Chapter 2
I waited as I was, as the other guy strode away. Drom stood for a few moments and then went to a stall selling coffee. They had some tables and chairs set out. I turned around and watched him get a drink, then he went to sit down.
I went over to the stall and got my own drink. I had been worried what Drom would say if he ever saw me in a skirt, but now that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to him about. I went over to his table.
“Do you mind if I sit here?”
“Make yourself at home, Miss.”
I sat down and put my bags on a vacant chair.
“Thank you, Drom.”
He looked surprised.
“How do you know me? Have you been to one of the theatre shows.”
“I’ve known you a lot longer than that. What I saw, just now, proves that those magazines that you keep under the mattress aren’t the body builder ones that you told me. How long have you known that you were gay, brother of mine.”
“Effy! I thought that I was the queer one in the family. How come you’re sitting there, in a skirt and looking absolutely gorgeous?”
I gave him the potted story of my summer and he laughed when I told him that I was here to get a dress for tomorrow night, as I was going out with Aqua Marina and her school friends.
“Do you mean to say that Marina The Model asked you out on a date, but only if you were in a dress. That’s so cool and out there. I was thinking that I may be the bad apple in the family and there you are, being much further out, it puts me in the shade.”
“That’s the thing, Drom. Dad even gave me some money to spend and told me that he was glad that there was one in the family willing to be different.”
“He did, did he? I was afraid to tell him that I’m gay and have known it since I was ten. Did you see Karl, earlier?”
“I did. Is he the one that you’re living with?”
“That’s right. We’re sharing a flat near the theatre. I’ve decided that I’m not coming home, so you can have the room to yourself. I’ll pop in on Sunday and clear the rest of my stuff out. If the folks have surfaced, I’ll bare my soul and hope that Dad accepts my strangeness as easily as he’s accepted you. I don’t know what our sisters will say.”
“Ask them for yourself, they’re just about to sit down with us.”
Cat and Belle had some more bags when they arrived. I stood.
“Cappo for both of you?”
“Yes, please, Effy. Hello, Drom. My, don’t you look spiffing. Have you got a date tonight?”
As I walked to the stall, I heard my brother cough, probably to give him some thought time. When I got back with the paper cups, I put them in front of the girls and sat to take another sip of my own. Belle put a hand on my arm.
“Effy, Drom has told us that he’s gay. Did you know that before?”
“No. I did know that he had some magazines with naked guys in, but he told me that they were bodybuilders. I only found out when I was looking at a cute dress in that vintage shop and saw them kissing.”
“What’s the other guy like?”
“About the size of Archie, only good looking. If I was gay, I’d fancy him myself.”
Drom gave out a hoot.
“You, a boy, sitting there in a skirt and you’re telling me that you’re not gay! Tell me that you don’t check out other guys.”
“Actually, brother, I don’t. I like girls, and if I have to wear a dress to be with the best one, then it’s no bother to wear a dress. I wear a tunic at the salon that hides my shorts. If that’s wearing a dress, then I’ve been wearing one for a month.”
“Don’t tell me that you work at the salon with your sisters!”
Belle pointed her finger at him.
“Lay off Effy! She’s one of the most industrious ones in the salon. Since she’s worked there, the place is kept spotless and tidy. The boss has been very happy, and even allowed us to use the facilities to make her look like this tonight. We’ll do the same tomorrow, to make her irresistible to Marina.”
They continued to talk, as I sat there, finishing my drink. Whenever they mentioned me, it was as a girl. It was if the first fifteen years of my life were for nothing! That’s when a thought struck me. I was getting wrapped up in this playacting, even enjoying being looked at by girls and guys alike. Even now, there were people passing by who were spending longer looking at the three of us than was normal. I looked across the street.
“Can you look after my bags for a while? That vintage shop is calling me.”
Belle looked over the road.
“That one in the window will look great on you, Effy, if you can afford it.”
“That’s what I’ve decided to find out. I’ll be back.”
I got up and walked over to the shop and went in. A smiling lady greeted me.
“That red dress in the window. Do you have one that I can try on?”
“Of course, dear. Let me show you the changing room and you can slip that top and skirt off and I’ll bring it to you. Special occasion?”
“First date, and I want to stand out in a crowd.”
“You stand out in a crowd, dear, red dress or not.”
I went and stripped, and she brought in one of the dresses. I tried it on and looked at my reflection in the long mirror. Yep! All I could see was me as a she. The woman brought some trinkets to me that she said would go well with my colouring and the dress. I walked out of there, several pounds lighter, but with the dress, a vintage necklace, some bangles and cheap rings. I also had directions to a shoe shop that would help me get shoes that went with the outfit.
When I got back to the table, Drom had left, but his seat was taken by a girl that used to come to the house when I was several years younger. Cat was holding her hand and smiled at me.
“Effy, you must remember Bronwyn. We were great friends at school. You would have been still in primary when she left the country. She’s been working in Africa but has come home again.”
“Hello, Bronwyn. I must have been about ten when I saw you last. How are you?”
“All better having met Cat again. If I remember, the last time I saw you, you were a boy.”
“Still am, under this skirt. What are you doing here, now?”
“The NGO that I was working with have had to pull out of the area that we were in. It became a war zone, and we weren’t welcome. I’m working in the local office and was only thinking about Cat the other day. Then, hey presto, here she is.”
Cat was smiling broadly.
“Bronnie and I will go to the pub and properly catch up. Don’t wait up for me.”
They both stood, never releasing their grip, and walked off, very close together. I sat for a moment.
“Dad’s going to be happy.”
“How’s that?”
“He told me that he was happy that I was the first in the family to dare to be different. Now, I’ve found out that my brother is living with a guy in a gay relationship, and, if I’m not wrong, Cat’s had a lesbian relationship with Bronwyn, and is likely to be restarting it.”
Belle giggled.
“You do realise that we will both have a room of our own. We’ll be able to snore and fart as often as we like without being stared at.”
“Are Archie and you the only straight ones in the family?”
“That depends on what you consider straight, Effy. As far as Archie goes, why do you think that he looks after us girls so well, with you being included now?”
“I always thought that it was being a big brother.”
“Archie has a lot of girls that he knows, Effy. I’ve met a few of them, when I was working the street around the railway station. I gave that world up when I got pregnant and never went back to it after the abortion. Archie is one of the better guys around in that business. You don’t think that he was able to buy that flash car on a mechanic wage, do you?”
I sat for several moments as I processed it all in my thoughts.
“OK. So, I’m the youngest of the family. My parents are bad musicians who play in a grotty bar and probably have more drugs than corn flakes. My oldest brother is a pimp, my oldest sister is a past prostitute, and the next two siblings are a lesbian and a gay. Someone said the word ‘dysfunctional’ recently, and that really fits, now that I’m a cross dresser. There’s just one thing I have to do now.”
“What’s that, Effy?”
“I need shoes to match this dress and the nice sales lady told me about a place down the street that’s giving out two pairs of earrings if you get your ears done and buy a pair of studs.”
We picked up our bags and made our way along the street until we found the tattoo and piercing parlour with the stud plus special. I sat in his chair while the guy marked my ears, Five minutes later, I walked out with a stud in each ear and two sets of earrings in my bag. The shoe shop was good, as they gave me an extra discount for matching the shoes to the dress, telling us that the other shop would also give a discount to anyone matching a dress to the shoes. Belle called Archie, and I now knew why she had him on speed dial.
On the way home, she sat in the front with him and told him about Bronwyns’ return on the scene, and then the fact that Drom was living with a guy. He wanted to know who the guy was, so I told him the name was Karl, and if he wanted a description, just look in the mirror and smile. He nodded.
“I know about him. He looks after a couple of girls and several boys around the theatre and university district. I hope that he’s not leading Drom into working the street.”
“They certainly looked loved up when I saw them together, but Karl did look to be the dominant one. Drom said that he’ll be home on Sunday to clean out his stuff, and that the room will be mine after that.”
“I’ll have a heart to heart with him then. Thanks for the heads up, Effy. You would make a good manager when you’re older, especially the way you look now.”
When we arrived home, Archie let us out and took off again, no doubt to cruise his girls’ patches and make sure that they were all right. The folks would still be playing, so Belle decided that I needed to show her what I looked like in the red dress.
I took off the skirt and top, and put the dress on, and then added the bits of bling and the shoes, which had a higher heel than I’d been used to. Belle took some pictures on her phone, to show Cat when we saw her, and I had to practise walking up and down the upstairs corridor until I was able to do it easily.
When I went to fully undress, cleanse, and get into bed, Belle gave me an old nightie to wear, to keep up the feeling. It was sheer and slippery and the feeling that I got was more than good. In the morning, I was in the nightie with my old dressing gown on when I went into the bathroom, very early. I used all the new products that Cat had put in there and felt pretty good when I went to dress.
Among last nights’ purchases were another skirt and top, so that I wouldn’t have to wear the same things two days in a row. Belle had promised that she would cull her wardrobe to see if there were any other things I could have, especially now I was happy in a dress.
Belle and Archie came into the kitchen as I was tidying up my breakfast things, so I started getting theirs together. Belle helped, but Archie just sat down, expecting us to serve him. I mentioned that to Belle as we were going to the salon, and she told me that it was a womans’ place to look after the alpha male, and, seeing he was now the only male in the house, he had to be the alpha.
“What about Dad?”
“Our father is off with the pixies most of the time. All he’s good for is playing guitar and singing off-key. If he had ever been alpha, we would all be rocket scientists.”
Cat arrived a few minutes after us at the salon, wearing an outfit she had bought last night. We opened up and got into the Saturday rush. I was giving a girl the ‘hardly there’ look when the lady who had commented on my plain look came in. One of the other girls was looking after her hair as I finished with my client and started a round of sweeping and tidying.
When the lady went to pay, she was talking to Ruth. I was emptying the dustpan into the bin when Ruth called me over.
“Effy, dear. This lady is the one who spoke about your plain looks last month. She has just told me that she thinks that your new look is fabulous and is sorry if she had offended you.”
“It’s all right, madam. I was a bit dowdy back then. I’m still in school and concentrate too much on my lessons to go out clubbing. Since I’ve worked here, I’ve come to appreciate looking good.”
“Quite so, young Effy. That’s an odd nickname?”
“I was called Ephemeral on my birth certificate. It follows the rest of my family. We were all named after where, or how, we were conceived or looked like at birth. I was a very small premmie, and Mum said that I was hardly there, so Ephemeral was my name.”
“That’s so precious. Look, I have a business making organic cosmetics for the fashion industry. I’m looking after Pauline and the Pussycats tonight, but I wonder if you can come and see me on Sunday. You do have that ‘girl next door’ look that may be what we’re looking for.”
“I’ll be at that concert tonight. I’ll be with a bunch of girls from school.”
She dug into her bag, pulled out a business card and grabbed a pen from the desk. She wrote something on it and handed it to me.
“At that theatre, when the show’s over, there’s a door to the backstage off to the right of the stage. There’ll be a guy guarding it from autograph hunters, but show him this and he’ll let you, and one friend only, in. I’ll be at the dressing room to clean the girls’ faces of stage make-up. Bring what you need to give them your look and I’ll pay you on Sunday.”
“Thank you, madam. I’ll be there!”
She left and Ruth looked at me.
“You’ve certainly left your mark there, young lady. She only comes in to get her hair looked after every month, and we do carry some of her range in house. In fact, most of what you use on your own look is from her products. I’ll give you new products to take with you, tonight. It will be great if one of my girls gets to give that band a new look.”
During our lunch break, Belle dragged me into a lingerie shop where I was urged to buy the right underwear for the red dress. I came out with a bag, containing a red bra and pant set, a red slip and a few packs of sheer black tights. Marina was in, later that afternoon, with another three girls, all booked in for a hairdo. She told me that they were meeting at six-thirty for food, and the show started at eight, so we could enjoy our meal. I told her that I would be there. It was odd, with the other three, all in my class, treating me as if they’d known me as a girl all along.
Because we had seen what their hair was looking like, Cat and Belle did something similar for me, although mine was a fair bit shorter. They had all left with a semi-upsweep with side strands dangling, and I felt weird when I got out of the chair, but it did accentuate the girl image.
Back at home, I stripped off and had a flannel wash to smell nice. Belle had loaned me some fresh-smelling underarmo and a small bottle of perfume, after showing me how little to use, and the best places to put it. I had laid out my outfit on the bed when there was a knock on the door.
I opened it to let Archie in. He gave me a small mobile phone.
“Effy, this is for you. It’s what they call a ‘burner’. It has my number programmed into the speed dial list. All you need to do is to press one, one, one. If I don’t answer, leave a short message, no passing the time of day. If you want me to pick you up, just tell me the time and place and I’ll be there. If you’re being picked up by Marinas’ parents, tell me and I won’t be worried. If they take you to her house, it’s only a short walk, and I would think that Virgil or Scott will walk you home. Here’s the charger. Keep the phone on while you’re out and keep it charged. I’ll be looking out for you from now on. You look too beautiful to be out there alone, so make sure that you don’t wander away from the others.”
I thanked him and put it in my bag with my own, not that I tended to get many calls. When he had gone, I continued my preparations, putting on the new underwear, which gave me goose bumps with the feel of it. I did my own make-up, in a ‘night out’ style, then put the dress on.
It fitted my shape and was a classic look in a red shiny material with a skirt that was generous, if a few inches over my knee. I looked in the mirror and swayed to see it swing from side to side in a way that I also enjoyed seeing on other girls. The midriff was a two-inch band of black with small beads. When I had the shoes on, I made sure that my bag had all the right things in, as well as a clear plastic bag with the cosmetics and various brushes and pencils in. With all the bling added, I took out the studs and put the small hoops in my ears. I took a selfie on my own phone. I looked hot!
I looked into the kitchen as Belle and my parents were sitting down for the evening meal. Dad got up and came over to give me a hug and a twenty-pound note, ‘for your meal’. Mum told me that I must be her most beautiful daughter, which made Belle hoot. Archie came in behind me.
“I’ll take you to the theatre, Effy. You’ll find Saturday night on the bus a bad experience with you looking like that.”
We said our cheerio’s and he sat me in his car. When he got in, we left the house.
“How are you feeling, Effy?”
“Strange. I saw myself in the mirror and all I could think of was how I would like to get me in bed.”
“I can understand that. You could make a fortune near the railway station, but I’ll fight you if you ever think about that. You’re destined for better things; I can sense it. Before summer, you were like a shadow in the background, and now you’re out there and proud.”
“Drom said that I was more out there than he was. He thought that I was looking at boys.”
“Are you?”
“No more than usual. I do notice them looking at me in the same was that they look at other girls, but some do appear creepy.”
“You hone that skill, girl. If they seem creepy, then you stay away from them. Remember, if you get caught alone with someone like that, they would not be happy to find what’s in your panties. You’ll be safer with Marina, who already knows what you have.”
When we arrived at the theatre, he stopped to let me get out, and then he drove away, leaving me standing at the kerbside, looking like jailbait. I went into the fast-food place and saw the others at a table, with all the boys looking at them. I put on my brightest smile and walked towards them, making sure that the skirt was swaying as it should.
Beth was the first to see me, and the surprise on her face alerted the others. When Marina saw me, her eyes lit up and she stood to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I was led to the last seat at the table as the others regained their composure.
“Girls, you all know Effy. Effy, You know Beth, Evelyn, Josie, and Wilma. My word, when I said to glam up, I never expected you to outshine the rest of us.”
“I could never outshine you girls. You’re the prettiest group in school and have been since we went there. I’ve admired you all from afar, but not like some of the boys. I’m in admiration of your grace and intellect. Just being here, with you, is a privilege.”
When they had all stopped giggling, and we had decided on what we wanted to eat, we went up, in twos, to place our orders. I was standing in line with Marina when she took hold of my hand.
“My treat, Effy. I was the one to ask you out on a date, so I’m paying. No arguments. Mum will be waiting for me to call her after the show. She’ll pick us up and Virgil will walk the two of us to your place after we’ve been home, then he’ll walk me home again. Is that all right?”
“That will be great, Marina. This is the best Saturday night I’ve ever had, and it’s only just started. I do have a little surprise for you, after the show, but I’ll spring that before we leave the theatre.”
“Oooh! I like surprises. I’ll be trying to work out what it may be. That dress is perfect for you, where did you get it?”
“At the vintage shop in Digbeth, last night at their market event.”
“Did you choose it yourself, or did your sisters help?”
“They were across the road having a coffee, it’s all my own work.”
“And pierced ears as well, I see. Are you making this look permanent?”
“That’s entirely up to you, sweet Marina. If you want to see me again, in a dress, then there’s a load that my sisters will be putting my way.”
“Do you like looking like this?”
“It’s growing on me, Marina. I’ll just have a cheeseburger, please, with a strawberry shake.”
Marianne Gregory © 2026