Zach stopped short of knocking on the door to his former bedroom. On the other side of the door, he could hear the muffled voices of his friend and his mother. He felt bad for leaving Leah locked in that room alone with his mom. He knew full well that she had undoubtedly taken the time to lure Liam further to the side of femininity, but he couldn’t help but try to eavesdrop on them.

It always felt like taboo, finding out what girls talked about with each other when boys weren’t around. There were some giggles, some groans of frustration, and a lot of indiscernible chattering. It was such a foreign sound coming from his bedroom. Suddenly there was silence.

“Zach, I know I taught you better than that,” his mother’s voice sounded through the door. “Eavesdropping isn’t very gentlemanly.”

Zach was taken aback by being called out, but he wasn’t surprised. It was pretty much impossible to hide anything from his mom, “I didn’t hear anything. I was just going to ask if I could come in.”

“Just a moment. Leah is getting something to cover up with. We’re just finishing up her makeup.”

“Makeup?”

“You’re not old enough to start getting hard of hearing dear. Yes, makeup.”

“No. Why is she putting on makeup?” Zach clarified.

“Because girls wear makeup doofus!” Leah’s voice cut in. “Don’t give me a hard time about it.”

“Okay, geez. Sorry,” Zach apologized. That definitely confirmed it. His mom had put in work to bring Liam closer to womanhood while they were alone together. After a couple of minutes, Zach heard the door unlock, which he took as an invitation to come in.

He cracked the door slowly and was immediately hit with the scent of flowery perfumes melding with the mild scent of vanilla. It smelled just like how he imagined a girl’s room to smell.

Leah and his mother sat at the vanity. Leah was leaned in close, carefully flicking at her eyelashes with a small bristly utensil. His mother’s eyes flickered toward him in the reflection of the mirror. “I thought I told you to look semi-presentable.”

“This is semi-presentable,” Zach said unabashedly. “It’s a Saturday.” He had quickly dressed in some comfy sweatpants and his favorite t-shirt from basketball camp that had the perfect length sleeves to show off just the right amount of bicep, making him look a tad more muscular than he actually was. Of course, he never told anyone that was the reason why it was his favorite.

“Men and their insistence on keeping ratty old clothes,” his mother scoffed with a shake of her head, garnering a subdued giggle from Leah.

There was that feminine intimidation factor again. Zach honestly didn’t feel like getting any closer to them. It felt like he was invading on something sacred, but his curiosity, along with the pity he had for his friend who was currently getting smothered with girlifying magic, urged him toward the vanity. As he got closer though, he began to even question if that truly was his friend sitting in front of the mirror.

Leah was covered with a white silk bathrobe with blue polka dots. Her hair seemed fuller and softer than before and was now pulled back into a tasteful ponytail. However, it was the face that was completely throwing Zach off. He could still make out traces of Liam’s face, but it was unmistakably the face of a girl now. Every feature from the curve of her jaw, the point of her chin, fullness of her lips, and the shape of her cheeks had been subtly cast in a female light. The application of makeup further accentuated her new feminine features. It wasn’t the face of the next top model or anything, but it was definitely alluring.

She finished messing with her eyelashes and blinked rapidly a few times, eyeing her reflection carefully. When she finally turned his way, Zach felt his heart skip a beat.

“Don’t tease me,” she said defensively. “This is actually a lot harder than it looks.”

“I’m not gonna tease,” Zach barely managed to say before his throat caught.

“Does it look okay? My makeup I mean. It kind of changed my face a bit, but does it look good?” Leah asked expectantly.

“S-Sure,” Zach stuttered.

Leah’s shoulder’s slumped, obviously a little disappointed in his answer. What did she expect? She knew that he got nervous around girls and now he was standing in a girl’s room with a girl in a bathrobe asking him how she looked. He could barely say hello to a girl at school, much less eloquently handle a bizarre situation like this.

His mother shook her head pityingly at him, laying a gentle hand on Leah’s shoulder. “It looks wonderful Leah. You’re a natural. You picked up everything I showed you in no time at all.”

Leah gave a half-hearted smile, “Thanks, Ms. Lindsay. You’re a good teacher.”

“Hear that?” Lindsay said, eyeing Zach. “At least someone here appreciates my teaching methods.”

Zach stared back flatly. He wasn’t in the current state of mind to offer any sort of retort. His heart was still racing from Leah’s new appearance.

“Now,” Ms. Lindsay said, standing from her chair, and spinning Leah’s around to face the room. “I’d say it’s about time for you to get dressed young lady. Everything in that closet is yours to choose from.”

Leah’s eyebrows rose with concern, “There are a lot of clothes to choose from in there, way too many for me. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Hah! A girl can never have too many clothes. This is your chance to figure out your style. You don’t just have to pick one thing. Try a few things on. Why don’t you do a little fashion show?”

Leah fidgeted nervously, “A fashion show?”

“Fashion show might be a drastic term. Just try some stuff on, anything that suits your fancy. Either way, you can’t spend the rest of the day in a bathrobe.”

“I guess you’re right,” Leah said, standing and holding her bathrobe together at the chest, making sure Zach couldn’t sneak another peak at her growing assets.

“And in the meantime, I’ve got some things that I need to get in order. You two have fun,” Ms. Lindsay chirped.

“Wait. You’re leaving us alone together?” Zach asked, still unsettled by what was transpiring.

“It’s sweet that you want me to stick around Zach,” she said sarcastically, “but I don’t want to ruin your time together, and I’m on a bit of a tight schedule before tomorrow. Ta-Ta!” Lindsay bustled out of the room like a whirlwind, leaving the two alone once more.

It felt like every time his mom appeared and disappeared, she left them in an increasingly awkward situation. The tension was palpable. As opposed to the first time, Zack was now alone with a girl, or at least an almost girl, in her bedroom. His thoughts froze. Did he actually view his friend as a girl now? It definitely felt like it. Her face alone was enough to make his nervousness come to light, and her very presence exuded that unmistakable female demeanor.

“You’re doing that zone out thing again where you just stare at me creepily,” Leah said, drawing her bathrobe even tighter around her.

“Oh s-sorry. I’m dumb," he replied, visibly flustered.

Leah smiled wryly. “You’re not dumb. You’re just a doofus. Always have been, always will be.”

Zach let out a nervous chuckle, “Maybe so.”

“There’s no maybe about it,” Leah said teasingly. After a few more seconds of silence, she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb in the direction of the closet. “I guess I should go get dressed now.”

“Y-Yeah. I think you should,” Zach said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

Leah’s cheeks reddened slightly at the implication of what may have been going through Zach’s mind before quickly scampering into the closet and closing the door. Once back inside the closet, Leah couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the sheer amount of clothing that surrounded her. She wanted to try all of it, but a lot of it looked pretty complicated. She felt drawn to the more feminine styles, the things she had never worn before, but with Zach out there she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed about it.

She stepped up to where some pants hung and pulled off some teal jeans that looked a little too short. They were called capris, right? She shrugged and pulled them on. They didn’t fit quite how she wanted them to, too tight in some places, loose in others, but she guessed they would suffice. Next, she went over to where some t-shirts hung and chose a plain white one, slipping it on casually. It was soft and designed to indent at the waist to accentuate a girl’s figure that Leah didn’t really have. She found some white sneakers kind of like her old ones and worked them onto her shrunken feet.

She took one last longing look at the rest of the clothes before stepping out, too wrapped up in her mixed waves of emotions to notice the tightening sensation around her abdomen.

“What do you think?” she asked Zach who was meandering aimlessly around the room like a lost child.

Zach jumped slightly, startled out of his wanderings. He looked her up and down. Now that he got a good look at her, he realized his mother hadn’t altered her as much as he had originally thought she had, which he was honestly relieved about. Her face was one thing, but the rest of her body looked like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be male or female. Despite having noticeable breasts, they were still pretty small, and everything beneath that point still seemed boyish. She filled the women's apparel awkwardly beside one exception that seemed different. Her waist seemed slimmer than it had before like it had been pinched.

“Oh uh. It looks okay I guess,” he said with a shrug.

Leah furrowed her brow, “Okay you guess?

“Yeah. It looks alright.”

“That’s it?”

“Did you want me to say anything else?”

“Kinda.”

“Okay. You look kind of uncomfortable.”

Leah huffed in frustration as she pivoted on one foot and headed right back into the closet, closing the door forcefully behind her.

‘What was that about?’ Zach thought to himself. Every moment that went by, it seemed he understood less and less about his friend. Of course, he knew the reason why. His mother’s magic had no small part to play, and he was sure that slowly turning into a girl definitely came with its fair share of mental baggage, but he couldn’t tell what she wanted from him. One minute she just seemed like a feminine version of Liam, and the next she seemed like a… well like a real girl.

Zach always liked to think that he had gotten used to his mother's tricks and magical lessons, but this time she was really throwing him for a loop. He felt just as toyed with as Leah probably felt. Okay maybe not that much, but his mind didn’t have the same fortitude against this magical mess that he always thought it did.

It felt like the twilight zone or something. He felt like he needed to talk to someone about it to get it off his chest, but he couldn’t. He never could. But why? What was the worst that could happen if someone learned about magic? Would he just be grounded? Couldn’t his mother just wipe their memories or something? He had never dared break his promise to find out, but now…

“Okay,” Leah said, cracking the door to the closet open. “How about this one?” She was already blushing with anticipated embarrassment when she stepped out, but it was Zach who felt the blood rush to his cheeks in his bewilderment.

Leah was wearing a light purple blouse tucked firmly into a short pleated grey skirt. Her feet were adorned with sandals that had a little bit of heel to them.

“I’ve never worn a skirt before, but I just had to try it since it was just hanging there. It’s kind of weird though. This stuff didn’t really fit that well at first, but it feels fine now. A lot better than those pants I was wearing before. Does it look any better?” she asked.

Alarm bells went off in Zach’s head. It was clear why the clothes fit better. The body that just a few minutes ago couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a boy or girl, had just decided that it did in fact want to be a girl body. It wasn’t painfully obvious, but there was a curvature to the hips and thighs that hadn’t been there before. It wasn’t something that would make a guy’s jaw drop in a normal context, but when the body belonged to his best friend who was now prancing around in a skirt, that new girlish figure called for a jaw drop.

“So? How does it look?” Leah asked quizzically.

“Y-your legs are really smooth looking,” Zach said, feeling his nervousness regarding the fairer sex start to well up again.

“Oh yeah,” Leah said with a chuckle. “All my body hair fell off in the shower. Weird huh?”

“Yeah, and your hips…”

“I was just asking what you thought about my clothes,” Leah interrupted, confusedly looking down at herself. “What about my hips?”

“They look…” Zach trailed off again as he watched Leah run her hands down her waist and over her hips. She looked up at him with wide eyes as she felt the subtle new shape her body was taking on.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, stumbling over to the large mirror on the vanity, unable to walk normally with the small heels she wore. She turned, examining herself at all angles, sliding her hands along the curve of her waist and over her burgeoning hips. She spun, showing her backside. Out of curiosity, she lifted her skirt, revealing the back of the royal blue panties that covered her butt.

“Gah! Again?” Zach exclaimed.

Leah squealed in surprise as if she had forgotten he was watching. “Don’t look!”

“I already told you. I’m a guy. If a girl moons me with her panties, it’s kind of impossible to look away!”

“What did I say rule number one was?!”

“That was about breasts!”

“Butts also apply!”

“But guys have butts too!”

“But not like-” Leah quieted, “Not like this. It feels different than it did before I think.” She felt over her skirt and along her waistline, curious about the new geometry of it.

“It definitely looks different,” Zach stated dumbly after the little adrenaline rush.

Leah’s face grew even redder, “Okay we’re extending rule number one to every part of the female body. Boobs, butts, or whatever else comes to your mind about my body; don’t just blurt it out.”

“Sorry. This is just a weird situation for me.”

“For you? I’m the one that’s somehow turning into a girl over here.”

“Yeah. Sorry,” Zach apologized again more genuinely this time.

Leah watched him silently, an obvious question forming on the tip of her tongue. Zach already knew what the question might be, and was terrified at being pressed for an answer, so he spoke quickly before she could.

“So do you think it’s the clothes that changed you so quickly?”

Leah deflated, caught off guard by his sudden inquiry. She looked back at her reflection. “It could be. That would explain why it felt weird when I was putting them on.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Not really. It’s kind of hard to describe.”

“So is that-” Zach stopped mid-sentence. Something had caught his eye that he had been too distracted to notice before. Leah’s skirt was tented between her legs, plainly showing her apparent excitement of the situation. Even erect, it still didn’t protrude to the extent Zach would think a normal piece of male equipment would be given the situation, which was a testament to the amount of shrinking Leah had been undergoing in the manhood department.

“Oh God!” Leah squeaked, covering up her groin abashedly. “That is so embarrassing!” She crossed her legs awkwardly in an attempt to hide it. “Do you mind turning around or something?”

Zach did as he was told without question. The situation was already awkward enough as is.

“Maybe I shouldn’t be wearing skirts,” Leah said through a trembling sigh. “I’m going to go get something else on.”

“But what if that changes you even more?”

“I’d be thankful,” Leah said resolutely. Zach heard the closing of the closet door, leaving him alone in the bedroom once again.

Of all the weird things that had happened today, that rollercoaster of an exchange topped them all. This was torture.

An uncomfortable amount of time passed with Zach overhearing grunts of exertion and curses, mixed with quiet cheers and squeals of a surprise coming from inside the closet. He didn’t even try to picture what Leah was doing in there. Just when he was thinking about knocking on the door, it finally swung open.

“I think this feels much more like me,” Leah said, placing her hands on her hips with a surge of confidence.

She was now wearing high waist denim shorts and a frilly cream-colored blouse. She had gone back to the white sneakers she had worn with her first outfit for the obvious comfort they probably offered versus heels. It wasn’t her clothes that left Zach speechless though.

Leah’s body had gone from girlish to gorgeous. Her smooth legs now appeared longer and more supple. Her calves were slender and her thighs had accumulated a layer of fat that hadn’t been there before. Her hips had widened even further, now gifting her with an hourglass shape that rivaled any of the notoriously pretty girls at school.

There was still a bump in the front of her shorts, but it appeared even smaller than it had before, not nearly as noticeable. Zach couldn’t help but pay silent respects and well wishes for Leah’s rapidly receding jewels in her stead since she obviously wasn’t in the proper state of mind to mourn the imminent loss.

“So what do you think? This looks a lot more natural on me doesn’t it?”

“Yup. Sure does,” Zach noted tersely.

Leah waited for him to say something else, groaning with frustration when he averted his gaze from her.

“What?” Zach asked.

“Do I really need to spell it out for you? I want to know how YOU think I look. I want your opinion, not some half-assed agreement.”

“Why does it matter what I think?”

“Because you’re the one that’s here seeing me through this, and your opinion matters to me,” Leah admitted.

Her incredibly candid statement surprised Zach. “Oh. W-Well if it really means something to you, I think you look really beautiful.”

“Do you actually mean it, or are you just saying that?” Leah asked, biting her lip.

“I really mean it, but I’m confused. I thought guys weren’t supposed to tell girls they’re pretty. Isn’t that what you and my mom agreed on earlier when this whole talking to girls thing started?”

Leah laughed, “No! She said there was more to it than just telling a girl she’s pretty, which there is, as I can fully attest to now. But this isn’t a first introduction to snag a date. I already know you, and you know me. We’re best friends.”

She walked over to Zach, causing his heart to race faster. “It’s not a sin to give a girl a compliment doofus,” she said, punching him in the arm playfully.

Zach hoped that he didn’t look nearly as dumb as he felt. He felt like he should be in full nervous wreck mode with this beautiful girl standing just one step away from him, but she was right, she was more than just a pretty girl. She was his best friend. No matter what Liam/Leah looked like now, the fact that they were friends hadn’t changed, and that knowledge warmed Zach’s heart, melting the nervousness away.

“Alright. Well in that case. I think you might just be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

“Okay don’t take the compliments too far dude,” she said bashfully.

“So did putting on just those clothes really cause so much change?”

“Oh you noticed huh?” Leah said, raising an eyebrow as a signal that he was close to crossing a line. “Honestly, no. I tried on a few different things. I changed a little bit with everything I tried on, but I settled on this.”

“Well it looks good on you.”

“Thanks!” She paused momentarily before deciding to continue, “I actually put on a bra that was one size up from the one I was wearing and it made my boobs grow. Did you notice that?”

Zach grinned and shook his head, catching on to her ruse. “Rule number one,” he said as he mimed sealing his lips shut.

“Ooh, you’re catching on. Atta boy!” she said, reaching up to ruffle his hair.

He knocked her hand away gently, “So when am I even going to get rule number two?”

“When I come up with it.”

“And you’re supposed to be my mentor on how to talk to girls?”

“Hey cut me some slack. I’m literally still turning into a girl as we speak.”

“Fair point.” Zach considered. “So you want to go outside or something? I don’t know how much longer I can stay in this room. It’s kind of messing with me.”

Leah nodded emphatically. “I totally agree. It’s a bit of a girl overload in here, isn’t it? Maybe a bit much.”

“I know we just washed up, but do you want to just go play some HORSE?”

“Lead the way.”

***

Back out on the driveway again, the two started their friendly competition. Zach won the first few games of HORSE, but eventually, Leah started to adapt to her new anatomy. After that, it seemed like every shot she put up went straight into the basket. She won more games than Zach would care to admit to anyone else. It made sense though. Between the two, Liam had always been the better shooter.

After that, they decided to head to the backyard behind the pool and throw around the football. It felt nice to do the things that they had always enjoyed doing together when they hung out, but neither could deny that there was a slightly different dichotomy between them.

Excluding the snide comments that Zach couldn’t help but throw out like; “You throw like a girl.”

Or some of the snarky comments Leah designed to embarrass him like; “Why do guys always feel the need to show off to pretty girls?” whenever he did anything that may be construed as athletically impressive.

There was something growing between them that was different than before. Both of their minds went back to what Zach’s mom had said about the relationship between boys and girls and how they contrast and complement each other. More and more, they started to realize how right she was. It was something intangible, but very apparent that changed the way they viewed their friendship.

The afternoon dragged on into evening until eventually, the golden sun began to set. The shadows grew long and the sky was splashed with swirls of yellows, pinks, and oranges. Some of the brighter stars had come out to peek at the world before night had officially fallen.

Zach and Leah decided to relax on the grassy hill overlooking the swimming pool, each of them still trying to work out the weight of the day’s events in their minds.

“That was fun,” Leah said through a satisfied sigh.

“Yeah. I never thought I’d ever been able to do that kind of stuff with a girl,” Zach admitted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Leah questioned smartly.

“I mean. I never dreamed I’d get to spend time with a girl like this. To talk to one like this so casually.”

“Are you getting over your fear of females or whatever it was then? You realize that we don’t bite?”

“Not all girls are you,” Zach mused.

Leah felt her heart flutter at the comment, but she quelled it. She had been experiencing these strange feelings all day while spending time with Zach. “I’d hope not. Having billions of clones would make this day that many times weirder.”

Zach chuckled, “You’re just way easier to talk to than any other girl.”

Leah sighed, “Duh. ‘Cause I’m your friend. All you have to do is just treat girls like the normal people they are, and be yourself. In fact, that’s rule numero dos. Just be yourself, and treat girls like normal people. It doesn’t have to be about romance. There’s no reason to get nervous.”

“Easier said than done.”

“It’s really not. You’re doing it right now.”

“But you’re different.”

“I’m really not. I’m a girl, or at…” Leah’s throat caught abruptly, causing her to cough. When she continued speaking again, her voice came out softer and higher in pitch. “…At least I’m almost a girl. The only difference is that you know me. If you took the time to get to know other girls, you’d learn who they really are on the inside too. We’re all human.”

Zach contemplated her words, “Maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right,” she said, undoing the ribbon around her hair and letting her golden hair fall free around her shoulders and down her back. She lay back in the grass, looking up at the sky as more stars began to appear.

“I’ll give it a shot. I’ll talk to a girl at school on Monday. Maybe Valerie, that girl on the dance team, she always seemed kind of nice.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be there for you for support,” Leah said. After saying it aloud though, the implications of that bubbled to the surface. What was going to happen on Monday? Was she going to magically turn back into a guy, or would she be a girl forever? What was she going to tell her parents? Should she enroll as a new student? Would people look at her like a freak? She had to get answers about what was happening to her.

She pointed up at the stars. “I always wondered what’s out there that we don’t know about. Do you think there’s some far away civilization out there millions of lightyears away?”

Zach chuckled softly, “Yeah. I actually think about it a lot. It’s so big; it would be kind of weird for us to be alone in it, wouldn’t it? I mean I don’t know if I believe in aliens really, but still, it would make more sense if they existed than if they didn’t right?”

“I’d say so,” Leah said. “It’s weird when you think about all the stuff that humanity doesn’t know about that probably exists somewhere out there. Who knows? Maybe magic even exists somewhere out there to some capacity.”

Zach’s breath caught.

Leah looked over at him to gauge his reaction, “Do you believe in magic Zach?”

Zach’s eyes darted left and right for any sort of escape route from the current situation, but there wasn’t one. He was stranded. “Magic? Nah. There’s no way to quantify something like that. I would definitely say that alien civilization is way more plausible than something like magic.”

“Really? I don’t know. I feel like magic could be pretty quantifiable given today’s events, like for instance, the fact that I’m magically turning into a girl,” Leah stated dryly.

Zach laughed nervously, “Oh that? Well, wouldn’t it be more realistic to say that maybe it’s due to science?”

“Like what kind of science?” Leah tested.

“Like um. You know there are some foods that can increase estrogen levels? Maybe you ate too much of one of those things.”

“Like soybeans?”

“Yeah like soybeans!”

“So I ate too many soybeans, and on a random Saturday, my estrogen levels spike so much that my body just decides to turn female over the course of a few hours?” Leah questioned sarcastically.

“Y-yes?”

“Okay there’s a hundred issues with that argument, but I’ll name two,” Leah said, counting them off on her fingers. “One is that last time I checked, no food causes partial amnesia. Number two; I’m allergic to soy. Haven’t eaten it in years.”

“Oh right.” Zach scratched the back of his head, “Maybe it was God?”

“God?”

“Yeah maybe he realized he made a mistake, and you were supposed to be a girl all along?”

“I don’t think that’s how that works no matter what religion you’re referring to.”

“Uh maybe…”

“Zach please!” Leah begged, “I know this has something to do with your mom. I know she did something to me. Whenever I’m around her, the feeling gets stronger. I literally witnessed her change my face with makeup. You have to know the reason!”

Zach sat as still as stone, too scared to move a single muscle. He was afraid at what would happen if he looked at her, if he told her. He didn’t know what it was, but there was something deep inside him that told him that he shouldn’t say it. It was a promised secret.

Leah scooted closer to him, “Zach I promise I won’t even be mad! I want to be a girl now. I want it to finish changing me, but I have to know why this is happening. I want to know why I feel this way. Is it permanent? Is your mom really using magic on me? Is it hypnotism? Please just say something. It's driving me crazy! I promise I won’t tell another living soul!”

There was that word. Promise. He could remember the day he made his promise like it was yesterday, the day he promised his mother he would keep her secret. But Leah was his best friend. They had shared secrets together all through their childhood, and it pained him to lie to her directly. Why was his mom doing it this way?

He had to say it. He had to tell her about it. He had to talk to someone. But he couldn’t. Promises are binding and secrets are powerful. He vowed that he wouldn’t go back on his word.

“I can’t tell you,” he said simply. “I’m sorry, but don’t know anything.”

Leah looked at him as if she had been slapped, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I know that you know, and yet you lie to my face about what’s happening to me? You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“I am…”

“Friends don’t lie!” She yelled, wiping the tear from her cheek. “You know what? Maybe you should just forget rule two. Don’t be yourself if all you’re going to do is lie to your friends. Girls have enough lies in our lives already, we don’t need you adding to it!” she stood, briskly walking away from him and into the house.

He heard a door slam inside and saw the light come on in the window of his former room. He sat silently for a moment, realizing that his hands were shaking. Why was this so hard? Why couldn’t he tell her? Why couldn’t he just say it? It’s like there was something holding him back, always preventing him from speaking about the secret he kept.

Zach looked back up at the house. Only then did he see his mother’s face gazing out at him through the kitchen window. A pleased smile was etched on her ageless face.