The remainder of our shopping trip went off without any sort of hitch, and against my better judgment, I returned home with an array of very feminine-coded clothes. I tried not to think about just how much money I’d spent on clothes I’d one day no longer need, and, coincidentally, tried not to think about what it would be like to no longer need them. A couple hours, and awkward conversations later, I found myself at home, dressed in a punky, spunky tight little miniskirt and asymmetrical crop top, with several shopping bags full of additional, equally cute new outfits. I was fresh off my very own real life fashion montage of trying on outfit after outfit and finding each new look as fresh and exciting as the last, so naturally, I was really excited and giddy to get everything home and washed. And, okay, yeah, maybe some part of me did find it a little weird just how exciting and fun shopping for women’s clothes was, but things were only just starting to return to real, actual normal after way too long of a quarantine. Obviously it made sense that just getting to go out and do something, shake up the monotony a bit was going to be exciting. The fact that I got to watch a really pretty girl try on outfits in the mirror was just a nice little cherry on top. 

The night progressed with little incident from there; we had a little house meeting between everyone to hammer out a more concrete talk with Rachel, Will, Tony and myself, and from there just kind of shot the shit. The talk was actually surprisingly easy; this whole time I’d been so focused on ‘acting like a girl’ that I hadn’t really thought about what it meant to act trans. And because of that, I had been pretty worried that when everything was out in the open I’d crack like a thing that cracked really good, but actually I kind of just went with my gut and said what came naturally just like on the bus, and they totally bought it all. Who knew being trans would be so relatable to a regular guy like me? It just goes to show that like, we’re all just people on this planet, you know? We’re all similar in ways you probably wouldn’t think and anyway, hippy bullshit aside, I totally pulled it off. 

Tony did a good job too, but frankly I’d exhausted myself with all the different mental gymnastics of trying to figure out the best winning strategy that I kind of let myself have a night off from the bet. Besides, I kind of realized shortly after our shopping trip that Tony and I had never set actual stakes for the bet. It was just, ‘See who can be the girl the hardest’ and not, ‘See who can be a girl the hardest and winner or loser gets x.’ So that was something which we would obviously need to discuss in the near future. As it just so happened, because Tony and I were that particular brand of gamer trashgirl—trashboy—we went to bed way later than Will or Rachel, leaving us plenty of time to talk about, well, everything. We’d agreed at the very beginning to meet one on one and keep each other in check, and this seemed as good a time as any to get started. And so, with everyone else gone to bed, and the two of us perched on the couch of our living-room right back where this all started, Tony and I sat, staring at one another expectantly.

“So, day one seemed to go well enough enough,” I mused, awkwardly trying to avoid addressing anything that might implicate me now that this was just a talk between bros. 

“Y-yeah, for sure, really well,” he stammered. An awkward pause introduced itself to us both, and we went ahead and invited it to sit down, even though neither of us really wanted to, just neither of us could bring ourselves to tell it no. My eyes met his, his met mine, I melted a little at what a pretty girl he made, tried to say something, couldn’t, then found words again.

“I need a beer.” I stood with a start and marched toward the kitchen. “You want one?” I called back.

“Some wine would be nice, actually,” I heard him reply, then stopped short. 

“Wait, wine?” I turned heel and squinted, lips slightly parted and head cocked and flashing him the sort of incredulous, hurt expression that such a slap in the face warranted. “Bro, are you kidding me? Beer is like our thing, when did you start drinking wine?”

For a moment, Tony looked a little dejected, wincing at something I’d said, but with what seemed almost a conscious effort, he relaxed his expression.“See that attitude? That’s the kind of thought-process that’s gonna lose you this bet, dude.” He flashed me a shit-eating grin, and any tension in the room dissolved. “Girls drink wine, and since I’m playing at being a girl, I’m getting used to playing the part. Even if it means giving up beer for a little bit.” 

“Fine,” I said flatly, moving to the cabinet where we kept a few bottles for whenever there was company. “But I’m not letting you out-girl me, even when it is just the two of us.” Grabbing a bottle and two wine glasses, I popped the cork, and poured us each a glass of some red-blend or other. I returned to the couch, and handed Tony his glass. “Cheers,” I said cooly, clinking our glasses together, then took a sip, shutting my eyes and bracing for the worst. The old, stinky grape juice passed through my lips and touched my tongue; I instinctively wrinkled my nose and pursed my lips in a sour face. Then, as the taste actually set in, I realized it wasn’t actually that bad. Hell, it was even pretty good. Did my tastes change along with my body? Perhaps that was a question for another time.

“Anyway, they both seem to be really buying it, they’re gonna be absolutely blown away when we tell them the truth, bro.” Being in this girly body must have really been getting to me, because, for the first time in about a full day Tony had called me bro, and it fucking blew. I really did not want to hear him call me bro again, but what was I supposed to do, tell him I didn’t want him to call me something he’d called me our whole friendship out of nowhere? He’d definitely be weirded out by that. “Yo, you with me?” he called, poking me gently with a well-sculpted nail and slender, pretty finger. 

“Oh, I, uh, y-yeah,” I blushed. 

“Good. Anyway, isn’t this fucking awesome? God, I’ve been wanting to gush about how cool being a girl is with you all day, but I didn’t want Rachel to think we were like, actually dudes just pretending to be girls.” He rolled his eyes a little, and huffed, taking a big sip of wine.

“Dude, it’s so cool! But I don’t really follow with what you just said. Why would acting excited to be girls make her think we were guys?”

“Well, ‘cause like, girls don’t go around being excited to be girls right? Only a guy would be excited to be a girl right? ‘Cause it’s every guy’s secret fantasy. Come on, bro, use your head.” He tapped his temple knowingly and smugly, then sat back and folded his arms.

“Well, I guess so, but Will didn’t really seem that jealous of us; wouldn’t he be jealous?” At first, Tony seemed stumped by my point. Several moments passed in silence as Tony thought hard about what I had to say, and the implications of it. I myself was starting to wonder about it too, when, out of nowhere, a massive realization seemed to strike Tony. His cute slightly scrunched up face opened up with realization as his eyes grew wide.

“Oh my god, dude, I just realized. I’m such an idiot, how could I be this blind?” He sounded a little sheepish, “Will isn’t telling us about his desire to see what being a girl is like because we’ve made him think we’re actually girls and not regular guys like him. And of course a guy isn’t going to admit that to a girl.”

“So wait, what you’re saying is—” 

“He believes us, one hundred percent without a doubt! We’ve fuckin’ pegged him, bro!” Tony stood from the couch and whooped, pumping his fist in the air.

“I think you meant ‘We’ve got him pegged.’ Which like, still, dang. That’s kind of an awkward phrase, isn’t it?”

“Ah, yeah you’re totally right.” He giggled, and it was adorable. “Regardless, being a girl is so cool. I mean, look at me!” He was practically shouting by this point, and I had to sternly motion for him to keep it down, lest our plan be exposed. His pretty cheeks flushed and I found myself doing the same. 

For the next couple of hours, we kind of just gushed about our new bodies, and how excited we were for the next few days. We polished off the entire bottle of wine, which I was starting to feel I liked actually kind of more than beer? I didn’t really want to examine that more closely while aforementioned wine was in my body. Regardless, everything was going nice and smooth and chill, but still kind of giddy and eager. Basically, Tony and I were just having a great time gushing about everything. The conversation started to take a bit of a turn, though, when Tony brought up my, well, chemistry with Rachel. “Anyway I think Rachel is into you like this, dude. Are you gonna like, I dunno, see what that would be like as a girl?” He was very deliberately not making eye contact. 

“Isn’t that kind of a mess up though, bro?” I slurred. It was in that moment that I realized calling Tony bro was actually kind of bothering me now, too. “Like, she’s interested in women, like, actual women. If I were a really trans, that would be the thing, but we’re just pretending to be tron, y’know?”

“I mean, I guess that’s true. But like, don’tcha kinda wanna see what it’s like? You know, to kiss girl or whatever as girl or whatever?” He was looking at me in a way I felt like I’d seen Rachel looking at me a few times today, like, learning or whatever. No wait it’s leering. Anyway I was also kind of larping at him too and his lips were pretty and—

“Yeah, I definitely wanna kiss girls. Like as girls, y’know? Girls are soft and now I’m soft and I just wanna like, be soft together with another girl. Or, not another, but y’know what I mean.” Tony was nodding along emphatically to everything I was saying all while still larcenying at me or whatever. Was he getting closer? Was I? 

His mouth twisted a little as he seemed to search for the right words. “W-wouldn’t it be like, really funny, if, as part of the prank we told Will and Rach that we made out a bunch?”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded uselessly. 

“But like, we don’t want them to think we’re lying so we should probably actually do it in that case.” Tony said, drawing closer. My heart was thundering in my chest as my eyes locked on his lips.

“Uhm, yeah.” Suddenly I was falling backward, propped up on my elbows looking up at Tony. “B-but there’s one condition.”

“What is it?” he asked, looming over me.

“I’m um, while we’re doing it I’m gonna think of you as Penny, and as a girl. And you have to think of me as Heather. Cause like, I’m not gay y’know. I mean, like I guess this way it would be gay too, but that’s okay I more meant I’m not into guys than not gay. if I were a girl kissing another girl then—”

Suddenly I’d been seized by the chin and forced to look into Penny’s eyes. “Shut up, Heather.” Her lips pressed to mine; we kissed for what felt like hours. It was electric and gentle and scalding and soft and sharp and everything in between. Then we kissed again, and again and again. My brain stuttered like film stuck in an old projector as it struggled to ground itself in the reality that yes, this was indeed actually happening. Then, instead, it started to think about how she tasted like the wine we were drinking. That was easier to do.

Some unknown amount of time later we were sitting on the couch across from one another, quietly taking in everything that had just happened. “So, uhh,” I stammered. “That was uh, that was like pretty funny, bro. No hetero, am I right? Haha.” 

“O-oh, uh. Y-yeah. Totally. Super funny. Haha. They’re gonna freak when we tell them.” 

“Yup. Good prank, buddy.” 

SapphicSounds

Kissing your bros is pretty cool, right? I hope you're enjoying the story so far! If you're aching for more now rather than later then guess what? You can read all of this story on my Patreon right now for as little as $2 a month. You'll also get a bunch of other stuff. Like, for example, patron exclusive bonus chapters (and smut), audio readings of some of my steamier works, access to my official discord server and (and I can't stress enough how valuable this last one is) Pictures. Of. My. Cat. Ziggy. There's a bunch of other cool stuff over there, but we'd be here all day if I listed it all.

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