Chapter 6: Chapter 6 – A Tense Dinner

Author’s Note - Slight trigger warning. There is a transphobic character in this chapter.

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A long while passed since my shopping trip, I had begun to get kind of into a new groove. Showering wasn’t as weird as it was before, nor was caring about how I dressed. Thanks to my sister and Isabella’s suggestions I had a pretty good sense for what top goes with what bottom now.

Hell even on days where I wasn’t doing anything I was trying to get my hair to look better and experimenting with styles. I had started actually spending time in front of the mirror! Which to my obviously male brain felt super feminine.

 

I was really dreading what was coming up though. On the 31st, I’d be having dinner at my parents house with my sister. I knew it wasn’t going to be nearly as awkward as the start of the experiment, but it was still pretty nerve wracking.

But with all my mirror time it felt like the days flew by until it was finally time. Brittany texted me saying that she was waiting in the parking lot for me to come down, it wasn’t nearly as cold as last time when I walked to my folk’s house but I wasn’t going to turn down a free ride.

I figured today I’d dress fairly androgynous, one of the few not overly femme outfits I had bought. I dressed in a pair of blue skinny jeans and a regular light purple t-shirt, of course I also slipped on a hoodie due to the weather.

 

I went downstairs, not really worried anymore about people seeing me, I figured I looked different enough that there’s no way any of my neighbors would suspect who I was. I got into my sister’s car and buckled up next to her.

“That looks good on you sis” she smiled at me, I didn’t really know how to respond so I just awkwardly giggled

She kept looking at me though, I just knew immediately that she could tell that I had gotten more curvy since the last time we saw each other. Thankfully though she didn’t address it and just started driving towards our parents house.

“So how do you wanna do this? Just tell me if you want me to tell them, I don’t know if it’s weird or nerve wracking for you” ever since we were kids I tried to let her do as much of the talking as possible, to anyone

“N-no it’s fine, it’s not that weird” I shrugged with a half-hearted sigh

“Well just know that if anyone says anything, I won’t be having a single goddamn word of it” the positive of having an outgoing twin, she could do all of the aggressiveness for me

“It’ll be fine, they didn’t react too poorly to when I told them about the experiment”

“Oh well yeah, mom and dad won’t have a problem for sure, I’m just not sure about everyone else” she shrugged a bit but I just looked at her in confusion

“E-everyone… else?”

“What, did you forget what day it is? It’s dad’s birthday sis, his brother and sister-in-law are going to be over”

“I-IT IS?! THEY ARE?!” it felt like my heart was about to explode out of my chest

“Did you forget? Wait… do you want me to take you home?” she could tell by the look on my face that I had in fact completely forgotten my own dad’s birthday, and the fact that our uncle comes over every single year

“I-I-i-I-I”

Brittany pulled the car over onto the side of the road, we were just a few blocks away from our parents house.

“Just breathe Robyn, it’s ok, I’m going to take you back home alright? You don’t need to do this, let’s just get you home and you can calm down” she was gently patting my shoulder

“N-no… I-I…. I want to do this”

“Robyn, you don’t have to put on a brave face, mom and dad will completely understand, or I can tell them you got sick if you’d prefer” I knew she was probably right, I didn’t have to do this right now and yet…

“No… I want to… I-I want to tell uncle Jeremy about it anyway…” I started to take a few deep breaths.

 

Uncle Jeremy was my god father, and also had been a super important figure in my life growing up. He was always supportive and fun, always interested in whatever I was doing no matter what, and it always felt like he was on my side. His wife on the other hand? It may be stereotypical of me to say, but she was a total bitch.

Ever since he married her back when I was in high school I had been more or less avoiding him, he seemed happy with her and I didn’t want to tell him that his wife was awful. I regretted not staying in better touch with him, and this was a solid chance I suppose to see just how accepting of me he is.

“Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive? You can meet up with Uncle Jeremy anytime you want it doesn’t have to be right this second if you aren’t ready for it” to which I nodded

“You know me Brittany… I’ll chicken out if I don’t do it right now… besides, having you as backup? Makes me feel a lot better” I tried to give her as confident of a smile as I possibly could.

 

I could tell she didn’t really approve, but she respected my wishes nonetheless and continued the few blocks we had left to get to my parents house. I was at least thankful that my parents were very talkative, so I knew there was no way they didn’t already tell them about the experiment, so at least that shock would already be handled.

I walked pretty slowly to the door, quite a bit behind my sister. By the time I reached the porch she had already rung the bell and our mother had already opened the door.

“Oh my gosh! There’s two Brittanys here!” she motioned for me and I awkwardly gave her a hug before she pulled me inside

Before I could really process it, there I was in front of everyone in the room. My dad was sitting on his usual chair while my aunt and uncle were sitting on the couch, all looking over at me with Brittany coming in the house just behind me.

“Ok now don’t everyone stare at her all at once now” Brittany huffed a bit, walking past me and saying hellos to everyone individually, taking a bit of the eyes off of me just long enough for me to take off my shoes

“So… this one’s Brittany?” Jeremy asked while pointing at my sister

“Mhm, and this one is Dillan” mom was surprisingly the one to notice who was who

When she said Dillan though I felt… this weird ping in my chest, almost purely on instinct I nearly went to correct her. But… Dillan was still my name after all so that doesn’t make any sense. Thankfully I held the urge back and awkwardly waved to everyone.

 

My mom sat in her usual chair and my sister sat on a chair she pulled out from the dining table. I, on the other hand, stood on the opposite side of the room as far away from anyone as I could physically be without leaving the room entirely.

“So they’re paying you… just to look like that?” Jeremy asked with the baffled look of a middle aged suburban dad, “that doesn’t really make any sense to me”

“W-well it was a privately funded thing… they just want to make sure e-everything works and that there’s no side effects” for a few words I tried to sound more masculine but my vocal cords had changed too much, so I gave up on it quick, “it’s like a-any medical test”

“Normal medical trials don’t pay that much” my aunt scrunched her nose slightly at me, “it’s probably some kind of fetish product”

“No it d-doesn’t seem that way… the psychiatrist said it was because some people’s… bodies and genders don’t match?” I couldn’t remember exactly how she phrased it, and with my aunt’s glare digging through me I could hardly mumble out a much better response than that

She didn’t really respond though, she just gave me a disgusted-esc look and turned her attention away from me. Whether I was grossing her out or if it was the experiment in general I have no idea.

“So sis, you wanna tell them your name?” Brittany picked up the silent moment before it got awkward

“O-oh… yeah! Uh… well… since I look like this I figured it would b-be weird if I still went by Dillan for this year s-so I was thinking that maybe I would go by a different name, just for the duration of the experiment and if you don’t want to call me th-that than I completely understand!” with each word I started talking faster and faster until finally running out of breath, taking a long deep inhale before talking again, “S-so uh… you can call me Robyn… until January obviously”

“Hm, not a name I would have expected” mom nodded slowly, “but it’s a very beautiful name” her approval felt like a massive weight off my chest

The two men just simply nodded along with her while my aunt didn’t react at all to the name nor anything I said. To be honest I was sort of glad about that, if she decided to just leave me alone all night then we wouldn’t have any issues at all.

 

Slowly but surely the conversation started to drift away from me, they all started talking about… something else? I wasn’t really paying them much mind anymore, I could hear my heart in my ears still. The stressful part was over but I was still coming down from the fear and anxiety of it all.

The topics they shifted through moved from old memories, to a political argument, to talking about some show my mom and dad watch, and all the while I just sat back and nodded along.

I don’t know how long I stood there and how long they all talked, it felt like months when in reality it was probably about an hour or so. Then I heard the ringing of the doorbell that shocked me so much I nearly jumped out of my skin and fell over. It was the pizzas that my folks had ordered for dinner before I got there so everyone moved the conversation over to the dinner table.

My mom and dad sat on opposing ends of the table, my aunt and uncle sat on one side while I sat in between my sister and mother, right across from my aunt.

“You know, I just can’t get over how similar you two look” Jeremy motioned to Brittany and I, “was that an intentional part of the trial?” he asked while eating a rather large slice

“N-no, it wasn’t something that I could choose” I shrugged weakly, “if I-I had to guess the shot just makes me look like how I would have looked if I was born a girl?”

“And here I thought you were just fetishizing your sister” my aunt chimed in, charming as ever.

 

She was nudged slightly, I think by uncle Jeremy, while I looked awkwardly at Brittany who was glaring at our aunt with a look of indignation. 

“Has Brittany been helping you? You seem to be very well put together” my mother asked with a soft smile

“Mhm! Her and Isabella h-have been a lifesaver for me”

“We got her enough clothes to make it through the year, that’s all, Robyn has been doing really good on her own” Brittany smiled as well.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel… really good, there was a light sensation in my chest that just felt like this huge weight had been lifted off of me. I was very glad to see my mother come around to accepting the experiment and to hear what Brittany had said, I do think she is underselling her role but still, it feels nice

“Frankly I’m surprised you let your son sign up for a medical trial like this one” my aunt’s snark came in yet again at the worst possible time

“I didn’t know anything about it, he signed up before telling us” mom shrugged, “besides, she’s out of the house and can make her own decisions”

“Pft, I’d never let my child participate in anything that dangerous”

“What child?” Jeremy chuckled, “We don’t have any kids”

“This is exactly why we never did have any” she motioned quite obviously at me

“Hey now, what are you implying by that?” my dad stepped in, having feasted on nearly an entire pie by himself, “You best not be implying that we raised our kids poorly”

“Of course not, I never said that” her snide condescending attitude seemed to get everyone at the table annoyed with her in record time.

 

There were several minutes of near silence following, everyone eating quietly to not cause any arguments during dinner. Uncle Jeremy had always been pretty dense when it came to his wife, but the one thing he would never stand for is her disrespecting his brother. Which I would assume is why she stood down so quickly once dad got involved.

This entire time I had been holding my phone or during dinner I had just been letting it sit in between my legs thanks to the lack of pockets on these jeans. I thought for a moment that I kind of wanted to pick up a purse the next time I was out when I felt my phone go off.

Since the room was pretty much silent anyway I decided to take a look at the messages. It was a DM from Kevin on our group messaging app.

 

Khaos99

Hey Robyn! You free on the 11th?

 

You are reading story Six Figures to be a Girl for One Year at novel35.com

I tried my best to type quietly, though my nails had gotten a bit longer than they usually were, so there was a faint tapping sound of my nails hitting the screen.

 

Robyn

Sure I suppose :o I don’t have anything going on!

 

Khaos99

Awesome, L and I were going to hang out so I wanted to see if you were down

 

Robyn

Yeah that sounds good! Come by at 2?

 

Khaos99

We’ll come pick you up at 2 yeah, see you then

 

Robyn

Alrighty, see you then :3

 

“Don’t text at the dinner table Robyn” mom said casually, finally breaking the mutual silence in the room

“R-right! So-sorry” I closed out of the app and locked my phone

“Did you expect any better from him” I could vaguely hear Jeremy’s wife mumble under her breath though I wasn’t sure if anyone else heard it so I just ignored it

“You say something Diane?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow at her, finally reminding me of what her name was!

“No, nothing at all” she had been done eating for a long while, she pretty much always ate as little as possible when at our house.

 

A little while later everyone slowly moved back to our original positions in the living room, though enough time had finally passed that I was somewhat used to things so I could pay better attention to the conversations at hand.

“So what are you going to do for your wedding now Brittany?” Diane asked my sister out of the blue

“What do you mean? It’s still happening at the same time and place as it always has” she looked back at her in genuine confusion

“I mean with him” Diane pointed at me, “I would ask if he was still going to be a groomsman but honestly I’d think it best to just not put him anywhere in the wedding”

My sister paused for a few moments, either deep in thought to figure out how to respond or trying to hold her annoyance back. “You know I hadn’t actually thought about that” then a smile appeared on her face “Oh I know what Robyn’s role should be!”

“Janitor” Diane rolled her eyes

“She can be my maid of honor” Brittany smiled at me

I was completely shocked, my eyes shot open kind of wide and I had no idea what to say. My mind was already racing incredibly fast, didn’t bridesmaids have to be women? Especially so for the maid of honor right? I wasn’t really a girl! But even so just hearing that made my heart skip a beat.

“That’s a great idea” mom nodded, flooring me even more, she was in support of this?

“That’s completely ridiculous, you can’t have a MAN as your maid of honor!” the venom on Diane’s words was palpable

“Well it’s a good thing that for the next year ROBYN is a WOMAN” and so it began, Brittany was raising her voice back at her now

“Oh please, a shot doesn’t make a man into a woman!”

“Hey, lay off of it already” Jeremy glared at his wife with a look I had never seen him give her

“You’ve got to be kidding me Jeremy! You’re supposed to be on my side”

“Your side is against my children, so watch your mouth Diane” mother was jumping in now.

 

Things were getting out of hand fast, I felt like I just wanted to crawl into a corner and hide away as their voices began to blur together. In particular Brittany and Diane were going very aggressively at each other while mom was more of a menacing presence and Jeremy was trying to get his wife to back down.

Every now and again family screaming matches happened for sure, but I had never been the cause of them a single time throughout all of my years so I felt terrible about it.

I haven’t the slightest clue how long it went on for before my dad aggressively gripped the armrests to his chair with a loud enough hit to get everyone’s attention.

“Everyone calm the hell down now” though he didn’t raise his voice I could tell by his inflection that he was furious, “It’s been nice to see you this year Diane, but I’m not gonna just sit here and let you disrespect my daughters like that”

“Me? I-”

“Ahp! Not another word” he looked over at Jeremy, “I would kindly ask that you get your wife out of my house right now”

There was a slight pause, “Yeah, sure, it’s been good to see you”

Dad got up out of his chair and hugged his brother tight, “I’m glad you were here today”

 

Uncle Jeremy gave my sister a hug and said goodbye and then did the same for my mother before coming over to me. I raised my hand for a handshake from him, a sort of unspoken tradition being that the only guy Jeremy ever hugged was my father. But much to my surprise he gave me a gentle hug.

“It’s been good to see you Dil- I mean, Robyn” he smiled, “You let me know if you ever need anything”

“R-right… you too Uncle Jeremy” I smiled a bit awkwardly at him.

 

Diane on the other hand didn’t so much as say goodbye to anyone, just huffing on her way out of the door with Jeremy right behind her.

“Bitch” Brittany huffed back once the door was closed and Diane couldn’t hear her, then she turned her attention back to me, “I’m so sorry that that happened”

“Uh.. i-it’s fine” I was idly playing with my hair and not looking her in the eyes.

 

We stayed for probably another half hour or so, mostly making idle small talk and trying to all ignore the situation that had just happened before my sister decided it was time for us to head out.

We each gave both our parents a hug and were walking over to the door.

“Hey Robyn” dad called from his chair as Brittany was opening the door, “I’m proud of you” 

I felt myself smile, “thanks dad”

With that the very stressful evening was finally at an end. We got into my sister’s car and waved at our mom before Brittany pulled out onto the road and started to drive me home.

 

There was a bit of silence in the car for a few moments at first before I just couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“D-did you mean what you said?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“About m-me being your m-maid of honor… I-I assume you just said that to get under her skin r-right?” I awkwardly fidgeted my hands together

“What? Of course I meant it! Obviously you don’t have to be the maid of honor if you don’t want to be” I wasn’t look at her but I knew her smile just from the tone of her voice, “Of course I’d want my sister to be my maid of honor”

“E-even if I’m y-your brother?”

“Would you prefer to be my brother?”

“I-it’s not really a matter of want, is it?” I finally looked at her, though obviously her eyes were on the road

“I suppose it isn’t, it’s more a matter of who you are Robyn” she gently patted my shoulder with her free hand, “Whether you’re my brother or sister, I’d like for you to be involved however you feel comfortable in my wedding, even if it’s just as a guest”

“I…I see… I uh….”

“I don’t need an answer right now obviously, we can talk more about it another time” she smiled, “I’m sure you’re exhausted after all of that”

She was right, it felt like I had just gotten off a shift at work with all of that stress. 

 

Before long she dropped me off at my apartment and I waved her off before heading upstairs and collapsing into my bed. I felt like my mind was racing and yet there were no real thoughts going through my head at all.

It’s a matter of who I am? I’m not even sure anymore what the answer to that question even is… Am I her sister or her brother? Am I Dillan? Or am I Robyn? It was starting to feel like these things were blurring together..

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Author’s Note - Hey again! Been awhile since my last chapter, been doing stuff irl and also planning out the rest of this series! As of right now I’m planning on 30 chapters total, though that number could end up being lower depending on how lazy I end up feeling along the way. Hope you enjoy it all!

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