Backstory: On Halloween night, two hich school guys threw some eggs and smashed some pumpkins at a witches house. The witch was none-too-pleased, and she cast a spell that trapped Chris in a chicken costume, and Andy in a Pumpkin costume for 24 hours. But Andy, impatient and distraught, tries to cut himself out of his costume. He is then cursed to be a girl for another 24 hours.
It's now the next day, and the costume curse has worn off. But Andi has a few more hours to go before he's a guy again. Except he went to see the witch earlier that day...
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“Headshot,” I said with a proud little smirk on my face, just after I pulled the trigger on the Xbox controller. Chris, sitting beside me could only sigh and drop the controller into his lap. We were back in his attic room. He was hunched over in his chair, wearing a new set of clothes after being released from the witches curse. I, however, was stuck wearing the only set of clothes that fit my new body: the orange shirt, black skirt, and green tights the witch provided me. So I still looked like a pumpkin, but at least I wasn’t trapped in that ridiculous costume.
“How are you still beating me at this game?” He asked, and then added, “you’re a girl.”
It was strange. I would have complained about the same thing if another girl was beating me in Call of Duty. But now that I was a girl . . . god that was so weird to think about . . . now that I was a girl, it disappointed me that Chris would think that.
But I smiled at him, pretending his words didn’t hurt, and made a little joke. “My fingers are smaller and more nimble now.”
Chris shook his head and picked up his controller again. “So ridiculous.” He looked at me, and I don’t think he knew that I noticed, because he sort of stared at my new breasts. Again. For the third time that I’ve noticed. He wasn’t staring-staring, just sort of looking out of the corner of his eye. The same way I did.
“Dude, stop staring at my boobs.”
He turned away quickly and looked back at the TV screen. “I’m going to miss those when you change back.”
Hearing him say that made my stomach a pit. I hadn’t told Chris yet what I had done. Hadn’t told him that I would be a girl for another three months. Maybe for the rest of my life. “Well, they’re not going away soon.” I said with as much bravado as I could spare.
“Huh?” He spun around to look at me. But I kept looking at the TV. I don’t know why. I just didn’t want to see the look on his face. And when I got another headshot, he didn’t react. And it didn’t make me feel any better. So I sighed and turned to him.
“I’m going to be like this for another three months,” I told him, which was the truth. It just wasn’t all of the truth.
“Wait, what? I thought the spell would wear off tonight. That’s what the egg said.”
“Yeah,” I said, running my fingers through my long hair, pushing it back from my face, “yeah, it did. But I went to see the witch earlier today . . .”
“And she cursed you for another three months,” Chris’s face turned to a stone mask, a look of disbelief and anger in his eyes. I had seen that look before. It happened usually before Chris thought about breaking someone’s nose. “What a complete bitch witch,” he said.
“It wasn’t the witch. I asked her to do this. I asked her to extend the spell. And if I like being. . . if I think it fits . . . then I’ll stay like this.” I stopped for just a second, closing my eyes and just shook my head. I needed to just spit the truth out. It would be ripping off a bandaid. “Chris, I think I want to be a girl.”
Chris’s mouth hung open, and he just stared at me, utterly dumbstruck. He didn’t leer, didn’t stare. He just looked at me. At my long hair, my thin legs, smaller body, and my soft breasts. And I don’t think he really saw me. I don’t know who he saw, but it wasn’t me.
“Please say something,” I said.
“The hell is the matter with you?”
“Don’t do this, Chris. Please.”
“No, seriously, what the hell is your problem? Because the Andy I know would never give up his penis and become a girl.”
He said that last word with a sneer. Like it was . . . like I was less than what I used to be.
“Oh my god, I have been your best friend since the third grade and now you’re going to be a douche to me just because I have a vagina?”
“No, I’m just trying to figure out what you’re thinking, and why you’ve gone crazy.”
And that’s when I realized that Chris, when he looked at me, wasn’t even seeing the guy I used to be. I think he saw me, then and there, as an imposter. A less-than-perfect replacement for his best friend.
“You want to know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking that a witch cast a spell on my that turned me into a girl, and she did that to punish me for something I did wrong. Except this,” I said, pointing at my body, “doesn’t feel like a punishment. I don’t feel weird or embarrassed or bad. In fact, I feel fan-fucking-tastic.”
“I’m glad that’s all you thought about. I’m glad it took you one day to decide that you wanted to be a girl for the rest of your life.”
“ It took me a day to decide that I wanted to take some time to figure that out. I have three months now to decide if I want to be a girl or a guy. I could ask the witch to turn me back.”
“You better.”
It was my turn to look dumbstruck and in silence. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. All because of a pair of breasts. And the thing that got me more than anything was that I thought Chris was one of the good guys. The kind of guy you could trust to not be a complete asshole.
“Well, that’s my decision to make, and not yours. But enough about me. What’s your problem? Why have you gone crazy? Why are you so mad that I might want to be a girl?” I tried to put as much of a sneer into that last word as I could, but my heart just wasn’t in it.