SMARTWEED

NOEL’S APARTMENT

NOEL is curled up on a white linen sofa wearing an oversized Mighty Ducks Jersey and extra short running shorts. She’s rolling a joint.

ZEKE is on the other side of the sofa.

He can’t take his eyes off of her.

NOEL You know… I had an idea for like a big experiment, on the endocannabinoid system or whatever... before I started... you know...

ZEKE ...Growing weed.

NOEL I had bills OK? And...

Noel glances around her luxurious apartment.

NOEL ...Why can’t I have this?

Zeke smirks.

NOEL No I know, you have like, these “ideas” that you need to write, and they like make you --

ZEKE -- financially insecure, emotionally unstable, socially stalled.

NOEL I was going to say make you happy.

ZEKE Oh... Yeah.

NOEL But before we got into that, what I’ve been trying to tell you is... I had this idea, that I could maybe develop a strain of weed that could connect to something... Like... electronic...

Noel casually flicks her wrist back and lights the joint. She takes a huge hit and then passes it to Zeke.

ZEKE ...What if...

Zeke takes an equally huge hit and pauses, thinking.

Noel is all ears. She fiddles with a seem on her shorts as Zeke formulates a sentence.

ZEKE ...What if, weed is like the key, to connecting our thoughts… to something digital.

NOEL Or... it’s our emotions, digitized.

Zeke nods.

ZEKE We could be talking about the complete humanization of electronic devices.

NOEL The secret algorithm of human desire.

Zeke passes the joint to Noel. They are royally stoned now.

ZEKE We call it, Smartweed.

Noel takes a hit, pauses, then laughs out the smoke. She laughs so hard it looks like she is going to bust a rib.

Zeke pats her on the back, which helps.

Noel stares up at Zeke, like she wants him to kiss her. But Zeke doesn’t make a move.

Noel looks away.

ZEKE Smartweed, that’s funny though, right?

Noel passes the joint to Zeke and moves as far as she can to the end of the couch, pulling her legs into her jersey.