Chapter 1: Dress-Up

MY BROTHER never gets the seams straight. Sheesh. Like it’s that hard? Me and my girlfriends always do them right. Well, almost every time. I guess boys don’t learn very fast. Another thing, Danny didn’t used to get a boner when he puts on stockings but it seems like he does almost every time now.

Mom loves stockings. I mean, she doesn’t wear them always, like when she’s got shorts or jeans on, but if she’s wearing a dress she’s got stockings and clips and that little belt thingy and other stuff. She likes pretty bras with a bit of lace, too. She doesn’t care if me and Danny watch her dress. We’ve watched since we were little and I’m pretty sure she likes it when we watch. Lots of times Dad watches with us. He thinks it’s funny we’re so interested and he laughs, until Mom gives him her look. Then he stops laughing but he’s still smiling. I can see a little smile on Mom’s face, too.

I think Dad’s noticed Danny’s boners but he hasn’t said anything. I know Mom’s seen them because she gets that little smile, the one she has after she’s given Dad her look, when Danny sticks out the way he does.

I know what a boner is, in case you think I didn’t.

I don’t remember when it started, exactly, the whole stocking thing. I was probably in fourth or fifth grade. My brother’s a year older than me so he must have been in fifth or sixth.

My girlfriends liked to come over because we had a pretty big pool and my folks always liked having them around. Mom didn’t want to put on a show, as she called it, for my girlfriends, but she was OK if we practiced on our own. Not with real stockings at first. We used leggings or whatever we had. Later on Mom bought us cheap nylons to practice with, and about the time some of us girls started wearing little bras she gave us the belts and clips and showed us how to use them. Me and my friends got the seams pretty straight each time.

I love Danny. I don’t want anyone to misunderstand. I laugh at him sometimes but he’s my brother and I love him and he knows I love him, so it’s OK. Funny thing is, some people think we’re twins. I don’t know why, we don’t really look that much alike except the way normal brothers and sisters do. We’re almost exactly a year apart, and the story I’m going to tell you starts the spring I had my fourteenth birthday and Danny turned fifteen.

Maybe it’s because Danny’s small for his age, about my size even though he’s a year older. He’s also pretty cute, kind of almost girl-cute rather than boy-cute. He’d be skinny except for what swimming has done for his shoulders and chest. I’m more slender than skinny and I’ve barely started to get curves. His face is delicate, big eyes, kind of wide-set, and cute little ears. His chin is fine, and I love his cheekbones.

Danny runs track, and now that he’ll be in his first year of high school in the fall Coach Vargas told him to try out for the Varsity squad. He swims, too, we swim on the same club team and we’re pretty evenly matched. I guess what I’m trying to say is, just because he likes to dress up Danny’s not a wimp.

I mean that, even if he likes to put on Mom’s stockings and garter belt and, well, just about everything else Mom wears underneath her dresses. Except for the seams he looks super good, I mean like, hot, when he’s got everything on, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. You’ll see what he says and does and decide for yourselves if he’s a sissy.

You know something else? Danny’s not the only guy who likes to dress up. A couple of years ago my friend Ruth asked if her brother David could come to one of our little overnights.

“I told him about the stockings and stuff, Charlie,” Ruth said to me one afternoon while we walked home from school. Her family lives in the next block from us and our parents have known each other since practically before us and their kids were born. My name’s Charlotte but everyone calls me Charlie. Even some of my teachers.

Chapter 2 »