I was still in the bikini. It wasn’t all a dream, I really had dressed up all day yesterday. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something weird in my room. I had to rub my eyes together before I could even make out what it was, but it left me very confused. In the corner of my room was the pink dress being displayed on a torso mannequin. I didn’t remember doing that, and wasn’t it mom who took the dress last night? I shot out of bed to examine the oddity up close. I’d seen these mannequins before at mom’s work, so she probably had one somewhere in the house. Mom must’ve snuck into my room last night and put this in here… because it’s mine?

That was the only explanation I could think of, and if that’s the case it was honestly very sweet. There was only one problem though: I was wearing the bikini all night. If she snuck into my room there was a high possibility she saw me in it. I checked the time - 9:04 am. She definitely should’ve left for work long ago, but I quickly changed out of the bikini and into the spandex shorts and sweater since my clothes were still in the laundry. I still had makeup on my face which I spent way too long trying to remove. I exited my room and did a quick search to confirm she was gone, then got my real clothes back. It almost seemed like a bummer, but I changed into some normal clothes and went about my morning.

Mom came home late in the day with a big smile on her face.

“How was work?” I asked, knowing she wanted to tell me something.

“Good, the girls all loved your stuff!” Mom said.

“My stuff?”

“Joey sent me all her pictures and I had to show everybody. Not everyone is lucky to have a son who plays dress up, you know.”

I never told mom she couldn’t show off the photos, and I’m sure Joey hasn’t respected my privacy either. I got red at the thought of all the stylists gawking at my photos.

“They said you’re free to come with me any time for a mani-pedi or styling. But be careful, they might dress you up, too!”

“Might as well replace my whole wardrobe now,” I snarkily said.

“Speaking of, I’m sure you saw the thing in your room.”

“Hard to miss. Very alarming thing to wake up to.”

“I really can’t think of anywhere better to put it. Not that I’m expecting you to ever wear it, of course. I just figured that since, you know, it is yours, it should be in your room. If you want me to move it just let me know.”

“I think it’s fine where it is, I really like it there,” I gave mom a genuine smile. She came over and hugged me on the couch.

“I’m going to change and then start dinner, just give me a few minutes,” mom said. She walked about five feet before stopping and turning to me. “And if you want your own bikini I can take you out shopping, okay?”

I slumped down on the couch and my face became brighter than the sun. It was as I feared - she saw me.

Things between the four of us definitely changed as a result of that day, but I think those are stories for another day :)