Nick opened the door and James knew he was screwed. Two words began running through his head: "oh" and "shit". The fall had left him lying on the ground in possibly the worst position. One that would leave his new terrible body exposed for Nick to see. At least he still had his bra on; he never thought he would be relieved to be wearing a bra. Nick towered over him, looking down at his body; the look of confusion and shock on his face could only have been more obvious if he were a cartoon. He was looking at James’ body in disbelief. It was obvious that he hadn’t expected to see his friend in a bra after hearing a thud, and he probably hadn’t expected that bra to be full either. James felt exposed, terrified. His secret was out. All of his hiding, all of his isolating, everything, it meant nothing. His new body had been seen and he was going to have to live as a girl. There was no way to escape anymore.
Nick kept looking at James’ body; it was like the guy was frozen staring at the disgusting thing in front of him. James frantically tried to grab something to cover up his chest or to throw at Nick to get him out of there. The more he looked, the worse James felt. Nick seemed to snap out of his shock when James finally managed to throw a hoodie at him, and he quickly closed the door. The sound of frantic footsteps was all James could hear as Nick went back to his room.
Once the shock wore off, James felt empty. The cold floor against his body was soothing. He was sure he should be panicking; he had been discovered, Nick had seen everything, but all he could think about was how nice it would be to curl up and sleep on the cold tiles of the bathroom. The pain in his chest had different plans. He was tempted to leave the bra on anyway, no matter how much it hurt him. After being discovered, the last thing he wanted to see was his chest, but it wasn’t like he had much of a choice. Katie had warned him about what that pain could mean and he did not want to have his body examined at a hospital.
He sat up and slowly began peeling off the suffocating fabric. He’d never noticed how panic caused sweating until he had to take it off; it felt so much tighter than it should have been. Having to go back to the store to buy a new bra was the only thing stopping him from rummaging for a razor to cut the damn thing off. It was probably for the better he didn’t try to find anything; if he had, he might have tried to do something drastic. Getting it off was a feat, but once he was done, he was rewarded with the ability to breathe again. Unfortunately, that also came with the ability to see what his body had become, and the emptiness was replaced with disappointment.
At the start of the week he’d thought his transformation was over, but looking down now, he knew it wasn’t. The thoughts he’d had while panicking were founded; his chest was bigger than it had been. Before, he’d been able to get away with not wearing a bra at home; his baggy clothes were enough to hide his chest. Now, he realised, that wasn’t going to last for long. Soon he’d need to compress them constantly if he didn’t want his mum to find out. That was assuming Nick didn’t tell everyone about what happened.
James had avoided mirrors as much as he could since everything started. He didn’t think he’d need to intentionally remind himself of what he had become, but after noticing his chest growing, he had to look again. He kept his eyes closed as he approached the mirror, and took a deep breath. If no one had noticed the changes, they couldn’t have been that serious, but it was still terrifying to see what had changed over the last week.
A week had been enough to make his face look less gaunt; his cheeks had started to fill out, looking softer and rounder and his hair had started to come back in. If it wasn’t his face he would say she was cute in a tough girl kind of way. He hated it; he hated that he had become cuter. If he had seen her down the street he wouldn’t ever think she was a guy; maybe a tomboy, but never a guy. Why couldn’t he look like a guy anymore? Why did this have to happen? Why did he have to turn into a girl? It was hard to even think of the person in the mirror as James. He felt his lips trembling, and the girl in the mirror’s started trembling too. He couldn’t bear to look at her face any longer. He didn’t know why he thought looking at her body was any better, though. Aside from his chest, he hadn’t seen it at all in the last week. He needed to see if there might be any semblance of masculinity there. At the start of the week, his body had been twig-shaped. If that was still true, maybe he could feel a little bit better. Maybe there’d be a part of him in there still. But given what he knew, there wouldn’t be. Would there? He saw the new curves that had started to form. His hips were rounder and his waistline came in around his stomach. It must have been the way fat was now shaping to his new form. He hated it. There was no way Nick could see him as a guy after seeing him shirtless, and especially not now that his face was red from crying.
He threw on his clothes and then sat down again. Before talking to Nick, he needed to take some time to calm down and figure out what to say. He shoved the bra into the pocket of the hoodie. Without compression, his chest felt too open, and those things showed under his clothes. Now that Nick knew, he would notice they were there. How was he going to react to that? They were both dudes, they'd seen each other topless before; he couldn’t even make up some stupid lie like he had only been pretending to be a boy. He couldn't escape it; he had to tell him the entire truth.
The door creaked as he opened it. Every step made so much noise that he couldn't hear himself think. Everything was too much, but he knew he had to keep pushing forward. He knocked on the door to Nick’s room before opening it slowly.
"Are you okay after that fall?" Nick asked.
That was just like Nick. Of course, he’d be worried instead of focusing on the massive elephant in the room.
“I’m fine,” James squeaked out. “Did you see anything?”
"Uhh, yeah. I'm guessing it's not just your voice that changed?" Nick said awkwardly with a blush. His eyes went wide. “Actually, sit down first.” He patted the spot next to him. The shock from earlier seemed to have worn off.
"No, it isn't."
"How much of you is, you know, different?"
"All of it, as far as I know,"
"Including --" Nick seemed to be trying to figure out the least weird way to ask. James knew what was coming next. He silently braced himself. "-- downstairs," Nick finished with a whisper.
"Yep, that's changed too," James said with a sigh.
It was weird. After panicking and crying, he felt fine. Maybe it was just being around Nick that made him feel a little bit more comfortable, despite the awkward questioning.
"Damn, dude, that's impossible, like a voice changing, that's kinda weird but your whole body?" He shook his head, then looked at James. "And you've been like this since?"
"The change happened either early Saturday or late Friday; I was just trying to sleep and then this pain just hit me. I couldn't move and when I woke up, I was like this."
"Heck, are you okay?"
“Physically, yes. We went to the doctor.”
“But like mentally? Are you okay? Do you like it?
What kind of question was that? No, he didn't like it; he had been unable to be himself around his friends, and his voice sounded like it had been swapped for that of a twelve-year-old. These things attached to his chest had been nothing but fleshy burdens that constantly reminded him that his body was wrong.
"Do you think I like the fact my body has been completely changed without my knowledge?" James snapped. “Nick, I wasn’t able to talk to you for almost a week.”
Nick scratched his head and seemed to ignore his snide answer. "You need to tell Katie about this; if anyone can help, it will be her. I will call for you if you need me to."
"She's actually the only other person that knows. She took me shopping." He would have had to tell Nick at some point. Then seemed as good a time as any.
"Wait, I was offering to call her for you because I thought she would never talk to you; how did you pull that off?"
It didn't feel like a good time to tell Nick about his long and complicated history with Katie, or about the weekend. He also didn't want to make things any more complicated.
"It's not important."
Nick continued to ask questions; "Why were you taking your top off?", "Does your mum know?", "Are you gonna be a girl?" To which James responded with either a real answer or a sarcastic one depending on how important he thought the questions were.
After five minutes of questioning, James was done. He just wanted to hang out with Nick. He wanted to forget.
"Can we not talk about this anymore?" His frustration was beginning to seep into his voice.
"Sorry, I forgot how weird this must be for you," Nick replied apologetically. “But before we stop talking about it, I want you to know I’m not gonna tell anyone, James.” James was glad to hear it. His fears being proven irrational was a type of comfort that he felt was unparalleled. “And you’re still a guy to me if that’s what you want.”
“It is. Thanks, Nick.” He looked at his friend. Nick looked relieved as well. He didn’t know why Nick would be relieved to keep a secret, usually, that stuff stressed James out.
"Do you wanna play another game?" asked Nick.
"Please, dude," James answered.
The day passed by and the whole gender thing was forgotten. They played like normal; they hung out in a way that felt normal. James hated that he'd had to tell someone, but it was a relief to know that things between him and Nick were the same. He no longer had to worry about being discovered by Nick. The nightmares about Nick and him were just that, nightmares; they weren’t going to happen. They would never be that close...
When it came time to go, Nick walked James to the door and gave him a hug, which James had no idea how to react to. Their group was never the hugging type; it just wasn’t something guys do. Part of him wanted to pull away as quickly as possible. He shouldn’t enjoy hugging another guy. The other part of him was so comfortable being hugged, that he didn’t want to go back home.
After the stress of that day, he threw off his hoodie into the washing basket, put on the baggiest shirt he could find, and went to sleep. He didn't even remember waking up to eat dinner, which was probably for the best, considering his hoodie was in the wash and the baggy shirts weren't able to hide the growths on his chest.
Man a really powerful scene, love the chapter, wouldn't change a thing about it.
… How cursed would it be for you to write an extra chapter of the same scene but James going full Tsundere on Nick (Baka, Baka, and all the Slaps)
That's truly a terrible idea... i love it.
Nah Nick is a good boy. Though James going full on "I DO NOT LIKE HIM. SO WHAT IF I WANNA KISS HIM. SO WHAT IF I WANT TO HOLD HIM AND HAVE HIM HOLD ME. I LIKE GIRLS. IM STRAIGHT. HEY NICK BACK ME UP."
"James if i were to kiss you right now? Would you be opposed to it?"
"NO BUT THAT SAYS NOTHING!"
"Thats pretty gay dude."
"f*ck off, i will make out with you"
Would be pretty funny. For now have it in the comments here.
@DetectiveRed
Well, not much feedback I can give for this one. It's a good chapter and didn't change that much compared to the last time I read it. I'm looking forward to the weekly release, though.
Same
Thanks Blaycon! Theres unfortunately not much i could do with this chapter aside make it a little gayer and more panicky
@DetectiveRed THE GAYER PART IS WHAT MAKES IS BETTER
@DizzyMiget good. Thist better be gay