The Roommate - Remastered - Chapter 1

Rebecca pushed her shoulder into the gap between door and doorway, watching Daniel unpack. She looked on as Daniel lifted a heavy box, the muscles in his back tensing and rippling even as she watched. He’d long since removed the white t-shirt he’d worn in, on the pretense of it being a hot day - and the shirt had been clinging to his skin with sweat, almost reluctant to come off. As such, Rebecca had been treated to the sight of slender but well muscled arms stretching the materials, pulling it taught and then pulling it off. It would have been…. delicious. If she’d been watching a girl. The slender figure, the strong muscles, the tight white shirt stretched over his pale chest - oh, how beautiful in a woman.

Rebecca wasn’t looking at a woman, though. Even though she’d been all but convinced of Daniel’s femininity, back when they’d first started their online communications. He’d accidentally put an extra “l” in his name, and hadn’t noticed. As such, Rebecca had spoken with a familiarity she usually reserved for other girls, as she talked with him about their mutual hobbies, their love of books and gardening and long walks. She’d even beecome quite attracted to him, building an image of an athletic woman in her mind the more Daniel talked about all the work he put into maintaining his body, exercising constantly at the gym, carefully maintaining the food he put into his stomach. The last point was something she could relate to, as well - as a chef, she was very familiar with everything she ever ate… 

She didn’t realize her mistake until the final stage of her roommate interviews. She’d been so certain that her and “Daniell” would get along, she’d all but dismissed the other candidate - a gawky girl by the name of Leslie. Truth to tell, she’d all but fallen over heels for the false woman whose image she’d been constructing in her mind.

When she actually saw the real him for the first time - a man - it had been a moment of pure terror. A heart-wrenching moment of despair, in which she found out her soulmate of a roomie was a… a man. Horrifying.

Yet the mental image Rebecca had constructed wasn’t all that far off, truly. His short cropped brown hair could have easily belonged to the tomboy of her dreams, as could his slender toned body. The way he moved was liquid grace, muscles tightening and flowing perfectly. The traits she loved were all still there, and the foundation of what she admired. Just the foundation, of course. He was a man…. In body, and more importantly mind, he was everything that Rebecca could never be with. Yet the foundations were there.

It was a truly deplorable thing that the chef’s twisted mind came up with, in the moments that followed, even as Daniel casually talked about his new job as a gardener. Of how he’d planted posies just the other day. Rebecca’s last roommate had been a psychiatrist… and a trans woman. She’d left behind quite the cache of pills. Hormones, of course. Testosterone blockers. Sleeping aids. Medicine that dulled the senses, and evened out the mood. Rebecca had always silently judged her, for putting so many chemicals in her body - not including the hormones, of course…and maybe she’d been unfair in doing so, even if the girl did have a habit to self-prescribe. She’d be a hypocrite not to admit such pills had their uses, considering what she intended to do with them.

Of course, the meds wouldn’t be enough for what she had in mind. Not nearly. Even if they could twist his body, and dull his mind, he’d still be a he. But that was where Rebecca’s own unique talent came into play: hypnosis. It was something she’d learned as an alternative to modern medicine, a way to deal with her own depression without chemicals. Hypnotizing herself to be more confident, more of a go-getter. To go after her goals, without dickering over what mattered to other people. The very fact that she was even willing to consider this plan, this scheme which would put her own needs so far above someone else’s, meant that the hypnosis was probably yielding more results than she’d intended it to… but that hardly seemed to matter, in the moment. Not when her potential soulmate was standing right in front of her.

Rebecca knew what she needed to do - or at least what she wanted to do.The fact what she wanted to do was bad was obvious, even to her, but it was equally unimportant. The only thing that mattered was whether she could in fact pull it off. Whether she could deal with the wait it would take to transform someone like this. If she succeeded, she would have the perfect girlfriend… but if she was caught, she would likely end up in jail. 

She’d weighed the costs and benefits for all of two seconds, before deciding it was worth the risk. She’d immediately moved to invite Daniel in, and a bare week later she was watching him unload boxes. Watching those muscles at work.

“Are you almost through?” she asked, faking a long suffering sigh. “Breakfast is going to get cold…” And she wanted the coffee nice and hot, to better mask the taste of estradiol and spironolactone that had been ground up with the coffee beans. She knew from their emails that Daniel stuck to one cup of liquid caffeine a day.

“It’d go faster if you helped,” Daniel replied. Despite the words, there was no frustration or rancor. He didn’t seem to expect the help he asked for, but neither did he seem to mind its absence. In truth, Daniel was simply appreciative of the attention from a beautiful redhead. She was short, her head only coming up to his shoulders, with sun kissed skin and a spattering of freckles across her cheeks. She was cute, and Daniel knew from their conversations that they had a lot of things in common. He was half in love with her, or would have been if he didn’t know she was a lesbian. That was one of the reasons he moved in, though, knowing there wouldn’t be any sexual tension or failed relationships. It was the latter that had led to him needing a new place to begin with, after all.

He hadn’t expected to be so attracted to his new roommate, though. She didn’t work out, and while he knew from their conversations online that she was careful about what sort of ingredients she put in her body, she still tended to cook richer, fattier foods than he’d generally be willing to eat. Any fat she’d gained from her diet had apparently settled in all the right places, though, considering her thick thighs and bountiful ass. She had a touch of pudge, too, but nothing a bit of exercise couldn’t work off. Even as she was, he had to admit that he appreciated looking at her, even if it was just glances over his shoulder. He’d even taken off his shirt for her, just barely hoping to get some sort of reaction. He imagined her gaze was lingering, but… no. There was no real attraction there, beyond maybe a vague appreciation for his muscles.

“We can take a break…” Daniel conceded with a sigh. He sort of wanted to at least finish stacking the boxes in the closet, but Rebecca was obviously getting hungry and he could see the impatience written on her face. “Just lead the way.”

Rebecca smiled. She walked out of the room, treading across the brown carpeting, through the white salmon pink walls and onto the simple white and black tiling of the kitchen. The redhead’s smile widened further as she poured him a cup of coffee, and he found himself smiling back at her. He recognized the born chef in her, happy to serve up a plate of two egg white omelets, half a grapefruit, and black bitter coffee, with just a hint of sugar.

“Thanks,” he smiled, taking his first sip. She was still smiling at him, so he smiled back again. The attention was a little strange, but… not unwelcome.

Maybe, a little voice whispered in the back of his head, maybe… he actually had a shot?

~~~

Author's Notes

So, some of you may remember this series - many of you may not. It's one of my older works, and... to be honest, it's one I had mixed feelings on. I didn't entirely enjoy writing it, and yet it was super popular so I felt kinda obligated to continue it... which led to it getting a somewhat rushed ending that wasn't even posted anywhere but my website.... where it's not really readable at the moment, either.

I... honestly kinda feel that it's been relegated to a corner all this time, and it was really popular, so I kinda decided it might be a good idea to edit it, (maybe) rework the ending, and (probably) put it up on Amazon. So, uh, here's the first reworked chapter!