Lara Deppe

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2023

Stories (40)

40 Stories

833 karma pts

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“forgetting.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #229

Derel couldn’t wait for the weekend to be over. Christmas mocks the lonely with its promises of joy and peace on earth. The blinking lights remind her of the flashing ambulance lights the night they came for her mom and never brought her back. She stood in the large family room window and watched the policemen load her father into their car with those same flashing red lights on the top of their cars. Derel balanced the fourth plate on her arm near her shoulder so she could get the entire order out in one trip. The floor of the diner was p...

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“kneading.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #228

2 Tablespoons sugar 2 Cups hot water (near 110 degrees) Bri poured the sugar into the bottom of the bowl. She tested the temperature of the water and poured it over the sugar. She swirled the sugar into the water until she could no longer see the cloudy crystals. Her thoughts were swirling like the warm water in her plastic, orange bowl. She had started this recipe so many times that it no longer required her attention. Her mother showed her how. Each step.   1 ½ Tablespoons active dry yeast She pulled the yeast out of her freezer and m...

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“ among friends.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #227

Steph wrapped her coat tighter around her and pulled her tuke down snuggly over her ears. Snow was beginning to fall but she wasn’t ready to go home even though she really hadn’t dressed for the weather. The park was crowded with people. Families mostly. Which was perfect because she couldn’t bear being alone tonight as the deep darkness descended. Not after what had happened. The little people were covered from head to toe in winter gear and pointing their mitten-covered fingers at the colored lights wrapped snuggly around every tree as th...

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“resigned. ” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #226

“Hey Tammy, are you busy?” Clarke asked as he steps into Tammy’s cubicle. Her internal eyeroll is engaged with this constant question from those above her in the totem pole of office politics. She wishes she could ask them: “don’t you pay me to be busy?” Minimizing the document she had open on the right side of her double monitor, she turns to Clarke. Tammy is famous around the office for what everyone has taken to calling “Tammy’s waterfall”. She places all of her “to-do” paperwork on the left-hand side of her desk. The least important it...

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“reflected.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #225

Paisley screamed Alder’s name but it was drowned out by the whine of the ambulance as it rushed her down the mountainside. The EMT was trying to calm her but she was desperate to know what was happening to her husband. The last time she had seen him conscious was only a reflection behind a thick pane of glass. They should never have come here. She wished they had never taken this job.“No way!” Paisley exclaimed as she pulled the blanket off her legs where she was snuggled on the couch. The couch creaked with age as she stood in the darkening...

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“eve.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #224

“Tell us again, Grandpa!” Hannah cheered as she wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders and snuggled up against Nick’s feet. Nick had fourteen-month-old Charlie in his arms and the aged rocking chair creaked under his weight as he swayed back and forth lulling the toddler to sleep. Charlie’s eyes were drooping but he was fighting sleep with all of his might. “Please, Grandpa.” A small voice whispered. Peter’s cheeks blushed as he sat down next to his sister in front of the rocking chair. “Tell us about when you were Santa....

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“346a” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #223

Like a true nerd, Rue was caught up in her pysch textbook and had lost all track of time. #easily distractible. She cursed as she looked at her watch. And cursed again for good measure. She crammed the volume in her backpack and threw it over her right shoulder where it thumped heavily against her back and sprinted for the library doors. #lateforworkagain. She had found a grassy spot in the sunshine and was soaking up some Vitamin D while exploring the vast expanse of the human brain. Rue had been promised that her general ed classes at...

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“clichering. ” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #222

“You gotta bite the bullet, Bridge, and tell us everything.” Kate ordered as she handed her menu back to the impatient waitress after ordering the chicken carbonara. The three forty-something women were gathered at their favorite table in the corner at their favorite place. Every waitress that worked the evening shift knew them even though they only managed to coordinate their schedules for dinner about six times a year which required a marathon of catching up on families, dating and work war stories. They always ordered the bread pudd...

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“day 1.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #221

You open your eyes bathed in starlight. The moon is the tip of your thumbnail hovering in the net of stars above you. Something feels different. Many things feel different. You don’t feel tied to the ground in the same way you used to. You know you are lying down but it feels more like you are hovering above the earth rather than pressed against it with the weight of your body. You lift your arm to look at it because you were beginning to wonder if it was there. You curl one finger at a time in succession. You look more like fog than skin...

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“invited. ” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #220

“I’ve been waitin’ for you. Watchin’.” She whispered and beckoned me to follow her. I was immobile with unbelief. Dante grabbed me by the right arm and pulled. I reached for her other arm and turned her by the shoulders so I could look into her face. Those eyes. Those mocha brown, swimming in chocolate and honey brown eyes. I was convinced at her graveside that I would never see them again. “I know you are confused but we don’t have much time. I need to get you out of here.” She warned. “I’ll explain later.” I refused to move my feet. “How c...

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“Lose for the Win” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #219

I finished blending the brownie batter, scraped the last of it into the waiting pan and slid the pan into the waiting and heated industrial stove behind me. I set the timer on my phone for 45 minutes. I turned to my fellow chubby rule-breaker Cade, a twenty-four-year-old gamer whose parents offered him a new car to come and said, “do you get the feeling someone is watching us?” I took the opportunity to lick the remaining luscious brown batter sweetness from the spatula when the room suddenly filled with light. My head snapped up looking t...

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“Silence. ” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #218

It all happened in slow motion and was over in a half a breath. Sayna was animatedly telling her mom about her day at Skyline High school as they drove home. She couldn’t wait until they got there to tell her about the tryouts. She was three weeks from graduation and had been accepted at four of the five different colleges she had applied to, but she had chosen USC. Probably. She had been accepted into Gallaudet, but she wanted to be an actor and USC had graduated more alumni who have gone on to win Academy and Emmy awards than any other in...

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“A Petition. ” by Lara Deppe

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #217

In the District Court for Splitsville County, State of Denial Civil Division I.            This suit is brought by Absolutely (Abby) Dunn, Petitioner who is Forty Six (46) years of age and who resides at 1111 Loved Him Once Street, City of Newfound Freedom, State of Annoyance.             Respondent, Dr. E. B. Dunn, is a permanent resident at the Nobu Hotel with his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in a gated parking location. II.  ...

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“Taking Aim” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #216

This story contains content that includes issues of mental health, suicide, and physical violence. You pull your black hoody closer tighter around your face as you turn your bike down your tree-lined street toward home. The streetlights are on and making you a stretched black shadow on the deserted block as you pass through their coned light on the bumpy pavement. The red-brick rambler at the end is yours. The house is dark, and the shades are drawn. No one will be home for another three hours or so. Your mom is staying late tonight to se...

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“Burying Ghosts.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #215

Kanna drew an impossibly deep breath as she drove down the winding drive through the overgrown brush and trees that were scratching their names in her airport rent-a-car. She could already hear the neglected engine of her father’s rotting chevy choking its way down the long-abandoned road in her memory. She exhaled a painful breath as she approached her destination. The driveway before her was cracked and beveled like an abandoned eggshell. She pulled closer to the garage door. The paint that was peeling from aged wood was piling like leaves...

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Author bio

I'm literarily out of shape and ready to get back to the writing gym to begin flexing my creative muscles one again - help me Reedsy!

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #217
A Petition. – read story