Cinderella's Shoe Blogfest

Madeleine of Scribble and Edit is hosting the Cinderella's Shoe Blogfest.

The Challenge: Write a 500 word piece about any character who loses an item that, when found by another, results in their mutual happiness / relief / salvation / whatever.

I introduced Serena and the Hunk (whose real name is Matt) in a previous post for the At First Sight Blogfest.

~

Serena stomped out of the empty lecture theatre in a frustrated huff. Where could it be? She'd been too tired to write in it last night, so she'd tossed it into her bag this morning so she'd have something useful to do during Chemistry. And she was so sure she'd slipped it back into her bag when the lecture ended...

Blasted diary. She cringed at the thought of who might have picked it up. Her most recent entry wasn't so bad, just ranting about the phone call she'd had with her bossy, I'm-so-perfect sister last night. But if someone turned a few pages back...

Matt. That's what they'd see. Matt, Matt, Matt and everything she really felt but refused to admit in real life. She couldn't handle his possessive ex-girlfriend, she'd told people. His attitude was just too smug and arrogant, she'd complained. And he really wasn't that good-looking, she'd argued with Kathrine.

What she'd felt, however, was a different story.

She climbed the stairs to her res room, hoping desperately that the diary had just fallen out of her bag and behind the bed. She unlocked her door and kicked it open, just to vent some more frustration. She looked up, and felt her stomach plummet straight through her feet, down three stories, and hit the ground far below.

There, lounging casually on her windowsill, her diary open in his hands, was Matt.

"Did you know you dropped something outside Chem this morning?" he asked innocently. "And you really should get your res warden to look into some increased security for this place. It's quite worrying how easy it is for someone to just climb--"

"Matt!" she shouted, stamping her foot for emphasis. She threw her keys onto the bed and snatched the diary out of his hands. "Well," she said hotly, trying to push aside her complete mortification, "I hope you found yourself suitably entertained."

He shrugged. "Enlightened is more like it."

She wanted to whack him over the head with the diary. Whack that easy smile right off his face.

She started to turn but he grabbed her wrist before she could move away. "I wish you were as honest with me as you are with your diary," he said, all trace of amusement now gone from his face. "All this time I thought... I thought you hated me."

His thumb moved gently against the inside of her wrist and the intensity in his eyes left warmth curling pleasantly in her stomach. And as he stepped closer she thought to herself that perhaps, just perhaps, it wasn't all that bad that he'd found the diary.

~

There's still time for you to enter, if you want! And you'll find the other entries here.
Thanks, Madeleine!