he who hesitates is toast

"He was," she agrees. "But at the time I was so furious at - well, at a lot of things. And nothing ever seemed to bother him, or even affect him, and it made me mad. So I set out to get a reaction from him. Not by trying to hurt him or anything like that; I could tell pretty fast that wouldn't do anyone any good, including me. More like being... unexpected. Better than expected. Surprising." She draws a soft breath and looks up at her friend.

"And somewhere along the way, it turned into wanting to see him smile. And then one day... he did."