"Oh my god," Karyn gasped as she turned the corner around the back of the utility shed. "Sarah is so fucking sexy."
For a moment Jon wasn't sure how to react. Externally, this looked like Biff Meadows was just bragging about his girlfriend, and part of Jon just wondered by Biff was bragging at him. But then the rest of his brain kicked in, and he remembered that this was really Karyn. And then he became confused.
"But you hate Sarah," Jon said almost as a question.
"I know!" Karyn raised her arms in the universal 'what the hell?' gesture. "But she touched me, and she smiled at me, and for just like thirty seconds she made me feel like I was her entire world, like the sun revolved around me, and--" Karyn interrupted herself by letting out a very small sound, and then digging her own hands very firmly into her own crotch.
"You okay?"
"How the hell do you deal with boners?" Karyn hissed.
"You've got a boner for Sarah McMillan?"
"I can't make it go away!"
"Okay, okay," Jon held his hands out in caution. "First thing you do is you stop touching it. Stop thinking about Sarah. Just breathe in, and breathe out. Think about something that's not sexy. Like math. Or Danny DeVito. Or..." Jon trailed off before continuing in a softer voice, "or the fact that you're like this because of me."
"What?" Karyn yelled in a voice bigger than she was used to controlling. Suddenly her boner was no longer at the front of her thoughts.
"I didn't mean to," Jon backpedaled both literally and rhetorically. "Last night. I was just thinking about how a lot of my problems would go away if only Biff was my friend, and..."
"And so you wished that Biff was your friend, and now I'm Biff, because I'm your friend." Karyn's blood began to boil. "What the fuck, Jon! Fix it!"
"I- I can't!" Jon's body was shrinking back instinctively to the fact that Biff Meadows was right in front of him, and clearly pissed off. Years of experience told him that this was a bad equation for Jon Gibson, and that he could either appease or he could run.
"Why not?" Karyn's hands balled themselves into fists without her realizing that she'd done it.
"I didn't bring the stone today. When I get home, I promise. But, just, please don't hurt me."
Karyn blinked. Looked down at herself. Had she been about to hurt Jon? She wouldn't do that, would she? She had just gotten so angry, and she needed Jon to understand how critical this was, and-- she was making excuses, she knew. Karyn looked Jon in the eye and saw genuine fear like she had never seen in him before. At least not from this angle.
She closed her eyes. Took in a long breath through her nose. Exhaled through her mouth.
"Listen, I'm sorry," Karyn breathed. "It's weird being in this body. I can't really control it. Everything just feels so weird, and I don't know what to do, and I just want to punch something."
"No, you're going through a lot." Jon took a cautious step forward. "But hopefully it's just one day, and then we can use the stone to fix everything. Does that make you feel better?"
Just one day. Karyn focused on that thought. She just had to get through one day. Her brain calmed down. And, without her even realizing it, her boner had died down as well.
"One day, and then you fix it," Karyn said almost gently.
"And then I fix it," Jon repeated.
They just looked at one another in silence for a few minutes. Karyn looking at her best friend. Jon looking at his personal bully. Both coming to terms with what they would have to do.
Then the warning bell rang.
"Shit, we have to go." Jon adjusted his backpack over his shoulders. "See you later, Biff."
And then he was gone. And Karyn was left to sit and absorb the fact that even though Jon knew who she really was, he still saw her as Biff.
