BOND

32.

It's more than just a crush

Can't get enough

It's that young young young young love

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Mark, to Elena's surprise, knew his way around Joey's kitchen almost as good as her, and immediately came forward to help her. "It's nice to see actual food around here for a change," he said, taking out a milk carton and three glasses.

Elena scoffed, "I know! The first couple of days when your practices got into a full swing, I had to drag him to Walmart to buy stuff."

They chorused in voices that were supposed to be Joey's, "Cereal is a good enough food," and burst out laughing at their sync.

"You've probably heard this a lot already," Mark started, rubbing the back of his neck to show his sheepishness. "But he really has changed. Around you, because of you, doesn't really matter because we finally got our best friend back."

Elena stopped what she was doing and focused her complete attention on him, her heart swelling with the weight of the words.

Mark smirked at her, giving her a side glance, attempting to turn down the gushiness of the conversation, "Thank you."

His tone was so genuine that she had to hold back from giving him another hug, but his expression was pained so she took the compliment lightly. She bumped her arm with his, "It's not like I didn't get anything out of it."

It was a few minutes later, when he had insisted on making eggs for the two of them and forced her to sit while he worked, that she remembered the deal she had made with Joey.

"So," she exclaimed with an ear splitting grin to get Mark's attention. He looked up from the omelet, confused at her abrupt cheerfulness.

"We saw Rachel yesterday," she said, scrutinizing him for even the tiniest change in expression. "She works at McDonald's apparently."

He then became even more confused, "Joey took you to McDonald's? He told us he had reservations at some Italian restaurant."

She turned incredulous, at how he knew that and why that was what he was focused on. "Who cares where we went? This conversation is strictly about you and Rachel."

Mark bit his inner cheek and concentrated solely on the pan in front of him, refusing to even glance up at her. "Nothing's going on between me and Rachel."

Elena gave him a smug grin and a disbelieving look, which he would have seen if he wasn't doing a trophy worthy job of avoiding eye contact. "I never said anything about something going on."

"I know," he nodded furiously. "And there's not."

Elena quickly decided on a course of action. He obviously wasn't going to fess up easily. "So you two talk much?"

He shrugged non-committedly, trying to downplay the whole thing, "Yeah, we're in a couple of same classes together. We talk here and there."

She leaned forward on the table, "Define here and there. Texts, calls?" The fact that he was willing to even talk about it proved that it was something.

Mark cracked another egg, even though there were enough for all three of them to get famished. "We've known each other for like, ten years now, so we talk whenever we, you know, see each other or whatever."

This was the most flustered she had ever seen him, and the fact that it was because of Rachel, made it even more endearing. Both of them were lost in their own oblivious worlds.