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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2020
Submitted to Contest #311
“Sanya! Girl, why are you staring at me?” Katie asks. She’s been walking back and forth across the apartment, bringing armfuls of laundry from her bedroom to the laundry room— she sorts her clothes, but doesn’t have baskets for all the piles—and every time she crosses the living room, I’ve been…yeah…staring at her.“You’re not upset,” I say, a sort of relief mingled with the proclamation. “What?” Katie drops her armload of laundry on the floor and puts her hands on her hips. She’s theatrical, and I love it about her. “Of course I’m not upset....
Submitted to Contest #212
June 21, 2023The Best or The Rest Marketing121 Brown Drive, Suite 202Atlanta, GA 30303To the desk of The Best or the Rest Marketing,I think you should hire me.This is the 14th such letter I have written in as many weeks, and since I’ve gotten no reply, I’m trying my hand at bluntness.You should hire me because I’m quickly approaching the "Best", and once I get there, it’ll be within your walls, creating your successes and earning you money.Now that you’ve received 14 letters from me, you should also be able to tell that I’m dedicated.I’m sta...
Submitted to Contest #111
Munni woke on the floor of the most pristine bathroom she’d ever been in. Everything was white or silver or glass, and she’d never been here before. If one were to wake up on a bathroom floor and not remember why, the most likely answer was alcohol. But Munni had given up drinking last year. 2018 had been a blessing, and one day she just looked at the wine in her fridge and decided that she didn’t need it anymore. This far into 2019, she hasn’t had a drop of alcohol, and she even found another outlet. In her opinion, it was healthier. But no...
Submitted to Contest #93
* Author’s note: This is a very casually written story. This is also a mostly true story. * Despite dreading the party—any party—I found it was much easier to socialize with strangers when they wore zombie makeup or a bright orange wig or had a plastic ax sticking out of their head. I was exceptionally comfortable that evening because I’d lazily chosen to be a pig in a blanket. I wore pigs’ ears, pink clothes, and I had a fuzzy blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It might as well have been a pajama party for me. All in all, I found myself n...
Submitted to Contest #56
Before we start, I’d like to clarify that this is not an ad campaign for the Moon. But if someone were to approach me and ask me to tell the good people of Earth what it’s like—and offer me a sizable amount of cash—this is definitely what I’d tell them. It’s the perfect utopia-like occurrence that‘s usually followed by something tragic. So far, I haven’t seen that giant asteroid or deathly plague that’s supposed to wipe away this stupid, giddy smile tacked to my face. And hell, I’m not complaining. I went to the moon to get away from my pa...
I don’t know if she remembers, but it stings me every time that I do. It has been six years. Six years of growing my confidence and finding root in my principles. Still, when I think of my role in that night, that simple act of exclusion, my stomach sinks to the floor, and I feel that I’ve lost the right to live. Wondering if I owe her an apology. Wondering who remembers. We’re all adults now, but we are seventeen or eighteen in my mind. Eager to be cool. Eager to do what it takes. We are a memory. We are complicit, to this day. It...
Submitted to Contest #55
“Today’s not a good day,” Mom said guardedly when Meena asked if she could have her friend over to the house. Vidhya, Meena’s older sister, clenched her teeth, knowing that their mother was right. It broke Vidhya’s heart when Meena didn’t catch on right away. “Why?” Meena whined. “I finished my homework!” “I know, honey,” Mom’s voice was tired. “Just...not today, okay?” Vidhya looked at her little sister pointedly, and tried to convey sentences with her eyes. The younger girl remained oblivious, sure that she was being served some injustice....
Submitted to Contest #53
She was set up for failure. Anyone who looked closely could see it, but most people didn’t have their seeing eyes on. (And if they did, she didn’t have her hearing ears on). Without looking too closely, Delilah Reddy was evidently a mouse. She disliked the moniker. She rejected it at her boldest…which, admittedly, was not very often and not very bold. To that end, the moniker stuck to her like gum to your used-to-be favorite left shoe. An eighteen-year-old on the precipice of her college years, Del believed in the myth of a voluntary “f...
Submitted to Contest #49
It’s hot and sticky on the streets of New Orleans. This is nothing new, but normally I would avoid standing in this summer soup for too long. Today is different. Today will be worth every drop of sweat and every proclamation of “Damn, it’s hot!” that will come in the next hours. I can practically taste the victory waiting for me and my friends at the end of this ordeal, and it’s too sweet to flake out on. To endure, we distract ourselves. It’s the kind of the distraction that fizzles away during every lull in conversation or thought about “w...
Submitted to Contest #48
Ansel Walter Sherman, the online piano-lesson phenom, is a hero to many people, but not to me. I, who am closer to him than they are, see through his presentation. They want to be shown a hero. I want to be shown a mentor. We were built on trust, jubilation, companionship, transparency; all of this strengthened by time. Attendees of his master classes feel a kinship with him that is derived from connecting to his celebrity. They forget that celebrity does not endow character. He is a talented pianist—a virtuoso, even—and a meticulous teacher...
Winner of Contest #45 🏆
Our boss got arrested last night. We were surprised to hear this, because Ms. Chang is such a suit. Grumpy even after her morning coffee—fetched by whoever is unluckily in her radius when she asks—Chang is the kind of boss who keeps her job for her capital and not her charisma. She’s always on the straight-and-narrow, so much so that she makes us use a script to sell the Steinways. This begs the question…what could Chang have possibly done to land herself in jail? And also, is her bail money coming out of our paychecks? A group of us show up...
Submitted to Contest #43
My mother is a strong proponent of the easy way out, and that is probably why she fully understood how to help me. Still, both of us have always known our journeys were meant to be intertwined. It became even more apparent when she left my dad but kept me and my younger sister. Well, she left him, but he’s the one that had to leave. He’s three hours away now, and I miss him, but my journey does not. He even left me a magical portal—our secret—through which I could visit him in the city, but I never used it. Not until I was twenty-three years...
Submitted to Contest #41
I’m not a dog person. Shoot me.Dogs might be the model for the phrase, “puppy eyes”, but what can I say? I’m strong-willed. After the one time I got an asthmatic cold from letting my friend’s Golden Retriever lie next to me at a sleepover, I can say with absolute certainty that puppy eyes do not work on me. Allergies over empathy.…I’m a hypocrite. Shoot me.There’s a dog outside my door right now, and I live in the middle of nowhere. Why? Because I’m not a people person. Spending day after day with people did that to me. I’d be exhausted by t...
Submitted to Contest #40
Vivian:Camille and Nihar got divorced yesterday. It wasn’t Vivian’s marriage, but it made her feel terribly alone. The thought kept resurfacing that she was right, but that’s not what this was about. Two of her friends had renounced each other with a vicious stamp on a piece of paper, and now Vivian had to bite her tongue in order to keep her friendship with Camille and with Nihar. And with Avani, and with Luke. With all of them, even though sticking to Camille called to her the most. Hanging onto this friend group has been exhausting for he...
Submitted to Contest #38
Sali’s neighbor is an insomniac. She lounges on her balcony every night—provided the sky is clear and the mosquitoes aren’t nipping—and she waits. Sleep will come, but sometimes it doesn’t, and Sali’s neighbor has the privilege and curse of watching the sun rise. Sali drives in circles all day—a university bus route—and her dreams have descended into analogous, sinister loops, so now Sali is frightened to sleep. She fears she’ll wake up mad, one morning. She lives alone, but you’re never really alone when there’s a human being on the other s...
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