Hidden Within

As we left the mall, I took a look at the time and I was surprised to find that It was 4 pm now and that I should normally be at home around an hour ago.

"I will call Mom just to tell her that I'm fine and I'll be a little late." I told the girls.

"Yeah take your time." Rama replied as we all came to a halt waiting to cross the street to take a bus back to their apartment, or rather, our apartment now that I'm part of the crew.

I practiced my sick and hoarse voice again and called Mom.

"Hi Mom. 'cough' 'cough' "

"Zack! Are you alright? I called you three times and you didn't pick up!" Mom sounded very worried. I rechecked my phone real quick and I don't know how I didn't notice the missed calls in the first place.

"Sorry I 'cough' forgot it on silent."

"When did you get sick?"

"I woke up like this today, 'cough' I wasn't feeling too well for a couple of days but today was the worst 'cough cough'. Anyways mom, I just wanted to tell you that 'cough' I found an apartment with two of my friends, so I went 'cough' to check it and it actually is very good and rather 'cough' cheap. I'm on my way back home now tho, I'll be moving with them tomorrow if you don't mind. 'cough'"

"..... Okay, we'll talk when you get back home, and you've got some explaining to do as well." Mom sounded sad for some reason but I thought I'll know once I get back home. For now tho, we were headed back to the apartment so that I change back to my original clothes before going back home.

4 pm is a time when streets would be quite empty and public transportation would be much easier to ride as well. We got on the first bus we saw and it dropped us off at the same place we were dropped at in the morning. We swiftly made our way to the apartment, I got changed quickly after putting the wraps back on.

"My god! A bra is much much better than these wraps!" I immediately remembered how uncomfortable the wraps were. I wiped off the small hints of make up, left all the bags as they are in my new room and left the apartment.

"Take care Zack! See you tomorrow!" Mackie and Rama said at the same time.

Thankfully the way back home was fairly easy, again I isolated myself from the world with my earphones. When I got home, my mom welcomed me with a very long hug, then she pulled me to her room and closed the door behind us.

"Sorry for not noticing and not being understanding from the beginning, but for how long have you been changing??" She must have realized as soon as she heard my voice over the phone. So I explained everything to her, I don't know why but I shed some tears as I was retelling her the story.

"I guess you understand why I wanna leave, I don't even want to begin imagining how everyone's reaction would be!"

"That is understandable... But you're gonna have to tell them sooner or later."

"I know, but I'd rather let future Zack deal with them..."

Mom hugged me for a few moments, I used to be much taller than her but now I'm only just slightly taller.

"You've really become shorter."

"I know, but short is my least of worries right now."

"By the way, surely you weren't checking the apartment all this time. Did you go somewhere?"

"Two of my friends noticed my change and figured out what's been happening to me, so they decided to help me out of the sour mood I was in and took me shopping. Rama and Mackie if I ever talked about them"

"Girls? Did you go out looking like you are now? Or did they give you a make over?"

"Haha... Yeah they did, and they are actually the girls with the apartment that I'll be living with now."

"I'd like to see a picture of yourself when your en femme." Mom winked at me.

"I'll be sure to send you some when I'm living with them."

That was a good chat between mom and I, and I guess I needed it. Somehow I could fool everyone else into thinking I'm just sick, I guess being able to fool them is just further proof of the broken relationship between us nowadays. I made sure to avoid standing by anyone so they don't notice how I'm shorter now. By the end of the night I told dad about the apartment and that we're three 'guys' that are friends and are gonna share the apartment together. He was happy for me because 'now I won't be struggling much with public transport anymore' in his own words.

By the time night came I was having trouble breathing and really wanted to untighten the wraps a bit. I entered the bathroom and loosened them and took a couple of normal breaths. With my change complete, it seems I won't be able to keep my breasts wrapped for as long as before. But sadly, I had to wrap my breasts back up. Today was a bit peaceful actually, no one's said anything to bother me apart of a small conflict about how I was too late today and that I should have been at home to help with preparing the food, the food which I didn't even take a part in eating except a small spoon. I just said an emotionless sorry after the whole argument, and grandma wasn't even home to begin with so that's great. I eventually told them that I won't be around anymore for a bit now. I wanted to say 'now you can get a rest from me' but decided against it because that would have turned into some fight that I wasn't prepared to be a part of. I hoped that the message was delivered with just telling them that I'm moving out.

I started to put my stuff that I want to take with me in a big bag, my books and notebooks, my laptop, my charger, some of the car models I had, some clothes, mainly for the university. I also took some of my pajamas because we'd forgotten to buy some today. I didn't forget to take my toothbrush as well. That was about it. I finally went to bed to call an end to this crazy day.