People don’t take trips, trips take people - Antoine 15

“Please, Marianne, I can explain”, Antoine said panic-stricken, as he took a few wobbly steps forward.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this”, Marianne replied smiling, “go on then, explain how my cousin’s boyfriend is dressed up in a cute little outfit and pretending to be her housemate”.

“I had to do it", he blurted out, "Monique arrived unexpectedly, and we couldn’t let her find me there”, Antoine said, realising how silly his words sounded.

“Ha, sounds rather farfetched that, Antoine”, Marianne said loudly as a couple walking past gave him a strange look, “that’s not a wig right, you’ve had your hair extended and had your nails done, and no boy I know could act so naturally as a girl if they had just started dressing like this a few days ago”.

Antoine stepped closer, “shh, please keep your voice down, and please call me, Zara, in public”, he said looking around nervously, “it’s the truth, I promise you, I don’t want to be doing any of this, it just sort of got out of hand, I’m only doing this until Monique leaves”.

“Really? So, all this is just to trick poor old Aunt Monique”, Marianne replied, screwing up her face, “that’s so cruel”.

“No, not a trick, just a… a… just please don’t tell her, Marianne, it would really terrible if she found out the truth, especially now”, Antoine begged.

“I don’t know, I don’t feel comfortable lying to her, she doesn’t deserve this, you know”, Marianne said, shaking her head.

“I know, she’s been really kind to me, but please, Marianne, you can’t say anything”, Antoine pleaded.

Marianne fell silent for a moment as she thought about what the feminised man had said, before a sly smile crossed her lips, “ok, I won’t tell her”, she chirpily replied.

“Oh, thank you, thank you”, Antoine said relieved.

“But", she paused, "from now on, you need to do whatever I say, if I ask you to do something, you’ll do it without complaint”, Marianne added.

Antoine had a sick feeling in his stomach, he didn’t like the look in her eyes but what choice did he have, “ok, but please just don’t tell her”, he said while bowing his head.

“Well, as long as you remember that I’m the boss now, we won't have any problems, now let’s go back and enjoy the rest of our evening, and in the morning me you and Claude are going shopping”. Marianne said cheerfully.

Antoine breathed a heavy sigh, knowing that things had somehow just gotten worse, as Marianne turned to leave, taking a few steps before spinning back around again, “oh, and Zara, you’re not to tell Lily about this conversation, are we clear”?

The next afternoon, Antoine found himself on the streets of Paris, miserable and uncomfortable. As soon as Lily had left for work that morning, Marianne had entered his room and started rummaging through Zara’s wardrobe, examining the clothes inside and making comments about the styles.

Having hardly slept a wink, he watched in horror as she started tossing sexy looking dresses, definitely better suited for a night out, towards him on the bed before announcing that she wanted him to try them so she could see which one she liked the best.

For the next half an hour, he was forced to parade around the room, modelling outfit after outfit, until Marianne finally settled on what was probably his least favourite of all the dresses, he had tried on, a short leather number with an embroidered metal-studded pattern, the material hugged his body tightly and made it difficult to bend.

Pairing the outfit with a pair of off-white tights and the tall sparkly blue pumps, that had caused the embarrassing incident where he kicked over the sheep back in the salon, Marianne sat him down and started to paint his face with heavy makeup, looking as though she was having the time of her life, as Antoine silently obeyed every instruction, helpless to resist.

The next few hours were some of the most humiliating of the young man’s life to date, as he trotted along next to Marianne and Claudia, who were dressed much more casually than him, in their flat shoes and minimal makeup. Their first stop was an art museum, where he garnered quite a few stares the way he was dressed. He tried to keep his head high and act confidently, as people tutted and whispered, but on the inside, the humiliation was killing him, especially as Claudia snapped picture after picture, with her expensive camera, she had brought along especially for the trip.

After the museum, it only got worse, as the girls dragged him into shop after shop, forcing him to try on all sort of outfits, and purchase a set of lingerie where he had been measured up by one of the salesgirls, who looked almost as uncomfortable as him as Marianne and Claudia stood around giggling and snapping pictures.

By mid-afternoon, Antoine’s legs felt like jelly, having long ago lost the feeling in his toes. Having just posed for another picture, he turned to Marianne, “Marianne, are we almost done yet? I think my feet are going to drop off if I walk any further”, he moaned.

“Come now, Zara loves shopping, what fashion major wouldn’t? We have plenty more hours in the day yet, come on”, she said linking her arm through his, “you’re going to love the next shop, I promise”.

(See image 26)

Half stumbling, half dragged, Antoine minced his way up the street, as his two tormentors guided him onwards towards a high-end shopping centre.

Entering the building through the large glistening automatic glass doors, Antoine looked around in awe, it was a place he had never ventured into before, having heard it was exclusively full of designer stores with ridiculously high prices, well out of his price range, and by the look of the place he knew it to be true.

Up the escalator, they went before crossing the second floor as Antoine tried not to look directly at any of the intimidating rich women milling about, who were giving him dirty looks, as he clicked along the marble floor in his torturous shoes.

Seeing the place, she was looking for, Maryanne gave his arm a tug and made a beeline for the entrance as Antoine looked up at the name, "Christian Louboutin", and wondered why the name sounded so familiar.

Entering the bright clean store full of some of the highest heeled shoes, Antoine had ever seen, he once again started to worry. Marianne taking charge of the situation, led the party of three over to the far wall, where she started taking down shoes of the display and asking him what he thought.

“Hello, ladies, can I help you with something today”? asked the hovering salesgirl.

“Yes, my friend here, just loves your brand, she told me she isn’t leaving today until she gets herself a pair of Louboutins, can we try these three pairs in a size 39, please”, Marianne said, pointing out a few pairs of stilt-like shoes on the shelf.

The saleslady smiled and quickly headed off, returning a few minutes later, laden with shoe boxes.

Antoine sat down, feeling very apprehensive about the situation he was in, but one thing was for sure, the feeling of relief and pleasure as he slid his nyloned foot out of his sparkly pumps and wiggled his numb toes around in the air, was one of the most satisfying feelings of his entire life, like having a cold refreshing drink on a swelteringly hot day after going hours starving of thirst but amplified.

But the relief was short-lived as Antoine was soon back up on his feet, scared to death of falling, as the heels now squeezed onto his feet, were somehow even taller than the ones he had just taken off, and this pair had a ludicrously tall platform at the front, raising him up a good few inches and making him feel like a giant.

Prompted by Marianne, he tried to take a few steps but found it almost impossible as he shuffled his feet along the ground comically as Claudia once again started snapping pictures.

“Those Lady Daf’s don’t look right on you, “the salesgirl said, “try the Bianca’s, they'll look fierce on you”, she added, picking up another show box and opening the lid.

Shuffling back to the cushioned stool, Antoine carefully removed the ridiculously tall shoes from his feet and was handed a new pair to try.

With shaky hands he picked up the next pair of absurdly tall shoes, staring at them in his hands and afraid to move. This next pair looked equally as scary as the last, the platform at the front was much smaller but the stiletto heel at the rear was equally as thin and intimidating.

Slipping them on his feet, he once again stood, to attempt a few steps, having to bend his knees slightly to balance and feeling his calf muscles stretch.

Hearing the now familiar click of his heels, Antoine tried to steady his nerves, as he walked away from the seating area catching a glimpse of himself in one of the mirrors, perched high atop the shiny designer shoes with their red bottoms, he wouldn’t be winning any awards for gracefulness, but at least he could walk, he thought as he just wanted to get this it over with and leave.

After a few laps of the store and a few dozen photos, Antoine sat back down and returned the shiny patent pumps to their box.

“She’ll take them”, Marianne announced as a shocked expression crossed Antoine’s face. The saleslady smiled before gathering up the shoeboxes, telling them, she would meet them at the paying counter when they were ready.

When she was out of earshot, Antoine quickly turned to Marianne, “Marianne I can’t buy those, they’re far too difficult to walk in and how much are they anyway”? Antoine asked.

“600 Euros”, she announced, “but it’s lucky we came today, that’s after a discount”.

Antoine’s mouth fell open, “600 Euros”, he exclaimed, “are you crazy, I don’t have 600 Euros to spend on a pair of shoes”.

“You have a credit card don’t you", she shot back, " I saw you use it earlier when you bought your new sexy undies”.

“Yes, but I’m not using it to buy those, come on be reasonable”, Antoine said standing up for himself.

“Ok, sure, do what you want, but if you don’t want to buy those shoes, perhaps I don’t want to keep your secret anymore!” Marianne replied flicking her head and turning away from him.

It was almost dark as Antoine finally arrived back outside the apartment, utterly exhausted, he wobbled in through the downstairs foyer, deep in thought as Marianne fed up with waiting for him, with his slow mincing steps, had taken the shopping bags and gone on ahead.

It had been an awful day and the worse part was, he couldn’t see things improving anytime soon, at least as far as he knew, he was going to be able to spend the rest of the evening at home to recover from the day's events, he just didn’t know what he was going to tell Lily when she noticed the 600 Euro charge on their credit card bill, could he really tell her what Marianne had told him to say? that he had seen them and just had to have them.

(See image 27)