If you’re looking for a little extra love this Valentine’s Day, check out my YA contemporary flash fiction! I submitted the following to a Valentine-themed contest hosted by Manuscript Academy and judged by literary agent, Taj McCoy. The contest specified these were to be meet-cute flash pieces with a word count of 300 words and under, and the last line must be — Will you be my Valentine?

Happy reading!

Valentine 451

To pull this off, my timing has to be perfect. Too perfect. And I’ve never been one to nail things.

I fidget in place, barely listening to Mrs. Loveday, my ninth grade English teacher. Her final instructions disperse my class across the library like rose petals in the wind. Most of us quickly lose sight of each other in the stacks. But there’s one person I can’t lose. I trail her, catching glimpses of her sparkly red vest in the gaps between books.

“You won’t pull it off, Marshman,” a voice whispers.

For once, it’s not my inner voice.

“Shove off, Curdle,” I tell my buddy, Curtis. He hates that nickname.

“No way you’ll be able to look T.N.T. in the eye,” he snickers.

I elbow him not so gently into the atlases and try to guess where Tryssa N. Telvi is heading, or T.N.T. as everyone calls her. Sure, her personality is a bit explosive, and her glare can incinerate you. But there’s no one who burns brighter.

Glancing at the alphabetical titles on the end of the nearest shelf, I realize her goal, too late. My legs speed forward. My breath seizes as I lunge, and my hand closes around the sole paperback copy of Fahrenheit 451. A tug on the other end forces my gaze upward.

Tryssa’s blueberry eyes sear into mine. “Mind dropping my book, Marshall?”

A cough escapes me. She didn’t even attempt a library voice.

I quickly shove something between the pages and release the book into her death grip. She yanks it toward her, pink cherry lips opening in surprise. A wilted red rose peeks up at her between the pages.

My cheeks blister under the heat of her gaze. But today, words don’t fail me.

“Will you be my Valentine?”