Jon made sure to wait at the corner this time. He didn't want to upset Karyn any more than he had. But when she got there Jon felt a strange urge to avoid her. There was something wrong with her, but Jon couldn't put his finger on it. Like she somehow looked uglier today and acted less acceptable today than she always had. But Jon couldn't figure out anything different. Karyn just felt "wrong" somehow.
Jon tried not to look at Karyn the whole way to school, and he made sure that there were at least a few feet between them at all times. A few times, Jon caught himself thinking of the girl walking with him as "old Karyn." he had no idea what that meant.
When the pair were close to school, Karyn finally confronted Jon. "What's going on with you lately? I feel like ever since you told me about the stone, you've been acting weird."
Jon just looked to the ground and grunted.
"See, that's what I mean," Karyn continued, "first you make googy eyes at Sarah, now you're not even talking to me! What is happening, Jon? Are we still friends?"
Inside his head, Jon realized the truth of what Karyn was saying, but outside he remained non-committal. "I dunno what's going on right now. Just... I think I need some space."
"Fine," Karyn sighed in frustration and started to walk away. "Talk to me when you've figured out what's going on with you."
On the one hand, Jon knew something was wrong. But on the other hand, he was glad Karyn had left.
Jon felt alone for most of the day. He hadn't realized how much time he normally spent with Karyn, but without her, it was like there was an empty void in his life. Sure, there was Alan, and a few other people who were cool to hang around with, but Karyn was like the nexus around which everything else orbited. And she wasn't there.
At lunch, Jon felt like he couldn't sit at his normal table. Not with Karyn sitting there. Quietly, shamefully, Jon crept over to the cheerleader's table. It was weird, but with his normal friends not options, Jon felt the closest connection to the cheerleaders over anyone else in the cafeteria.
They'd almost shooed him away, too, but Sarah, much to everyone's surprise, invited him to sit next to her. Jon supposed he was lucky that Biff ate during second lunch. Jon couldn't follow any of the conversation, but felt like that didn't matter so long as he was near Sarah.
When they all went their separate ways after lunch and Jon was no longer around Sarah, he started thinking more rationally, a realized that something was very, very wrong. What had he done? He didn't have problems like this after Karyn's dream.
But then, he thought, he hadn't been trying to do bad things in Karyn's dream. It was karma. Jon helps people, and good things happen. Jon hurts people, and his life goes crazy. Jon resolved that he'd have to go back into Karyn's dreams in order to fix what was going on. And tonight, he'd make sure to get an accurate record of the dreams.
