The role of a lifetime 04

With the feeling of the sun on his skin and a slight breeze blowing throw his long fake hair, Jim looked down at the streets below him from his position high up on the apartment roof of their apartment building, Jim looked over at Victoria with a pleading look in his eyes, “Vic, can we go back inside now”? he begged, “my feet are cramping, and you’ve got the picture you wanted”.

Victoria smiled looking at her feminized boyfriend, amazed at how good he looked in the natural light, “yeah, I think we’ve had enough practice for one day, and I’m sure Natalia’s going to piss her pants when she sees you in that outfit”.

“I don’t think I look good at all" Jim moaned, " I feel ridiculous in this getup, why did you have to pick such bright colours, you know I don’t like wearing bright colour”, he stated looking down at his multicoloured leggings and eye-catching shoes.

“Come on, Jim, don't pretend, you know you look amazing, and about the colours, I know you’re used to wearing boring greys and blacks, but girls wear bright colours, you need to get used to it”, Victoria answered, “now, come on show me that sexy walk you’ve been practising and strut back downstairs, we’ll cook up those steaks for dinner”.

Jim nodded trying to remember all the tips Victoria had given him on how to walk properly perched atop his painful shoes.  So, with his hands out by his side for balance, he took a wobbly step forward feeling like a complete sissy. 

He carefully brought down his sore heeled foot, hearing an unnerving but now familiar clicking sound, and having made sure of his footing, he brought forward his trailing leg and positioned his foot stuffed inside its tall blue platform pump almost directly in front of the other as he stumbled towards Victoria, half walking and half stumbling. 

Victoria sighed, seeing Jim looking so awkward as he slowly wobbled towards her, his stride was still too large and he was still staring down at his feet as he moved, “head up Jim, and stop stomping around, remember, light and dainty, like you’re walking on a sheet ice that’s about to break”.

Jim stopped and pouted, ”Oh come on, Vic, give me a break, we’ve been up here for hours, my leg muscles are not used to the way these ridiculous shoes force me to stand, I thought you said I only had to wear them for the picture”.

Victoria rolled her eyes, “yeah, I know, I know, but you saw those crazy wedges, Britt had on, we can’t let Natalia get one up on us, besides, if you can master this pair, think how easy it will be when you go back to a lower heel”.

Not liking her reply, but not finding a fault in her logic, Jim didn’t respond, he just wanted to get back to the safety of the apartment and change back into some normal clothes, but before he took a step, Victoria received a message.

“It’s from Natalia”, Victoria announced after pulling out her phone, “she must be pretty worried if she’s replying this quicky, let's see what she has to say for herself”.

Victoria opened the message and started to read quietly to herself, “Not bad Vicky, I have to admit, I’m almost impressed, you've certainly got Jim looking somewhat presentable. But I've got bad news for you girl, you’re not going to win this with Jim looking like that.  I mean, does he come across natural when he speaks like a woman? Can he move gracefully in those skyscrapers? To win this, he needs to convince a team of casters that he can play the role of Gabriella better than anyone else. You have read the script and character profile, right? Don’t take this the wrong way but Jim’s looking a bit chubby, how are you going to get him down to the hundred and ten pounds they are looking for? Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got it all under control, and you’re right we should all meet up soon and see how each other are doing in person, speak to you soon x”.

“And”? Jim asked having stood there silently, waiting for her to finish reading.

Victoria felt like smashing her phone on the floor, “the nerve of that woman”, she shouted angrily”, change of plans Jim, no steak for dinner tonight, we’ll have a nice salad instead.

Almost a week later, Jim stood posing once more as Victoria, took more pictures for his newly created social media accounts.

Jim looked down the lens of the camera, depressed and fed up as he faked a smile and held his feminine pose, trying not to react as Victoria barked orders at him.

Jim obeyed as Victoria told him to lift up his right foot slightly, feeling the ache in his calf muscles after having worn nothing but six-inch heels ever since receiving the message from Natalia that day on the roof.

(See image 4.1)

“Take your left hand out of your pocket and put it on your hip”, Victoria ordered.

An emotionless Jim, following the instruction in an almost robotic-like manner as another camera flash went off in his face. He wanted to scream and shout, he wanted to tell her that things had gone too far and he was going to quit, but knowing how it would end, he instead held his grin as tried to ignore his rumbling stomach. 

The feeling of his empty stomach was driving him crazy as it consumed all of his thought but having been told he needed to lose mind-boggling 30 to 40 pounds, he knew it was going to be eating nothing but salads for the foreseeable future.

He now regretted more than ever taking the stupid bet, as he stood there feeling the tightness of the material surrounding his legs, the uncomfortable angle his feet were forced into,  and the distracting glued on fake eyelashes that fluttered in front of his eyes every time he blinked.

Victoria had become like a woman possessed after receiving the message from Natalia. She had gone straight online and searched for the character profile of Gabriella, and having read it through several times, she had become obsessed with transforming Jim into an exact copy of her.

Almost a week on and Jim was starting to get to know Gabriella pretty well having been forced to memorise every fact about her, he could almost picture her in his mind and the two of them were nothing alike. Him a business owner with a degree in law, who loved sports and socialising and Gabriella a sweet and pretty 22-year-old, who after finishing college had moved to the city to follow her dream of becoming a world-famous pianist. 

The film itself seemed was to be a typical romantic comedy, An uninspiring tale of a quirky, introverted, and slightly awkward country girl coming out of her shell after moving to the big city and meeting the man of her dreams albeit under extremely unusual circumstances.

“Drop your shoulder a little”, Victoria commanded, as Jim again obeyed, feeling the odd sensation of the long hair of the wig tickling his bare shoulder.

He was trying not to think about where the pictures she was taking and where they were going just hoping no one he knew stumbled across them and recognised him. 

Jim was furious when Victoria had first shown him the Facebook and Instagram account, she had created for Jem Stevens, with his feminised image as the profile picture, demanding that she delete it. But as with a lot of the arguments, he was having with Victoria lately, this was another one he had failed to win, as she had slowly convinced him it was necessary to get through round one of the audition process. He understood where she was coming from as she explained he would need to send in a portfolio of images, and he also saw her point about them likely looking him up online, and how odd it would be if they found nothing, as what young fame-hungry actress would be without an online account to advertise and flaunt her "talents".?

“Ok, that will do it, for now, Jim” Victoria announced putting down the camera, “go and relax for a bit and I’ll upload these photos to see how they came out”.

The smile that had been plastered to Jim’s face for the last 20 minutes instantly vanished, as he opened and closed his numb feeling jaw a few time to try and regain the feeling. 

With nothing to say he nodded before gracefully walked away to the sound of heavy wedge shoes clomping along on the wooden floor.

After another light dinner, Jim sat in the living room with Victoria, trying to focus on the movie TV but kept getting distracted by his growling stomach and the awful plot of the romantic comedy she had insisted on watching, and If things hadn't been bad enough, for the tired and emasculated man, Victoria had told him to study the female lead and try to learn some of her mannerisms and quirks.

Slumped on the sofa, his body weak and sore after a full day of moving around on the tall wedge shoes still strapped to his feet, his eyes felt heavy and he was losing the battle to stay awake when he was startled by a loud beep coming from Victoria's phone.

He watched on anxiously as she unlocked her phone and waited with apprehension as he saw an image appear on the screen out of the corner of his eye, “that, bitch, she's always trying to outdo me”, Victoria screamed. She took a deep breath and turned towards a stunned looking Jim, “but we’re not going to let her win, right, Jim”? She frantically asked, "we just need to do bit shopping, even the playing field”, she stated passing Jim the phone.

Jim reached out with a shaking hand and wrapped his shiny green nails around the phone. 

He looked down and almost had a heart-attack, absolutely gobsmacked seeing his long-time friend, sat practising the piano, looking unrecognisable and unmistakably feminine wearing a tight form-fitting red dress. 

A small groan escaped Jim’s painted lips, and he brought his hand up to cover his gaping mouth, knowing the familiar feeling of having his legs covered, would soon, just like the idea of being able to wear flat shoes, be but a distant memory.

(See image 4.2)