Outside Ryder leaned against the railing outside soaking up the sun.
He couldn't fathom why things weren't going his way. All he really wanted right now was to have Allison's affection back. His wish for her love should have done that. Or his wish for Zoe to not be in the way.
But somehow that wasn't enough. She was... off. She might have claimed that it was because he tried to approach her at school but he knew it wasn't just that. I mean, it wasn't like the first time they were about to get hot and heavy in that gym storage room.
Besides, even conjuring this beautiful vacation where there was no school, no risk of anyone walking on them, with all their needs catered to... even that apparently wasn't a condition good enough for things to return to normal.
It made Ryder a little angry and anxious. He kept absent mindedly fidgeting with the rock in his pocket.
He even was super careful to not push the boundary of Allison's autonomy with his wishes. He wasn't going to wish her to have sex with him. We wasn't evil and that would be a violation of consent. He wanted her to want him. He wouldn't even think of making her into something she wasn't - that's why his earlier wish only restored Allie's love from two weeks prior instead of conjuring up any new emotions.
"Ehhhh" he sighed. It was confusing. So confusing. One would think that having an object of such power would solve all their problems. The truth was that the one problem it wouldn't solve is deciding how to use its wishes well.
"All would be so much easier if I didn't have to worry about that." He muttered to himself. "I wish I could just have no scruples when it comes to getting what I want from Allison, but that's not how love works..."
A tingling at his fingers turned into gentle pulsating heat as the rock heard the first part of his last sentence. The phrase "I wish" have been uttered and it didn't mean a thing that Ryder realised only mid-sentence that it might be a problem... The magic washed over his psyche and...
He opened his eyes wide at how suddenly the anxiety of those past ethical dilemmas fell away turning into nothing. And as it disappeared he realised just how much he's been holding back. And for what? For some silly idea of ethics? With the magic granting rock, he could rewrite the reality itself. If he wished for something selfish, it wouldn't really be selfish - it would just become the new normal way things have always been. This was not a matter of ethics. It was a matter of the bounds of his imagination.
He realised that it wasn't quite true that all he really wanted was to have Allison's affection back. I mean, he did also want that. But it was only one thing among many other.
He realised he could get so much more out of this relationship if he only had the guts to wish for it. He realised that everything he ever fantasised about in a romantic and sexual partner he could get from Allison. With a little help from the stone in shaping her in the right ways.
Jon didn't know this yet but his chances of back to his old live and away from that of Allison fell to approximately zero. The only thing which remained was a downward spiral limited only by Ryder's desires.
