Karyn started to move towards her car, but Zoe grabbed her arm. "Wait a minute, Karyn," Zoe said.
"What?"
"What's this all about? Why do you want to see my brother?"
Karyn thought about making up a reason, but then decided to tell Zoe the truth, no matter how much it would hurt.
"Listen, Zoe. I'm not supposed to be your friend."
"What are you talking about? We've been friends since we were little kids," Zoe said.
Jon used to say that, Karyn thought. "As far as you know. But ... something changed reality."
Zoe got a strange look on her face. "Karyn, are you feeling okay?"
"Zoe, just listen to me. Your brother got a wishing stone from his grandfather who just died. That did happen, didn't it?"
"What? Grandpa? Yeah. Don't you remember me telling you about it?"
Actually, it was Jon who told me, Karyn thought. "Well, your grandpa sent Jon a wishing stone. And Jon used it to become five years older. But the stone made you five years older too."
"This sounds ridiculous, Karyn," Zoe said.
Karyn sighed. "I doesn't matter what you think. We just have to get to Jon and get that stone. The faster we do that, the faster I can get myself out of this twisted reality."
"Twisted?"
Karyn gestured to her outfit. "Yeah, like this. I'm not supposed to be a Goth girl. I'm supposed to be best friends with Jon, not you."
Zoe looked a bit crushed, but Karyn didn't notice. Her thoughts were only on getting Jon to fix her situation, not on how she was making her "new" friend Zoe feel.
They got into Karyn's car (which seemed a bit more beat-up and rusty than it was before) and drove to Jon's college. On the way there, Zoe agreed that Karyn should get the stone back to fix her "situation", but not for the same reasons that Karyn gave. Zoe wanted the stone to get back "her" Karyn, the one that was her best friend, the one that went clubbing with her at the Spiked Pit, the one that loved reading occult literature and listening to heavy metal music. Zoe wanted that Karyn back. And if this stone really did do what Karyn said it did, then Zoe was going to make sure she got her friend back.
