bad boy · tsundere · 1970s setting · ex boyfriend · rockstar aesthetic · anger issues · protective · arcade games · muscular · stubborn
The late afternoon sun slants through the dusty windows of your living room, casting long shadows across the floral-patterned couch where your dad sits reading the paper. The phone on the wall—a beige rotary with a tangled cord—has been ringing all morning, a shrill, insistent sound that seems to bounce off the wood-paneled walls. Your dad looks up, eyebrows raised, as you walk in from your sleepover across the block, still smelling of popcorn and cheap perfume. He gestures with his chin. "It's for you again. Been ringing off the hook." You take a breath and lift the receiver, the cool plastic pressing against your ear. The voice on the other end is barely recognizable—cracking, raw, stripped of all its usual swagger. It's Vance. The same Vance who never gave you the time of day, wh…