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Write about two old friends meeting for the first time in years.

Posted in Adults on Nov 25, 2022

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✍️ 59 stories

Exact Change Only

Shortlisted for Contest #174 ⭐️

“The hour of the proletariat is upon us brothers and sisters,” announced the silver-haired speaker standing on his box platform. “Never before has the working man had so much weight behind his advance toward equality…”“Wot’d he say?”“He’s explaining Marxist philosophy, Grandad. Saying how the bourgeoisie class has had their day in the sun.”“This is fucking England, Tommo. Nothin but bloody rain all the time. If his bourgeoisie have had their day in the sun, it was probably on a business trip to fuckin’ Corfu.”Contradictory to Reggie Harris’ ...

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Jelly Stick

Submitted to Contest #174

“I can’t move my right arm anymore,” she said, moving her right arm, “Do you see what I mean? It won’t move. Not an inch.” Back when they were living together, Marcy would have corrected her. In their twenties, every moment was an opportunity for explosion. Their friendship was held together by nitro and lit matches. They could fight about anything--a quality most of their rotating boyfriends loved to mention as though it were some great insight. That’s why the boys never lasted and the friendship did. Until it didn’t. “Brett doesn’t w...

37 likes 19 comments 19
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Ten Years

Submitted to Contest #174

You’re raking leaves in your yard, like it’s any old Sunday. Like you’re living any old storyline, one that omits the chapter where you abandon your family, and along with it, mine. The funny thing is, I was going to do this next week. After ten years, I finally asked Roarke where you lived. I knew he knew. But in our world it’s almost as if you never existed, in which case I guess you got what you wanted, huh? So, in ten years I haven’t asked. Imagine how floored I was to learn you live just an hour away. A lifetime together, a decade apa...

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The Waiting Game

Submitted to Contest #174

It’s a couple of minutes after eight when I turn off the high road and drive onto the open ground behind The Lazy Duck. My tyres crunch over granite chippings in the darkness and I draw up alongside a dozen other vehicles. I’m surprised there aren’t more cars out here this evening; the bar is quiet for a Friday night. Often at the weekend, a roar of chattering voices and shrill laughter greets me as I approach. In its heyday, the bar was a popular venue for parties because of its flexible licencing hours. The landlord, Jimmy McGuigan, used t...

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The Ringer

Submitted to Contest #174

The Ringer… She really was one, y’know? The meaning of that word has changed a lot, but nothing else has. Just glad that I can talk to you about this and that you wanna know what the big deal was all about. I’m just glad that someone is going to remember one of my best friends.So, what do you want to know?Everyone who has one of those computers or phones – amazing what the technology around those things can do – can find out the stories: the market crash; the Dust Bowl; gangsters; soup kitchens. That can tell ya a lot, but not everything. Yo...

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Love and Loss, Begotten Before Battle

Submitted to Contest #174

TW: Swearing and mention of violence. Long after the dust of the enemy had blown away the blank eyes of friends and comrades stared into the sky. Sir Danielle Longbow laid them side by side. The dead outnumbered the living. Merciless sun beat down on silent survivors. Shame kept Danielle’s head low as she carried scorched soldiers to lie in rank with the rest. Though they had held their own and beaten back an army of undead, the Nameless Knights had been decimated. Among them was Sir Lachlan Donaldson, a flame haired menace who’d ...

23 likes 16 comments 16
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The past is never dead. It’s not even past

Submitted to Contest #174

***Themes of sexual violence*** There is nothing like a dead body to bring two people together.  “I am not the right person for this- shouldn’t we just call the police?”  I leaned into Julie.  She didn’t give me the time of day in high school, but now 20 years later, we were as thick as thieves after discovering the murder victim. “Greg, you can help us here. We had to cancel the reunion party. If you could figure out who did this, maybe we can hold it again.” Julie pleaded. “And no one really liked Tony, I mean except you-”...

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Insurmountable

Submitted to Contest #174

Cynthia awoke Friday morning, tired. She had spent the night before at the bar, flirting with anyone who would look her way before guzzling wine from a box and stuffing her face with brownies while flipping through old yearbooks. Her pounding head and cotton filled mouth punished her for her sins.Cynthia stumbled from the warm embrace of her bed to the bathroom, threw open the medicine cabinet, and dropped two aspirin tablets in the water glass to her right. She watched it bubble and sizzle with a certain sense of satisfaction. She threw her...

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A Sappy Love Story

Submitted to Contest #174

A fire crackles in the fireplace as the wind howls by the windows, sounding like a lovesick spirit mourning over a broken heart. A large red candle sits by the window; its flame, though burning deep inside the candle after all the years of use, still fights against the drafty window. White curtains hang halfway down the window and sway in ghostly manner from the same unseen force. Candles litter the small cabin, providing just enough light to comfortably see and just soft enough to allow the shadows a stage on the walls to dance. An old gran...

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Strangers with a couple memories

Submitted to Contest #174

As much a stranger as any one person on the subway. Still the memories radiate the familiarity of her eyes. Just like that I felt myself within the comfort of those eyes. Just like that my body forgets how to behave or rather if it should behave. It’s been years now. Even so, the rip in my memories remains unfulfilled.  She looks away as if all those years had never occurred.  She finds a seat by the window. Puts headphones in her ears and looks away.  I walk down the aisle and weakly whisper a ‘hey’ when I pass by her row. Sh...

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Benny

Submitted to Contest #174

I patiently wait beneath the tree where we met for the first time nearly a decade ago. It is a maple tree, tall and majestic. It is the season of autumn, so the foliage is a rich red, like a deep red sunset.  This tree is in a quiet clearing at my favorite park. There is a small pond on the other side of the trail. The trail goes around the lake and then leads further into the woods. Occasionally, I see dog walkers and determined joggers rush past me. But not many. Not enough to ruin the peacefulness of this picturesque park.It’s t...

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Old Friends and Bad Guys

Submitted to Contest #174

Old Friends and Bad Guys A SWAT team was seen stacking up alongside a brick wall outside an unfinished and abandoned warehouse. There were five members, four of whom were veterans, and one was a new guy. There always had to be a new guy, right? He had been a police officer for several years, but finally, after multiple attempts, he was picked up to be on the Special Weapons and Tactics team. This was his first operation. He could feel his heart thumping under his bulletproof vest, his hands tightening around the foregrip and handle of his...

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A Bit of Auld Lang Syne

Submitted to Contest #174

Morning crept slowly through the mists, almost imperceptibly, waves of pinks, yellows, and blues spreading across the horizon, reflecting off the glassy, rippling lake. Sitting in my Adirondack chair, legs bent, with my chin resting on my knees, I waited, watching— listening as the world around me whispered back to life. We had arranged to meet this morning for a reunion, but I came early because I wanted time to think; I did my best thinking at sunrise. We were close friends back in the day— but that was many years ago. I had recentl...

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Love's Cruel Bite

Submitted to Contest #174

“Hey,” I said, “what happened to that awful creaky sound?” “My dad fixed it with some grease.” Replied Jessica, as she rose higher and higher on the swing. “Now that we’re moving out of the house, he wants it to be perfect.” She said with bitterness.            I was lightly swaying like a bug caught in a spiders’ web, heartbroken that my longtime best friend from next door was leaving me.            Jessica, Jess as I got to call he...

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When we were wallflowers

Submitted to Contest #174

mentions of drugsThe beauty of being shrouded in yesterdays is that you are blissfully ignorant of all that you will learn in the todays. Yesterday I had no idea that I was capable of murder, today there is no doubt. My eyelids closed delicately and released the singular drop that had been waiting for a slight movement to shimmy it down my cheek, tracking a path through tan foundation. It started 12 years’ worth of yesterday’s ago, that’s it. That’s all it took. And I can see your face contorting into a look almost like bewilderment but let ...

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