The Girl He Could Be - Part 3

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Nancy turned to Pam. "I know who that girl is." She couldn’t believe what she saw.

"Who is she?" Why the melodramatics? Pam wondered.

Nancy started walking fast, pulling her friend along with her. "That ‘girl’ is not a girl. That ‘girl’ is Tim Hynes." She wanted to catch up to him.

"You’re kidding!" She was shocked. "Isn’t that the kid in your grade that you went out with once?" Pam knew Nancy wasn’t kidding. She thought back to the face she had seen and knew that Nancy was right.

"Yes, I can’t believe it. Did you get a good look at him just then? He was as natural-looking as any girl I’ve ever seen.

He was actually pretty". Nancy remembered how Tim was always being teased about how much he looked like a girl. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

"We’ve got to catch up to him. This could be fun." Pam’s mind was racing. He really was attractive. If Nancy hadn’t told her who he was, she would never have known in a million years that he wasn’t a girl. There were a number of ways they could have fun with him. Nancy only hesitated for a second.

She knew she had to go along with whatever Pam wanted to do. That was ok, she supposed. She almost wished she hadn’t told Pam. It was too late now. They got up really close by the time he reached the food court. Pam was the first one to say anything as they woke up on either side of him. Nancy on his left and Pam on his right. He prayed they didn’t notice him.

It was hard to walk slowly; he wanted to run. Not just to the bus but all the way home, and slam and lock his apartment door and get out of these clothes as fast as possible. He didn’t dare look back in case they were behind him. Tim felt someone passing him on his left. No, on both sides. He must be walking too slowly.

He should speed up.

"Hi, Timmy," Pam said melodiously when she was right beside him.

Nancy chimed in from his other side. "Hello, Timmy. You look particularly lovely today."

Was he crazy, dressing up this way? She thought to herself. Oh God! Should he run? Should he stop and try to explain? To these two, there's not a chance of their understanding. Tim stopped and looked straight ahead, his heart in his throat. He couldn’t say a word.

Nancy and Pam each took an arm. Pam steered him toward the food court. "Why don’t we go get a drink together, Timmy?" Pam’s accent, like before, was on the "Timmy." "Yes. That’s a wonderful idea. You must be so thirsty after all the shopping you’ve been doing." Nancy couldn’t get over how he looked, even close up. He was even wearing makeup. Did he have a choice? he asked himself. God, he wished he could just run away. He turned and looked at Nancy. He didn’t like the look on her face. "Please, just let me go. I just want to leave." Tim whispered in his normal voice.

Pam answered before Nancy could speak. "But Timmy, we just thought we’d have a little talk, you know, just girl talk." There was no way he was going to get away from her. They were going to have some fun.

What was in Nancy’s expression was contempt. How could he make such a fool of himself? Pam was right; they should have some fun with him. The others would be back from the movies in a few minutes, and they just had to see him.

"Timmy, if you are a good girl and come with us, we won’t pull off that lovely wig and show everyone in the mall that you’re really a boy. Now, you would like that drink, wouldn’t you?" Nancy whispered in his ear.

Pam was close enough to hear and thought what Nancy told him was just delightful. Not that. God, please not that. "Yes." He wanted to die, to just crawl in a hole and die. He let them lead him to a table.

"That’s a good girl," Nancy said, smiling.

Nancy only got them one soda as Pam kept him company. That’s all they could afford. They made him sit at ‘their’ table. The one their group always used when they came to the mall. The girls gave him a close examination. They hadn’t paid him much attention in a very long time. He really was skinny and shapely. Pam wanted to know, "Are your boobs real?" She was kidding. She really didn’t think they were, but they looked very natural on him. Tim didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at them; he stared down at the table, too ashamed to look at either of them.

When he didn’t answer, Pam got angry. What right did this freaky little pervert have to ignore me? She poked him in his right breast. It felt real. "You better answer me when I talk to you, little girl."

Nancy knew Pam would humiliate him right in front of everyone, and she also knew it would be mortifying for them too. "You better do as she says." Nancy looked at Pam. "Be careful; you don’t want to embarrass us at the same time."

Nancy was right. She’d keep her voice down. "So you like dressing up as a girl. Do you like boys too?"

Tim only had a one-word answer for her. "No." He knew there was nothing he could say to them that they wouldn’t make fun of him about. Maybe they’d get tired of him and let him go, he prayed they would.

"Who’s your friend?" Sue asked as she walked up to Pam and Nancy. Sue was a little annoyed that they let a stranger sit at their table. Patty, who had gone to the movie with Sue, just sat down.

Sue was tall and skinny with her yellow-blond hair cut short, in a crop cut. She had deep green eyes, and her nose was in proportion to her height, long and slender. She had full, puffy lips that were an invitation to the boys.

Patty was as short as Sue was tall. She was no more than 5’ 2". Her light brown hair was a little darker than Nancy’s. Her little turned-up nose looked perfectly in proportion to her little puckered mouth. Brown eyes and long lashes gave the impression she was made from the mold of a porcelain doll.

"She’s an old friend of Nancy’s." Pam would have a little fun with them. "We were just going to the bathroom. Come with us; we have a surprise for you." Nancy could just imagine what Pam was going to do. The idea of taking Tim into the ladies room was exciting. She grabbed a few of his packages and stood up to go. Pam grabbed the rest, and she got up.

Tim was too afraid to move.

Nancy wanted to tell him to get up, but she didn’t want to call him Tim or Timmy. That would ruin the surprise. She thought fast. "Come on, Tina, let’s go. We’ll help you with your packages." She put her free hand under his arm.

If he didn’t get up, there would be a fuss made right here in the middle of all these people. He followed Pam with Nancy at his side, and the others brought up the rear. Tim didn’t want to go into the ladies’ room.

He didn’t want to go anywhere with them. He had to go to the bathroom, but he had planned on holding it until he got home. His nervousness didn’t help his full bladder.

Pam opened the door, and the others followed her in. They waited until the two women in the bathroom left. Pam locked the door behind them. Now they wouldn’t be interrupted. "Ok, what’s the surprise?" Sue wanted to know. She hated suspense. Her curiosity would kill her one day.

"You may know our friend ‘Tina’ here," Nancy suggested it to them. They took a good look. Patty answered for them both. "I’ve never seen her before. What’s this all about?"

Nancy and Pam were nearly bursting.

Tim stood in front of the stall doors, silent, with his head lowered. He wished he was dead. "You really don’t remember her?" Pam asked. She enjoyed dragging it out. She knew it annoyed Sue.

"Stop fooling around. Who is she?" Enough, thought Sue, looking at the girl again.

"You tell them, Nancy." Pam watched their faces.

She was happy to. "You guys remember that kid in my class, Tim. The one with the really pretty face? The one that looks a lot like a girl?"

You could hear the intake of breath as they recognized him.

"Oh my God." Said Sue, staring at him.

Patty walked up to him and lifted his chin. "This is unbelievable."

"Is that his real hair?" Sue wanted to know. She walked over and pulled at his bangs.

Tim reacted and brushed her hand away. They were talking about him as if he weren’t there.

Sue was too stunned to be angry at him.

"It’s a wig." Nancy injected. It really looked good on him.

"What’s he wearing under those clothes?" Sue wanted to see. "Show them ‘Tina.’" Pam liked the name that Nancy had picked for him. "Open your blouse and shorts. I want to see it too." She took a threatening step toward him. He could handle two of them, but what about the others? If he put up a fight, they could leave him in here in worse shape than when he came in.

They could take his wig easily. He had two hundred and ninety dollars worth of clothes in the bags they were holding. He didn’t want to lose them. Worse would be his embarrassment.

Nancy joined Pam, and they both took another step in his direction. Nancy could see that he was terrified. He deserved to be.

"Enough fooling around." Pam reached for his belt. She didn’t like being kept waiting. She looked at him and didn’t see a boy. She saw a timid, annoying girl who wasn’t doing what she told her to do, and she wasn’t accustomed to that.

"I’ll do it." He felt meek and completely out of control. Tim opened his belt and zipped his zipper down. His shorts didn’t drop; his hips held them up. He had a narrow waist. They all just stood looking at him. His blouse was next. He unbuttoned it from the bottom to the top.

Nancy reached over and pulled his fly open for them to see his white lacy panties and bra with its fillers. "He really does want to be a girl." Sue was shocked and delighted at the same time.

"He’s strange." Agreed, Patty.

"I think we should help him be as feminine as he can be. Don’t you girls agree?" Pam was turning over ideas in her mind.

Sue was quick to agree. "Oh yes, definitely." She had ideas of her own. Nancy agreed with Pam and Sue. By Tim’s doing this, she felt that he had cast a shadow on her reputation. She wanted to get even, and agreeing to go along with anything Pam and Sue wanted to do to him would only help her, in their eyes.

"Gina’s working this afternoon. Let’s take him down there and see what she can do with him." Sue was anxious to do something, anything. If his hair was even the least bit long under that wig, Gina would be able to do something with it.

"That’s a great idea." Patty wanted to see him humiliated, and that was a good start. Tim had finished redressing before Sue unlocked the door. It was a good thing. Three highly annoyed women were waiting to come in when the door opened. He didn’t know what they had planned for him or who this Gina was. All he could do was go with them.

The beauty shop was at the far end of the mall. Sue went in and found her friend while the others waited outside.

Gina’s boss usually didn’t work on Sundays, and this one was no exception. "Sure, we can use the private room, but what’s going on?" Who is this girl that you want me to work on?" It was four o’clock, and she had no one else scheduled today. The other girls still had one or two customers to finish, but they wouldn’t bother them. "Bring her in."

They all brought him in, and they all gathered in the back room to wait for Gina. They put Tim in the chair.

She knew almost instantly that the girl was wearing a wig. "What’s going on? Do you want me to restyle her wig?"

"Gina, I would like to introduce you to Tim." With that, Pam pulled the wig from his head.

He looked odd with his real hair all tied in a flat bun.

Tim was beside himself. He couldn’t talk; all he could do was fill up with tears. He wiped them away before they ran down his cheek.

The girls told Gina the story. When Gina got over the shock, she agreed, "It’ll be fun; he’s got beautiful hair." She had untied the big flat bun on the back of his head and let his hair fall down past his shoulders a good four inches.

"There are lots of things we can do, but I think we probably better start with a wash and rinse. I want to put some highlights in there for him." He felt helpless, like a puppet. He tried to object several times. All they said was.

"Go ahead and leave, but we’ll follow you and announce to the world what you are: a freak."

She washed Tim’s hair and put in the blond highlights.

Off to the side, out of earshot of Tim, Pam asked Gina to "perm his hair so that he will look like a girl, even if he tries to disguise it."

"I could give him a really tight curly perm," Gina suggested.

Nancy was listening. "No, give him big soft curls. He will look much prettier that way."

Pam looked annoyed at Nancy.

Nancy went on to say, "We can give him a tighter perm later if we want to." Pam could picture how he’d look. She hated to admit that Nancy was right. She turned to Gina. "I agree. Go ahead and do his hair, Nancy’s way."

"I’ll take good care of your little girl, don’t worry. The perm I’m going to give him will look great." This was fun for her, and he deserved the full treatment for what he did, pretending to be one of them. He was a sick little perv.

"Gina, I’d appreciate it if you would keep this quiet. We want to have some fun with him, and if anyone else found out, it might ruin everything." Pam was really insistent.

"I won’t tell a soul. I wish I could join you girls; it sounds like fun." She could almost imagine what someone like Pam might have in mind. The boy was going to be sorry he ran into her.

His hair was full and thick after a layered cut and big curly perm. Gina teased the top so it was full in front. She gave him long bangs and streaked them just a little.

They all watched as Gina transformed him. He looked pretty convincing with the wig, but it didn’t compare to the way he looked now. His hair framed and drew attention to his pretty features. He was in style with the girls his age.

"Aren’t his eyebrows a little too bushy?" Sue thought as she looked in the mirror at the finished style.

"Definitely, they need to be plucked and shaped." Pam and Patty agreed. He’d hate to, but he would cut his hair when they were done with him and left him alone, but what was he going to do about his eyebrows? He supposed he could pencil them in; maybe no one would notice.

It took Gina a while to get them just the shape she wanted, plucking like crazy, but the time was well spent. He was so much prettier now with the thinner, shorter brows that swept up from the middle and curved over his eyes.

Gina finished, "That’s about it. What are you going to do with him now?" They had talked about that while Gina worked on him. Sue wanted to take him to the beach and cruise for a while.

See if they could pick up someone new and have some fun with ‘Tina.’ Patty suggested that they go and meet the guys and grab a pizza. Sue liked Patty’s idea. So did Pam.

Nancy was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable about how far they were taking this; she kept quiet.

Pam surprised them. She wasn’t going with them. "I need to go and check something out, but I think you ought to take him to meet the guys. I’ll meet you back at his place at eight. Ok?" They had gone through his purse, and Pam knew the building. The apartment was in his name, so it was safe to assume that he lived alone.

Of course, they agreed. Tim heard none of this; he was still in the back room with Gina, and she was finishing him up.

Tim assumed they were finished humiliating him and that he could go home. He certainly wasn’t worried about the way he looked. He had to admit he looked better than he ever did. He wouldn’t admit to them that he liked it. It made him sick that he would have to cut off all of his hair if the perm and coloring didn’t wash out. It had taken him so long to grow it. They escorted him from the back room. They had his packages. Gina called after them, as they were leaving, "What do you want me to do with this?" She held up the wig.

Pam looked back. "Trash it. Tina doesn’t need it anymore." Tim thought she had put it in one of the bags. He didn’t care; he wouldn’t need it again. He watched as Gina threw it in the trash. A small feeling of loss swept over him. Pam saw the look on his face as his wig went into the trash. Too bad, she thought to herself.

It was six o’clock, and the mall had closed. There were very few people left walking around.

They took him to a different door from where he came in, where the bus stopped.

"The bus comes to the other side of the mall. Can’t you just let me go out that way?" He just wanted to go home; they had their fun, and he was humiliated enough. Everyone would know about today in a few hours. These girls were famous for spreading gossip. He knew his life was going to be hell.

"We want you to come with us, Tina. We’ll take you home." Nancy tried to make the suggestion sound sincere.

Tim didn’t like the idea. The sick feeling in his stomach was getting worse. It wasn’t raining any longer, but the sky was still heavily overcast. The weather matched his mood: dismal.

After they put his things in the trunk, they sandwiched him in the back seat of Patty’s car, between Nancy and Sue.

"I’ll see you all later. Don’t forget." Pam waved and climbed into her car. She headed for home. "This isn’t the way to my apartment."

They were going in the opposite direction. Tim was scared; his stomach was doing flips.

"We’re just going to make a little side trip," Sue told him. Wait until the guys get a load of their new girlfriend.

They all had agreed to string the guys along for now. If any of them wanted to come on to ‘Tina,’ that was fine. Later, they’d make them feel like jerks when they told them the truth. "It’ll be fun, Tina." Patty enjoyed treating him like a girl. That was what he wanted anyway, or else he wouldn’t have dressed up like one of them.

"My name is Tim." They were being condescending, and it was annoying. "You better get used to answering to ‘Tina.’ If you’re going to look like a girl, you’re going to get treated like one." Nancy had mixed emotions. She was still angry with him, feeling his actions tended to humiliate her, since they’d been close once. On the other hand, they had shared something once. She had cared about him. She always felt guilty about breaking off their relationship just because of the way he looked. Was she really that shallow? "What do you mean? Where are we going?" Tim was getting really worried now. Patty answered from the front seat. "We’re just going to pick up the guys from the high school. Then we’re going to get a bite to eat." She could see him squirm in the rearview mirror. "Please take me home." He begged.

A few of their boyfriends were the same guys who always took so much pleasure in harassing him and beating him up. "Later, Tina. By the way, I hope you can talk more like a girl than that. We’re not going to give away your secret as long as you behave, but if you talk like you’re doing now, we won’t have to tell the guys your secret."

His voice was too low; he’d never get away with it. She knew he must be able to talk differently, or else he wouldn’t have gotten away with shopping in the mall. God, could he fool those guys? He’d have to try. He knew how to walk and talk and move like a girl; he’d watched and studied them long enough, and he practiced for endless hours in his apartment and in his bedroom at home before that.