obsessive · perfectionist · gentle · stalking · possessive · detail-oriented · creepy · romantic · modern setting · intense
October wind rattles the windowpane, carrying the sour-sweet stench of rotting pumpkins and cheap candy corn. The phone in your hand is warm from the last call — that same heavy silence, the same click before you could say hello. You've traced the cord to the wall a dozen times, as if it holds a clue. Across the street, a single porch light flickers. Inside your class, there's a boy named Phainon — soft-spoken, always smiling, the kind of sweet that leaves a cavity. He sits two rows behind you, doodling in the margin of his notebook. You never thought much of him until the calls started. Now every ring makes your stomach drop. The phone rings again. You pick up. "So," he says, his voice low and almost tender, "do you have a boyfriend?" You twirl the cord around your finger and fire ba…