Transvestia

behind and with them my problems. I was going out with Arnie and I was going to have a good time.

Arnie had saved my neck on a number of occasions. He had been my roommate all through college and all through college he had known about Bobbie. The discovery was made one Sunday afternoon when the two of us got back from rough-housing our way through a no- holds-barred softball game. I was on my bed, collapsed, when Arnie walked in after his shower looking for a towel. I was tired and it didn't dawn on me that he was looking through my dresser. He didn't find a towel, but he did find Bobbie's clothes and make-up. I wasn't cross- dressing at school, but I had no intention of leaving my girl things at home to be discovered. Arnie held up one of my sheer pink nightgowns and asked an obvious and innocent question.

"What's this?" he asked.

I looked at what he had in his hand and sat up in near panic. Then in the next second my mind said, "Good, he's found it. Now you can tell him." Arnie and I were pretty close and I felt guilty about keeping such a large part of my character from him. I told him to sit down and I'd tell him all about it. He sat down and I gave him a breakdown and explanation of my cross-dressings. I let him in on who Bobbie was and how important a part she played in my life and I told him how I hoped he would understand. When I'd finished the lecture I sat back and waited to see what his reaction would be. He was quiet a moment then he nodded his head and said, "Yeah, man. That's cool. I can dig that.” What would be from someone else the spouting of tired and cliched idioms was from Arnie a true indication of how he felt.

Arnie and Bobbie got to know each other after that and Arnie was always understanding and never condescending. With Arnie I was able to do something that had always made me very nervous; going out in public as a woman. Arnie took me out on dates combining the thrill of going out with the security of having someone to cover for me should my femininity ever be questioned. He was never nervous or em- barrassed on these dates because he was completely willing to accept me as a woman while I was dressed as one.

Arnie has been Bobbie's and my best friend since that first year of college. He was always around when I needed him. He was there to help me the first time I ever told a real girl about my cross-dressings. I liked the girl in question a great deal and had hopes of building a

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