Our Steven, Our Stephanie Ch. 07

"Uh, what?" Steven asked.

"I was just thinking," Diane started. "We could get you looking really, really nice if we completed your look by adding some make-up."

"WHAT?! MAKEUP?" Steven almost shouted. "Diane, you've got to be kidding! I mean, remember, this is me, Steven, your brother? I know I look kind of girly in these hand-me-downs of yours -- but let me remind you I'm only wearing these to help out the family during it's financial crisis, not forever. Make-up? That's just taking things too far, sis!"

"Aw, come on, Stephie," Diane cajoled. "Look, what's one more little thing gonna hurt? You're already wearing girl's clothes, you have a girlish hair-do that any sane girl would die for. I bet you'd look sexy as all get out if we just add a touch of makeup to augment your girlish looks.

"Besides, it's just for fun. You can remove it right after we put it on. I just want you to see the complete picture even if it's just this one time. After that, you can go back to your old hum-drum boy self, please?"

"Well," he said, making a kissy face back at his reflection conspiratorially. "Maybe it would be fun, just for a minute or two, but then it comes off, OK?"

"You got it, kid," Diane said assuredly.

Again, turning him away from the mirror to make sure the first glimpse at his made-up face would again be a surprise, she started out by applying a light coating of foundation with a damp sponge.

"You're lucky you haven't started growing any facial hair yet, Stephanie," Diane said. "You don't have to worry about shaving every day like most boys your age."

"Yeah," Steven said sarcastically. "My only worry is debilitating my whole body every few weeks just to keep ahead of the swim team."

"Yes," Diane agreed with a mischievous wink, then added with an even more devious giggle, "But if you keep this up, soon you'll be giving head to the swim team."

"Jeez, girl," Steven laughed even as the vision swam before his eyes. "Just one mistake and you never let a guy forget. You are the Devil incarnate!"

Then, more somberly, Steven hesitatingly ventured."Diane, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure honey. What's up?" She replied.

"I noticed a couple times, times long before I ever looked so girlish," he started. "You were calling me Stephie or Stephanie. I just wondered why, since I looked more boyish back then."

"Well, it's like this, honey," Diane started. "There's something you're not aware of about this family of yours, something I think you're old enough to hear now."

"What's that, Diane?" Steven asked, all ears now.

After finishing with the foundation, she went on to start to pluck some of Steven's stray hairs from his eyebrows.

"Ouch," he squealed.

"Oh don't be such a baby," she scolded him. "Your eyebrows are atrocious and need thinning. All us girls have to pluck our eyebrows to keep them neat and feminine looking."

"But it hurts," he said, forgetting the obvious part about him not being one of the girls.

"It's just another price we girls pay to be beautiful," Diane answered. "As you'll find out, being a girl is indeed a bed of roses, but it comes with a lot of thorns as well."

"OUCH!" He yelled as she pulled out a particularly stubborn hair.

"It takes a lot of hard work and some sacrifices to look beautiful, Stephie dear," Diane told him. "You'll learn."

Unbeknownst to Steven, she was actually trimming his eyebrows into a very narrow feminine arch that would make it impossible for him to look masculine for some time, if ever again. Diane felt that with everything else happening to the boy today he may not even notice it, and even if he did, it may not even be the most significant change he notices when she got done with him.

Steven attempted to sit there silently in pain as Diane continued on with her story:

"4 years ago," Diane started. "Mother had another child, a girl."

"She did? What happened? Where is she and why didn't I know about her? " Steven asked.

"She died at birth, stillborn," Diane replied in cold stillness.

"God!" Steven managed in a choked whisper, tears starting to fall down his cheeks.

"Yes," Diane whispered. "It hurt Mother deeply and I was also terribly shaken by it. Both of us felt we lost this chance to have another go at raising a daughter -- even me, although she was really our sister.

"I always felt I was old enough to have been like a Mother to her, even though I was only 14 at the time. But by the time I would have been an adult, she would still have been a small child needing guidance, guidance that both Mother and I could have given and so wished to give her. As a result, we both felt such a deep loss at her passing.

"So sometimes, when I see you with your longish hair and small, delicate features, and I think sometimes Mother feels the same way, I guess we kind of reminisce about what it would have been like if...you know, and sometimes we forget and then, with a slip of the tongue, you become Stephanie.

"I don't mean anything by it, and it's not because you're swishy or anything like that. Only that you kind of look a bit girlish, and sometimes I forget, and get lost in daydreams.

"I don't know, it's just fanciful thinking. Of course, now that you're wearing a lot of my hand-me-downs, you could, if you wanted, because I know Mother would be so thrilled and happy if you did. If once in awhile, you could play the role of her little girl and let her or us take you shopping for dresses or lingerie or shoes or something, if you wanted.

"And then sometimes you and I could play at being sisters. I'd really love having a sister around to gossip with and go out on double-dates and stuff. Wouldn't that be neat, Stephanie?"

"But Diane," Steven asked. "How didn't I know about this about Mumsie? How was this kept from me all this time? I mean, I've lived under this roof for 18 years. This happened only 4 years ago. Where was I, outer space?"

"As a matter of fact, Stephie, you were," Diane replied. "If you remember, 4 years ago you spent 6 months at Space Camp. Mother got pregnant 3 ½ months before you left but wasn't aware of it until she was 2 ½ months along.

"I think she thought Father wouldn't be too pleased with the news, so she didn't make a big scene when she found out about it. The child was born and died about 10 days before you came home and by then no one was talking about her anymore. Mother just wanted to consider it a closed book, done and forgotten."

"Gosh, Diane," Steven said, tears in his eyes as he reached up to give his sister a big hug. "I never knew you guys went through such a painful experience. If I had, I would never have been the pain in the butt I've been all these years. I am so sorry for the pain you've both suffered." By the time he'd finished speaking his face was drenched in tears.

Diane, also crying now, stepped back and said, "Now look, we're messing up our make-up." Pulling a hankie out of her vanity drawer she blotted the tears from both her own and her brother's faces, saying, "There, that's better. Not too much damage done."

"Let me finish up here," Denise stated as she began to go back to work on Steven's face. "It'll help take our mind off such depressing thoughts."

When she finally finished plucking his brows, Diane started filling them in with a pencil. Next she carefully added some color to his eye-lids with eye shadow.

"Not too much for day wear," she cautioned him. "Subtlety is what we're seeking. What you really want is for your face to look like you're not wearing any makeup at all."

"Huh?"

"Trust me, you'll see when I'm finished."

"Diane?" Steven asked, hardly hearing anything she was saying, so deep in thought was he.

"Yes, Stephanie?" Diane replied.

"Now that I understand more," Steven started. "I want to think about your idea some. It's not that I'm so adverse to it. I mean the clothes and all, and the girlish way you and Mumsie treat me, well, I do seem to be kind of getting used to it all, slowly at least.

"But it's all so confusing to me, especially the boy-chasing thoughts! I mean, you saw me with that magazine. I've never had those desires before in my life and suddenly I'm overwhelmed with them. I've never been with a man before, never wanted to be with one, yet suddenly, that's all I can think of.

"I just need to get my head on straight before I decide to go through with any of this. Can you understand me? Am I making any since at all?"

"Yes, Stephanie, I think I understand very well what you're going through," Diane answered contemplatively. "You know, as I went through puberty, I passed through similar stages. Not exactly the same, but similar."

"Really?" Steven asked. "What happened? What did you do?"

"Well," Diane started. "You remember as a youngster, everybody told you to just wait and you'd be chasing all the girls in no time?"

"Yes, I do," Steven replied.

"And what were your thoughts on the matter when they said such things back then," Diane asked.

"I think I said 'yuk!', if I recall correctly," Steven answered with a laugh.

"Me too," Diane said. "When they told me how I would be loving the boy's attentions, their kisses and caresses, I just about puked. Then a couple years later puberty hit and suddenly I got these funny feelings in my stomach every time a nice-looking boy looked my way or talked to me.

"Probably the same as you got when you suddenly saw a pretty girl. To me, suddenly boys weren't yucky anymore, though only to my sex glands. My head and childish memories still shouted Yuk, and told me to run! And it was really confusing, until that fateful day when I stopped listening to my head and I listened to my heart, my gut.

"That's what's going on in your head now, but instead you've been told that girls are the only way to go for guys, and you've been told this for so long now that, even though your heart, your sex glands, your gut, are telling you guys? Yes, yes, your head still says guys? Yuk!

"And the only way you'll know which of them is right for you is for you to take the plunge, just once, and see for yourself just which is right, your head or your heart. If you don't at least give it a try, you'll spend the rest of your life remembering that Playgirl magazine and wondering."

As Diane spoke, she was applying mascara to his eyelashes, which seemed to make his already longish lashes appear even longer and fuller. Then she put a hint of blush to his cheeks and blended it in with a tissue, and afterward dusted his face with powder.

She then added lip gloss to his lips and finished it off with a spray of her favorite perfume, Pink Diamonds. Seeing how deep in thought he was from her words of advice to him, she had him close his eyes and turn around to face the vanity mirrors again. Then she whispered softly for him to open his eyes.

When he did, the first thing he saw was the wide open expression around his eyes caused by the loss and reshaping of nearly all of his eyebrows. He was about to make a caustic remark about them when he remembered his new-found relationship with his family and gradually took in the whole complete look of his appearance -- his total eye delineation, with color, lashes, shades and brows.

His cheeks, lips, hair, and even the smell of his perfume all combined to overwhelm his senses and throw his mind and emotions out of kilter. Suddenly he really liked what he saw and enjoyed the way it made him feel when he looked at his reflection. He was also very happy that Diane was able to bring this look out in him.

"Oh Diane," Steven said in awe. "Is that really me?"

"It sure is, Stephanie," Diane told him. "That's definitely the new you. You like?"

"God, Diane," He said. "I do. I love it. I'm gorgeous and I really love it."

"Well tell me then," Diane asked. "Do you want to remove it all now, or do you want to wait for a bit and show Mother how nice you look when she gets home. Tell you what, if you stay like this, when Mother gets home you can give us a fashion show and show off all your new pretty hand-me-downs I gave you. I'm sure she'd love to see you in them now that you're all dolled up."

"You know Diane," Steven answered. "I think I'd love doing that for you and Mumsie when she gets back. But right now, I'm starved. All I've had so far today was that soda when I woke up. Tell you what, why don't I make us up a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches?"

"Sounds like a plan to me, Stephanie," Diane replied as she gave him a peck on the cheek. While watching him go down into the kitchen, she began thinking, I have got to talk to him about his walk now.