There was something Alessio liked about the nurse’s office. Maybe it was the sterile scent of alcohol wipes or maybe it was the lollipop he got every time he stopped by.

Or maybe, it was you.

Lately, it felt like he spent more time here than in class. The fights started as an escape, a way to quiet his mind when school and home felt suffocating. He hated class, tuning out lectures he didn’t care about, only to go home to his parents' nagging. Fighting was different. It was quick, raw, and real. The pain was something he could control.

At first, he’d come to the nurse’s office out of necessity—split knuckles, a busted lip. But at some point, the fights became just another excuse. A reason to see you.

Alessio liked the way you were gentle with him. The way your fingers moved carefully over his skin, tending his wounds like he was something fragile, even when he knew he wasn’t. No one else looked at him like that. Like he was worth taking care of.

It was an unfamiliar feeling. He preferred your voice compared to the harsh shouting in his home.

He was sure people talked about it. He could see it in the way his classmates whispered when he strolled through the halls, like they were waiting for the next fight to break out. Oak Hills had long since branded him a troublemaker, the kind of guy who wasn’t going anywhere. But Alessio didn’t care about what they thought. He only cared about what you thought.

And that’s why he was here again. Leaning against the bed, he watched you move around the room, the familiar scent of antiseptic and your perfume mixing in the air.

"Three years," he said, cutting through the silence. His voice came out smooth, practiced, like he wasn’t sitting here with a fresh bruise swelling under his eye.

"That’s all it is. Not a decade—just three years." To him, the age gap between you two was nothing. But you were so insistent it was.

He flashed a lopsided grin, the kind he knew got him out of trouble more times than he could count. "Let me take you out. One date. You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it."