TG STORY: FROZEN CHAPTER 2 PART 1/3

I hurriedly rummaged through the deep pockets of my beige coat before pulling out a set of unorganized keys, one of which was supposed to open the door to my apartment. I let out a big sigh as I carried the bags of groceries I had just bought inside before closing the door and slumping to the floor. Being a woman had made me significantly physically weaker than when I was a man, and performing everyday tasks took more energy. Like how every time I needed to use the tallest cabinets in the kitchen, I needed to grab a chair and climb on top of it. After a pause to catch my breath, I removed my brown loafers and headed toward the kitchen to put away the groceries. The fall weather had made the wood laminate floor of my apartment cold to touch and my feet, even though wrapped in a pair of nude tights, remained curled the whole time.

After finishing up in the kitchen, I turned on the lights in my room and was welcomed by what could only be described as a symphony of absolute chaos. Weeks of dirty laundry piled on one side of my bed played in harmonious cadence with panties and bras that hung from my desk and peeked out of drawers. It seemed that the only thing about me that had changed was really my gender. I had been asking myself this question for the past year I have been living as a girl, why didn’t anything else about me change, like where I lived, my age, my race, my personality, or my interests? How could things have played out so similarly? Why hadn’t I turned back into a guy? As I would come to find out those first few weeks after transforming into a girl, life was more or less the same and it was in no rush to provide me any answers to my questions. I didn’t go to the mall with a group of girls or get asked out on dates by guys. I was still very much a homebody who enjoyed gaming and watching long niche-topic podcasts on YouTube. From what I could piece together based on old high school yearbooks and photos on my phone, I was never popular as a girl either.

I brushed the melancholic feelings aside before taking my jacket off and lounging face up on my bed. The white long-sleeved dress and nude tights I had on brushed against the bed sheets in such an elegant way that I felt a little better about myself. Was I doing this whole “woman” thing correctly? I eyed the hot pink bed sheets curled up against my nylon-clad legs. These were one of a few things to change during that day my sex changed. I received very few memories of my life as a girl that day, and I had just been winging it this past year to get by. There were a few situations where my parents and friends would give me disconcerting looks when I couldn’t recall a particular event but for the most part, they didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary. Looking at the pink bed sheets and then doing a quick panorama around my room with my eyes, perhaps there was a girl living here underneath all this. That was when my phone buzzed to life.

Nick Nguyen was a long-time friend of mine who I had grown up living in the same neighborhood with and we hung out a lot as kids. We used to collect and trade Pokémon cards before moving on to Yu-Gi-Oh and then basketball as teens. Even as a girl now, and looking back on past photos, my relationship with Nick appears to be untouched and we still share the same friend groups and general interests. Lately, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nick wanted to be more than just friends. During the few times we had met up this past year he would always offer to give me a ride or pay for my food which I would quickly say no to but sometimes he was overly insistent and I had no choice but to concede. Regardless, we still had good conversations together and it would flow so naturally I’d sometimes forget that my life wasn’t always like this, that I was wearing dresses, and tights and had periods now.

I checked my phone to see who had messaged me and unsurprisingly it was Nick. He usually liked to text me at night when we were both off from work.

“Hey, are you free tomorrow night? I’d love to take you out to this new Japanese place I found! Let’s make it a date!”

I grit my teeth and cursed under my breath in a very unladylike manner. I felt betrayed by the male sex. It seems guys really would just ask girls out on dates even without any indication given that she feels the same way. As a former male, I could understand where he was coming from. Even I must admit to still sometimes being stunned by my beauty in the morning when I see my reflection in the bathroom mirror. At the same time, however, Nick was my friend, and we shared a bromance for most of my life, not a romance. I threw my head back against my pillow in frustration, my long black hair spilling out over the bed in all directions. Perhaps it was the female hormones circulating in my body but to my disbelief, I was genuinely considering going on a date with a man. I realized that I had been so bogged down with work in my office job that I never really considered how I felt about men since becoming a woman. I certainly found men more attractive than before but not to the extent of being in a romantic relationship with one. I spent a good half hour just thinking about what to reply. I gave another look at my pink bed sheets and decided to ultimately give my female life the second chance it deserved. I replied back to Nick with a short yes of an answer to communicate my interest yet not seem overly eager. In any case, tomorrow was going to be interesting I thought to myself, that much was for sure.