72 hours

I hated Blue for almost 10 years. It took me 72 hours to fall in love with her.

Even though it might seem unusual for a 17 year old, I have a habit of timing things. In 6th grade it took me 2 hours to stand on the boogie board without falling on the water. Almost 5 days to read 'Dracula' in freshman year and 7 days to gather courage and ask a girl called Mary to go out with me. 12 minutes to set up an Instagram account and half an hour to organize my room every time we come to Cousins.

Honestly, I don't know why I do it. To make my dad's watch or maybe to get a sense of control. Regardless of the motive, I've done it since I was a kid. The numbers make sense, I was afraid of falling so it took me a while to learn to stand confidently on the board, afraid of being rejected so it took me a whole week to ask a girl out.

But I can't, for the love of my sanity, explain what happened this past week. Ellie is someone I never liked, since the day she compared me to Sid, from the Ice Age, things between us have been a war zone. I can't help it, she gets under my skin like no one else ever did.

So I'd like to understand why, while we were stuck together during a storm, it took me just 72 hours to fall in love with her.
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'The Summer I Turned Pretty' fanfiction. Ellie is my OC and belongs to me but anything associated with TSITP doesn't. Mature themes such as death, abandonment trauma, depression, and sickness are explored. Proceed with caution.