"Karyn!" Jon caught his breath even as he caught up with his friend. "You didn't wait for me! And you look different."
"Well, you were a slowpoke this morning," Karyn teased. "And of course I look different. You heard the... wish." She whispered this last word.
Jon was a little frustrated. He and Karyn always got to their corner at the same time every morning. Maybe a minute or so apart, but Karyn had already been halfway down the street by the time Jon had gotten there. And he wasn't late. He'd left his house the same time as he always did.
But that wasn't really what was bothering Jon. "It's not your hair. Karyn, you're wearing pink. You never wear pink!"
"So? I decided to wear a pink T-shirt today. It's not the end of the world."
"And you're wearing makeup! You never wear makeup!"
"Jon." Karyn stopped walking and put a hand on each of the boy's shoulders. "It's fine. I woke up a little early, and I decided to spend a little more time on myself this morning."
Karyn continued to lecture her best friend, but he wasn't listening. He couldn't listen. The sound of her voice became fuzzy. The look of her hair became fuzzy. The details of Karyn's face were clear, but the blonde hair that framed it seemed out of focus. For an amount of time that Jon could not measure, there were no clear sounds, and there were no clear sights. Aside from the perfect wing-tipped eyeliner that drew a crisp relief from the rosy eyeshadow above it. The deliberately-highlighted cheekbones below it. The bold lipstick that moved with Karyn's lips, in rhythm with the indistinct sounds that bored deeper and deeper into Jon's consciousness.
"So don't worry about it, okay?" Karyn had released Jon's shoulders, and the world was clear once again.
But what had he been worried about? Karyn had changed up her style a little bit. So what? She was still the same Karyn as always, wasn't she?
Karyn started walking down the sidewalk again, and Jon found himself hypnotized in a different way, as the backside of Karyn's jean shorts swayed side to side like a pendulum with every step she took.
Without slowing her pace, Karyn turned her head to look at Jon over her shoulder and winked. "You're not going to chase after me, Jon?"
The boy sucked in a breath and ran to catch up once again. Of course he was going to chase after Karyn. He would always chase after her.
