Jenny sighed and twirled the stone around in her hand. Kevin was taking a long time to get to her room. She was glad her roommate, Aly, was gone for the rest of the day; that would give the two of them plenty of time to talk. And they needed to talk.
Glancing up at the mirror along the back of her and Aly's shared vanity, Jenny wondered just how much she could do with her new wishing stone. She silently sculpted her features in her imagination. She was pretty enough, she thought, with her shoulder length brown hair, her pretty green eyes, and her small, slender body. Sometimes, though, she wondered what it would be like to be beautiful, really beautiful. What would her life be like if she were one of those Delta Alpha Delta girls, one of those curvy blonde chicks all the guys drooled over?
Well, all the straight guys, at least. And at that Jenny sighed. That was really the heart of her problem, wasn't it? She had nice girl-next-door looks, nice enough to attract a good boy-next-door. But she didn't want just any boy next door. She wanted her boy next door. She wanted Kevin.
Jenny and Kevin had been best friends for... forever, really. They'd grown up on the same street, their parents had been close, and they'd been friends since they were both in diapers. They'd even played at dating for a couple of years, going to a few school dances together. And Kevin had won her heart back then. But Kevin had always seemed... bored with her. Passionless. They had been great friends, but it had eventually become quite apparent to Jenny that they would never be more than that. And the day after they had both graduated from high school, Jenny had found out why. Kevin was gay.
Now they were several months into their first year of college, at Stevenson University, just blocks from downtown Manhattan. It was an exciting school in an exciting city, at the outset of what should have been the most exciting time in their lives. And Kevin, certainly, was making the most of college life; he was a regular social butterfly, and he'd already dated half a dozen different guys. But Jenny just couldn't get into the dating scene. After all this time, she was still hung up on Kevin.
But now Jenny had her wishing stone. And maybe now things would start to turn around for her.
Jenny didn't know much about geology or mythology. She certainly hadn't expected the stone to be anything more than a normal rock when she'd bought it at the thrift store last week. She had quite simply thought it was pretty, and that it would make a unique little paperweight for her desk. So when she'd been holding the stone and she'd wished, idly, that her nice but occasionally annoying roommate was visiting her parents for the weekend, and Aly had actually vanished before her eyes, Jenny had been utterly astonished. And when she'd made half a dozen more wishes and they'd all come true, every single one, she'd been flabbergasted.
Yes. This stone was going to change her life.
Jenny was wondering in passing whether it would be morally justifiable for her to wish Kevin straight when she heard a familiar knock at the door. Speak of the devil.
"Kevin," she said opening the door. "I'm glad you made it."
"Any time you call, babe," Kevin said, sweeping her up into his arms and throwing himself--and her with him--back onto her bed. He leaned down and pecked Jenny's cheek.
Mmm. There was something pleasant about the feeling of his light stubble against her skin.
"So what did you want?" he asked.
Jenny craned her neck and looked up at her best friend. Kevin was... well, he was gorgeous. Nice body, pretty face, perfect sandy blonde hair... beautiful, but comfortably masculine, both in his looks and his demeanor. But it was his eyes that struck her every time. He had wonderful, warm blue eyes, and at the moment they were looking at her with friendly curiosity.
Jenny pulled herself out of Kevin's arms and spun on the bed to face him, sweeping a few strands of hair from her eyes. "You're never going to believe what I bought last week." She held out her wishing stone for him to see.
Kevin looked it over. "It's... nice," he said, clearly a little puzzled.
Jenny licked her lips. "This is..." She stopped. "It's..." Suddenly words failed her. How could she explain it? How could she make him believe her once she finally spit it out? She thought for a moment, then stood up. "I wish... I wish I were wearing a skirt."
She averted her eyes involuntarily, as usually seemed to happen when she made a wish, and then she looked down. In place of the capris she'd been wearing a moment before she saw a denim miniskirt. Then she moved her eyes up, from her skirt to Kevin's face. He was gaping at her, and his lovely eyes were enormous.
"What..." he said. "How did you..."
"I wish Kevin's shirt was blue." And his shirt changed from green to blue. "I wish my sheets were pink." And her sheets changed from white to pink. "I wish Kevin was holding this stone."
And then he was. Kevin looked at the stone, then at Jenny, then at the stone again.
"It's a wishing stone," Jenny explained. "Like a genie, but with unlimited wishes and without the belly dancer outfit. Try it."
Kevin stared at the stone a moment longer, his mouth wide open. Then he said, "I wish I had a hundred dollars in my wallet."
Jenny look away for a moment. Then it was over. "Well?" she asked.
Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Opening it up, he took out a fresh one hundred dollar bill, folded but otherwise unmarred. "This..." he said. "This..." He looked up at Jenny. "This is amazing. This is incredible. This is... it's..." He shook his head. "How does it work? Where did you find it?"
Jenny grinned. "I bought it at a thrift store. Two bucks." She held up two fingers triumphantly. "And I don't know how it works. I wish I did." She caught herself right after she said it, and prepared to look away, then realized she wasn't holding the stone. "I wish I did," she said again. "All I know is that it works."
"Are there any rules?" Kevin asked. "Any exceptions? Anything we have to be careful about? Are the wishes... you know... reversible?"
Jenny shrugged. "I don't know. I've really just started playing around with it."
Kevin looked the stone over carefully. Then he grinned. "So why haven't you wished for long blonde hair and big boobs yet?"
Jenny opened her mouth in mock astonishment. "You think I need them?"
"That's what I'd do if I were a chick," Kevin said.
"You would," Jenny said, laughing. She grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him. He threw it back, but she easily dodged it. Now it was her turn to smile. Kevin had never been much of an athlete.
They were silent a moment. Jenny took a seat on the bed next to Kevin and looked up at him.
"So," she said at last. "What do we do next?"
