Two hours later, Tawny, in full war paint, including foundation, blush, eye shadow, and a mocha colored lipstick, plus a new outfit, knocked on the door of her best friend's house. A small woman with red hair and a huge smile answered the door.

"Hey Mrs Stevens. Luis home?" Tawny asked as she stepped through the threshold of their home.

"He sure is, he's up in his room. My, you look all dressed up today. I like your shoes."

"Thanks," Tawny said, shifting back and forth on the three-inch heels of the boots. "They're new."

"They look nice on you, hun. Just go on back. Last time I looked in on him he was playing on his computer."

"Thanks," she said again, as she walked up the stairs to Luis's room. Tawny loved Luis's room. It was his inner sanctum, showing pieces of him that it took years for her to get out of him. She stopped outside the doorway to his room and took a deep breath, trying to remember what the book had said. She held her head high and preceded into his private place in what she hoped was a confident, sexy glide.

He glanced up from his computer when she entered, giving a double take when he saw her.

"Tawny?" he asked, almost as if he didn't know who she was.

She plopped down on his unmade bed, leaning back, trying for an insolent pose. "Yes, Luis?"

"What the heck are you wearing? And what have you got all over your face?" he demanded.

Ok, so not the reaction she was hoping for.

"My clothes are new, and as for my face, its make-up. You should know all about that, since your little buddy Stephanie wears mounds of it."

"Oh, so I get it. You're trying to make a point. Tawny, it's not funny. Stephanie happens to be a very nice girl and besides, she makes the make-up look good."

Tawny's hackles rose. "And I don't? Is that what you are saying?"

"No, not at all, Tawny. It's just that, some people weren't meant to wear make-up. You don't need it."

"Fine," Tawny said, "So you think. We'll see, won't we?" she finished, slamming out the door.

She tried running home, but the big stylish boots and tight designer blue jeans kept her to a slow walk. That didn't go at all the way she had planned. What was he thinking? He was supposed to fall all over her and finally see her as a female, a feat she had yet to accomplish. What an idiot. Who she wasn't sure. Why was she even trying? He didn't go for girls like her. Heck, he probably didn't know she was a girl. She was just one of the guys. Maybe she should strip naked for him to show him she was lacking certain male anatomy. That brought a grin to her face. She could just see his jaw drop. And then he would come over and put his hand on her face and kiss her gently, softly caressing her.

"Hey, Tawny! Wait up!" his deep voice brought her sharply out of her reverie.

To her humiliation, she felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks and she vaguely wondered how long she had been crying. She knew she couldn't let him see her like this so she started to run. Not a good idea with around 5 pounds extra weight weighing down each of your feet. She felt like a bird. Not a graceful bird like a swan or an eagle, but more like a penguin on land, waddling away as fast as her long, gangly legs could take her. She looked over her shoulder to see he was gaining on her fast. She was almost home so she pushed as hard as she could to make it the last few yards. She would have made it, if the sidewalk in front of Mrs.Tait's house hadn't been uneven and if she had been watching where her pounding feet were going. One of her heels caught on the edge of the rutted sidewalk, and for a moment, she was a bird, flying through the air, but the feeling ended much too soon as she landed with a bone-jarring thud on the hard ground.

Luis ran up to the place where she lay, quickly kneeling down beside her. "Are you ok? What the heck were you thinking? Trying to run in those clodhoppers?"

She shifted on the ungiving ground and let out a painful moan.

"Don't move." He said, "I'll run and get your mom and we can take you to the hospital."

"Don't you dare." She replied. "I'm fine, ok? I just knocked the breath out of me."

"Is that why you are crying?" he asked quietly.

"Allergies, that's all. Now help me up, you big good for nothing."

He smiled at her. "That's more like it." He reached down and grabbed her hand, jerking her to her feet.

As soon as Tawny's left leg touched the ground, pain exploded in her knee. She sucked in a sharp breath and would've fallen if Luis had not have caught her.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, almost yelling his concern at her.

"Nothing. I just twisted my knee a little bit. I'm fine. You can go home now," she said petulantly. She was humiliated, caught crying, and now it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to her knee. She just wanted to be alone to bask in her own pity.

Luis looked annoyed. "Fine. I'll go home. First I want to see you walk to your house and up the stairs. Just so I know you get in safely."

Tawny swallowed hard as she looked at the distance between her and her door. Normally it was just a hop, skip, and a jump away, but today, it looked like the Mojave Desert.

"You want me to go to my house?" she asked slowly.

He nodded. He had that annoying smirk that he always had when he knew she was holding out on him.

Tawny squared her shoulders and turned towards her house, that slight movement causing extreme pain to shoot through her knee and up her leg. She looked back at him and sure enough he was standing there, watching her with his arms crossed and that darn smirk on his face. That smirk only fuelled Tawny's determination to get to her house unattended.

She held her breath and took a step, almost collapsing due to the pain slicing up her leg. Luis started to move to help, but her sideways glare told him to hold his place. She took another step, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out. Another step, her lip started to bleed. One more step, tears began streaming from her eyes. Before she could take another step, she was swept up into strong arms and carried the rest of the way to her house.

"Little idiot. You would kill yourself to prove a point," he said, frowning.

But at the moment, Tawny didn't care what he called her. She just burrowed her face into his soft shirt and inhaled his scent, enjoying the ride.

*Please let me know what you think of this story. It is my first non-sexual story.