The Bet That Turned Me Into the Most Beautiful Flower

That morning the cold was coming in through the café windows and I was having breakfast alone, as almost always since I had transferred to another university halfway through my degree. I was twenty-two, slender, pale-skinned, and I had one thing that never let me go unnoticed: my eyelashes. Long, curled, too much for a man, according to the people who laughed behind my back and said I wore mascara. I had learned to lower my gaze whenever someone looked too long at them.

—Hi, Adri, can we sit with you? —Valeria appeared with her tray in one hand and her phone in the other.

—Sure, I just got here —I said, moving my backpack aside to make room for them.

Valeria and Romina were the only ones who had treated me well since day one. Both of them were popular, the kind who organized parties and events, the kind who knew everyone. Valeria was tall and athletic, with brown hair and blonde highlights; Romina was shorter, with pronounced curves and a smile that could go from sweet to wicked in an instant. Together they were unstoppable.

—Hey —Romina said, dropping into the chair—, did you know it’s our turn this year to organize the campus queen thing?

—I have no idea what that is —I admitted.

—The faculty competition. Each group dresses one of their classmates as a woman and puts him onstage. It started as a Halloween joke ten years ago, but now it’s almost a real beauty pageant. Runway, wardrobe, catwalk. The winning group gets a paid weekend on the coast.

—And our candidate bailed on us yesterday —Valeria added with a tragic expression—. The contest is next month and we don’t have anyone.

I kept eating, oblivious, not understanding why they were telling me this. I looked up just as Romina was staring at me, and on pure reflex I blinked. It was as if a lightbulb had gone on in her head.

—Val… —she said slowly, not taking her eyes off my face—. Look at his eyelashes.

Valeria turned. The two of them studied me in silence, sizing me up like someone measuring fabric before cutting it. I felt heat at the nape of my neck.

—No —I said—. Don’t even think about it.

—Adri, please —Romina pressed her hands together—. You have the perfect frame. Slender, delicate, those eyelashes... with a little work from us and some attitude from you, we’ll win for sure.

—That’s ridiculous. I can’t picture myself onstage dressed as a woman.

—You don’t have to picture anything —Valeria said—. That’s what we’re for. Just tell us yes.

***

I said no for more than an hour. I said no in every possible way, and still I ended up giving in, more because I didn’t want to disappoint them than because I believed in the plan. We agreed to do a test run on Saturday, at Valeria’s place. If the result was a disaster, we’d drop it and I’d help them find someone else. It seemed fair to me. I was convinced that, as soon as I saw how ridiculous I looked in the mirror, the whole thing would be over on its own.

On Saturday I arrived at ten twenty. Valeria opened the door wearing gym clothes, pink leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, her hair tied back and her face freshly washed. She smelled like cream and coffee.

—I thought you were going to ditch me —she said, laughing—. Romina’s late, there’s traffic. My parents went out and my brother’s at his game, so we have the house to ourselves. Come upstairs, it’s the first door.

Her room was a world in pastel tones, organized down to the last detail. I had never been in a girl’s room like that, for no reason other than being there. I sat on the edge of the bed while she disappeared for a moment, and looked at the vanity in the back, full of bottles and brushes I didn’t know the names of.

—Okay —she said when she came back, rubbing her hands together—. The idea is to try on clothes to see your measurements and do you a simple makeup look, so you can see what we’re capable of. I only ask one thing: trust me and don’t be embarrassed. Today we’re two girls trying on clothes, okay?

—Okay —I said, though my voice came out less steady than I meant it to.

She handed me black leggings and a loose sweatshirt and turned to the wall so I could change. I had a hard time getting into that stretchy fabric that clung to every centimeter of my body, but when I looked at myself, the silhouette was different, more streamlined than I expected.

—Let’s see —Valeria said, turning around—. Look at yourself. Not bad at all. The size is ours, I knew it.

Right then Romina walked in, breathless from hurrying, and examined me from head to toe with a clinical eye.

—The leggings are fine, but with men’s underwear everything shows and there’s no chest —she pronounced—. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it for real. Adri, take that off again.

—Wait —I said, feeling my heart beating faster—. One thing is wearing your clothes, and another is...

—Trust me —Romina said, pulling a padded bra and a pair of plain, soft black panties from her bag—. This is the least important part. What matters is attitude. Go to the bathroom if you’re embarrassed.

I went to the bathroom. I stood there for a long while looking at those garments in my hands before I dared. When I finally put them on, the cold fabric against my skin gave me a shiver I couldn’t quite interpret. It wasn’t shame, exactly. It was something else, a tingling that crept up my back and that I decided to ignore.

—I can’t manage the bra —I admitted when I came out, defeated—. Help me.

Romina laughed, but not mockingly.

—Come here, rookie. Fasten it in the front first, then spin it around and adjust the straps. —Her fingers brushed my back as she hooked it closed, and I felt her breath near my nape—. There. My God, look at you. What a change.

I put the leggings and sweatshirt back on over the padding, and this time, when I looked in the full-length mirror, something moved inside me. The shapes were there. The curve of the hips, the volume of the chest, the defined waist. For a second I didn’t recognize myself, and that second stretched longer than I wanted to admit.

—That’s the attitude, princess —Valeria said—. Come on, let’s go to the vanity. That’s where the magic starts.

***

The makeup was a long and strangely intimate process. They made me close my eyes, tilt my head back, part my lips. I felt the brushes glide over my skin, Valeria’s fingers holding my chin, the tickle of mascara —though, according to them, my lashes hardly needed it—. Romina worked up close, so close that every time she leaned over me I caught the scent of her warm, earthy perfume. They wouldn’t let me look.

—Hold still, Adri —she murmured—. Don’t open them yet. You’re such a good canvas, did you know that?

There was something in her voice, in the way she said my name as if it were no longer entirely mine, that made my skin prickle. When they turned me to adjust something, I felt their eyes moving over me, and I didn’t mind. On the contrary. I was starting to like being looked at like that.

—Done —Valeria said at last, releasing the setting spray—. Open your eyes. Meet the most beautiful flower.

The girl staring back from the reflection wasn’t me. Or maybe it was, but stripped clean of everything unnecessary. The cheekbones stood out, the lips were a pale pink, the eyes huge, framed by those lashes I had cursed all my life and that were suddenly the centerpiece of a soft, attractive feminine face. It took me almost five minutes to be able to speak.

—Is that me? —was all I managed to say.

—It’s you, baby —Romina said, resting her chin on my shoulder from behind so the two of us appeared in the mirror—. And this is only the test. Your face says it all: we’ve already won.

I could feel her chest against my back, her hands resting on my hips. Valeria knelt in front of me and, without asking permission, slipped a black dress over my head, adjusting it until it hugged every new curve.

—Now the romantic casual look —she said, smoothing the fabric over my thighs with both open palms, slowly, slower than necessary—. See how it falls? You look made for this.

The brush of her hands stole my breath. And then what I had been dreading for half an hour happened: the leggings were no longer there to disguise anything, and beneath the dress it became obvious how much my body was enjoying all of it. I blushed under the makeup.

—I’m sorry —I stammered—. I didn’t mean to...

But neither of them laughed. Valeria, still on her knees, lifted her eyes to mine with a smile that was anything but innocent. Romina squeezed my hips a little tighter.

—Don’t apologize —Romina whispered in my ear—. It’s the most honest thing you’ve done all morning.

Valeria rose unhurriedly, raking her eyes over me from feet to head, and came close enough that her nose almost touched mine.

—The contest is in a month —she said in a low voice—. We have a lot to teach you. How to walk, how to sit, how to let yourself be looked at. —Her hand slid up my side, over the dress, to brush the edge of the padded bra—. And how to enjoy it.

—I... I don’t know if I’ll be able to —I said, and my voice came out higher, shakier, almost without meaning to.

—That’s why we’re here —Romina said, turning me slowly so the three of us faced the mirror, her behind me, Valeria beside me—. Look at yourself properly. This one here doesn’t want to leave anymore. I can see it in your eyes.

And she was right. I looked at the girl in the reflection —because I was already thinking of her as female, without effort— and I knew there was no going back. I had come on Saturday to prove their plan was ridiculous. I was leaving there counting the days until the next lesson, the next dress, the next time their hands would remind me who I really was when I stopped pretending.

—Tomorrow again —Valeria said, kissing my cheek carefully so as not to smear the lipstick—. And next time, princess, we’ll teach you what really matters.

I didn’t answer. I just held the gaze of that stranger in the mirror, who was smiling as if she had been waiting for me all her life.