Literary Fiction Network Contest Entries

Contest 1: The Writer

Fight it. Fight it. Fight it! For the third time of that night, Jetta's head snapped up, her neck cracking with it. With a hiss, she gripped the tendons inflamed from the way her head had hung, lashes staring at her pizza print, pajama covered crotch. After massaging the soreness to a manageable throbbing sensation Icy Hot could alleviate, her eyes dragged over to her leather banded Apple Watch.

With robotic motion, she tapped the screen with a twinge of unease. Did she really want to know the time? No. 'Well, too bad,' her mind snickered when her eyes caught the ticking numbers. Jetta groaned, the sound grumbling from the back of her paste dry throat. It was 9-freakin-pm.

Wincing, Jetta's heart dropped to the linoleum tiles, and her eyebrows v'ed down to the bridge of her nose. She promised her readers an update in Unzipped, her newest Wattpad book. Inwardly, she spat a profanity, cursing herself for committing the very thing she detested - not updating to a promised schedule. Scrubbing her naked face, Jetta muttered a few apologies to her resting Mac screensaver and shot daggers at the Pinkie Pie coffee mug. Grunting, she clenched her fist. "Dammit Pinkie Pie, way to help a girl out."

With a huff, Jetta rolled her eyes and heaved herself off the plush couch. Toddling to the sink with the mug dangling by her thigh, she poured the cold cup of hazelnut joe down the drain. Once she scrubbed away the remaining stains, Jetta trudged back to her dormant laptop.

A yawn captured her mouth before she could stifle it. Damn her treacherous lips. Sighing, Jetta launched Wattpad and navigated through her drafts. With a few clicks, a gently edited copy of chapter five popped up.

Her yawns started frequenting her, interrupting Jetta from her much-needed revision task. A familiar chilliness associated with slumber sang her name, Jetta, Jetta, Jetta. The siren's syrupy-sweet symphony swam into her ears, the melody entrancing to her weary bones. Shivering, prickles cascaded to both ends of her arms, the goose bumps lacing her skin like a long sleeved shirt. When her vision fuzzed at the edges, she patted her cheek in a vain attempt to keep up the good fight.

'You should be writing,' danced in her conscience, its mantra battling with Sandman's pixie dust. Her eyes wavered with clarity but she managed to type a line through it. Hazy vision warped the letters, morphing the words into dyslexic sentences. But, she didn't care. Not now, maybe later. That was future Jetta's issue.

Exhaustion hounded her like the pack of preschoolers she taught five days a week. However, the lure from the temptress far exceeded the influence any of her four-year-olds could ever dream of reaching. Yes, it was a hell of a force to reckon with. The all-consuming desire to drift away crept past her slacken guards and nested in her head, infiltrating her cognizance and corrupting her energy supply.

How she wanted to give in, surrender, let herself down. However, her fans had been so loyal to her stories. How could she break her pact to the very people that inspired her to learn and grow as a writer? Bottom line, Jetta couldn't. The lot of them had been waiting, eager to hear from their favorite coder, Zoey, to make a move on the alarmingly handsome billionaire.

Her brain didn't register the slap she delivered to her cheeks until the redness there stung. With new found adrenaline, Jetta snapped her eyes open and pecked at the keyboard like a mad scientist enlightened with an idea. "Get 'er done!" She practiced the words, rehearsing them to memory until her fingertips threatened to fall off.

Done! Pumping her fist into the hair, Jetta yelped with joy. Finally free to yawn! With swift movements, she clicked 'Publish', waited for the loading wheel to complete its cycle, and then slammed down the screen. Within record time, Jetta fluffed the throw blanket over her and flipped the light switch. She never made it to the third sheep.

Word Count: 677

A/N: Dedicating this to my friend JettaFrame and her hilarious, new Chicklit, Unzipped. Be sure to check it out in the external links. She also has other pretty rad romance/chicklit books, so you should definitely read them!