Tug of War 62.1 (Patreon)

A few days later...

"That's it, Ti-Ti, one foot in front of the other... don't forget to swing your hips like I showed you..." Alyssa kept instructing the feminized guy as he paraded around the large and fancy living room of her house, his high heels clicking on the marble floor. 

"C'mon, Lyss!" Timothy cried out, annoyed. "Is this really necessary? I already know how to walk on high heels, okay? Gosh, Actually, I've been living on heels for, like, so long that I don't even remember how it feels to wear sneakers."

"Don't be a drama queen, darling" Alyssa smirked. "I know you're a pro at heels. No one doubts that. But to parade on a catwalk, you still need to learn a trick or two. This is not just about walking. You need to draw attention and enchant everyone around you. You need to look confident, graceful and irresistible, all at the same time. That's the only way you can win the Miss Charming title. Trust me, that competition is not a piece of cake. And you want that crown, don't you?"

Timothy opened his mouth to answer that he couldn't care less about that stupid contest, but he controlled himself when he looked over Alyssa's shoulder, towards the couch where Kate was sitting next to Chloe and Gabriella. Kate was getting more and more excited about Timothy's participation in the beauty contest, which allowed him to be a role model and inspire trans people all over the country. 

Timothy's number of followers on Instagram was increasing so rapidly that it was scaring the hell out of him. Before Tiffany came to life, he barely had a hundred followers. Now, however, he already had over fifty thousand, and it didn't seem like he was going to lose momentum anytime soon! What would happen when he finally revealed the truth? A lot of people would certainly be angry. There was no doubt about that. Still, the reaction he feared most was Kate's one...

After the incident at Matthew's house, they had spent a lot of time together in the following days. Timothy still couldn't describe how grateful he was to Kate and Alyssa, as he had no idea what would have happened if they hadn't shown up. Kate was doing her best to comfort him, always saying that everything would be okay and that he shouldn't blame himself for what had happened. It was all Matthew's fault, she kept saying, calling Matt a disgusting person who didn't deserve someone as wonderful and sweet as Tiffany.

Timothy invariably blushed when he heard that. Unfortunately, he hadn't had a chance to talk to Kate alone yet, as Alyssa was always around, too, and Kate and Alyssa were strangely treating each other more politely these days, perhaps not to upset Timothy. 

The feminized guy also couldn't deny that he was feeling grateful to his stepmother. Without Susan's intervention, Kate and Alyssa wouldn't have been able to save him, after all. The woman was a complete mystery to him. She was openly doing everything in her power to keep him as Tiffany –despite the fact that he had made it clear over and over again that this wasn't what he wanted – but, at the same time, she seemed to genuinely care about her daughter. Timothy couldn't help it but thought there was something very important about his stepmother's past that he was still unaware of. Could her obsession with Tiffany be just due to the fact that she had never been able to give birth? Or was there something else? 

But if Susan was happy and relieved that Timothy had left Matthew's house safe and sound, the same couldn't be said about Richard. Even if his father hadn't said that explicitly, Timothy could see in his eyes how disappointed Richard was about the fact that his feminized son had returned home in just one piece. That was more than enough for Timothy to lose any trace of sympathy he could still feel toward his father. It was one thing to want to punish him, for whatsoever reason, but wishing his own son to get hurt was something completely unreasonable and sick. Whatever happened in the future, Timothy was sure he didn't want Richard in his life.