Start your story with a couple sharing a cigarette in a parking lot.

Posted in Adults on Oct 31, 2022

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✍️ 66 stories

“Post-lunch Ritual” by Zi Poromon

Submitted to Contest #158

Wake up, eat, sleep, and repeat. Pick up the phone, greet customer, listen to complaint after complaint after complaint, fix problem, end call, and repeat. Do it over and over again, five days a week. Get paid a disappointing salary that is barely enough to buy gas for your cheap car, and keep butter and bread in the creaky fridge. Repeat until you retire at 65, or until you drop dead onto the cold, hard Earth. No time for a minute to breathe in oxygen peacefully, enjoy socialization with close friends and family --- not customers. Hung...

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“Death to the Fire” by TMK M

Submitted to Contest #158

It was a hot. She didn’t understand why he wanted to meet her in a parking lot. As always, she obliged and sighed as she walked over to him. He met her with a tight embrace and then invited her to share a cigarette. She agreed. He smiled and struck his match. She was mesmerized for a moment by the fire but quickly fixated her eyes on him. She was anxious waiting for it to be her turn. She watched has he exhaled the smoke pulled from their cigarette. As the smoke enveloped her face, she turned her head away and looked down at the pavement. He...

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“On the Inhale” by Grae Michael

Submitted to Contest #158

“I only smoke when I’m drunk,” I said, passing back the cigarette. “You’re drunk?” She grinned up at me through the electric blue eyeliner she’d bought just for tonight. The angular wing at the corner of her left eye was slightly longer than the right. Mascara was beginning to smudge beneath her tear line. I shrugged. “Aren’t you?” “Yeah.” She snorted, hiccupped, and rested her arms on my shoulders. I was reasonably conscious of the lit cigarette hanging near my ear. “But you’re not acting drunk.” I didn’t know what to say t...

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“Dance of Sparks” by Elizabeth Castle

Submitted to Contest #158

5:30 am on a cool fall morning. A gust of wind swirls around two figures in the darkness. A trail of smoke is blown away as the tiny end butt of a cigarette light burns weakly. A woman's fingers shake from the cold as she passes off the last of the butt. The young man reaches for it but it drops to the floor, he looks down at it and stomps out the last few ashes with his boot. She says, “I’m sorry about that” with a look of worry on her face that quickly transforms into a single tear falling down her rosy cheeks. He stepped closer to her, wh...

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“A Brief Interlude at a Party” by Rebecca Terenzoni

Submitted to Contest #158

The night air was stifling. The month of August had never seen such an oppressive heat wave. The humidity pressed up against the windows, the brick and paneled buildings, and saturated the air until everyone was panting and sweating and begrudgingly patting down their poufy and frizzed hair. It clung to every breath, every particle of clothing, and made everyone miserable and short tempered. Despite the absence of the sun, the heat had become more unbearable in the blanket of the night. Completely a contradictory to basic laws of nature. Tho...

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“The Last Cigarette” by Brandi Yetzer

Submitted to Contest #158

“Got any cigarettes left?” Zoe rounds the corner, her fire red curls whipping behind her as she falls to the concrete floor beside me. Before I can answer, her black nails are wrapped around the cigarette in my mouth, and pulling it to her own.After a deep drag and an exhale of relief, she’s returning the cigarette to its former position. I suck in before asking a question I don’t want the answer to, “Are they freaking out in there?”She laughs, “Of course.”“I just couldn’t think of anything real to say,” I hesitate, waiting for the right wor...

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“Finding a Fun Girlfriend” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #158

Billy zipped up his black leather jacket and took out his gray beanie from his pocket and pulled it over his ears. He looked at Allison from behind as she zipped up her puffy light pink jacket. He put his hands on either side of her arms and rubbed them up and down hoping the friction would cause some heat for her. He was only an inch or two shorter than him but he liked her height. She fit him just right. Allison dug into her jacket pocket and held the gold packet of Marlboro lights and a neon green lighter o...

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“Getting Better” by Gary Wells

Submitted to Contest #158

Triggers: mention of mental health, drug abuse, child abuse Jean reached into her clutch purse and pulled out a box of Pall Mall cigarettes. Aside from the occasional alcoholic drink, cigarettes were the only “bad” thing that she allowed herself to have since she completed a stint in rehab. From the front pocket of her purse, she retrieved her favorite lighter – a little metal horse that shot a flame from the end where its tail should be. After lighting up and taking a drag, she offered a smoke to her estranged husband Doug. Unlike Jean,...

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“The Kensington Killer, Episode 1” by Dale Bird

Submitted to Contest #158

The corn loomed tall and emerald green over Brett’s beat up Ford F-150 as the smoke of two cigarettes twirled toward nothing. Jolene started smoking to impress him but began to like the feeling it gave her and how it always made her calm. Or maybe it was Brett that made her calm, but she didn’t know because she only smoked around him.“Are we gonna stay together, Brett?” Brett knew the question would come like the smell of the summer air before rain. They spent the day driving down the country roads neither of them would see much of soon...

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“Not today, maybe tomorrow?” by Kit Dan

Submitted to Contest #158

The woman shivered in the oversized trench coat, hiding her ruddy-tinged hands in the deep pockets. Standing to her left was a man, not one she had known for a very long time. Actually, she couldn't recall if they had ever met. "Do you want to hit this?" The man brought a cigarette to her cracked lips, watching the smoke plume around her sunken, ghost-like face. "It will make all those problems go away."Go away. She yearned to say those words, but they stopped at the edge of her tongue. "Yes," she agreed, accepting the smoke. ...

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“The End of My Addiction ” by Fire Bird

Submitted to Contest #158

I turned off my car engine as I spotted him driving towards me. I took one last glance in the rearview mirror to make sure I looked semi decent and that my bangs still sat neatly on my forehead. I ran my fingers through the rest of my nappy hair and wished I had brushed it before I left the house. I whispered to myself ‘you got this’ as I reached for the door handle. I was wearing a fitted tee and a pair of his old sweatpants. As silly as it sounds, Tanner always said I looked so cute in his sweats. Maybe somewhere deep down I tried to win h...

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“Just A Dorky Nobody” by Kennadie Campbell

Submitted to Contest #158

Be cool. Don’t be a baby. Everyone does it, right? It’s fine. He finally noticed you exist, and this is how you’ll impress him. Gracie stood rigidly in the back of the abandoned, overgrown KFC parking lot. As the wind whipped her hair around wildly, she attempted to soothe her racing mind by wringing her hands and biting at the dead skin on her lip. She couldn’t help but look suspicious as she anxiously peered in all directions, keeping watch for any passersby. Her stomach twisted into a knot as she nervously twiddled her thumbs, watching he...

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“Ashen Inheritance ” by Christine Balke

Submitted to Contest #158

Frail hands, stained by nicotine and time, reach out shakily for the third cigarette in the space of an hour. The man of my dreams is reliably consistent when it comes to his smoking habits. A young man of 82 years and everything I could and have ever wanted in a husband. “Please,” he croaks as I hold the cigarette just out of his reach. I sigh before relenting, “but darling, you really know you shouldn’t. The Doctor…” “Pah, the doctor knows nothing.” He sucks in a deep lungful of smoke and holds it in his chest, savouring the...

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“Fresher Air” by Gillian McGregor

Submitted to Contest #158

I stare at the broken-up dark black spot on the parking lot under my feet. Pavement that's been abused and fixed by vehicles so often that it’s become a patchwork parking lot. Like the inconsistency in the lot - a strange array of people whisper, and gossip in the building lit up behind me. I was able to excuse myself after 15 minutes too long of “oh you’re so so strong”s and “you haven’t changed a bit”s. The air out here in this forever musty town was fresher than the breaths of disappointments and sighs that filled the inside behind me.&nb...

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“We don't know what love is” by Chiara Grace

Submitted to Contest #158

Greg was never a romantic type of person, so when we first started dating our spot was Walmart’s parking lot. Our dates consisted of the two of us sitting in the trunk of his Jeep, sharing cigarettes and a very unhealthy just-bought meal. And while we consumed that cig, he would try to communicate to me how dangerous for our health was smoking. And I would laugh, a bit because he was a hypocrite and a bit because his sign language was a disaster. He would mess up the hand movement and end up saying total disconnected words. I would laugh, ye...

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Start your story with a couple sharing a cigarette in a parking lot.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 66 stories

“Post-lunch Ritual” by Zi Poromon

“Death to the Fire” by TMK M

“On the Inhale” by Grae Michael

“Dance of Sparks” by Elizabeth Castle

“A Brief Interlude at a Party” by Rebecca Terenzoni

“The Last Cigarette” by Brandi Yetzer

“Finding a Fun Girlfriend” by Madeline Honig

“Getting Better” by Gary Wells

“The Kensington Killer, Episode 1” by Dale Bird

“Not today, maybe tomorrow?” by Kit Dan

“The End of My Addiction ” by Fire Bird

“Just A Dorky Nobody” by Kennadie Campbell

“Ashen Inheritance ” by Christine Balke

“Fresher Air” by Gillian McGregor

“We don't know what love is” by Chiara Grace

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character with questionable morals.

Write a story where the law plays an important role.

Write a story about a character who is trying to become a better person.

Write a story that includes someone saying, “It’s not fair.”

Contest #158

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

245

Contest entries

103

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: