Okay, I thought as I stepped into the safety of my bedroom, That was definitely weird! I set my purse down on the rug and walked over to my bed. Plopping down on the edge, I lied there for a few moments, trying to figure out exactly what had happened, trying to reconcile my new life with my old one. Several minutes and a mild headache later, I realized that it simply wasn't going to happen. It was painfully clear, especially as I sat up and took a look around my room, that the old Karyn was gone. At least for the next six and a half days.
"What the hell were you thinking?" I asked myself. "Jon probably hates me now," I thought bitterly, although at least it meant that I wouldn't have to deal with his poorly hidden feelings for a while. It didn't help my mood to realize that I might never have to deal with those feelings. Sure, he's not mad at me now, but what's going to happen when the effects of the wish are revoked?
I kicked off my shoes. After a brief, and entirely too strange conversation with my parents, I hadn't even bothered to take them off. Instead I'd made a bee-line for the relative isolation of my room.
My room, I thought with a rather ironic chuckle as I looked around. This resembles my room about as much as a housefly resembles a sparrow. The walls were darker for one thing, and I had a several posters up. One, I had seen in the background on a few T.V. shows. It was a print of a poster called simply, The Kiss and it featured two young women in profile locked in a passionate embrace. They were standing up and wearing tank-tops and underwear. I found myself staring at it for a moment. It really was a beautiful moment. There was a poster of Melissa Etheridge up too, but I had to believe that she was on the wall in more of a role-model slash hero capacity, rather than her sex appeal. Glancing around, taking in even more, I noticed that my music collection had changed as well.
It looked as though I had every Etheridge CD that had ever been put out, not to mention a few from the Indigo Girls, amongst others. Music that I'd never been that into before.
"Oh brave new world," I whispered, thinking that the quote had never felt more appropriate. I went and took a look at my wardrobe, which really hadn't changed very much. I still had several pairs of jeans, a few pairs of denim shorts, and some baggy tops. Well, I thought as I glanced down at my chest, Tops that would have been baggy.
Lighting a cigarette, something that I would have held a grudge against Jon forever for, had I not already done so much to him, I thought about the conversation I'd had with my mother when I'd walked in the door...
"We were starting to worry," she said, as I stepped in. "Were you out with a girl?" She was wearing a smile that I didn't really approve of. It wasn't a sick perverse smile, or anything like that. It was worse. It was the type of smile that said we want to support and be there for you.
I shook my head, "No. I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you I was going over to Jon's after school."
She shook her head at me. "You know Karyn, if you were out with a girl that's fine," she paused, "That's great actually. You know your father and I are one hundred percent behind you, and you know," she said in a whisper, "you can tell me anything."
I faked a smile. Ten seconds in the house and I was already becoming uncomfortable. "Nope," I said in the extremely un-nonchalant tone that a forced attempt at being nonchalant always seems to yield. "Just over at Jon's."
"Well, that's nice," she said with less of a smile. "Still," she said, "If you ever want to talk about... anything, I'm here."
"I'll keep that in mind," I told her as I made my way upstairs...
That had been less than ten minutes ago, and I was still feeling a little weird about it. I loved my parents a great deal, but they'd never taken that kind of an interest in my life before. Particularly not my love life. I decided maybe I'd talk to Jon about it tomorrow. Maybe we could use the stone to make my parents forget about this. For now, it was getting late, and I was extremely tired, so I decided to call it a night.
