Held Back Theater 6 (Patreon)

“It’s not what it looks like!” Toby shouted as he shot up in bed and snapped his legs shut. Groaning painfully as his thighs snapped shut suddenly on his manhood.

“Really?” Leanne arched an eyebrow at her blushing son as she walked to the foot of his bed, “Because it looks like you’re getting your legs waxed.” 

Toby’s shoulders slumped, somehow his mom guessing the truth was more humiliating than her assuming he and Gigi were up to something she might call indecent. “Yeah.” he said and ran his hand through his hair, still clutching the towel around his waist with the other.

For a moment, she stared at the smoothed square patch of her son’s leg. “You know, I had some nair in my bathroom if you wanted to borrow that?”

“Iiii did not.” Gigi shook her head. “We’ll have to remember that for next time.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie, in the same way she didn’t know there were banana trees in Florida. She hadn’t bothered to ask. “Besides,” She beamed down at Toby’s mother. “I wanted to make sure we got all that gross hair off and wax just works way better for the thick forest she had in my opinion.”  She lied.

“She?” Leanne asked.

“Her.” Gigi grinned, excitedly waving her hands at Toby. “It’s called method acting. The more she gets into her role now the easier it’ll be when it counts.” Gigi smiled proudly. “Like how Robert De Niro drove a cab for his role in Taxi Driver or Daniel Day-Lewis in pretty much everything he does. Although, I guess Hillary Swank is more appropriate. ” She giggled and winked at Toby who had buried his face in his hands during Gigi’s explanation.

Leanne considered asking more but seeing her son had fallen back on his bed and hid his face under his pillow, and no doubt burning with embarrassment, she decided to leave it be. For now. “...Alright…I guess I’ll let you gu–girls get back to it. Just uh…try to keep it down to a dull roar, okay? We don’t want the neighbors to think we’re torturing a cat over here.”

“Will do!” Gigi cheered as she watched Leanne leave. “Your mom’s cool.” She added after she had left.

Toby lifted the pillow off of his face and stared at Gigi for a moment. If he didn’t know better he could swear she was swooning. “Oh yeah, so cool she lets you torture me.”

“Pfft,” She said, blowing a raspberry at him, “It’s not torture if you look pretty at the end of it.”

“No way in hell you’ll make me look pretty.” Toby scoffed.

“Hey!” Gigi glared at the boy, “I’m not gonna make you look ugly or anything like that.”

Toby rolled his eyes, “I’m a guy, slap all the makeup on me you want I’ll either still look like a guy or a freak. Ugh I am so screwed, I shoulda picked prison.” He said, adding the last sentence under his breath, “Can you just get these things off me? If you hit an artery or something just let me bleed out.” And with that he covered his face behind his pillow once more.

“...okay.” Gigi said softly, furrowing her brow, ‘Well, she took all the fun out of that.’ she thought with a frown.

After much more muffled shouting and groaning, Gigi finished removing any body hair from Toby’s arms, armpits, legs, and chest. 

“I look like a newborn baby.” Toby whined as he stared at his hairless chest.

“A little.” Gigi giggled. “But I bet you feel so much better without all that hair on you.” Before Toby could argue she reached her hand to his shin and slowly brushed her fingers along his leg. “Just…making sure I got everything.” She cooed as she caressed his knee. Goosebumps shot up his body as he swallowed a growing lump in his throat. “But,” She whispered, “I’d be lying if I said I don’t love the feeling of a freshly shaven leg. Don’t you?” Toby’s pulse quickened as her fingers disappeared underneath the edge of his towel. 

“T-totally.” Toby said after taking a moment to catch his breath.

Gigi snapped her hand from underneath the towel as if she touched a hot iron before clearing her throat and smiling, “That’s great.” She picked up the bundled scraps of wax strips on the nightstand beside Toby’s bed and turned to place them in the plastic grocery bag she brought for exactly this reason.  “Now,...uh…” She froze and stared at her bag for a moment, muttering something Toby could barely hear as he sat up and adjusted his towel again. “Right. We need to get you dressed. Do you have panties of your own or do you need the ones I brought?”

“I-Wh-I don’t have panties!” Toby stammered, choking on his words. “Why would I?!”

“To wear, silly.” Gigi giggled and handed Toby a pair of pink panties with red hearts peppered all over them. “These should fit.” She said, turning to face his closet. 

“Ugh.” Toby groaned, staring at the open door, imagining all manner of scenarios ranging from the likeliest; of his mom choosing that exact moment to come back for whatever reason and finding him putting on panties. To the least likely of his friends from school suddenly sneaking into the house and seeing him. The worst case scenario of his dad coming home early from work and catching him willingly putting on not just panties, but pink panties with little red hearts. ‘He would hurl me out of my own window!’ he thought, his heart pounded again for an entirely different reason than it had been just a moment ago. ‘If I keep standing here he’ll definitely come home and see.’ Toby swallowed the lump in his throat and reminded himself: ‘Not like I haven’t done this before.’ And stepped into the panties, pulling them up his smooth legs and underneath his towel.

Gigi cocked her head to her side as she looked back at him over her shoulder. Her red curls falling to one side. “You really didn’t get any clothes?” 

“No!” Toby whined as he tried to adjust his manhood in the panties. “I figured you would be bringing the clothes.”

“I only brought a couple of things, and that’s from the drama wardrobe that didn’t get totally ruined. But–” she shrugged–“you’re gonna have to get your own clothes for school and everything else.”

“Great. My mom’s gonna love that.” He sighed as he sat back on his bed. The soft material of the panties, feeling strange against the rough texture of the towel.

“She probably will.” She giggled as she dug through her bag, “There’s nothing quite like a shopping trip for a fun little mother/daughter bonding.”

“That’s so not gonna happen!” Toby shook his head, “Just make a list of whatever I need and I’ll give it to my mom.” 

“Are you serious?” Gigi asked, turning back to him with a matching pink and red heart bra in her hand. “And I can’t make a list of anything if I don’t know what type of girl you want to be.”

“I don’t want to be any type of girl.” Toby shook his head, “It’s bad enough that I have to do this at all. Why would I wanna humiliate myself anymore than I already have to?”

“What’s humiliating about looking like a girl?”

“Nothing!” Toby said defensively, “If you’re like you and already a girl! Not like if you look like Norman bates.” Toby’s eyes widened, sensing he stuck his foot in his mouth again, “I mean me! Obviously you don’t you’re actually kinda, I mean totally–”

“Stop talking.” Gigi interrupted, slapping her hand at the air.

“Okay.” Toby muttered thankfully, softly rubbing his forehead.

“Stand up.” She ordered. He obeyed. “I’m guessing you don’t want to be clocked as a boy.”

“I don’t want anyone to punch me!”

“Turn around.” She ordered. “I meant, like,...outed…you don’t want anyone guessing you’re not a girl. Right?” Toby nodded, “So, weirdly, if you try to make yourself smaller you’ll actually be more noticeable.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“People rarely do.” she sighed and grabbed Toby’s arm, sliding the bra strap up his arm, “But trust me. Lions don’t go after the gazelle that’s jumping along with everyone else. They go for the weak ones with the busted leg. So if you don’t want some lion on your butt then you gotta walk with confidence.” She slid the other strap up his other arm.

Toby frowned as he allowed the bra to slide up his arms. “How’m I gonna do that when I’m dressed like a freak?”

“You fake it.” She said, adding softly,  “Most girls do.”

Toby’s brow furrowed in silent thought before looking over his shoulder, “Is that what you do?”

Gigi caught sight of Toby’s soft brown eyes, so full of concern now. The first time she thought she had seen those eyes was when Kendall had broken up with him. They almost pleaded with her. She briefly thought his plea was for himself, or that he was just good at faking the look of someone who cares…until she saw him act. She had seen them again immediately after Leslie fell into the pit and again she thought his concern was for himself. It wasn’t until she yelled at him outside of the principal’s office and she saw those again so full of concern that gave her pause. His concern wasn’t for himself but for another when she had again expected him to only be thinking about himself. And once again those eyes, so concerned about the wrong person, gave her pause.

“I used to.” She said softly as she finished connecting the bra band’s hooks.

“And now?” Toby turned and asked as Gigi stood at the table with her back towards him.

“One day...” Gigi paused to clear her throat, “I forgot if I was faking or not.” Gigi smiled proudly, remembering how far she had come.

“Oh.” A relieved smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

The last time he had been told to just pretend he wasn’t scared had been during a brief conversation with his dad in junior high when his stomach was in knots before football tryouts. He had told him, “If you act like you’re scared you’ll be scared. But if you go out there and act like the biggest, toughest, bull in the field you’ll feel the same way. Now, lemme hear you roar. I don’t care if bulls don’t roar. Lemme hear it!” Roaring back and forth with his dad had helped. Until he got onto the field and saw that the skinniest guy on the field was still twice his size. Confidence didn’t mean much when a fourteen year old with acne and a pituitary problem slammed his shoulder into your hip and flipped you like a bale of hay. It was even harder to believe that fake confidence would keep him from getting beaten up.

It had been much easier for that fourteen year old and those guys on the field, they at least looked the part. Girls like Gigi and the girls in drama club had the advantage of being real girls, so even if they didn’t look as hot as Kendall at least they didn’t have to worry about someone clocking them in the face. 

He had to figure out some way out of this with his dignity or at least his reputation intact. Toby pulled at the strap of the bra on his shoulders and frowned at the empty cups. And judging by the clothing Gigi had brought with her, if he just continued to let her choose the clothes for him he might end up walking around the school like a care bear named sissy princess bear.

Before he could ask what the point was of giving him a bra at all, let alone one that didn’t fit, if he didn’t have boobs Gigi’s hand stretched the other cup out and placed her cold hand against his nipple. No, not her hand. He realized a second later as the cold hit him. “P-waahyy! That’s cold!” he shivered against the sudden and sticky cold.

“It’d be kinda silly if I gave you a bra this big without any boobs.” Gigi giggled.

“But what is it?”

“It’s called a breast form. They’re fake boobs you wear if you don’t have any of your own.” Out of curiosity, while Gigi’s back was turned, preparing the second breast form,  Toby squeezed the fake breast sitting in his bra. To see if they compared to the real thing. Obviously. Thoughts and realizations raced through his mind as he groped his fake boob. They looked real enough. It even had nipples. But it was cold to the touch with a weird mixture of rubber and something else that felt flesh-like but was just different enough that it told his brain it wasn't. Worst and most damning of all was the fact he couldn’t feel the sensation of his own hand touching his chest, giving him an almost phantom-limb sensation except for the fact he could feel the added weight on his chest. “I used to do a lot of cosplay when I was in Junior high.” Toby snatched his hand away, shooting his hand up and running it through his hair at the sound of Gigi’s voice as she turned around.

“Hoyeah?!” He asked much louder than he meant to, “What-uh-whe-anywhere I’d’ve seen?” he asked, clearing his throat as his eyes darted to Gigi’s chest, then face, then the breast form in her hand, and finally settled on his dresser.

‘Egads, he really is a terrible actor.’ She suppressed a giggling laugh and carried on as if she hadn’t caught him groping himself, and doing a much better job of it than he had done too. “Only if you went to the San Francisco comic-con four years ago.” She answered, stretching the bra cup so she could place breast form and the glue in the right spot the first time.

“Never.” he clenched the towel around his waist tighter as Gigi pressed the edges of the breast form into place. 

“Shame.” Gigi smirked, “With your new figure you’d make a sexy princess Leia.”

“Wha…” Toby’s words died as his eyes fell upon his new cleavage, rising and falling with every breath he took in some bizarre mirror of the real things. 

“They still need some makeup to blend the edges better. I can teach you how to do that tomorrow. And you’ll need a bunch more bras obviously.” She spoke as if she were approaching a baby bunny who hadn’t quite noticed her presence yet. “But…yeah.” She said as her enthusiasm once again bled through. “Congratulations, girl! You’re a C cup!” Gigi cheered.

“Why are they so big?!” Toby demanded, tearing his eyes away from his cleavage, “You’re not tha–not that I was–look just why?!” His arms sputtered wildly, unsure if he should cover the breast forms and risk touching them or not and risk leaving them exposed.

Gigi pursed her lips before answering, “They work better with your height and frame and you don’t wanna be clocked, right? Well even cis women get accused of being men if they don’t have a big enough chest. This way you don’t have to worry about that.”

“What?”

“Just trust me.” Gigi rolled her eyes, “Besides, these are all I had.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Of course. The other choices are sucky though.” She shrugged.

“Fine. Are we done? Can I get dressed now?” Toby dropped back down on his bed, the breast forms shaking as he did.

“Almost.” Gigi smiled, turned to the closet and brought out the three outfits she had hung up from her bag. “Like I said this is all I could find that would fit you that wasn’t ruined, and since you apparently didn’t go shopping yet then all that’s left is picking out an outfit you’d like to wear today and you can get dressed. And your makeup. And hair. Then we can get started.”

“What if I don’t like any of them?” Gigi fixed him with an annoyed stare. Toby sighed and looked at the outfits that Gigi held in her hands. A bubblegum pink crop top hung above a matching mini-skirt stood out the most, causing him to wonder if she had really gotten them from the drama club or was it hers? He quickly shook the image of her wearing such an outfit from his mind, saving it for a later time, and examined the second outfit. The deep red dress certainly covered more than the bubblegum crop top and mini-skirt, and probably warmer considering it looked to be made out of wool while the crop top and skirt looked almost like leather. But the idea of wearing a dress…even at home alone was too much.

Having little other options he picked the best, or least terrible option, he could, which was a soft green tank top and a denim skirt. “That one.”

“Great choice!” Gigi cheered. “I think I have some socks that go with it too. Here, put this on and I’ll look. For the socks.” She handed the top and skirt to Toby, and placed the other two in Toby’s closet. 

This went completely unnoticed by Toby who had quickly pulled on what he thought was a tank top, thankful to cover up the weird new additions to his chest. Only to discover he could not pull it past his belly button no matter how hard he tried and the back of the top exposed his shoulders completely. “Uh…this can’t be right.” he muttered as he held two straps, or ribbons, in his hands. They were attached to the shirt, that much he was sure.

“What?” Gigi giggled when she turned around and saw the state of him. “Oh my god, here.” She took the straps out of his hands and tied them both around the back of his neck. “There. Perfect. Do you need help with the skirt?”

“I think I can handle it.”

“Okay.” Gigi smirked and said, “When you’re done we’ll get started on your hair and makeup.” as she closed the door.

Another hour passed before Gigi came downstairs again into the kitchen to find Leanne dancing in a yellow apron to a LeAnne Rimes song while she mixed something sweet smelling in a large mixing bowl. Gigi watched briefly with a smile before she spoke up. “Mrs. Laughlin?” 

“Yes, dear? Is everything okay?” Leanne asked, shutting off the little bluetooth speaker by the sink with one hand.

Gigi nodded with a wide grin and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, “I just–I wanted to know if you wanted to see–uh–your new daughter?”

“Of course.” Leanna chuckled as she sat the mixing bowl down. 

“Great!” Gigi cheered, “I–uh–go in the living room. Please?” She added excitedly and rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. 

Leanne could hear muffled sounds of arguing coming from the top of the stairs as she waited, catching only a couple of sentence fragments from her seat in the living room. “–look like a clown!” followed by some muffled reassurance from Gigi, “–she’s gonna flip–” Leanne steadied herself, not sure what to expect her son would look like. He wouldn’t look all that different after a single makeover. She didn’t know how good this Gigi girl was or not with makeup, but makeup wasn’t magic. She would have to help him…or her, somehow. Makeup and a wig wasn’t magic but she would have to help him at least survive whatever came next. 

She would have to help him. After all she made the choice, she convinced Tobias to accept the deal. If she had been more involved, or refused to let him join the track team, convinced his father somehow not to allow her baby to try out for every sport, maybe he wouldn’t have fallen in with a bad crowd and none of this would happen? And how would Rory react to his new daughter?!

Leanne shook her head, she couldn’t think about that now. This was the hand they were dealt and they had to play it, as upsetting as that may have been to Tobias. But then, that’s why she was baking his favorite chocolate chip brownies.

“Okay, we’re ready.” Gigi called as she eagerly bounced down the stairs first.

Behind her followed a shy curly haired girl wearing a soft green tied back top, the lower half of the top had been twisted and tied into a knot much the same way the upper half had, creating a diamond hole opening as it wrapped around her lythe frame and denim skirt and white cheerleader sneakers she had come home in before and a strawberry shaped purse slung over her neck by a thin black strap.

“What do you think?” Gigi asked, “Isn’t she just the cutest?

The young girl froze in front of Leanne, like a deer on the highway, biting her deep red lips and stealing only a quick glance through her false eyelashes before they would dart back to staring at the floor. The eyelashes and mascara stood out against the matching soft green eyeshadow she wore. 

“Sweetie!” Leanne gasped. When she had first learned she was pregnant she insisted on not knowing the sex of her baby so it would be a surprise. But even so, her mother and sisters insisted that because she was carrying the baby high, the swelling of her breasts, and the fact she didn’t grow facial hair like her sister who had two sons, she was certain to have a girl. What would they think if they could see her baby now?