Alexis Araneta

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2023

Stories (47)

47 Stories

4976 karma pts

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“All of the Cherry Red Marks” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #290

My Beautiful Nicole, One thing you should know is this: every single time your soft lips have left those delightful cherry red marks all over my skin, you’ve also marked my heart indelibly. Why yes, ma chouchoute, your kisses have carved their way into the inner recesses of my mind. From the first moment you broke into that moonglow smile as your ‘hello’ wrapped me into its velvet arms, I knew that I will always crave for those bright stains on my face and my clothing. It’s gotten to a point that even when you aren’t around, all th...

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“Earl Grey Everywhere” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #287

Colin, this is how I know I’m totally besotted with you: No matter which place I’m in, from the dizzying buzz of London’s streets to a sun-bathed tropical plain, I smell earl grey everywhere when I think of you. I just can’t deny it. It seems that anytime my mind fixes itself on your honeyed smile or your warm velvet laugh, every single drop of affection in me boils over until it whistles in my ear. Then, like clockwork, the air infuses itself with the sweet hints of bergamot rind and an aromatic haze of lapsang --- pervasive like the i...

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“Through the Peaks” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #286

My Dearest Darling Theodor,If there’s any taint in the snow-white assurance in your mind that I’m coming to you, let this letter quell that fear. Yes, my love, as I’m penning you this little message, I am attempting to stuff my beat-up mauve suitcase with a fraction of the rainbow of clothes that always made you shake your head and elicit that low, velvety chuckle that cocoons me with warmth instantly. I leaf through the soft, watercolour renditions of the dew-kissed, blush roses at the Schloss Mirabell that have, a myriad of times, pai...

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“Home for Christmas ” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #283

Christmas 2024Dearest Victor,I hope you know that even if you’d left me, even if you took to the skies for 17,000 kilometres and 22 hours to spread your wings away from the nest we’ve built, there’s nowhere I’d rather spend Christmas but home with you.This morning, my fingers brushed the supermarket tinsel draped around the banister and yet, there was no tickle for all I could sense was the weight of the atmosphere pummelling my exhausted lungs. My bunny slipper-donning feet dragged across the wood floor to fetch myself just another bowl of ...

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“Worst Job Ever” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #282

Hey, Olly, I’m really sorry to say this. This is the worst job I’ve ever had to do. I know you won’t begrudge me. Then again, there are things you won’t…. you can’t…Oh, I don’t want to think about it.I find it hard, though. How can I not notice you sprawled out on the dove grey bed sheets you’ve inhabited for almost a year now instead of barrelling down the stairs with your favourite fire engine red skis, the ones you’ve christened Pepper? The freshly fallen snow taps away an invitation to hibernal enchantment on your windowpane, but yo...

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“Without Question” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #280

14 December 2024My Sweet Princess Beatrice,Firstly, Daddy must apologise if I can’t answer your question about Moana speaking in Tahitian. You know that even if I’m all grown up, have navigated the sometimes-murky crests and troughs of life for longer than you have, there are little mind-bending queries I can’t respond to. As you will know, the more we shoot up towards a clear, cerulean sky, the more we reach our arms only to snag on even more curiosities, more puzzles, more uncertainties. I hope you could forgive me.All of that’s a long way...

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“Words I've Waited For” by Alexis Araneta

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #278

Just one look at the penmanship, --- a solitary glance at those loopy, almost oblong letters, a furtive regard at the doughy circles dotting the small I’s --- and I feel a million glass butterflies flutter as they’re compacted inside of my stomach, their fragile, delicate wings catching on every tissue and cutting my insides. I’ve waited countless mornings of teardrops splattering into my tea, years of watching the postman like a hawk, for this blush-coloured piece of paper. Now, that it’s in my hands, her name resounds in my head once more,...

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“An Open Letter to a Lifelong Love” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #276

Dear You,Yes, I have always known that you were with me. How could I ever ignore that honey sweetness that coats every single inch of my mouth with a mellow warmth when I speak to you? How could I deny the rush inside me every time you sweep me in the powerful yet refreshing whirlpool of your majesty? Is there even a way to hide how a giggle bubbles up inside of me – minuscule at first, then, slowly encasing me in prismic wonder --- every single time I recall how I sometimes stumble and stutter, all because of your golden presence? No, ...

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“Love's Not an Alien Concept” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #274

CW: SwearingHer profile stated that she loves the colour periwinkle. I had no idea that she was talking about her latex-like skin. She said that she wants held softly, deftly --- as if she were the most delicate of hydrangea petals. I didn’t know it entailed caressing her nine protruding tentacles. She mentioned that she’s originally from far from London. Who knew that she hails from outside the Milky Way, from some dwarf planet called Lila Centauri?As I observed this non-Earthling twist the flounced sleeve of her watermelon maxi dress with ...

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“Afternoons with Martin” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #273

Okay, just so I don’t forget…His name is Doctor Martin Gatsby. He’s tall and a bit lanky, his gazelle-like legs took huge strides when he approached my bed this morning. His slightly loose navy-blue button-down shirt hung over his jeans in that effortless yet posh way, and when he sat down next to me, I was cocooned in the smell of the Woolacombe sea breeze I had to leave behind for university in London two years ago and petrichor. When he greeted me hello and extended a large hand, oh how his peridot eyes sparkled along with that half-moon ...

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“Haunting Me” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #272

Time doesn’t march; it dashes, kicking up the ever-shifting sands of memory onto an open soul’s eye. All you can do is watch as it zooms past you.It’s even truer when you’re a ghost, floating above everything you used to know --- the same halls you used to roam, the very smells that used to tickle you every time you breathe, the people you used to hold tightly by your bosom. And yes, it still stands even if the one living being you miss embracing, the only one that made you come back to Earth on a mission to let her know that you still think...

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“A Thousand First Meetings” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #271

12 October 2024Dear Natasha,Yes, it’s me. Again.Well, I can finally admit it, spill to you the secret I’ve kept buried like a chest of gold for, well, as long as my memory could trace seconds. I should tell you that I keep all the faces I put on to meet you in large, crystal jars of lapis lazuli and lush, brilliant greens, the collection stacked on shelves in an ivory-painted cupboard that almost reaches the ceiling. Each one of them, every perfectly moulded mask of flesh and keratin is labelled in thick crimson card and my chicken scratch p...

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“Sparkle” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #269

28 September 2024Dearest Peter,Just so you know, I have kept the ring you gave me fifteen years ago. Oh, and I…well, I guess by the end of this letter, I can finally let it out, spill out the very thoughts that have been swirling inside me like a tempest for a decade and a half. Trust me, it will be good.Oh yes, Peter. I’m still wearing that delicate, fuchsia plum blossom on a thin 18-karat yellow gold band, and in fact, I’ve never taken it off. Right now, as the sun shoots its arrows of light through the windows of The Bijou Café here in Br...

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“Do Me Write” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #266

Hey, Stephanie! I have a little request. If you’re going to keep changing me, reach those artificial nacho cheese-dusted hands onto the Wheel of My Fortune and spin it to figure out who I’d be this thirty-second time (Yes, I counted.) around, could you at least swap out…you know?Yes, I’m aware, all too much, in fact. You say that you’re a pantser, that you’re a flâneuse who would rather meander the winding alleys of your imagination rather than follow some preset road map. You balk at the idea of anything other than the thorny weeds of a plo...

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“A Ticket to Me” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #265

“Number 76, please proceed to the counter now,” a lilting voice, warm like clay, croons out of the loudspeakers. A tiny smile as thin as a twig forms on my face. With that velvety announcement, adrenaline pumps from the base of my spine upwards, like a tree emerging from the smallest mustard seed. A slip of paper with the number 77 is trembling in my hand like an autumn leaf helplessly shaking in a gust.Perhaps, yes, in queue at the services counter of the only shopping centre in the small town of Lumangkahoy, three hours away fro...

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Author bio

Some corporate worker and unapologetic romantic living in Manila, Philippines resuscitating the writer in her. Embracing writing under her real name little by little. Always has a song in her head. May sometimes be in that anthology you're reading. Read me ramble: https://stellastaretoile.substack.com/ Hear me ramble in a strange accent: https://bluemarblestorytellers.com/podcast/im-yours-alexis-araneta/ See too much of my selfies and music posts: https://linktr.ee/cestmoiallie Come chat with us about writing, books, writing competitions...and dogs and bunnies (sometimes) : https://discord.gg/bxTWQw3HJR

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #278

Words I've Waited For – read story