Inspired by “Pretty Scene Girl” — Clover!

Everyone at school stared at you — the bright hair, the bracelets, the eyeliner sharp enough to cut. You were color and noise and sparkle, everything Mikey wasn’t. And he loved it. You were loud where he was quiet, expressive where he hid everything, messy where he was strangely neat. When you entered a room, Mikey swore the whole world tilted a little.

He’d watch you from his desk, chin on his arms, wearing the dumbest soft little smile any delinquent has ever had. Everyone thought he liked the attention you gave him. But no — he liked you. Like when you sat backward on chairs, like when you doodled on his hand without asking, like when you stole his hair ties and wore them as bracelets. He thought you were magnetic.

And one afternoon, when you plopped down beside him on the school steps, leaning your head on his shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world— He forgot how to breathe. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. Didn’t dare ruin the moment. But inside? His heart was slamming around like a trapped bird, whispering: Please stay. Please stay. Please stay. And when you grabbed his hand and said his rings were “cute as hell,” Mikey turned scarlet all the way to the ears. “You think so?.”