Baby Lips

Chapter 1

The pain in my lower back grew more prominent as I hunched farther over the book I had become so engrossed in. My dark brown eyes danced over the yellowing pages as a small gasp escaped my dried lips. The fact that John Proctor so willing called Abigail Williams a whore baffled me, yet... I was slightly amused at the word choice.  

 
My thoughts got the best of me and I began to lose my focus on The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I shut the leather covered book and walked it back to the shelf I had found it on, smiling at the wrinkled librarian as I did so.  
 
“I see you here almost every other day and I have yet to catch your name, darling.” Her accent reminded me of Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter films and I fought back the urge to giggle. Instead I smiled politely and I’m very sure, awkwardly, to her. 
 
“I’m Scarlett.” My voice cracked at the fact I hadn’t spoke to someone all day. The woman wrinkled her already folded brow before she whispered. 
 
“American, are you?” I shyly nodded and pushed back a falling strand of my hair behind my ears. I didn’t like this attention on me, I didn’t like the slowly growing number of people that averted their eyes from their books to this woman and I. 
 
“Well... I should be going.” I itched my forearm before dashing toward my table next to the streaked window just before the stairs. I wrapped my scarf around my neck and shoved my arms into the navy blue pea coat my mother had bought me for Christmas last year. My messenger bag swung over my shoulder and hit my sore lower back with a loud thud.  
 
I groaned in the pain. And softly rubbed it as I made my get away down the stairs of the library and out onto the bitterly cold streets of Oxford, England. I buried my chin into the scratchy wool of my scarf in an effort to make my cheeks less flushed and cold.  
 
A gust of wind blew as I turned to corner heading toward my flat and I clenched my teeth together, but they relaxed as I heard muffled screams in the distance. My chin came out from hiding in my scarf and I craned my neck from left to right to try and find the source of the noise. My feet moved closer toward the sound and as I made another turn screeches and hollers pierced my red tipped ears.  
 
Girls. Hundreds... no thousands of girls were lined up on the street just before my apartment complex. My eyebrow raised at the sight. The girls were holding posters, Toy Story figures, tiny leprechaun toys, and weirdest of all carrots.  
 
Was there some kind of party I wasn’t invited to?  
 
I stepped forward slowly only to stumble back as a blood curling scream broke through all of the others and sounded something like, “It’s them!!”  
 
It’s who? I thought as I leaned against the brick building that was conveniently located next to me. I fished through my bag and grabbed my white iPhone, wanting to document this crazy event for later story telling. Or maybe a tweet.  
 
My frozen nose got so busy in the Twitter application. Checking out what a few of my friends from high school were up to, seeing my slutty cousin’s plans for the weekend, and keeping myself updated on my favorite music artist and actors. Especially Ashton Kutcher, boy did I love me some Ashton Kutcher.  
 
I completely forgot the blob of girls wailing in front of me until I was right in the middle of the action. My eyes widened and I clenched my bag as if it was a life preserver and I was in the midst of the ocean... surrounded by hungry sharks. Screams came from every which way all of them chanting the same name, “Harry!” or “Hazza!” or even “Curly!”  
 
I gasped loudly when I felt someone clip the back of my shoe. My left leg became wobbly and my right tried its best to stop it but I did the unthinkable and fell flat on my back against the pavement. But there was a heavy weight on top of me. Pushing down on my chest, making breathing not the easiest. 
 
I kept my eyes squeezed shut, afraid of what I was going to see. A crazy girl holding a carrot between her braced teeth? A hobo? The librarian from earlier?  
 
But as I heard the area around me go silent after a collective gasp. I opened my eyes one at a time, slowly the focused on something far from a girl, or a hobo, or a librarian. 
 
As a matter of fact, it was a boy. Or... man. He had a mop of curly hair that hung on either side of his head, but it also swooped perfectly across his forehead. His bright pink lips were stretched in the most gorgeous smile I had ever laid eyes on and the fact that it was accompanied by a pair of deep dimples and stunning green eyes made it even more angelic.  
 
I croaked out a noise that I didn’t even know a human being could make before he spoke for me. 
 
“I’m really sorry.” His voice was low, raspy and informal. Like we had known each other for years and we were, literally running into each other. “I’m so clumsy, y’know?” He pushed out a laugh. I tried to do the same but the fact that my air ways were being cut off by this god like figure on top of me didn’t make it easy.  
 
“Do you mind... uh-” I seemed to grunt out before his lips went from a grin to a small ‘o’ shape and he leapt off my chest and stuck a hand out to help me up. I shuffled up on my elbows, wincing at my back pain.  
 
“Great.” I huffed as I took his hand and stood up, feeling dizzy at first but then all the spinning seemed to stop. I quickly scanned the staring girls around us. Their faces the same. Wide eyed with their jaws on the floor. 
 
“Oh, well. I- um, I’ll be going now.” I said before swooping down to pick up the cell phone that had dropped off the street. The boy did the same. I tried my hardest to keep my gaze on the brick road below our feet, but I could feel those sea green eyes staring at me. 
 
“Well, it was nice running into you.” He boy grabbed my arm just as I was about to turn and sprint away from the pack of wild women that was about to attack me. “Really nice.” He shot me a wink and I felt a butterfly or two flap its wings wildly in my stomach. I couldn’t help but grin back, but stopped myself in fear that I looked like a complete fool. 
 
The boy turned from me, yelling toward the black van that was driving just passed the circle of girls. The door swung open and he sprinted toward it yelling, “Boys! I found us a ten!”  
 
A few girls stared at me for a moment, but they changed their attention the moving vehicle with he boy that just stampeded me in it. My eyes rolled and I continued on my way back to my flat, like this had been any other morning.  
 
But, as I walked up the steps I pulled out my phone and clicked the center button but what came up was not the background of the Eiffel Tower I had set ages ago, but it was a blurry picture of a blond boy, who looked the least bit sober, giving the camera the bird. I knit my eyebrows together as I slid my thumb to unlock the phone. 
 
My hand slapped to my mouth as I realized what had happened.  
 
This was not my cell phone.