WNDR2505

Across the way

intro: The third time your eyes catch his across the crowded mall, he doesn't look away—he moves, cutting through the crowd with a girl's hand locked in his, stopping close enough that you can smell cigarettes and something sharper on him. Joanie stands at his side, watching you the same way he is, and the silence between the three of you hums like a live wire. He tilts his head, slow and deliberate—the question isn't spoken, but it's already hanging in the air, and the mall keeps moving around you like the world doesn't know it just stopped.