From One Bro to Another

“I hate this. I feel like I’m not me anymore… or maybe I’m the me I should have been all along.” Tori Chapman fled from her childhood friend, ending her declaration in a mutter. Ignoring any effort, Dan may have tried to call for her.

She found herself in an opulent stairwell, where she chose to sit down on the carpeted stairs and cry. ‘I don’t even know why I’m crying, damn it… Nothing makes sense anymore.’

In the silence, the younger woman continued reflecting on her newfound relationship with the love of her life, Danny. Shockingly, most of their childhood together mostly stayed the same. They still met in kindergarten, where they goofed off and got in trouble with Mrs. Flemings every other day. They still went fishing down by the god-awful creek behind the old fire station, where they fell into the mud more than once. Even the times she came over to his place to play while her Dad had to go to his second job to make ends meet stayed fairly the same. Though, that all changed once puberty hit. All of a sudden, the gender difference became all too apparent to the hormone-addled teenagers. The two grew flustered with each other when Tori started to wear her first bra, though the two never grew apart, especially after Tori’s life was turned upside down for the first time.

It was the winter of their seventh-grade year when the news of Tori’s Mother’s infidelity came to light. Poor Victoria Chapman was only 13 years old when her mother decided to abandon her and her father for a new man. Heartbroken, Tori and Scott Chapman turned to the Whitakers for support. Dan’s family did everything they could to help the two get back on their feet. With no mother in the picture, Tori turned to Robin Whitaker, Dan’s mom, for all of the support and advice a growing young lady like her needed at such a critical time. While the relationship between Tori and her father grew distant in his grief, her relationship with Danny changed altogether.

“There you are!” A familiar voice broke Tori out of her thoughts. Samantha Whitaker stood a flight of stairs under her, breathing heavily. “I checked our room, but you weren’t there! Thank God I decided to check the stairs!”

Puffy-eyed and runny-nosed, Tori tried to compose herself in front of the person she considers her own little sister. “I, uh, hey. Uhm. Sorry, I just needed to be alone for a bit.”

“Yeah, I figured that when you bolted out of there.” Sam proceeded to climb up the final flight of stairs to sit down next to her brother's girlfriend. “Soooo… Wanna talk?”

Tori chuckled, “Not really, but I guess we’re going to anyway.”

“Yep! We’re not really bros anymore… Soooo… Let’s call this our Sis-Talk!” Sam smiled as she wrapped an arm around the older woman. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“Ha…” Tori snorted as she shook her head. “Ugh... I guess everything. Like, how things have changed compared to when we were bros.”

“Yeah, pretty crazy, huh?” Sam questioned after letting go of Tori. “Like, I totally remember you and Dan being together pretty much 24/7, but now it’s… Different, you know?”

Tori’s eyes widened. “Wait, your memories are getting fucked with too?”

“Yup,” Sam replied with a pop. “Bet everyone who knows you and Bro is getting the same treatment. Though, I think we’re different. Boss Lady mentioned something like that.”

Tori put her head down. ‘So that means that everyone except for Dan, Sam, and the people here have always known me as a girl. Which also means everyone knows I’m in a relationship with Danny… Uhg.’

“Not everything is different, though.” Sam continued while laughing. “Just there are a lot of times I’m the third wheel instead now. Ha!”

“Hm, I guess I should be sorry for that. After Heather left, Danny and I got super close. It wasn’t long after we started dating.”

“Which is kinda funny if you ask me.” Sam paused while kicking her feet. “I swear, in both versions of our lives, I thought you two were already an item.”

Startled, Tori turned back to look at the younger woman smiling. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, honestly. The way you two acted, I could have sworn there was always something there. Though I guess Dan never really swung that way.” Sam commented while thinking of the past.

The world started to make more sense to Tori. The conflicting emotions she was struggling to make sense of now became clearer. ‘No way. Was I…?’

A flashback to the time Tori and Dan sat on the deck of his parent’s house came to the young woman’s mind. Dan had just helped her dig herself out of her depression after dropping out of college, only in this new timeline, the two had been already dating, and the event had only reaffirmed her love for him. However, even as a man, those same feelings were present in the old timeline. Whether they were Victor Chapman or Victoria Chapman, their feelings toward Dan Whitaker were the same.

“I’ve always loved him…” Tori whispered.

“Well, duh!” Sam exclaimed while Tori broke from her revelation. “I think everyone knew that. There’s no Whitaker without Chapman, after all! At least, that’s what we all used to say. Hehe.”

“And who is everyone?” Tori pouted at the grinning little sister.

Sam replied while counting on her hands, “Oh, you know, Mom, Dad, Freddy, I think Yui? She asked me once about you two in our old lives. Huh, I guess this time around, she never did. Funny.”

Tori stood up and slumped her shoulders as she began to climb down the stairs. “Uhg, I guess I’m last to the party then.”

“Nah, I think that belongs to Dan. Though I guess in this life, he capitalized on it. You two have been at it since high school, after all. I swear having the room next to y’all was **** some nights.” The younger woman frowned while getting up as well.

Tori’s face flushed intensely while her core heated up as she remembered those times. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about that.”

“Nah, No bother. Hell, thinking about it, it was kinda hot sometimes…” Sam blinked. “Woah, did I just say that? Wow.”

“Samantha, were you getting off to me and Danny!?” The older blonde yelled.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh… No? I don’t think so…?” Sam panicked at her newfound perversion. “At least… not back then… Oh fuck, I think I get my transform thingy now.”

Tori sighed while her boyfriend’s sister was squeezing her head. “Well, I guess there's nothing we can do about that. Just… Try not to peep on us.”

“Uhm… Alright.” Sam responded while blushing. The two then continued to walk down the stairs when the younger of the two remembered something critical.

“Oh, right! Your purse!” Sam rushed back to where she dropped the two purses she was carrying and handed the light pink one to her.

“Oh, thanks. Forgot about that.” Tori reached out a grabbed it while studying her new accessory. She quickly noticed the hotel card inside that specified room 19A. “Oh, this is cute. It’s smaller than the one I normally use, though.”

“Not sure I really know what’s cute or not. Just seems kinda small to hold anything. Think I can get a backpack or something from the Boss Lady?” Sam asked while holding up her light blue purse.

Tori shook her head as she reached for the 19th-floor exit. “Not sure. I’d reckon they’d want you to get used to using more feminine accessories.”

“Uhg, that sounds like a pain.” Sam groaned. “They already crammed girl knowledge into our brains earlier. Doing make-up and hair and shit sounds awful.”

Tori laughed. “You get used to it, plus it can be fun sometimes.”

“Easy for you to say. You technically have years of experience already…” Sam whined.

“True..” The older blonde thought as they found their new suite and scanned in. Tori then turned to her pouting companion and offered, “I guess I can show you a few ropes if you’d like?”

Sam shrugged. “I guess… How hard could it be?”

Tori cringed a little as she recalled what Mrs. Whitaker told her in her new life when she was in Sam’s shoes.

‘Famous last words.’