Hi everyone! I'm Jenn from . I've been on Wattpad for 5 years (since 2013!) and I'm so honoured and excited to be part of the Wattpad Block Party this year! Back in 2013, I started off writing 1D Fanfiction (like many of us probably have). But as I've grown older I've found myself wanting to write more chic lit fiction. So for my contribution, I wrote up a little short story titled Cherry Lips.

Enjoy!

Cherry Lips

There was something about how she stood there in ripped jeans and a t-shirt too big for her petite body, that drew him in. She lured him in with her deep cherry red lips. He thought it was strange how she wore it every day, but it was the kind of strange that made her fascinating. He didn't know how to explain it ... how to pin point the right adjective and verbs to depict what it was that made her somethin' else. She just is.

Leighton is pretty. But not in the standard kind of way. Her cheeks are too pale, her brows too thick and her hair is a bit knotty - but he doesn't care. He thinks she's beautiful.

Jonas found residence in her mind; she couldn't get him out of her head. His hair - the rose coloured epiphany that coated each of his bleached blonde strands, brings her in every time. It has her hooked. He's cute but not the kind of cute that makes girls go crazy. He wears the same jean jacket with the hole in the left sleeve, just below his elbow, every day. He claims that it's his favourite one - a ten dollar find at the small thrift shop in the east part of town.

She waits for him every day; seven forty-five every evening. She knows that he'll be here... he's never late, nor is he ever early. He's always on time.

She's an artist. A self proclaimed latte artisan and connoisseur. He finds her attempts at drawing the best rose on this city block entertaining. Amusing. She's amusing but he'd never tell her that. His subtle smirk that he'd shoot her sporadically throughout the evening is evidence of his amusement.

"I think I figured it out," she said to him after he told her he'd have the usual. A caramel latte - extra hot. "I've been working on it all day and I think I know how to draw an owl."

He watches her, the same amused smirk already painted on his lips. "Alright - show me then," he chuckles, sending her cheeks into a deep, deep red. The same colour as her lips.

This was how their interactions went. He'd come into Spill The Beans every day for the past six months. He happened to stumble into the small shop one evening after finishing a long day of moving his belongings into his small apartment. He lived across the road. It was his neighbour - a young guy, brunette, with a laugh too infectious to ignore, that told him about the quaint shop.

"There's a chick that works there... she's pretty easy on the eyes... a bit strange though," Ashton had told him. "She's got an accent - I think she's from Ireland or some shit."

Jonas knew he liked her before he even met her. It was a feeling. A butterfly - heart - pounding feeling that kicked him in the gut only from the mention of coffee shop girl. It was the moment that he walked in and laid his eyes on her - brown hair a mess on top of her head in a bun, red lips feathering at the edges, and eyes so blue he could drown in them.

It was in that exact moment that he knew that he was done for.

"Don't disappoint me Leigh," Jonas teases. This only earned him a front seat view of her freshly painted finger - the one stuck between a pointer and a ring.

"I'd be careful if I were you - I could replace your milk with soy," she retorts back.

Jonas gasps, appalled that she'd even say such a thing, "You wouldn't think of it."

"Try me," Leighton threatens back.

He takes a step backwards, hands in the air in surrender, his lips now curled into a full fledge smirk. With a quick wink he takes a seat in his usual spot on the brown leather chair that was stuck in between a book shelf and the far left corner. It was his favourite spot.

Six minutes go by but he doesn't even notice. It's the same amount of time it usually took Leighton to make his drink. She knew it was a bit too long to make a simple latte - but she liked to take her time with his. It wasn't like the shop was busy at this time. It never was.

With steady hands she brings the mug to where he sits. She's proud of her creation. The owl that resembled the same one tattooed on Jonas' left forearm.

"Here you go -" she said, placing the mug down beside him.

He leans over to get a good look of the mug. A smile tugs at his lips. His eyes flutter up to meet hers, "Not too shabby Costa," he admitted. He slid his phone out from his pocket, taking a snapshot of the owl. He did this every day when he came - saving it to the album simply titled, Leigh.

"I'm pretty proud of it," she agrees, smiling down at the foamy drink.

"Hopefully it tastes just as great."

"You know it will."

"Unless you traded it in for soy... then it'll taste like shit. Guaranteed."

"You taste like shit," she lamely quips back. Her cheeks flushed pink once the words slip from her lips.

Jonas chuckles, "Been told that I taste pretty damn good, actually."

This only induces her flush, causing her whole body to burn in embarrassment, "Cheeky..."

He smiles at her, cockily, but doesn't reply. He watches her walk back to behind the counter where she remains for the rest of her shift. He stays at his spot, sipping slowly at his drink, too engrossed by his novel of the week. It's a Sci-Fi thriller that has had him hooked from the moment he started reading it that morning.

That's where he stays until closing - ten every day with the exception of ten-thirty on Fridays - but today is only Wednesday.

"Do you want anything else, Jonas?" Leighton asks as she wipes down a neighbouring table. Jonas looks over the hard back cover of his novel. He thinks for a moment before nodding.

"A chocolate cookie t'go? Think I'll head back home... it's already five to ten," he replied, shutting his book. The bookmark moved to it's rightful spot in between the crisp pages.

Leighton nodded. She moved across the counter to where the cookies sat, snuggled between a red velvet cake and carrot muffin. Using tongs that were stored right behind the display case, she pulled two cookies. Even though Michael refused every time, she would always give him an extra one to go.

"One day I'm going to sneak all the money that I owe for that second cookie into your purse and there's nothing you can do to stop me," Jonas jokes as he passes her a few dollars. She took them graciously from his outstretched palm. She bit down on the inside of her cheek to hold back the light sigh she wanted to release. There was always an electric shock that shot through her whenever she touched his hand. She couldn't explain it but it always happened without fail.

-

Leighton was a heart type. She wore her heart on her sleeve and loved everything about love. As a little girl, she would write entry after entry in her tattered pink diary about her lovesick woes. She could recall the one detailed event that seven-year-old Leighton had written about the first boy that held her hand. It was butterflies and puppy love.

But as she grew older, her love of love depend but her fear of falling increased further. As much as she wanted to no lover feel lonely, she didn't want to admit to it.

So when Jonas had asked her to go to the movies late one night, she knew she had to say no. Even though she wanted to - oh how she wanted to, she couldn't. The tiny piece of doubt that lingered relentlessly within her always stopped her from saying yes. Even if she really, really wanted to.

Jonas couldn't hold back his disappointment when Leighton had turned him down. He had worked up the courage all morning, to the point where his roommate Ashton teased him. But he didn't care. God- he didn't care, because he was crazy about this girl with the cherry red lips and knotted brown hair. This girl who turned him down.

Jonas is a head type. He's the - overanalyze and think things through until he's gone mad kind of type. It didn't seem unusual for him to think about the last six months that he spent in this little coffee shop, falling for the girl with the cherry red lips.

Was he crazy? Was he delusional? Because he had sworn up and down that she had felt the same way too - but she said no. She refused him and he didn't understand why.

-

It quickly became routine to see Jonas - but it had been four weeks since she'd seen him last. Leighton knew had become accustomed to his consistent visits to the coffee shop. It had become endearing. Habit. She was used to seeing him on the day that she worked, and found herself to miss him the day that she didn't. They had become friends - in a very loose sense of the word. But she had ruined it. She ruined it when she turned him down with a one syllable word.

It had been four weeks and she knew she had to make things right. She had fallen for Jonas - the boy with the bleached hair and tattered jean jacket.

And she misses him.

A lot.

Leighton had practiced her speech that morning. She stood in front of her small bathroom mirror, eyes bright yet focused as she mouthed the words over and over, "Do you want to go see that movie sometime?" She had hoped that he would be there. She hoped that she didn't miss her chance.

It was a dreary Monday evening, but you wouldn't have been able to tell by the bright yellow top Leighton was wearing. Her hair had been pulled back into a messy bun, a few loose hairs falling against her cheeks. She felt cute. She felt confident. She felt like today was going to be different. She also felt like her stomach was going to twist out of her.

With her head held high, and her fingers crossed behind her back, she walked to the front of the shop. It was the high pitched giggle that caught her ear first. She hadn't expected it on this gloomy morning. It seemed out of place. Too happy. To positive. To gut-twisting-heart-breaking-too-damn happy.

Sat in the spot that she had seen him from time and time again, was Jonas. He looked good in his tattered jean jacket and a grey beanie. His lips were tinted red and cheeks flushed as he laughed. Beside him sat a curvy girl with hair as dark as the midnight sky. It was braided and pin to the base of her neck. Peeking up from underneath her cream knitted jumper was cherry tattoo.

He spotted her right away. She looked cute - but he knew she would - in a bright yellow top that he hadn't seen before. He took a mental picture of her to save for days when he missed her. "Did you want to order that coffee now," Marigold asked.

Jonas had met her a couple weeks ago at a local bar. He didn't expect to like her - not with thoughts of Leighton still dancing in his mind. But she was sweet and sexy, and reminded him of home. "Yeah," he agreed and followed her to the front.

Leighton was kind - she was always kind, but Jonas knew that the tension was there. Marigold hadn't noticed - too preoccupied with the array of danishes that were in the display case. "I'll have a cherry danish and a latte," she ordered.

"I like your tattoo," Leighton manages to say.

Marigold smiles, her hand finding it's way to the back of her neck.

"Thank you. It was my mum's name," she briefly shared. Jonas knew how hard it was for Marigold to talk about her mum - it was something they had bonded over; their broken home life and deceased mothers.

It was something he never shared with Leighton.

"It's pretty," Leighton replies. She turns her attention to him and his breath catches in his throat. "Hey Jonas."

"Hey Leigh," he greets her with a little nod, his blonde hair flopping against his forehead and she accepts it with a half smile. They stare at each other for what feels like eternity, yet neither one makes a move to say something... to do something... it isn't until she feels awkward under his stare that she makes a move.

"A caramel latte and a cookie," she mumbles his usual order and he does nothing to stop her. Even though he has switched over to plain coffee and scones, he accepts it because it's her.

He hands her the cash, hands fumbling with the velcro strap of his wallet. "Where'd you snag that thing from? A thirteen year old?" She had teased him the day she had seen it. It's a memory he thinks about whenever he pulls it out of the back pocket of his too-tight jeans.

Minutes go by and he's no longer standing at the counter but at the table he once called home. Marigold is chatting beside him about the latest novel she had found at a small thrift shop. He listens intently, but his eyes fail him as they wander off to the pretty barista behind the counter.

She feels his eyes but she doesn't look up. She's too concentrated on the small lines the milk is making - a picture of a cherry. And with steady hands she brings them their lattes. "Oh! It's cute," Marigold gasps, her phone focused above the foamy creation. The click of the phone camera is the only sound that they can hear other than the muffled beats of an Arctic Monkey's song.

Are U Mine - fitting, since he no longer is hers.

Not like he ever ways, really.

"You're getting better, Costa," he compliments her. She runs her fingers over her cheeks to cover the hot blush that radiates the pale, pale skin. She half expects him to pull out his own phone. To add the grainy photograph to his own album, but it's probably long deleted. And replaced with an album filled of photographs of her - Marigold.

But she doesn't know that he still has it. Saved on a hard drive hidden in a box under his bed.

"I think I figured it out," she said to him. "This whole latte art thing. I think I've finally gotten the hang of it."

"Always knew you would."

-

Love is funny. You think you have a hand on it. You think you've figured it out. But then you meet a girl with messy brown hair and lips as red as cherries and it all goes awry. Or you meet a boy, with hair painted red wearing a jacket with holes in the sleeves, and love no longer makes sense. It's foreign and confusing and overwhelming.

But that's life. And that's love. It's messy and it sometimes doesn't go your way. But that's okay. It'll always be okay.

Thank you so much for giving this a read! If you want to read more of my work, you can find me:

Wattpad:

Blog: http://www.jennhildebrand.com

Also to celebrate being part of the Wattpad Block Party, will giveaway shoutout to 2 lucky winner(s)! My giveaway is open internationally.