The three girls walked with Jon in the middle. Sarah lifted her arm to rub Jon's back, and thought to herself "he shouldn't hunch over like that. I know hes depressed, but that's not good for posture."
As her hand moved up and down on Jon's back, Jon felt a slight pulling sensation. Like something was tugging him to stand more straight. He felt like shielding his face from the world, but at the same time his torso wanted to push back against Sarah's hand.
Sarah was somewhat surprised to see that Jon was actually responding to her thoughts. With the makeup and the good posture, Jon was now almost as attractive as Karyn or Sarah. If only it wasn't for that pained expression on his face.
Karyn noticed Jon responding to Sarah's backrub. She didn't know what it meant, but she knew it meant something. What did Sarah know? Did she have powers beyond the stone? Karyn peeked down into her purse: the stone was still there, where she'd put it after Jon left it on the bench at the food court, distracted by Sarah's pulling. There was no way Sarah had used it just now.
Karyn decided she needed to figure out a way to be alone with either Jon or Sarah. "Hey, Jon doesn't want to be in the middle of the hall," Karyn said, "Let's go into Neiman Marcus."
