“See you around, cutie.” Amber winked at Karyn as the bell rang to end the class period.
“Yeah, I’m glad you sat by us, slut.” The word felt somehow affectionate coming from Tiffany, like she was accepting Karyn as one of her own.
Karyn wasn’t entirely sure how she wanted to feel about the interaction, and stayed seated at her desk as the other two girls gathered their things and left.
Jon was at her side almost immediately.
“Are you okay? Are you my Karyn or are you Sarah’s Karyn?”
“I’m your Karyn,” she sighed. “It’s like I thought, as soon as you were closer to me, I went back to normal.”
“Then why were you talking to those two cheerleaders?”
“Don’t ask me, they were the ones talking to me,” Karyn answered, then got a far-off look in her eyes. “Hey, can you answer me something honestly, Jon?”
“Sure.”
“Do you think I look pretty in this outfit?”
“The one that Sarah put you in?” the incredulity in Jon’s tone was thick.
“Just humor me. Pretend Sarah didn’t dress me up. Pretend I chose to wear this. Pretend I told you I was trying out a new style.” Karyn stood up at this and gave a slow spin to show off all sides of herself. “Does this make me look pretty?”
Jon choked slightly on his own spit as Karyn displayed herself before him. And as much as he would have liked to answer with his brain, suddenly another organ that sat further down his body was making its opinion known, as Karyn’s behind rotated into view, covered just barely by a taut fabric that displayed it perfectly.
Jon’s face went blank as Karyn completed her turn and faced him once again. “Well?” she asked.
“You look very pretty,” he said breathlessly.
The warmth that Karyn had felt from Amber and Tiffany’s comments returned, but an order of magnitude more intense this time. Coming from Jon, the words meant more. And she knew that he meant it.
All of a sudden, she didn’t feel quite so uncomfortable in what she was wearing.
