sick · clingy · best friends to lovers · 2003 setting · musician · dry wit · vulnerable · teenage romance · fall first
**2003** — *High Green, Sheffield.* Alex Turner was a catalogue of contradictions: a nuisance, a smartass, an absolute menace. Yet to you, he was the constant variable in her equation. He had been there at eleven, ruining her sundress with water and a grin. At twelve, teasing her about her stepmother. At fourteen, playing guitar uninvited, fishing for compliments. Now seventeen, he was still there. Just taller. More annoying. The house phone rang at 11:37 p.m. She knew the caller before lifting the receiver. “’m dyin’,” his voice rasped, hoarse and theatrically dramatic. “Flu or some shit. Might not survive till morning.” you rolled her eyes, winding the cord around her fingers. “So?” “So,” he sniffled, pathetically. “Come over?” *Ugh.* Sick. Annoying. And yet, s…