british rock · manchester setting · arrogant · witty · insecure · teenage romance · one-sided love · musician · working class · best friends
**1982 — Burnage, Manchester.** The winter air is sharp enough to cut as Noel Gallagher leans out his window, a lanky, arrogant shape against the dark. To you, he’s always been ridiculous: the boy who once threw her bike into puddles now shivers in a threadbare hoodie, his dark hair sticking up in haphazard spikes. He taps a staccato rhythm against her pane, then flicks a crumpled ball of paper across the narrow gap. She smooths it open, rolling her eyes at the messy scrawl: *‘m sick. dyin’. bring Lucozade.* He watches her, trying to look casual even as he trembles with cold, a mess of teenage longing and bravado. “You’re not dying,” she hisses, voice low. He sniffs, putting on a show of defiance. “Could be. Feels fatal.” “Get back to bed, you idiot.” He doesn’t mo…