First, get some answers.

This time, Krys is sitting several feet away from me. There's a lot of frozen, black and white world between us, so I can't even reach out and touch her.

“Krys, do you remember your old self?”

“Yes,” she says in a monotone. “I was... very different. I remember everything equally.”

“Do you remember the old Thad?”

“Thad?” She thinks for a second. “What do you mean? Thad is just Thad.”

“Has he always been short and skinny?”

“Yes, Thad is an ugly, little loser.”

Alright. She can remember the changes made to her, but not to someone else. If I changed her back to how she used to be, would she remember the first meeting with Thad differently? Probably. Another thought occurs to me. “Krys, do you have to answer my questions?”

“I... I think so.”

“Okay. Did you really drop off clothes for the homeless this morning?”

“No, I went to a pawn shop and sold some of my grandmother's antique bowls. I needed money for weed.”

“I thought Kent provided the weed?”

“Sometimes. He thinks my parents make more money than they really do, so I buy the weed sometimes.”

“Won't your parents notice that the antiques are gone?” I ask.

“My mom thinks we were robbed last week.”

Those are some pretty honest answers. How about something she refused to tell me before? “Krys, in your original life, what was your court date for?”

“Parking tickets.”

“That's it? Just parking tickets?”

She nods.

Wow. The girl I thought was a massive rebel was actually pretty tame. She's more of a problem child in this life, she just gets away with it because her parents apparently think beautiful outside means beautiful inside.

“Krys... I think I'm going to turn you back to the way you were.”

“No. Please don't.” For the first time, there's a bit of emotion in her voice. It's muted, but some desperation is definitely piercing through the haze she's in.

“Krys, this is messed up. I like you. I like being with you.”

She manages to shrug a little. “So?”

“Krys, come on! I know that being hot must be really cool, but if I don't reset reality, you'll forget me again. Focus on who you were before. We had fun together, didn't we?”

“I only hooked up with you because I didn't know how to attract anyone else.”

“... What?”

“I like rich guys. I grew up around rich people. You don't have any money or a future. You're going to spend the next thirty years at a low level position, trying to get out of student loan debt. I would have hooked up with anyone else if I could have. Now I can get someone better. Please don't make me change back.”

Oh, okay. I was willing to go back to chubby, chunky faced, bad haircut Krys because I really liked her. She'd rather stay hot, new Krystina because she never liked me at all.

Fine. There's an easy fix to this.

“Krys, you're my girlfriend.”

She twitches. “I'm... no, please don't.”

“You're my girlfriend and you love me.”

“I'm.. I'm your... please, no.” A ghost image flickers in and out.

“You're my girlfriend and you love me.”

“I'm... your... girlfriend... and I... love... No, I want someone better!”

“You're my girlfriend and you love me.”

“I'm your... girlfriend and I... love you.” An image solidifies of Krys, looking exactly the same as she does now, except she's smiling at me in a way that no girl ever has.

“You're my girlfriend and you love me.”

“I'm your girlfriend and I love you.”

We're in her car. Krys is driving and she's glancing at me with that same incredible smile that I saw in the ghost image.

“Tonight is going to be great! Mom is so excited to meet you!”

“Meet me?” I ask.

“Well, okay, not excited. She's at least a little more accepting of this dinner than Dad. That's something, right?!”