Mallory has a mission, a purpose, an end in sight. She doesn't need fun or distractions. She's driven and focused to the point of inattention to any and all things going on around her. And that's how it happens. One moment she's checking her mail before heading to her last class of the day, and the next she's staring at the remains of her emotional support coffee all over her shirt, the floor, and the handsome neighbor she's never even noticed until today. His presence in her life is a nuisance and the absolute last thing she would have wanted, but maybe, just maybe, he might be something she needed. __________ Open Novella Contest (ONC2026), prompt 19: when you accidentally spill coffee on someone, the moment that should've ruined your day becomes the beginning of a surprising and life changing friendship. I told myself I wasn't going to do it, I wasn't going to attempt two novellas at once when I have so many other things started. But clearly the muse is strong and the will is weak.

Nineteen-year-old Lenora Cullen is following a strict plan. Attend classes during the day and work part-time to save enough for moving out of her uncle's house. Lately, she has begun night shifts at Ocean Brew, a secluded coastal coffee shop, for better pay. Customers come and go except for one. Brian Dormer, the quiet boy who sits near the ocean view window with his laptop and papers. It's hard not to notice a regular who orders the same thing and leaves at closing hours. These two interacted as a normal barista and customer until one fateful night. Lenora did not expect her life to take a drastic turn when she accidentally spilled coffee on him. That one unpredictable moment is about to change the lives of these two strangers, forming a life-changing friendship. - #ONC2026 PROMPT 19: When you accidentally spill coffee on someone, the moment that should've ruined your day becomes the beginning of a surprising and life-changing friendship.

If someone had told her she would meet the teenage cut-out version of the famous Australian band, Jane would have thought they'd gone crazy. But, apparently, that's exactly what happened. Now, locked in a garage with... four (?) teenage boys who have a dream called '5 Seconds of Summer' and the irreversible idea that SHE - the tan, depressed girl - is the solution to their problems, Jane is absolutely sure she's lost her mind. What in the Wattpad? -ˋˏ✄ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ₊⊹Official entry for the Open Novella Contest 2026. ₊⊹Prompts used: 𖦹Prompt #14 (Main): You time-travel back to 2012, only to be cornered by a wildly famous boy band who insists you're "the key to saving their future" and they're determined to take you with them. 𖦹Prompt #25: You live with four other housemates, but one of them is secretly an alien trying to learn how to act human. ₊⊹Start: 13.03.26 ₊⊹End: --.--.--

Moving across the country to the apartment directly across the hall from your high school best friend is either a stroke of genius or a statistical disaster. For Elizabeth Stokes and Jackson Tyler, who have spent a decade perfecting the art of "just friends," the proximity should be easy, familiar, and completely safe. But as their old rhythms collide with the adults they've become, the logic they've used to protect their friendship starts to fail, proving that love is the only variable you can't account for.