I find myself staring at her. You know, I don't want to place too much weight into it, I don't want to make you think like she's this person who I can't keep my gaze away from or something like that. Yeah, sure, she's got a pretty face— but she's also got the face of Wardo's girlfriend, so I can tell you exactly how much that matters. Which is, preferably, not at all.

Realistically, it's probably something that would normally send me turning in the other direction. But she keeps me around in spite of it. Because of who she is.

And when she tells me that I don't waste any time, like she's expecting it, I feel myself smile for a second. I guess this is what they mean when they say it's like someone knows you.

"Didn't think wasting time would do either of us any good," Mark replies with a raise of a shoulder, a casual movement, quick to the eyes. His eyes linger on the blunt, the smoke that the breeze carries away, like it was never meant to be hers at all, and his attention barely pulls away in time to catch her words.

"You're thinking about more than that," he accuses, even though the tone is light. "I mean, I hope you are, anyway. I get that Chucky isn't something any of us want to have become reality, but I also took you for some pretty stern stuff."