"Shut up!" Karyn protested. She and Jon had made it back to the Gibson house and into Jon's bedroom, but Jon had been needling her about her recent wish the whole way.
Sure, he'd started out concerned, but there's really only so much empathy a teenaged boy can display before he retreats into humor, even if it's at the expense of his friend.
Jon took the box out of his pocket and placed it on his homework desk. "I'm just saying, you could blend right in with them if you really wanted."
The "them" that Jon referred to were the cheerleaders, school-wide symbol of precisely the brand of feminine vanity that Karyn did not subscribe to. To Jon, this was a joke. He didn't really mean to upset his friend. But to Karyn, it was core a question of identity that she wanted to confront on her own terms. And Jon's "jokes" were slowly pushing the numbers on her pressure gauge.
"Drop it, Jon. This isn't funny."
"Maybe it would be more funny if you tried out for the squad!" The boy tried to stifle his laughter, but he'd worked himself up too much and the chuckle that coughed up through his throat served as Karyn's last straw.
Jon barely even realized she was walking towards his homework desk as it was happening. He was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes as Karyn picked up the box. Catching his breath as she opened it.
"Jon Gibson, I wish you knew what it was like to make an absent-minded wish like that, so you'd understand and be less of a jerk."
Jon's laughter stopped immediately. His brain took a moment to process what had just happened. But in that moment, the box containing the stone was closed and replaced, firmly, upon his desk, and a moment later, a frustrated Karyn was storming out his bedroom door, slamming it behind her.
Jon was in shock. But he knew better than to chase after Karyn when she was this upset. He'd have to apologize to her tomorrow. In the meantime, what did her most recent wish mean for him?
