As the two teens slipped out of Jon's bedroom, Karyn palmed the stone and slid it into her jeans pocket without Jon noticing. She wasn't trying to steal it or anything, but she wanted it nearby in case she needed to use it to defend herself from Sarah, and she didn't want to argue with Jon about keeping it safe.
Perhaps that was a selfish move, but the compulsion to meet with Sarah so that the cheerleader could pick out her clothes was causing her stress and affecting her judgment.
The two walked mostly in silence, each stewing on their new realities. Jon knew that he wasn't supposed to be enjoying how visible his new assets were, but at the same time he couldn't deny the upswelling of pride that he felt every time he looked down and saw his own cleavage.
And Karyn, for her part, felt the dread rising in her throat with every step she took closer to Sarah McMillan. When she was very little, she had this book, it was a Sesame Street book with Grover, and it was called "The Monster at the End of This Book." It starts with Grover reading the title, and panicking because he doesn't want to see a monster. He implores the reader to just stop turning pages so that they don't get to the end of the book where the monster lies, and he becomes more and more desperate with each page that you turn.
But in the end, you get to the last page, and the monster at the end of the book is Grover. And isn't that a relief.
But the monster at the end of Karyn's book was Sarah McMillan. And every step was like turning a page for Grover. She couldn't control it. She had to move forward. But more and louder alarm bells kept ringing in her head with every step Karyn took. But what if the monster at the end of her book was Grover, too?
Karyn stuck her hand into her jeans pocket, and whispered a wish so that Jon wouldn't hear it. She would be the only person who knew about this change:
"I wish that Sarah McMillan's wardrobe exactly matched my own."
The effects of the wish hit Sarah just before the device in her back pocket began to buzz. Her designer jeans faded into a generic brand. Her pink-and-white Hoka sneakers melted into a simple pair of black Converse shoes. Her tank top changed from pink to green, and the white button-down that she wore over it fluffed out into a loose pullover.
"What the hell?" She stopped in her tracks, looking down at her new outfit. "This is like something Karyn would wear!" Then her thoughts caught up to her with a groan as she realized what must have happened, and she pulled the iPod Nano from her back pocket.
Well, this wasn't going to stand, Sarah thought to herself as she watched the video of the latest wish.
"I wish that Jon Gibson's wardrobe exactly matched my own," Karyn whispered so that Jon couldn't hear.
Jon's improvised cut-off-neck, cut-off-sleeves T-shirt shifted into a scoop-neck tank top that hugged his form closely, still tied off just under the bust. His shoes changed from Vans to Converse, and his jeans became a girl's cut, the waistband rising up to nearly meet his belly button. And underneath, invisible to Karyn, Jon's boxers became a simple pair of women's cotton briefs.
Karyn sighed to herself as she saw the changes. Maybe this would mitigate some of Jon's new compulsions. If he could show off his boobs like a normal girl, maybe he wouldn't try to show off his boobs like a slut. But she did notice a small change in Jon's posture, like he was just a little less confident in himself than he was a moment ago. Like he was just a little less happy than he was a moment ago.
It was true. Jon couldn't identify what had changed, but something felt different. He looked down at his own cleavage once again, hoping to get a surge of endorphins from the sight, but something felt incomplete.
The one other change to Jon's outfit was that the lace had faded from his bra, leaving it just a plain solid black. And even though Jon no longer had any memories of wearing a lace bra, something inside him yearned for something... prettier than the garment that was containing his bust in that moment.
"They deserve to be displayed," Jon mumbled to himself as he walked. Karyn heard him, but chose to ignore it.
