BethOfTheWild

CW: main character not liking their body

“What do you think about this one?,” Hunter said, twisting around to look at himself in the mirror. “Jeez, if I bent over wrong in this on stream I could probably get hit with a TOS.”

Mel appraised the black dress, which had a turtleneck-like high collar and a panel of elaborate lace over the chest. She nodded. “I like it! I think you should get it. If you need to you can wear something like compression shorts underneath.”

“Compression? I hope it’s not lossy.”

Mel laughed. “You fuckin’ nerd.” 

“Anyway, let me get changed back and I think we can probably get going. I’m, uh, kind of gonna be out of money after getting all this.” He gestured to the “keep” pile of clothes that he had made on the changing room’s bench, before anxiously turning back to Mel. “Are you sure it looks okay? I feel like I look… I dunno, really boxy. Very straight up and down.”

“I mean… padding is an option. Or corsets and other kinds of shapewear.”

“Eh, that’s…” Hunter waved his hands vaguely in lieu of actual communication. “I kind of want to look good on my own merits, you know? I don’t know. That feels like cheating somehow. I don’t know, everything I try on is kind of just reminding me of how big and square and clumsy looking I am. Like, I like the idea of me wearing a dress like this, but the real thing is a letdown in comparison.”

“Aw. I think you look cute, although I realize that probably doesn’t help. So do you wish you were, like, smaller and had more curves?”

Hunter thought for a moment. “That would be good, yeah.”

“Hmm. Alright. Understandable, really.” She paused for a moment, seemingly on the verge of saying something. "Uh, actually, would you be interested in swinging by my place after this? I have some old stuff I meant to donate, but I kept forgetting and also most of the big charities that take clothes kinda suck anyway. And we can also just hang out and talk and stuff. There’s some things I might want to ask you if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, you can ask me whatever! Sounds good. Oh, and I heard about Goodwill paying its executives way too much. More like, uh, Badwon’t.”

“Lol. Yeah, they somehow paid employees less than minimum wage or something.. And I assume you’ve heard about the Salvation Army is homophobic and stuff. But, uh, I think 1-800-CLOTHES-4-HUNTER has a pretty good rating.”

“That’s way too long to be an actual phone number,” Hunter said.

“Meh. You think of a better name then.”

“Uh… Yeah, I dunno. 1-800-4-HUNTER, maybe?”

“Hmm. Yeah, I guess that works. Anyway, lemme text you my address and after you buy the stuff we can head over?”

“Sure,” Hunter said. “Oh, do you live with anyone, by the way? Not super important but if you need to let them know someone is coming over…”

“Nah, it’s just me. And the cats.” Mel said. “I had two roommates in my old place but honestly it ended up being a fuckin’ mess.”

“Aw, how many cats do you have?” Hunter asked.

“Two, but I pretty much guarantee Pretzel will vanish to the shadow realm as soon as a stranger enters his domain. Pickle is pretty friendly, though.”

“Well, now I have to come over,” Hunter said. “For kitties.”