There had been a ‘fad’ going through town.

Groups of women wearing wedding dresses and going out together, just to have a good time. The only rule was none of the dresses must be new; they all had to come from charity shops. This meant that the charities also benefited.

Mal had a laugh about it all; he’d seen a group of women enjoying themselves as brides. He really thought it looked fun…

He stopped, however, in surprise as he came across the wedding dress hanging in his room as he got home one evening.

“Mum! What’s this dress doing in my room?”

“It’s yours, Melanie” her mum said. “You know, for the ‘do’ tonight. It’s a used one, in your size; they said that was what was needed.”

“What the hell are you on about, mum? I’m not going anywhere tonight. I’m having a night in. Besides, who’s ‘Melanie’?”

“Why you are, sweetie”, her mum said. “Don’t tell me you’re going through one of your stupid boy phases again…!”

Mal’s mother came into the room.

“I knew it! As soon as your friends at the café tell you to act more butch, you start being a boy. Melanie, you’re a girl, and a quite attractive one at that. Anyway, get that junk off and put the dress on. I want to see you in it.”

“Mum, please!”, Mal said. “What are you talking about? You know I’m a boy. Stop playing about…”

His mother reached over and started undressing him.

“I’m not having this stupid nonsense any longer!”, she said. “Get these ridiculous clothes off, now!”

Mal pulled the cupboard door open, going to show his mother the rest of his ‘boy’ clothes…

Skirts, blouses and dresses met his gaze.

“Mum, where’s all my stuff!”

“It’s all there.”

“This is girl’s stuff, not mine! Where’s my jeans, my band t-shirts, my suit and tie?”

“You’ve never had any of that, sweetie. You’re scaring me…”

“How do you think you’re making me feel? I’m a man, not a woman!”

There was a quiet shriek as Mal’s mother undid his shirt.

“What have you done to yourself?”, she wailed. “Where’s your beautiful little breasts?”

Mal was completely flat-chested…

His mother ‘inspected’ him all over.

She then in a real fit of panic, ripped his jeans off, and pulled his knickers down.

She then started crying uncontrollably…

Mal’s male ‘parts’ were on display for all to see. He was definitely a man.

“You crazy bitch!”, she said, still crying. “What have you done…!”

She threw Mal’s man clothes back at him.

“Get dressed and get out!”, she cried. “If you couldn’t be satisfied with the gifts god and I gave you, you’re not welcome in this house!”

“Mum, I…”

“I’m not your mother! I have a daughter, not a son! You’re nothing to do with me! Get out! GET OUT!”

“I’ve got nowhere else to go…”, Mal said, in a tiny voice.

“You should have thought of that sooner! That’s you’re problem now. As a BOY, you should have no problems finding work. After all, it’s supposed to be a MANs world…!”

Still crying, Mal’s mother left the room.

Mal, sadly, got dressed, then slowly went downstairs and left, sadly looking back at his home where he was no longer welcome…

In the end, he went back to work.

The café was open 24/7, so he went in, and sat in a booth.

Carol, one of the other staff, came over.

“Hi, Mel”, she said, what’s up?”

“Mum just threw me out. Said I wasn’t welcome anymore.”

“What? Why?”

“She said I wasn’t family. She’d had a daughter, not a son like me.”

“Well, all you had to do was show her you’re still a woman underneath.”

“That’s just it. I’m not. I’m a man. I’ve got all male parts.”

Carol went white as a sheet.

“You can’t have. I should know; we’ve been sleeping together for long enough.”

It was Mal’s turn for his mouth to drop open. As far as he was concerned, Carol and he were ‘just friends’…

Making sure no-one else could see, Mal undid his shirt and lifted his vest. Now it was Carol’s turn to cry. She’d lost her girlfriend…

Carol pressed her hand against Mal’s chest.

“I can’t even feel where they used to be”, she said. “There’s no scars, anything. Anyway, we’re still friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes, of course.”

“OK, hang about for an hour or so; I get off then, so you can come back and stay with me for a while, while we work out what to do next. I look after my friends, whatever sex they are.”

Mal had something to eat while he waited and idly watched the news and Facebook on his phone. Some of the other staff waved or said hi, as Mal/Melanie was quite popular.

Who really was he? He was now starting to doubt himself. Carol had been as certain as his mother that he was a girl, and everyone at work was referring to him as ‘Mel’ or ‘Melanie’. He couldn’t deny the evidence of his own body, though. He was definitely male.

He was still staring at his now cold food as Carol came back over.

“Come on, kiddo”, she said. “I’ve got Gail to let me go a bit early; I told her you weren’t well, and I was looking after you.”

“True”, said Mal. “I might as well be ill; is in the head, though, or the body…?”

Carol helped him into her car and the pair went back to her flat.

“I’d better sleep on the sofa”, said Mal. “After all, you don’t want to be sharing your bed with a strange man…”

A single tear ran down Carol’s cheek. The two friends had never been so close and so far apart at the same time…

Carol’s head was spinning. How had Melanie ended up as a man? The change had been professional, with no signs of him ever being her.

She thought further. When was the last time she had seen Mel as Mel? Oh, yes, just before she’d taken that time off, about a month ago. She’s been away for about three weeks, then acted like a tomboy ever since she got back. They had started calling her ‘Mal’ as a joke, and it had kind of stuck…

Listening, she heard some quiet sobbing coming from the other room. She tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t. Her friend, no, her girlfriend, was in pain. She had to help…

She went into the lounge and, before she had second thoughts, cuddled up against Mal on the sofa. Mal, semi-conscious, reached out and held her…

It was Carol’s first time with a man for years. She couldn’t believe, however, how tenderly Mal treated her. It was like her girlfriend was really back…

Carol was fairly strong, and Mal, even as a man, was very slight. She easily picked him up and carried him to her bed…

Sex was amazing, especially as Mal didn’t use his ‘boy parts’ once. He didn’t even get aroused down there. He just snuggled and made love to Carol as if he was another girl…

Carol was even more convinced that this was Melanie, changed. He knew just the right places to kiss her in to turn her on…

She knew she had her girlfriend back, now all she had to do was find a way to turn Mal back into Melanie…

Carol told Mal this, when they had breakfast together the next morning.

“You are Melanie, I just know it!”, she said firmly. “Sex last night was as good as it has been, if not better. You knew just how to please me.”

“I thought you only liked girls…”, said Mal.

“You had sex with me like a girl last night”, Carol said. “Subconsciously, at least, you’re still Melanie.”

“But…”, Mal said, indicating his body.

“Yeah, I know”, said Carol. “Anyway, you’ve still got a job, and a place to live, now. You’re staying with me.”

This last was said very determinedly. Carol wasn’t losing Melanie again…

A week later, Carol convinced Mal to see a doctor. He ran some tests…

“Looking at these results, I’d say you were in the middle of going through transitioning”, he said. “Your testosterone levels are way to low for you to be a biological man; it’s almost as if you were made anatomically correct but then they stopped the rest of the procedure. It’s in totally the wrong order to the way it should be done. Were you ever asked about transitioning?”

“No, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve always been male”, he said. “According to everyone else, however, I’m a woman.”

“That would agree with these test results”, the doctor said. “This can be quite dangerous; to start with, you will be completely sexually inactive. Being crude for a second, you wouldn’t be able to get an erection if your life depended on it. I’d strongly recommend that you either start on testosterone supplements immediately, or have the surgery reverted. You could do permanent damage to yourself.”

“I didn’t do this to me!” Mal suddenly shouted, starting to remember. “I woke up like this! I’ve no idea how it happened. Everyone thought I was being a tomboy, up until the point my mum found my ‘bits’ were missing and threw me out. I can’t even go to the loo properly, but I thought that was just a problem I had.”

Now really concerned, the doctor booked Mal in for some scans. He also suggested contacting the police.

“As far as I am concerned, this is sexual assault”, he said.

Mal had been getting more and more scared, and he really started to panic. Carol only just managed to catch him as he fainted…

He ended up in a hospital bed, Carol sitting alongside him.

“As you said you didn’t ask to be a man, they’re going to turn you back into Melanie”, she said. “Also, there’s someone here to see you…”

Melanie’s mother walked into the room.

“I’m so sorry”, she said. “I didn’t know…”

His mother told the doctors what size Melanie’s breasts had been, and various other points that they needed to know about her as a woman. Carol and his mother smiled at him, and stayed by him right up to the point that he was taken into the operating theatre later that week…

Melanie woke up back as herself in her hospital bed. Both Carol and her mother hugged her.

“Welcome back”, they both said.

No-one ever found out who ‘assaulted’ Melanie, or a reason for it.  

She carried on living with Carol; they got engaged a month or so later.

“Might get a real use for that dress”, Melanie said, with a smile…