People don’t take trips, trips take people - Antoine 20

One week on, Antoine found himself settling into a routine of sorts, he would wake up, get showered and changed into a girly outfit, eat breakfast with Lily and Marianne before accompanying the girls to work at Fifi's wedding planners.

He found the job itself pretty easy, all he had to do was keep an inventory of the stock and bring the occasional item up to the front of the store for a customer to try on. 

He also found that his colleagues, in the store, to be a  fun group of people, always goofing around and playing little jokes on each other, in fact under other circumstances he could have even seen himself enjoying working there.

The problem was, of course, Antoine felt like a fraud, pretending to be someone he wasn’t, all the time worried that he was going to say or do the wrong thing and have his secret revealed. 

Things weren’t much better at home, where he was constantly having to put on an act for the one person in the world, he had promised never to lie to.

These days, Antoine didn’t know which was worse, when Marianne was around or wasn’t. When she was with them, as much as he had grown to dislike her. at least he could use the excuse, that he was acting the way he was, to stop her finding out who he really was, but when she wasn’t around, he would have to pretend he was enjoying living as a girl, telling his girlfriend that he wanted to explore his feminine side for a while.

The whole situation was a mess with Antoine caught in a web of lies, each day digging himself a bigger hole. Like today, where all three of them had a day off at the same time. Lily had arranged to visit the salon to do something new with her hair and as soon as Marianne heard about her plans she asked if she could go along too. 

Antoine had heard the girls discussing the plans a few nights earlier, over dinner, and initially, he had thought for a second he might finally get a few hours to himself, where he could throw on some of his old clothes and relax, of course, Marianne had other ideas.

The next day at work, she approached him in the stockroom, telling him that when they got home from work that evening, he was to approach Lily and ask her if he could join them at the salon.

His reaction as you can imagine was one of shock and horror, but after arguing his case and losing, he found himself red-faced and embarrassed that evening, once again lying to Lily as he asked to join them at the salon saying he wanted to try something new, something that made him look a little more feminine.

So, the next morning, having got dressed in an outfit Marianne had picked out, Antoine found himself out on the street, hobbling along in a pair of the most ridiculous shoes he had ever seen, trying to keep up with Lily and Marianne. 

The shoes in question were bright pink and incredibly tall, but it was the heel that really made them stand out, or the lack of one, as these shoes were a heelless design, Marianne had informed him, which meant he really had to be careful placing his feet, as all his weight now needed to be distributed across the small area at the front of the unusual shoes.

The rest of the outfit was pretty standard, a silky long sleeve blouse and a short skirt reaching mid-thigh that revealed almost the entirety of his long smooth shaved legs, encased in a pair of sheer hose.

What wasn’t standard and probably the thing Antoine hated most about his outfit for the day, was the pink flower hairband sat atop his head, and that was really saying something considering how much he despised the scary pink footwear strapped to his feet. When she revealed the ultra-girly hairband to a horrified looking Antoine, earlier that day, Marianne insisted that she had chosen it as it accessorised his outfit perfectly, but Antoine had his doubts, thinking it more likely she had chosen it just to embarrass him, and if that was the case, she had achieved her goal.

Having stumbled slightly after letting his mind wander for a second, Antoine stopped to collect himself as he saw Lily turn and look his way, probably after hearing the clumsy sound of his heavy shoes, clomping along the pavement as he had quickly regained his balance.

(See image 36)

“Are you ok”? Lily asked as she took a few steps towards him.

Antoine nodded, “yeah, I’m fine, I just lost my concentration for a second”, he said with a forced smile.

“Well, be careful, you don’t want to trip”, Lily said, “I did tell you to wear a pair of flats today; those shoes are fun but I’m not sure they're the most practical choice”.

Antoine wanted to scream, he wanted to tell her he hated the shoes and would like nothing more than to be in a pair of flats, or better still, dressed as a man and not on his way to a hair salon, but seeing Marianne within earshot with a sickening smile on her face, Antoine bit his tongue and lied, “ I know, you're right of course, but I couldn’t resist wearing them, they are just so cute”, he said feeling ridiculous as the words left his lips, the words Marianne had told him to say.

Lily shook her head, “Well, it’s your choice I guess, you're just surprising me so much lately, I never knew this side of you existed”, Lily said reaching out with her hand, “come on, let's walk together, we can discuss what you're going to do with your hair".

20 minutes later, Antoine found himself sat in a salon chair, his hair having just been washed, and wrapped up in a towel on top of his head. He and Lily hadn’t come to a decision about what to do with his hair, telling her he would perhaps just leave it up to the stylist, and if truth be told, Antoine preferred it that way, he knew he would be walking out of the salon with a new feminine hairdo either way, at least this way, he could tell himself it was forced upon him and not something he had willingly picked out himself.

Looking around as he heard footsteps approach, Antoine saw his stylist for the day, a tall, beautiful woman with an edgy hairstyle, “Hi, you must be Zara, I’m Mari, what are we doing today”?

“Hello Mari”, Antoine replied, trying not to appear nervous, “I’m not sure, I want to change my look a little”, he said forcing out the words through gritted teeth, “can you perhaps suggest something”?

The woman’s face lit up, “really? You want to leave it to me? Usually, customers come in knowing exactly what they want, I hardly ever get to be creative”.

“Err… yeah, but nothing too wild”, Antoine replied looking up at the woman’s purple hair, the right side of her head shaved above the ear.

“Oh, don’t worry, “Mari said running her hand along the side of her shaved head, “this kind of look isn’t for everyone, “you’re looking for something cute, something to bring out your pretty features, right”?

Antoine felt a sense of relief, “err… yeah, I don’t think purple is the colour for me”, he replied, “oh, I mean, it looks great on you but I… I…”.

“Don’t worry babe, it’s fine, I know what you mean, shall we get started”? Mari said with a smile.

From the moment Mari started working on him, time seemed to pass at snail's pace for Antoine, as he watched ever flick of her comb and ever snip of her scissors, trying to picture in his mind each step of what she was doing as surprisingly this salon didn’t have a mirror he could look into. But finding the whole process extremely stressful and tiring, after a while, he gave up trying to predict what he would look like, closing his eyes, and leaving Mari to do her thing.

The rest of his time in the salon followed a similar pattern as Antoine sat bored with his eyes closed, trying to keep his mind occupied, apart from when Mari suddenly asked him to move back over to the sink, where she proceeded to cover his hair in some solution with a strong chemical smell before starting to wrap it in foil. 

This caused Antoine to panic as he quickly realised from watching enough TV and movies to know, that he was having his hair dyed. But with Mari reassuring him once more, he wasn’t going to end up with purple hair and she was just going to give him a little more vibrance, he once again closed his eyes and tried to relax.

When Mari asked if he wanted her to do his makeup like his friends, he just nodded his head. The girls had already spoken about going out later that evening, and the thought of not having to do his makeup when they got back home, definitely sounded appealing.

Mari finished by blow-drying his hair, and as he heard the dryer switch off, Antoine felt a mixture of relief and nervousness. He was glad the ordeal was finally over as he felt like he had been sat there for days, but he also knew, it was now time to see what this woman had done to him and hoped it wouldn’t be anything too extreme.

With his heart thumping in his chest, Antoine took a deep breath as Mari brought over a hand mirror and placed it in front of his face. The gasp that followed could be heard on the other side of the salon as Antoine first laid eyes on his new look, his mouth dropping open and his eyes widening as he tried to get his head around the blonde-haired girl staring back at him.

“You like it”? Mari asked in an excited voice.

Antoine didn't hear her as he just gazed upon his new platinum blonde locks, another change to his appearance that he knew made him look even less like his former self and even more like the girl, everyone seemed to believe him to be.

(See image 37)