RELUCTANT PRESS

"My! My! Got yourself a manicure as well," remarked Mom with amusement as she spotted my pink nails. "You had yourself quite a night, it seems."

"Oh no! Do you have any nail polish remover with you?" I shrieked, knowing that I would have to wait to get to the beauty shop to wash out my curls.

"Of course not. You know that's not something that I carry around with me. Besides, they look cute! I think that you should leave them like that."

"MOM!" was all that I could say, so distraught with my feminine appearance.

Mom just chuckled.

There were two cars waiting in the parking lot when we arrived at the shop so I had to immediately begin shampooing Mrs. Myers's hair and begin right away on Mrs. Simms and her teenage daughter.

There was no way to hide my colored nails and my tight curls and I could see the women snickering at me. Probably they thought that this was to be expected from a sissy that worked in a beauty shop.

When Mrs. Wales came for her weekly wash and set, I was terribly afraid that she would say something to my mother. They seemed to be better friends all the time. But all she said was, "Have fun at the slumber party last night?" Followed by giggles from her and my mother.

It was mid morning before I could finally rinse my hair but I never got a chance to clean my nails. Saturday was always busy as hell. So my night of humiliation turned in to a day of humiliation and it was one dejected boy that finally dragged himself to his own bed that night. I made up a story to tell my mother about losing at "Truth or Consequences" to explain my appearance and fortunately she did not press the

issue.

My head was spinning all day with flashbacks of the night's events but I could not give any serious thought to them since I needed to concentrate on my work. But that night I lay awake for hours wrestling with my emotions. Of course I had to put a stop to this bizarre twist in my life. So I was a sissy that liked to wear frilly panties and curl my hair. But that didn't mean that I had to let women walk all over me and treat me like shit. I resolved to call Susie tomorrow

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RUFFLES & CURLES

By Kammi Morton

and tell her I was willing to continue to be her friend and do her hair on occasion, but I would no longer be used as a maid to clean her room and do her laundry and that went double for her mother!

And if she did not like that then I'd find another girlfriend. In my mind I wrote and re-wrote my speech over and over. But suppose she said no? Who was I kidding? I could not find another girlfriend. I was very lucky to have Susie even on the strange terms of our relationship. And then, suppose Susie decided to tell everybody at school about me. I would not dare face anyone again. I'd have to run away. Maybe I could offer to help her with housework every now and then. That might satisfy her.

But what about Mrs. Wales?

She had dominated me last night like no person had ever done before. Was it just a one time occurrence or did she have plans for my future too? She would be more difficult to deal with than Susie. After all, she was an adult and my mother had always told me to be obedient and respectful to my elders.

There had been another train of thought trying to make itself heard in my head but I was afraid to confront it. Finally, exhausted from a long day, I did not have the strength to fight it anymore. Had I not actually enjoyed some of the night's events? I tried to tell myself that it was the fun of being with the girls for their slumber party and being treated like an equal but I knew it was more. There had been something exciting about the way I had been forced to participate and I now recalled with pleasure the slap Linda had given

me.

And had there not also been a strange thrill when Mrs. Wales had scolded me and ordered me to clean her room. But wearing a diaper and wetting it had not been any fun. Or had it? I suddenly realized that these recollections had made me hard as a rock and my hand reached down to do what came naturally. What kind of weirdo was I? I was getting off with thoughts about being ordered about and humiliated by a woman and her daughter? Once more the thought of being locked away in a mental asylum for the rest of my life haunted me but I continued my hand movement and cli-

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