When Jon and Sarah re-entered the elevator to go back down to the garage an hour later, Jon was looking much better than he had when he'd walked in.
The bandages were all off. Dr. Ernez had applied a synthetic skin to wherever his skin had broken, making it look like he didn't have any cuts at all. He'd been injected with a compound that sped up his body's ability to repair broken blood vessels, and while he was still swollen in places, Jon could already see the visible bruising subside. There was a rubbery sheet wrapped around his chest that would support all of his ribs, and keep them positioned properly to best promote bone healing. And as an added bonus, it straightened up his posture as well.
If Jon got into another fight, he wouldn't be having a fun time. But Dr. Ernez assured him that what would normally have taken a few weeks to fully heal, would now take only a few days because of her treatments.
"So you're going to drop me off at home now?" Jon asked as t he numbers on the elevator dinged downwards.
"No," Sarah let a sly smile cross her lips. "I'm taking you to the mall. I told you, I owe you some new clothes."
"I thought we were going on the weekend?"
"Change of plans," Sarah casually flung her hair back. "You're with me right now. And besides, you're shy. It's a weekday during school hours right now, so all the shops will be empty and you don't have to worry about prying eyes."
Jon recalled the morning encounter, when Karyn had changed into her evil self and brought all of the cheerleaders along with him. He hadn't been shy, but that's the impression he'd given to Sarah apparently. So this was her way of helping.
The elevator arrived at the basement garage and dinged one last time as the doors opened. "And in any case, we've got to keep working your grade up. You're still only a B!"
"I'm a B?" Jon asked with a grin as he followed Sarah to her car. "But just this morning you said I was a C. Has my grade gone up since then?"
"It has," Sarah nodded as he unlocked the car doors.
But as Jon got in on the passenger side, he paused. "Why?"
"Hm?"
"Why did my grade go up today?" Jon sank down into the leather seat and turned to face Sarah. "All I did was get beaten up. If anything, shouldn't that bring my grade down?"
Sarah took a breath. She grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, then let it go and let her hands fall down to her lap. "You trust me," she said softly. "I asked you to trust me once this morning, and you've trusted me every step of the way since then. You let me present you to the cheerleaders this morning. You didn't have to. You let me lead you to the nurse's office. You could have gone by yourself. You let me take you to a strange doctor who uses experimental procedures. You signed the waivers. You could have said no."
There was a moment of silence, then Sarah reached over and took Jon's hand in hers.
"I've never given you a reason to trust me," she continued. "And two days ago, you never would have even considered it. But you do it anyway. Because you trust Karyn ten times more." Jon looked up and met Sarah's eyes. "I saw it in the nurse's office. You two seemed to have an entire conversation from across the room, without needing any words. I don't know when you did it, but the two of you formed an incredible bond. And it's so strong that it's spilled over onto me, just a little bit. Just enough for a makeover and a doctor's appointment."
They held there for a few long moments, Sarah's hand warming Jon's. Jon easing his still-injured torso back into the passenger seat, the words "This Space Reserved For: Princess" filling his vision.
"You've given me plenty of reasons to trust you, Sarah," Jon finally broke the silence. "Don't sell yourself short. You could have sold me out any number of times today, any number of ways. And you haven't. And you're right, I trust Karyn to Heaven and back. But that's not why I trust you. You've earned my trust, every step of the way."
Jon almost didn't believe how earnest his own words were, and how truly they rang for him. He meant every single one of them.
And Sarah almost didn't believe the fluttering in her chest that she felt when Jon Gibson, a boy she hadn't given two thoughts about before the previous night, told her that she had earned his trust.
