Boy Bridesmaid

Bryan Beasley was bored. Bored, bored, bored! He kicked at the carpet in disgust.

It was a glorious, sunny Saturday, when he should be outside playing football with his mates.

Instead, his mother had insisted on dragging him along to, of all places, a bridal salon! A shop for girls. No boy would be seen dead in there, but he had to go as he had been given a role as the ring bearer at his cousin's wedding.

Currently, his vision was filled with the creamy walls of the salon, lace curtains, white delicate furniture and women and girls. Lots of women and girls. He was the only male in the whole place.

And, of course, there were dresses. More dresses than Bryan had ever seen in his life. Mostly the white ones favoured by most brides, but also fuschia, blue, yellow, pink, gold, saffron, red ones and dresses in every colour imaginable and some in colours he had never even seen before.

The women and girls in the shop were busy trying on dress after dress and cooing over each other.

Bryan was quite unnerved by the sheer femininity of the bridal boutique and the people in it. How dare his mother volunteer him for the ring bearer role and force him to come to such places when he could be playing football!

The sun was streaming a gold haze through the large bay window of the boutique and Bryan looked enviously at the people walking past.

It was so unfair! His older sister, Rebecca (or Becca, as she preferred to be known), who was to be a bridesmaid, a role far more important than his, had got out of this on the grounds that the Girl Guide troop she was a member of had to go door to door selling cookies for a fundraising campaign for orphans in some faraway country Bryan had never even heard of.

Mother was talking to the proprietor, Fiona Farley, who was roughly the same age as his mother and dressed elegantly in a burgundy skirt and jacket with a snow white blouse. Fiona spoke in soft tones with the hint of a posh accent that betrayed her origins. Mother had spoken highly of this lady, who had, according to mother, been at the Cheltenham Ladies College and Oxford University.

But to Bryan, Fiona Farley was just like any other woman. Soft, soppy and boring.

To his great discomfort, Fiona was suddenly by his side and looking directly at him, as if weighing him up. Bryan had met Fiona once before, when he had had to submit to her measuring him for the outfit he would have to wear.

There was something unnerving about the way Fiona was looking at him, as if eyeing him up like a lioness would eye up her next feast. Bryan regarded all females as overly sentimental and pretty creatures, all milk and honey. But this woman was different. He looked away from her appraising eyes.

Mother spoke to Bryan "Bryan, dear" she began, lightly stroking his hair, which Bryan hated, especially in public "it's time for you to try on your outfit".

Fiona spoke to him in her soft tones "Young man, your outfit is waiting for you in that cubicle over there" she said, pointing to a small curtained area.

"Do go and try it on dear" Mother prompted him.

With great reluctance, Bryan stomped over to the cubicle. Going inside, he found the ring bearer's outfit hanging on a rack beside the pale blue bridesmaids dress that was to be worn by his sister.

The outfit he was being asked to wear was absurdly ornate and over the top. A white silk shirt. The cuffs had to be done up with gold cufflinks. There was also a large puff of lace on the front of it. An embroidered waistcoat that was so heavy that Bryan knew that he would sweat profusely in it on a warm day, white silk stockings, a pair of white silk breeches, interwoven with gold thread and a matching coat. A pair of black shoes with golden buckles. And, most ridiculous of all, a hat with a large white feather in it.

The last thing he wanted to do was wear such items.

Bryan reasoned that the sooner he got this over with, the sooner they could leave this overly feminine environment and the sooner he could return to playing football. He hurriedly changed into the outfit. There were no cufflinks, so the sleeves of his shirt had to remain loose, but the outfit fitted him perfectly. He was already perspiring in the heavy waistcoat and coat and the feeling of silk on his body was a strange one.

He looked in the mirror and groaned inwardly at his appearance. He looked like little lord fontleroy. Ridiculous and overdressed. If his mates saw him dressed like this, he would never hear the end of it! He stumbled out of the cubicle so that his mother and Mrs Farley could see how he looked.

His mother gasped excitedly at his appearance and clapped her hands in glee "He looks wonderful. Like a little prince!". Fiona was nodding her head and smiling. Then she moved towards Bryan and began making little adjustments, smoothing out some material here and tugging at his breeches. Bryan resented this woman treating him as if he was one of her shop dummies and running her hands freely over his body.

"Does the feeling of silk all over your body feel good, young man?" Fiona asked him in her soft, innocent tones.

Actually, the feeling of silk against his skin did feel quite pleasant. But he wasn't going to admit that to this woman. He elected to ignore the question.

Fiona stepped back to join Bryan's mother and spoke to her "Yes, it fits the boy perfectly and, as you say, he looks wonderful".

"The outfit is quite adorable, Fiona". Mother gushed.

Bryan, sweating under all of the silks and heavier fabrics, suddenly became aware of girlish tittering and giggling and realised that he had suddenly become the centre of attention for a gaggle of girls dressed in bridemaids dresses.

"Doesn't he look sweet!"

"What a cute outfit!"

One of the more precocious girls waved at him "Hey, cute stuff, love the costume!"

The girls fell about, shrieking with laughter.

Bryan, blushing and humiliated to be seen dressed as he was, wished he was anywhere else. Girls! Why was it they giggled at everything and everyone?

It was Fiona who came to his rescue, running up to the girls and herding them back to their waiting mothers.

When Fiona came back she said "I think we've seen enough, young man, go and get changed".

At last! Thought Bryan. He almost ran to the cubicle and began tearing off the costume. He dreaded having to wear it on the actual wedding of his cousin Maria. He was relieved when he was dressed in his normal clothes again.

He was lacing up his trainers, which required to sit down in the chair provided and which afforded him a view from the curtain. He could see his mother and Fiona talking and Fiona pointing in the direction of the cubicle he now occupied, as if she was talking about him.

What was that woman saying about him? Bryan wondered. He finished lacing and dashed out of the cubicle, eager to depart this place as quickly as possible. He walked up to his mother and asked "Mum, can we go home now please?"

His mother ruffled his hair "There's been a change of plan, Bryan. We aren't leaving just yet".

Bryan was confused. The whole point of the trip, Mother had told him, was to see if his outfit fitted him and to see how he looked in it. Well, they had done that. Now it was time to go home.

Fiona spoke next "Young man, would you do me a favour and fetch me the bridesmaids dress that was in the cubicle you changed in. The pale blue one".

Bryan was mystified by the request but did not want to cause a scene by refusing, so he went into the cubicle, took the pale blue dress from the rack, and brought it out. Fiona took it from him and took it away somewhere out towards the rear of the shop.

Bryan's mother knelt down and looked into her son's eyes "Bryan.....Fiona and I need your help". She spoke in the sugary tones of a supplicant.

Bryan was really confused now.

Mother went on "You know that the wedding was supposed to be a month from now, leaving us plenty of time to get Becca fitted for her dress. I got a call from Maria whilst you were changing to say that there the venue for the ceremony was double-booked. The other couple are minor celebrities and so they got the venue for the date Maria had wanted. The only other date available was next weekend!"

Bryan wondered where this was going and how he was supposed to do anything about it.

"So, Maria is getting married in seven days time and we have no Becca here today to fit for her dress. I've tried calling her, but her mobile's turned off, as usual! So....Fiona and I were thinking...you're about the same size and shape as Becca...."

Bryan's mouth almost dropped open with shock and he blurted out "You want me....to put on my sister's bridesmaids' dress!"

"It would only be for a short time, honey, just so Fiona can make some adjustments. No-one else would see you, if that's what you're worried about".

Bryan was shaking his head. Having to dress up like one of the three musketeers was one thing, but actually wearing a dress?

"Bryan, if you do this little thing for me" Mother was saying "I'll buy you that soccer game you want...what's it called now, ultimate something or other..."

"Mother, it's Ultimate Soccer Hero IX!"

"Whatever it's called, it's yours if you just wear the dress long enough for Fiona to make the necessary adjustments, I'll take you to the nearest games store and buy you the game as soon as we leave this place".

Bryan thought about it. Ultimate Soccer Hero IX had only been released a few days ago and it was expensive. Bryan had been saving up his pocket money for weeks but was a long way short. It could be another month, maybe two before he would have enough money to afford to buy it and meanwhile some of his mates, with weekend jobs or well off parents, would already have the game.

Now his mother was offering it to him, today, for the price of him slipping on a dress in a private area of the boutique where no-one would see him, for probably less than half an hour.

"Alright, Mother, it's a deal". Mother hugged him "Thank you, darling! It's really sweet of you to do this..."

"Can we please just get this over with?"

"Fiona said you need to get changed in the cubicle again. Leave your underwear on and put on a robe you'll find in there".

Once, he had changed, Mother escorted him to the rear of the boutique, where Fiona was waiting for him with the dress in her hands. Sighing, Bryan held out his hands to take it off her. He still couldn't quite believe that he was going to put on a dress!

But Fiona shook her head and carefully lay the dress down on a chair. She picked up an object Bryan recognised. A corset, covered in pink silk, with delicate white lace edging and white bows running from the top to bottom.

"You'll need to put this on first, Bryan" Fiona explained.

Bryan was shaking his head "Mother, you didn't say anything about having to wear a corset!"

"You silly boy. How else are you going to fit into the dress? It's designed to be worn by a girl -or a boy at a pinch - whose waist is no wider than eighteen inches. Yours must be twenty three inches at least".

"Fiona's quite right, darling" said Mother "It won't be for long, I promise".

Bryan looked at the dress, still lying on a chair and conceded that they were right. Reluctantly, he removed his robe and allowed Fiona to clap the heavy corset around his torso. With remarkable speed and efficiency born of years of experience, Fiona put the corset into place and began tightening the laces.

Bryan felt his waist gradually contract and shrink until, to his surprise, his waist was reduced to tiny proportions.

The two women admired his waist and Fiona took a measuring tape and measured his waist "Seventeen inches!" she said in triumph.

"That's about how small we can get Becca's waist! Perfect" exclaimed Mother.

Fiona next produced a mass of petticoats and invited Bryan to step into them.

Bryan was fuming. No-one had said anything about him having to wear a load of lacy petticoats! With ill grace, he stepped into them and Fiona pulled them up to his waist.

Fiona then took the pale blue dress and slipped it over Bryan's head and then pulled it down until it covered Bryan's corset and petticoats. The material that the dress was made of was unfamilar to Bryan and he noticed that it rustled whenever he moved, even slightly.

"It's called taffetta" explained Fiona, amused by Bryan's curiousity about feminine attire, "An exquisite material. Come, stand on this chair so that I can make the adjustments.

Bryan obeyed, but had to be helped onto the chair since he was corsetted and could not see his feet due to his skirts and petticoats.

He felt utterly ridiculous. Here he was, a boy, corsetted, petticoated and wearing his sister's bridesmaids' dress!

Then he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and shuddered. His body, shaped by the corset and by the wide petticoats he wore beneath his dress, was exactly like that of a girl. A wide bosom, a tiny waist and broad skirts. The dress exposed his arms and his bosom and he felt vulnerable. The image was spoilt somewhat by the boyish face peering in shock and a little wonder at his feminised body.

The two women gave him amused looks "You look very sweet!" said Bryan's mother.

"Yes, he looks almost as good as most of the girls I outfit as bridesmaids" said Fiona "And better than some of them!". The women cackled, much to Bryan's discomfort.

Finally, Fiona got to work on the adjustments needed for the dress. Fiona seemed to take ages and Bryan felt very uncomfortable and hot dressed as he was, but, just over an hour later, Fiona said she was happy with the dress.

Fiona helped Bryan out of the dress and petticoats and released him from the bondage of his corset. Bryan was grateful to be released! Donning the robe, he went back to the cubicle and got changed into his regular clothes, trying to erase the memory of the last few hours from his mind.

Fiona gave them a little wave goodbye as they left the boutique.

As she had promised, Mother took Bryan to a games shop and bought him Ultimate Soccer Hero IX. Bryan was over the moon and quickly forgot the humiliations he had undergone. He was eager to get home to play the game.

When they got home, Becca was there. She had changed out of her Girl Guides uniform and was kicking a football about.

Becca mystified and infuriated Bryan. She was a girl, yet, painful as it was to have to admit it, she was brighter than him and was doing better at school than he was, and she was also as good at football as he was. She made him feel inadequate as a male and he resented her for it.

Still, he had his game. He ran up to his bedroom and loaded it up. Becca, Mother and Fiona Farley were all forgotten for the next few hours whilst he became totally absorbed in the world of Ultimate Soccer Hero IX.

It was late at night and Bryan was still playing the game, when there was a tap at his door, and Becca opened the door and poked her head round it.

"Hi Bro, or should I say, Sis! Mother told me all about you standing in for me at the boutique today! She said you looked pretty cute as a bridesmaid! Nice job, Sister!"

Bryan went red as a fire engine. He was mortified that his sister knew that he had worn her bridesmaids' dress! He was lost for words.

"Hey, is that Ultimate Soccer Hero IX you're playing there? Let me have a go!" Becca was suddenly sat beside him, dressed in her PJ's.

Bryan found his voice "No, it's my game! Mother bought it for me!"

"As a reward for wearing a corset, petticoats and a bridesmaids' dress and looking very pretty! If you don't let me play this as often as I want I might let it slip out what a cute bridesmaid you made to your mates at school! You know what we gossipy girls are like!"

Bryan, of course, definitely did not want that knowledge becoming public, so he reluctantly handed over the controller to his sister.

Becca began playing the game and Bryan noted with irritation that she had picked up the controls and special moves more quickly than he had done, although he would never ever admit that to her. How was it that girls always seemed to outdo boys at everything?

After a while, Mother poked her head around the door and said it was time they both went to bed. Grumbling, the children abandoned the game and went to bed.

Bryan had to share his game with his sister for the next few days, resenting it when he could not play, but knowing that he would be a laughing stock if anyone else heard about him being dressed as a bridesmaid.

But, by mid-week, he had the game to himself, as Becca complained of feeling unwell and took to her bed. Bryan took full advantage and played the game constantly, blissfully unaware of the implications of his sister's illness and how it might impact upon him.

Mother was frantic at the fact her daughter was unwell. And she was not the only one. Maria, the bride, was also panicking over the fact that one of her bridesmaids was too ill to appear at the wedding.

The situation reached crisis proportions by mid-week, only a few days before the wedding. Bryan observed his mother acting like a headless chicken with amusement. Why not simply get a girl cousin to take her place?

On the night before the ceremony, as Bryan was still playing on his games console, there was a tap on his door and his mother poked her head around.

"Bryan, stop playing that silly game for a moment, I need to speak to you" she said.

Bryan was again irritated to be disturbed and to his mother referring to his game as silly.

Mother strode into the room with confidence, which unnerved Bryan, for she was normally less confident. What had brought on this sudden surge of confidence?

"Bryan, I'll come straight to the point, Becca is too ill to be a bridesmaid, so you'll have to take her place!"

"What!!! I can't wear a dress in public. I'm a boy!" Bryan was aghast at the notion. It was one thing to dress as a bridesmaid in privacy but to be seen dressed that way in public.....

"You can and you will!" Mother insisted, in a tone that suggested that refusal was not an option.

Bryan thought his mother must be out of her mind to even propose that he should take his sister's place as a Bridesmaid.

"No, I won't do it" he told her simply "You can't make me".

Mother smiled. Not exactly the reaction Bryan was expecting. He had a horrible feeling that she had an ace up her sleeve.

"Oh, I certainly can make you" she said "Remember when you helped out by wearing the dress for its fitting? Fiona, like any sensible shopkeeper, has CCTV installed all over her salon. If you don't take your sister's place, I'll make sure footage of you as the blushing bridesmaid finds its way onto the internet".

Bryan's face went white. If his mother carried out her threat, he would become a laughing stock at school. His mates would shun him. Girls would giggle at him as he walked past them in the school corridors. Having to dress as a bridesmaid for a day, where only a few people would know, now seemed the lesser of two evils.

On the day of the wedding, Bryan was fitted into his corset and bridesmaid's dress. To his humiliation, he also had to wear the silk knickers, garter belt and stockings that his sister would have had to wear, along with a wig, a tiara and jewellery. He also had to submit to being fully made up and having false eyelashes and nails attached to him. He hated to have to admit it, but he looked pretty convincing as a girl.

He was all dolled up and ready to act as a bridesmaid. He wondered who they had got to fill his role as ringbearer at the last minute.

He travelled in the bridal limousine with Maria and Stacey, the other bridesmaid, who both knew he was a boy bridesmaid complimented him on his appearance. When he was helped out of the car, a confused mass of lace and taffeta, he was stunned to see his sister wearing the D'Artangan outfit of the ringbearer. His jaw actually dropped.

Maria walked over to Becca, bent her head down to whisper in her ear and pressed something into her hand and turned back to face Bryan, putting an arm around Becca's shoulder.

"He's still trying to work out what's going on" sniggered Becca "Boys are so dumb! And my brother is even dumber than most boys!" The two females giggled together, in that way that girls always did and which always infuriated Bryan.

Bryan wobbled up to them in his foot-killing heels, struggling to manage his skirt and petticoats and constantly aware of the delicate whiff of perfume that permeated his skin and the alien feel of cosmetics on his face "What IS going on here?"

"Your sister and I had a little wager" explained Maria "I bet your sister a fiver that she couldn't turn you into a bridesmaid and her into the ringbearer. I lost the bet".

"I got Mother involved, of course" Becca cut in "I couldn't have won without her. She loved the idea of seeing you as a bridesmaid. Her self-centred, arrogant son who thinks he is so much better than any girl being easily outwitted by one and being forced to dress up as one! I wasn't out selling cookies that day you had to wear the dress for the fitting, I wasn't ill and
there was no CCTV camera in that room, by the way. You could have refused and Mother and I would have been stumped".

Bryan was stunned by this revelation. All this, just for a petty bet between two girls? He had been forced into a humiliating position. His body and feet hurt from being corsetted and having to wear high heels. All so that two girls could have a giggle at his expense!

Maria gestured for Bryan to take his place behind her "Come along, my pretty little bridesmaid!"
Miserable and humiliated to have been so easily forced into this position by a couple of girls, Bryan trailed behind her, with his head down.

Becca followed, carrying the cushion that held the rings, savouring her victory and thinking with pleasure at what was to come. Mother had been so enchanted at Bryan's appearance that she was talking about getting him some girl things so that he could dress up for her and Becca's amusement. He would have no choice but to comply as they would have the wedding photos of him as a corsetted and petticoated bridesmaid to threaten him with!

Becca licked her lips in anticipation. The future was looking better with every passing moment!