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Laura Camacho Frias

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2024

Stories (54)

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79 Followers

24 Following

54 Stories

1414 karma pts

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Sara's wedding

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #318

I didn't want to marry him. I loved him, but the thought of spending the rest of my life with that man was making me nauseous. I couldn't vomit, though, or I would mess up the dress, the huge, sparkly, and sexy wedding gown I'd spent a fortune on months before. Months. I felt so good when he proposed. I felt special, although I knew what he'd planned before he popped the little ring box. I had seen that very same little silver container days before, when I picked up his trousers from the floor in the bedroom, but I had kept that discovery t...

4 likes

Bananas, chocolate and wine

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #317

The first time I saw him, I was in the supermarket, reading the label of a can of chopped tomatoes, looking for the latest allergen developed by my friend's son. At this point, I have a file in my phone with more than a hundred items that can give nightmares to any mom in the playground, but not me. We had invited them for dinner, and I was ready to prepare a vegetarian, lactose-free, gluten-free, kid-friendly lasagna, followed by a fruit salad, as long as there were no fruits in the list... so... banana. I had a plan: kid-proof lasagna and ...

10 likes

Lie to me

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #316

My father had spent a month in the hospital, and I hadn't slept in two days when I first saw her. Rosa appeared in my life the day before my father died. Little did I know that the time I spent with her would change my life. I was sitting in a poorly designed armchair, in no way comfortable for anyone who should spend more than five minutes there, and still, that metal and fake cow skin piece of furniture seemed to have become part of me. I guess the physical pain made me cope better with my mental state, which was bad, to put it mildly. I d...

23 likes

The Silver Knot

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #307

Someone held my hand, and suddenly, I felt the prick in my finger. I never liked the way the cold metal found its way inside my skin. I'd fainted, vomited, and cried way too many times in my life during blood tests to know what was about to happen next, and it wasn't pretty. I stumbled and grabbed someone on my way down while the needle kept dangling during my fall. I heard the cries of a couple of people around me, someone yelling, "Grab her!" and then, there was nothing. I was out for a couple of minutes — that's what someone told me later...

22 likes

Nine months later

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #305

Sometimes we have to do what makes us happy... It was my dream job. It had cost me my time, my health, and —let's be honest —a big chunk of my principles, but nothing mattered anymore: I'd made it. I was a mid-to-upper-level manager in a large company, one of those that shape the world and make your curriculum something to talk about, even with strangers who have no idea what you talk about at those fancy dinners people invite you to from time to time. I was a medium shot on my way to becoming a big deal. I had survived the Corporate climb d...

11 likes

Trouble

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #303

My heart stopped beating at 11:35 on a Saturday morning. I heard someone saying I had waited for my daughter to arrive before giving my last breath, but the truth is that everything has been planned before, and I'm a man who likes his plans. That was the time expected, and that's when it happened. While a group of people discussed the music, candles and company I should have around in my last moments, the machine stopped beeping; I opened my eyes, choked, grabbed the first person who dared to hug me and died in the most gruesome and traumati...

36 likes

Sunday brunch

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #297

The end of the year was never easy at work. Not only did we have to meet the targetted results and face personal appraisals, but we also had to play it cool and smile whenever things did not go as expected, which was exhausting. You never know which part of your day and looks can be used as ammunition against you when competing for a promotion, so the only option is to prevent the enemy from gearing up against you. In the corporate world, no excuses are allowed on the path of survival and success. Those TV guys who travel to a desert island ...

20 likes

Tonight we drink

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #295

We were in the bar where my life had changed one year before. It was an odd place to celebrate a funeral, and still, convenient. It was dark, and close to a good alcohol supply. People would know what to do once the service was finished, and the poor lighting would be a perfect prelude for the dark night they would enter hours later.When we entered the place, the little silver urn on the counter reflected the light from the street as if someone were blinking at us. It did not suit him, the silver. I would have chosen a mate black, something ...

15 likes

Human Resources

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #294

[Follow up to Submission to Contest #193: The midnight ride] People are paid to do their job, no matter how much they say they like it. If the salary factor were removed, no one would stay at their desk, no matter how much they like what they do, their colleagues, or the work environment. That’s a fact; if anyone says otherwise, they lie. Still, to me, at that point, salary was the least of my concerns. Since I had had my promotion, I had spent a fair amount of time trying to understand what I was supposed to do about my job and how I was su...

28 likes

The midnight ride

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #293

It was a dark night, one of those without any stars to look at and a dark moon. Not even the Universe was interested in what was about to happen. There was no spotlight over me nor a guiding light to help me escape. As I ran to my car, one of my heels broke, and I twisted my ankle. I took out the shoes and limped to the door while looking for the keys in my purse. Damn big fancy bags. This whole scenario would have been much easier with jeans and sneakers, but that was not something I could change, and dreaming about better times would not h...

33 likes

Three

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #290

[You can decide how to read this story: Read the paragraphs up--> down, or scroll down and read your way up. Enjoy]--------------- Three o'clock. The bells chimed with uncontained joy, the frogs in the garden's pond croaked, and the priest said out loud, "You can kiss the bride." The guests clapped and cheered for them. The noise was unbearable, and the echoes in the building sounded like the roar of a hundred lions. Elias cupped his spouse's face with his hands and approached his lips to hers, but when they touched, she did not move. She...

30 likes

Happy Never After

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #289

[Ernesto] I reached the exit door, happy that no one had punched or yelled at me, but as happens to the overconfident, my happiness did not last long. Someone came after me and grabbed my shoulder, an older man I recognized as the groom's father. I turned my head, saw his fist, and heard:"You stupid son of…"He had no time to say anything else. Before his fist could even touch my face, I saw someone else come between us, someone who threw a punch at him: the bride's mother. "You knew it!" she cried. She looked at me and gently said, "Thank yo...

34 likes

Washed away

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #288

"Get out now! I'm telling you! Either you open that damned door, or I will knock it down!"He was completely soaked. The rain had not stopped for days, and no one was on the streets but him, competing with the deafening noise of the droplets hitting the roofs and windows. His shouting and screaming, though, was nothing like the water's roar. People had been complaining for months about the lack of rain and the cuts in the water supply, but after a whole week of nothing but water around us, no one spoke about that anymore. The river level had ...

42 likes

You can't always have what you want

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #287

After weeks of messages, everyone was in town. The last time I had shared coffee with my girlfriends had been six months before, during the Christmas holiday. That rainy afternoon, while they told me horror stories about children's presents and family dinners, I smiled inside, grateful for my simpler life, which did not require as much work or stress as theirs seemed to. I could not stop wondering what the point of such a daily rush and continuous pressure was when it was clear to me that it did not make them as happy as they pretended to be...

18 likes

That one day

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #285

I had to pee. I woke up in the middle of the night and walked the corridor to the bathroom. I was exhausted. I had not slept properly for weeks, and to make it worse, I felt like an old lady, having to visit the bathroom at least twice every night. With my eyes closed, I sat on the toilet and started to think about everything I was supposed to do the next day, or in three hours, to be more specific. Things at work had been complicated at best. We were in the middle of a department restructuring, and I was supposed to make my case to keep all...

7 likes