ice and sugar dust (alex turner fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-Three

The moment she'd made her way down the street and around the corner on her way to school, Chloe regretted wearing the new burgundy cord skirt she'd bought the day before, despite the sun peeking out behind the clouds, autumn had properly begun and neither her thin black tights, nor the wool brown knee socks were keeping her legs particularly warm. She buttoned her coat up further and all the way to her chin, winding her scarf tighter around herself and adjusting her backpack, increasing her steps.

The night before, she'd been too sleepy on the phone to question why Alex was staying over at Matt's, or maybe she'd forgotten, but she missed him the moment he didn't meet her at the corner, had missed him when he hadn't picked her up, and especially when he hadn't been there under the warmth of the covers this morning, knew she'd miss him for even longer now because as it just so happened, Wednesday morning was one of the rare occasions in which they did not have class together.

Instead, Hazel and Beth were waiting for her by the front gate, Hazel instantly offering her a sip from her large thermos that was filled with sweet coffee that warmed Chloe's insides blissfully and she urged her friends to head into the building, to wait outside the classroom rather than the increasingly cooling autumn temperatures.

"Have you got your book?" Beth asked, looking at Chloe from the side, raising an eyebrow.

"It's in my locker, but we only need one, right?"

"Mine's at home" Hazel said quickly.

"I've got History and Geo in my bag and I had us covered yesterday!" Beth added.

Chloe furrowed her brows, but fumbling already for her key at the bottom of her bag. "I didn't realise we were in competition" she laughed as they reached the lockers. "Are you trying to tell me I never bring our books or-..." She stopped the moment she spotted the large red envelope on the dark blue surface of her locker door, an incontrollable smile spreading across her face, one look at each of her friends confirming that none of their conversation was to be taken seriously as she was met with two wide grins as soon as she picked the envelope off the locker and set down her bag to open it.

Inside was merely a card, a heart drawn clumsily onto one side of it, four lines in Alex's neat, yet scratchy handwriting.

When the hands collide top of the clock

to promise sweetness and the daylight breeze,

well-hidden under the cherry trees,

beneath the wood you need to knock.

Chloe giggled, looking up at her friends. "What is he doing?" She laughed quietly, her heart fluttering at the mere thought of Alex putting together a riddle for her to solve, despite unaware of the reason, she couldn't believe him, found it hopelessly romantic. "No one's ever done anything like this for me" she whispered.

Beth shrugged, shaking her head sheepishly. "You'll see" she said. "I think you need to solve this riddle first."

"But first, English" Hazel announced. "I do have my book."

Chloe rolled her eyes with a smile, shouldering her backpack once again, the note clutched in her hand as she read it over and over again when she followed the others. "This has to be about lunch, right? Our table around the corner from the steps?"

Both Hazel and Beth shrugged with feigned obliviousness, leaving Chloe to reread the lines for ninety minutes, each time she could, fairly certain after the first few times that she had it figured out and that he wouldn't make it too difficult, wondered what had prompted him to not only rhyme for her, but to start this kind of riddle hunt for her in the first place, now realising that there probably hadn't been a real reason he'd told her for staying with Matthew, that she'd meant to be alone to figure this all out.