This story is based upon events which transpired last fall. Some events are exaggerated or even completely fabricated, however the basic scenario, as well as the name and layout of the store are 100% accurate. The names of all others involved have also been changed in order to preserve anonymity.

 

Costume Parade

by Ray Kitten

 

I was practically a nervous wreck as I walked through the doors under the huge pink sign which proclaimed the location of Shirley Potter's. Immediately in front of me, to the left of the counter was a stairway leading up from the first floor, which appeared to be mostly dance wear, to the second, where the rental costumes should have been.

As I walked up I discretely slipped my hand inside my jacket to check my armpit. It was just the slightest bit damp from perspiration, fortunately I had planned on the stress and gone heavily on the deodorant this morning. Then I reached the top of the stairs and stood before the counter, there were three girls standing behind it, at least that gave me some choice. I turned and to survey the layout as I considered whether to look around myself or go straight to the counter for help.

Past the countered area of the store where a multitude of wigs hung in every imaginable style and a variety of colors, an entire section of the store was devoted to mascot suits. The other three quarters of the store were occupied by rack upon rack of costumes in a rainbow of colors. There were even a couple on mannequins, the nearest of which was a glittery pink dress with puffed out skirt and sleeves, which I recognized as Glenda, the good witch, from Wizard of Oz.

I decided there was no point in wandering around aimlessly when there were three people here who knew the inventory and had no one else to help. Besides I would eventually need to ask for their help anyway, and so I would rather do that when there was no one else in the store. I walked up to one of them, a cute girl about twenty, very close to my own age, with a short blonde pageboy. She looked up from working on the colonial America style wig she was putting up into a roller curled beehive. "Can I help you with anything?"

I cleared my throat nervously and looked at the counter trying to avoid looking this cute girl in the face. "Yes I need your help." I took a deep breath and released it. "I need your help choosing a costume for our Halloween party." I looked up at her as she wound another roller into the wig.

"Do you have any idea what you want?" She asked.

I nodded a little. "See because of a bet I lost to some female friends I need to get one of the clerks here to choose it. They only made one provision on the style of costume."

She had put down the other rollers now, I seemed to have her interest, maybe she even suspected what was about to happen now. "And what was that?"

I blushed a little as I told her, "No pants, it has to be some sort of dress or skirt."

She put her hand over her mouth as she giggled. As she tried not to laugh one of the other girls came back from hanging up some costumes in another area of the store. The second clerk was a little older, probably around thirty, with light brown hair that she wore up. "What's so funny?" the new girl asked.

Blondie smiled at her, "He lost a bet and so he has to wear a dress to his Halloween party."

"Ooooouuu," the newcomer cooed. "Are you thinking Ballerina?"

The younger girl's eyes light up. "I wasn't before," she trailed off.

The brunette giggled, "This is going to be so much fun, you go get him set up, I've got a couple other ideas."

The blonde led me over to a rack which bore a number of very large ballet tights with ruffled tutus and very prominent, but fake looking, padded chests. I cringed at the thought of wearing one of these pink monstrosities. The girl must have caught my reaction because she started looking analytically from the suits to me and back.

"You know..." She said now looking just at me. "What's your name?"

I cleared my throat and for a split second considered giving a false name, but I knew I wouldn't be able to rent a costume without my credit card and ID. "Cody."

"I'm Alexandra, You know Cody, I don't think this is the costume for you. These are usually worn by heavier guys out for a gag. You aren't very big, you could probably just wear one of our regular girl's costumes, and your features are fine enough that you'll probably be very pretty. How does that sound?"

I blushed furiously, "It's your choice, I don't have much say. But anything has got to be better than that." I sneered a bit and pointed accusingly at the hideous pink thing.

Alexandra giggled, "Oh this is going to be great, why don't you take that change room on the end and I'll go get some outfits for you to try on."

I started a little, not wanting to let on that I had considered ahead of time for this possibility. "Try on?"

Alexandra nodded. "What good is a costume that doesn't fit, and besides I want to help you be as pretty as possible. Some costumes just might not flatter you."

As she talked I nervously played with the piercing stud in my left ear. Alexandra didn't seem to have previously noticed this, or the matching one in my right ear.

"Have you thought that maybe it was your earrings that made the girls decide to dress you like this?" she asked.

I absently continued to twist the stud in my earlobe, not used to the sensation. "Actually it was kind of the other way around. I had to go get these put in yesterday so that in exactly six weeks, at Halloween, my ears will have healed enough that they can change my earrings."

Alexandra was a bit surprised by this revelation, "What were the exact terms of this bet?"

"It was my birthday out, and I was a bit drunk at the time, the stakes were me against three girls for complete control over the losers costumes."

This time she didn't giggle, she out and out laughed. "Come on." She led me towards the row of changing rooms, she directed me towards one and turned around. "You may as well just take your pants and shirt off, we'll pass the costumes over the door."

I stepped into the room and closed the door, I was surrounded by bare wood on all four sides, there was no mirror in here! How was I supposed to see what I was in store for without a mirror? I pondered this for a few minutes before I heard a voice outside my dressing room, I think it was the brunette, "How you doing in there, ready to try some things on?"

I answered with a question of my own, "Where's the mirror?"

"It's out here, on the end of the row of change rooms."

My heart raced a little, I had definitely not planned on going out into the store in the costumes. I was tempted to leave but I heard the girl's voice outside my door again.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad. It's quiet today, and besides it's a costume shop less than two months before Halloween. We've seen guys in dresses before, admittedly most of them are like those ballerina costumes, but come on, open the door and take these costumes."

"Yeah," Alexandra agreed, "We have to see you to decide which costume is best anyway, and it's hard to judge in that cramped dressing room."

Sighing I opened the door and took the bundle of hangers from the girls. They handed me four, as the sign inside the room proclaimed was the maximum allowed at one time. I hung them up and after locking the door I stripped down, and looked at the first costume. Cleopatra was what it looked like, it was creamy white with a tight waist and a long pencil skirt, the top was looser and sleeveless. As my shirt joined my pants on the floor I stood there in my socks and my black, patterned lace panties. I cursed myself inwardly for not thinking to grab a pair of my boxers to wear over these girl undies, with their rose pattern and delicate little bow at the waistband. As I slipped on the first costume I hoped the black panties wouldn't show through the white dress, still if the girls did notice I would tell them that I had no choice but to wear them.

The dress fit well, hugging my waist and riding down to my ankles. I undid the latch, intentionally making a lot of noise doing so and waited to hear them outside the door.

I opened the door once I heard Alexandra, and both girls gawked when they saw me, and giggled just a bit.

"Well?" I asked.

"Come have a look for yourself." Alexandra replied.

I walked the ten feet or so around to the mirror but it felt more like fifty. Finally I got to the mirror and confronted the results, there I was. I had no make-up which made for an odd looking Cleopatra but it didn't look that bad. My body appeared just a bit slimmer than normal in this dress. Both girls were right behind me to examine their prey out in the open.

"What do you think?" Alexandra asked her cohort as she examined the back.

"Not too bad," she replied. "But Cleopatra really should have black hair, and his is almost blonde."

"What about a wig?"

The brunette pondered and stroked my hair which fell to my shoulder blades and was kept soft and healthy by much time and effort on my part. "Could do, but he has such, nice long hair, it'd be a shame not to choose a costume which would take advantage of that."

Alexandra agreed and I was sent back to try on the next costume, feeling relieved that neither girl seemed to have noticed my underwear.

The next costume was a green and white pleated skirt, and a white sweater with green stripes down the arms and a large green 'A' on the front. I redressed as quickly as I could finding the skirt just above my knees and the sweater baggy; the classic cheerleader, sweet and innocently flirtatious, not like the glittering sexpots of current big sports.

I again unlocked the door and waited for confirmation that they were ready. When the door opened revealing me to them Alexandra grinned cheerfully, "You look so cute," she gushed. Then her smile grew broader and slightly mischievous, and she stepped into the change room with me, causing me to take a step back. "Brigitte could you go get me some hair elastics from the wig desk?" she asked her friend.

"I have some in my coat." I said. "I have to wear my hair back at work."

"Even better." I retrieved the bag from my coat pocket and she selected two blue ones. She handed one to me and said, "Turn around."

I complied and she started to stroke my hair back, and part it down the middle of my head. She started bunching up the hair from one side, kind of like when I put it in a ponytail. Then she wound the elastic around it and secured it, much higher and more to the side than the more unisex style I normally wore. Then she took the other band from me and repeated the process with the hair on the other side of my head.

Then I was marched out of the change room to the mirror so they could assess the new costume. Again I could not believe how much of a difference it made. Simple pig-tails had made my entire face seem more feminine. With make-up to match my costume I could probably even look good.

The girls flanked me as I looked at my appearance, Alexandra didn't seem as pleased with my costume as I had been. I turned to her and she seemed to know what I was going to say and answered it before I even spoke, "Your legs are pretty hairy, you are planning on shaving them right?"

I blushed even more as I hung my head and sarcastically mumbled, "I wish."

"Pardon," this time it was Brigitte speaking, and they were each hanging off my shoulders to hear what I said.

"I said I wish I had that option." I repeated more clearly, to their puzzlement, so I explained. "The girls told me on the weekend before Halloween I have to go to one of their homes and they're going to wax me."

More laughter followed. "You poor guy," Alexandra sympathized. "They're making you wax your legs, even I don't do that."

I wrung my hands nervously, "Not just my legs, my arms and chest too, if they think it'll show under my costume."

"Oh that should be fun for you." Brigitte teased.

"At least your legs will look nice when they're done."

Finally they relented and sent me back into the dressing room for costume number three. It happened to be a short skirted green dress with a jagged hem and a pair of wings that would attach to the back, Tinkerbell, of all things. How exactly I was going to keep my panties hidden in this super short dress I wasn’t sure.

I sighed resignedly and stripped hanging my cheerleader uniform back up. Then I slipped my arms into the dress which, from what I recall of the movie, was an excellent reproduction. I tried to slip it down over my body but it got stuck on my shoulders and back. After struggling for a minute to no avail I reversed the direction of my struggling and slipped it off. "Doesn't fit," I called out.

"Which one?" I wasn't sure which girl was talking but it wasn't really important.

"Tinkerbell."

"That’s too bad, try on the Saloon Girl."

This costume was by far sissier than anything they had given me thus far. It was a red and black dress, off the shoulder and sleeveless, with a tight looking piped bodice and a very wide swishy skirt, with a frilled hem. It looked like the kind of thing whores always wore in the western shows.

I unzipped the back and stepped into it, lifting one foot at a time, lifting the dress until my feet were touching floor without the dress under them. Then I lifted the bodice to my chest and slid my arms into the straps leaving the hem of the dress tickling my ankles. Reaching around behind myself I fumbled for the zipper. It took me a bit to grasp the tongue of the devise and started to zip myself up, but it didn't get far. Around the small of my back I found it stuck and I couldn't get it to zip up further.

I must have struggled with it for quite a while because before I knew it Alexandra was calling in to me. "Well, how's it coming?"

"I can't get it zipped up," I replied. I was about to unzip the dress and hang it back up, but Alexandra suggested that she could try and zip it up for me. "Do we have to?" I asked, somewhat afraid that if she unzipped the dress to start over she might see the waistband of my panties.

She replied with a firm "Yes," so I unlocked the change room door and let her in, fortunately for my modesty she stood in the doorway, blocking the view of the couple of customers now walking around. Even more fortunate was that she didn't unzip the dress very far. She started to zip me up and I could feel the soft material tightening around my torso. But it seemed to snag around the same place, and I could feel Alexandra tugging at the two sides of the zipper trying to get them to meet in the middle.

"Take a deep breath and suck your gut in as much as you can," she instructed. As I complied the material squeezed my waist like a satin fist as I felt the zipper rise up to the midpoint of my back. "Now breath out and relax." Again I complied and with my chest no longer puffed out Alexandra was able to work the zipper up closing the material's grip on my torso.

She giggled as I turned around. "What?" I asked. Alexandra reached up and undid one of the pigtail elastics I had forgotten to remove. Still giggling she took them both out.

"Now let's go have a look at you."

As I walked to the mirror I became aware of just how tightly the dress fit as the soft bodice rubbed against my nipples. I must say the sensation was far from unpleasant. As was the soft brushings of the crinoline underskirt tickling my legs, it felt like teasing brushes of feminine fingers in erotic places. Fortunately my willpower and fear of further humiliation kept this from having the obvious effect on me.

I got to the mirror and one problem was immediately evident. The bodice of the dress was bulging around the midsection. I am not fat, as Alexandra had earlier mentioned, but neither am I in phenomenal condition. For a guy I fit the slightly small end of average build, but for a dress, apparently I'm a little higher on the scale.

As we studied my reflection a moment I noticed a customer walk downstairs. She gave no indication of seeing me, which I gladly noted and turned my attention back to the mirror. The off the shoulder neckline was actually quite flattering as it drew attention down to my shoulders and away from my rather masculinely thick neck. Unfortunately the tight waist looked bad enough to compensate. As we stood by the mirror Brigitte returned from elsewhere in the store. She turned a critical eye on me.

"A bit small on him," Alexandra surmised.

"Do we have any bigger?" Brigitte asked her, neither girl acknowledging that I was standing right beside them.

"Not in the saloon girl style, just in the Klondike days collection."

Brigitte held her jaw in thought for a moment before commenting, "It's too bad we don’t rent out corsets."

Alexandra perked up at that suggestion, "That would be great. And with all that loose flesh pushed up he could probably even have a nice little set of natural breasts. They wouldn't even have to stuff him."

Brigitte nodded before finally addressing me. "You should talk to these friends of yours and ask them if their mothers have a corset tucked away in the attic, depending on which costume you choose."

"You mean depending on which costume we choose," Alexandra corrected

Having had as much fun with this costume as they were going to they sent me back to the change room.

I saw the empty hanger from my current costume hanging on the right and more costumes on the left, but the three costumes I had already tried weren't anywhere. These were different costumes, more for me to try on. I gave a slight groan for the women to hear at the thought of venturing out into the shop area, laced and skirted for all to see three more times. I took off the dress sighing with relief as my waist was released.

The next dress was somewhat similar except that it was on the shoulder, but still sleeveless, and much shorter. The dress was a slightly shimmery olive green, however underneath the skirt were ruffles of brightly coloured fabric in bright red, yellow, and orange. Although vaguely familiar I couldn't quite place the origins of this particular dress, I think maybe I was just getting a little shell-shocked, and overloading on girlishness. It didn't matter that much after all, a dress was a dress, and I was expected to put this on and go out there.

Fortunately this dress was larger than the last and with a little effort I was able to zip it up. The girls were thrilled when I opened the door, and they rushed me back towards the mirror. Brigitte even grabbed the hem of my dress and turned it up slightly to examine the frills, which brought more laughter from Alexandra, especially on account of my expression. I could just imagine what she saw, my start white flesh contrasting those bright frills of material, but did she see more than that, had she lifted enough that she could see my panties, the skirt wasn't that long after all, just above my knee. But fortunately there was only the same amusement in her face that had been there since we had began so I can assume that she didn't see my intimates.

"You look great," Brigitte gushed as we arrived at the mirror so I could examine myself.

"Great," I murmured, my attention more on the other customer looking at the nearby mascot suits, pointedly taking no apparent notice of me or my feminized state. "What am I, I mean what is this costume supposed to be?"

"Can't you tell?" Alexandra smiled, "You’re a Can-Can dancer."

"Maybe you should give us a demonstration," Brigitte teased.

I blushed redder than anything in my life had ever made me do. Doing that dance would clearly mean showing my panties, the last thing I wanted to do here.

The girls laughed a little at my embarrassment. "At least show us a little leg," Alexandra insisted.

I looked at her questioning her seriousness and was answered with an expression of playful insistence. I turned to Brigitte for a reprieve and found nothing even resembling it. So I cocked my leg and slid the skirt up just enough that they could see the curve of my thigh. I even ran my hands along my leg for good measure, the hair didn't feel much better than it looked.

Alexandra smiled, "You have nice legs for a guy, once they're smooth they will look really cute."

Then I was allowed to go change into the sixth of their chosen costumes, I was growing nervous just going to see what I was going to have to model next. To start with it was white, and there was a lot of material, all covered with small black spots. As I removed the bulky garment from the hanger I realized it was actually made up of two pieces, a long, very full skirt, and an equally fancy top with a wide collared neckline, reminiscent of Southern Plantations. Fortunately the dress' two pieces made it easier to put on than any of the one piece dresses. There was a lot of elastic in the top around the puffed sleeves and the waist, which meant no buttons or zippers to worry about, it just slipped on.

Once I had stepped into the skirt I was ready for inspection once again, but this time the girls didn't even bother to escort me to the mirror, deciding that this dress was too white for my complexion. I was actually a bit disappointed that I had taken all that time getting into this dress only to have it shot down within seconds, but I went back into the change room, knowing there were only two costumes left.

The next one was a three piece outfit. This was comprised of a very short skirt, lower thigh level, and a white blouse with the balloon shoulders common to younger style dresses. These were accessorized by the defining piece of this costume, a hooded cape to match the fire engine red skirt. After tying the cape closed under my chin with a somewhat childish looking big floppy bow Red Riding Hood was ready to make her appearance.

I stepped out of the change room and was again met with claps of excitement and delighted giggles from Alexandra and Brigitte. I started walking towards the mirror but Brigitte stopped me after only a couple steps, "Try giving a bit of a skip, you are red riding hood after all." Sighing at the girls' eagerness to humiliate me as much as possible I complied doing my best impression of a school girl skip over to the mirrors. I frowned as I examined my bare arms and a few wisps of chest hair that showed above the low cut neckline, that meant a lot of waxing.

"How Cute," Alexandra cooed.

Suddenly we were cut off by a loud intrusive noise. It was an unmistakable sound, a wolf whistle coming from the direction of the stairs. My heart jumped into my throat as my cheeks went at least two shades brighter than my cape. For a second I wished the ground would just open up and swallow me as the guy broke into laughter, which was joined by my hostesses, and ran downstairs and presumably out of the store. I wrapped my cape around me and tried in vein to hide behind it somehow. While I was blushing and studying my feet the girls regained their composure enough that they could continue to humiliate me.

"Do you have a girl friend?" Brigitte asked.

"No," I replied.

"That's a shame, you could have worn this and she could have worn one of our wolf costumes."

When I was finally becoming sure I couldn't take any more embarrassment Alexandra guided me back to the dressing room. "We saved my favorite costume for last," she said. I just worried what she could like better than all the potentially mortifying choices already. "It has some small accessories up front that are too small to keep with the outfit, but we can see how it will look without them."

I closed the door and undressed before being confronted with quite possibly the most frightening outfit I had seen all day. Black satin with white net crinolines and white lace along the neckline and at the edges of the puffed sleeves. It was the stereotypical French maid uniform, with it's super short skirt, even shorter than the last costume. Again this dress had a lot of stretch to it, and elastic in the waist and sleeves so it required no zippers or buttons. I tugged at the hem of the skirt several times, once the satin had encased me, trying in vain to get it to stay just an inch lower, and ensure my panties stayed covered. I was still hoping to get through this day with some small measure of my dignity intact.

Taking a deep breath I made my entrance and reduced Brigitte and Alexandra to a giggling wreck. I walked past them, keeping my back straight to keep my ass discretely hidden. I swallowed, trying to get the lump out of my throat, I was so nervous I wasn't even really looking at myself, I just wanted to get changed and hear the verdict. What would I be wearing come the night in question, but unfortunately Alexandra wasn't quite finished with me. She signaled me to face her, "Curtsey."

I blinked and my mouth popped open and closed like a goldfish, as I got that look, reminiscent of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car. "But, why..."

Alexandra smiled reassuringly, "If we pick this dress everyone will be wanting to see you curtsey. I want to make sure you know how."

I breathed deeply and calmingly a couple times, and then I seized the sides of my skirt. I had seen it done in many movies so I tried to duplicate what I had seen, but I bent forward a bit, keeping the hem of my skirt between the girls and a view of my panties.

After several attempts Alexandra smiled and took me back to the change room. She was grinning widely as she told me to get dressed, in my regular clothes for a change while she consulted with Brigitte on my fashion parade. As I pulled my pants on I wondered what they were going to decide. Cleopatra was out, as was Tinkerbell, and the Saloon Girl and The Southern Belle. But were they going to make me a ditzy cheerleader, shaking pompoms and turning cartwheels? Or maybe I would end up shaking my skirt in the air with my underwear on display while dancing the can-can. There was the innocently flirtatious nature of red riding hood, luring all the big bad wolves to her. Or I might find myself in the very last outfit I had worn, a tartish French maid, with her garters on display.

When I stepped out and Brigitte went in to retrieve the costumes Alexandra was already writing up a rental form. Once she was finished she placed it face down on the counter in front of me, and winked. I took it between two fingers as if afraid it would bite and turned it over, it read...

 

1 Fifi-French Maid Dress

1 Black Velvet Choker W/ Pearl

1 White Garter

2 Lace Arm Cuffs

1 White Satin Apron W/lace

1 Lace Hair Comb

 

She showed me each of the smaller accessories before placing them in a clear plastic bag, she even put the choker on me for a moment to ensure it would fit.

Then my visa was swiped through the machine to process the damage deposit and holding fee. As the machine whirred in it's secret machine language discussing matters with some mainframe Alexandra smiled at me, "Nice Panties," she offered.

My blood ran cold as I stammered, "How?"

She giggled, "When you curtseyed I saw them reflected in the mirror behind you." I cringed, I had forgotten I was standing in front of a mirror, so my bending forward had only granted her a better view of my pantied ass than she would have gotten otherwise. "They make you wear those?" She asked.

I nodded, "They gave me a choice, it was either I wear these while I pick my costume or they could interpret complete control to include a perm."

She gasped, for the first time shocked at how far this was going, "That is just cruel."

Finally the machine spat out my visa receipt, which I signed and promptly fled the scene.

For the next few blocks I tried my best to calm myself as I walked. Just as my breathing was starting to return to normal I saw the store I was looking for. I turned under the awning which proclaimed, "Bad Girls, women's clothiers, make-up, and accessories."

As I walked in I was greeted by a large black woman with corn-row hair. She had been helping a thirty-something woman with short blonde hair, who was trying on a black leather skirt and jacket set.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked me, likely a little surprised at seeing a man in a woman's store.

"Yes," I nodded meekly. "I lost a bet to some friends and so I have to go to a Halloween party in a dress."

I suppressed a smile as both the customer and the shop keeper reacted. Now that I had my costume set aside I could buy something for my own closet. I wondered then, as I do now, does anyone actually ever make bets like that?

 

The End

 

 

 

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© 2002 by Ray Kitten. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.