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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#153: Fighting Talk

Whether you’re hot headed by nature, or the thought of bad blood breaks you out in a rash, arguments are unavoidable. As we age, we all realize that confrontation is often necessary. This week’s prompts explore the world of conflict and resolution — and trying to find the positive in the negative.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a character learning to stand up for themselves.

Character – 48 stories

Write about a character trying to heal an old rift.

Sad – 42 stories

Write a story about two characters who have been fighting for so long, they can’t remember what started it.

Sad – 27 stories

Write a story that includes the line “I can’t believe we’re arguing over this.”

High School – 60 stories

Write about a character who settles disputes for a living (a judge, mediator, school counselor, etc).

Middle School – 36 stories

Stories

“Mourning Announcements” by Jermaine Packer

Submitted to Contest #153

“Go talk to Mr.Kirby” This phrase had become a staple in the halls of Jennings High School over the past 7 years. Anytime a deranged juvenile fashions a fist, “Go talk to Mr. Kirby.” If a perplexed minor questioned life, “go talk to Mr. Kirby.” If an aggrieved adolescent gate burst to release a raindrop, “go talk to Mr. Kirby.” Mr. Kirby was the state-renowned, award-winning, school counselor that JHS was blessed to include on the payroll. Top-ranked schools, universities, and established academia all sought the coveted prize of hav...

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“I Didn't Know” by Bri Yoder

Submitted to Contest #153

We’ve all been there—the toddler stage of emotional health. The getting-back-on-your-feet phase after the world as you knew it was pulled from under you like a rug. Everything feels high stakes. The relationships that felt so close are suddenly over your head and out of reach on a shelf where you never placed them. The exhaustion, the crying, the fear of darkness that you thought you had overcome. How do you recover when someone has pushed you down and kicked you in the gut on the playground called life? How did relationships go fro...

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“My Bully Dates My Sister” by A Cyr

Submitted to Contest #153

I attended an all-white high school in Ephrata, Washington — a small sleepy farming town with little to do. My white mom slept with a Black dude, whom I've yet to meet, and well, here I am. I hadn't seen another person of color. At least not in person. If Menace II Society and 2Pac represented Black culture, I was more than okay with that. I watched MTV when Mom wasn't home, and the dangerous lives they purported to live resonated with the anger I had for being misunderstood. Even though I lived in a small town, I wasn't immune to racism. Fo...

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“Lions that Watch Over Us” by Jeromy Ozaeta

Submitted to Contest #153

Warning: This short story adult language, themes of domestic violence, bullying, physical abuse, suicide and violence. If any of these topics trigger you, please find something else to read. This, or any other story is not worth risking your emotional health. Be kind to yourself always The cold concrete sidewalk with its familiar cracks and chips glided under the boy as he trudged to school, his feet dragging and his mind numb with fear, cold, and the dread of another day at...

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“Be With Me” by Karin Morley

Submitted to Contest #153

There are no positives to be found in fighting. When I was growing up, there was a saying that you “don’t fight for peace, you don’t have sex for virginity”. I fought my Dad and his belief that absolutely no one in the American workforce, at the time or at any time, actually wants to work. No one. I fought my Mom when I found out that it wasn’t just the Catholic Church that thought that women were second-class citizens, it was men, throughout history, who thought women were property and that the unpaid labor of a woman was expected and that ...

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“A Story of Ash and Smoke” by Fredrick Williams

Submitted to Contest #153

Content Warning: minor references to violence, abuse, and mental health A thousand years. A thousand masters. The genie had experienced much over his long, immortal life. He had seen kingdoms rise and fall, and he was perhaps responsible for a few of each. The rarest experience, he found, was a person who saw value in him. Beyond, of course, what he could give to them. The genie’s container, a fancily decorated golden bottle, had found itself in an antique shop gathering du...

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“The letter.” by Yumna Ariff

Submitted to Contest #153

My hands shake as I hold onto the ballpoint pen trying to collect my thoughts and actually do what I set out to do. It’s been weeks since I started ‘writing’ this letter to her. There’s this sick feeling in my gut that only shows itself when I think about that night. The feel of the metal against my skin and her telling me to just do it. Pull the trigger and end it. A single tear snakes down my face and I wipe it away as I shove the memory of that night away and take a deep breath and start writing,Dear Krissy,………My hand hovers over the cris...

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“Rifts And Ridges” by Jo Fredrickson

Submitted to Contest #153

Juniper sat, glancing at her watch every few seconds. She swung her legs in her chair, her green jeans making a swishing sound as they dangled back and forth. She picked at her brown sweater, scratching at a persistent mosquito bite on her dark-skinned arms. Every time the door to the Bistro opened, she leapt to her feet, but every time it wasn't Holly. She sighed, spooning her ever-cooling soup, picking at a softened potato. She pulled out her phone every few moments, checking trying to write Holly a text message, trying to say sorry, tryin...

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“Healing Begins With A Hug” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #153

Healing is the power to heal one's heart from unimaginable pain. Healing is the power to forgive and be forgiven. Healing is the power of love and it all begins with a hug. My family has been in a state of civil war for decades and the problem is no one knows why it all began, but we do know where it all began. This decades old rift began with my grandmother Julie and someone name Cindy. Over the years I asked my mother "Why grandma looks so sad?" My mother didn't answer. So, I went to my grandfather and I pleaded with him to tell me, he...

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“No More Chances” by A.H Gilbert

Submitted to Contest #153

“I don’t want it to end this way.” Even though my thinking was slow, and my head throbbed in pain with every beat of my heart, I would have recognized Firas’ voice anywhere. I tried to turn in his direction, but the pain worsened. So, I just shifted my eyes and saw his narrow silhouette in the doorway of my cell. A blade of sunlight seeped in from a slit of a window behind him, the cell’s only source of fresh air. It wasn’t enough to relieve us from the stench of excrement, sweat and rot. I heard the big man in the corner shift. His heavy...

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“The Steeple and the Light” by J Ezioro

Submitted to Contest #153

When I walked into the house, the table was set and the food was steaming. My father rose, his chair screeching loudly on the tiles. The plates were empty—had he waited for me? I stood stock-still as he hugged me. I had expected screaming, curses in another language. My mother watching, empty-handed on the sidelines. That’s what happened the last time I was here—who could blame me for a pessimistic streak? I set down the wine I had spent too many minutes agonizing over in a grocery store aisle and tried not to think about how gaunt my father...

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“Willow on the Hill” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #153

Horns blared as Linda sped through morning traffic on her mission to get me to the airport. I was surprised at how well she handled the big Range Rover. Thirteen years of marriage and I seldom saw this side of her. My hand hurt from gripping the bottom of my seat but, when we arrived in front of the Delta terminal on time, I gave a sigh of relief. Despite it being a Thursday, the terminal was already packed with people frantically trying to make their flight. “I’m proud of you for doing this,” Linda said. I took a long look outside. She had...

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“Saxum and Alex” by Kilcon Neatoe

Submitted to Contest #153

"I've always loved turtles." He said as he let the animal crawl out of his arms and onto the grass. It settled in a puddle and opened its mouth in response to Alex's treatment. "Does that mean it likes me?" Sax was busy picking rocks from the ground. "I think it's thirsty." Sax showed Alex the stone he found. "This one looks like pyrite, which is odd for a forest...

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“Sister Twister” by Marie White

Submitted to Contest #153

She shouldn’t have answered the call from an unfamiliar number, or, at the very least, should’ve hung up when the caller revealed her identity. Alexina had worn out her welcome five years ago, when she’d used the “skills” she’d practiced throughout childhood—often at Hannah’s expense—to lure the man Hannah loved into her arms. Since then, they’d shared no phone calls, no texts, no emails, no visits, no information whatsoever. She should have resumed the boycott. Instead, the couch beneath her groaning as she leaned forward, she’d blurted, “I...

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“Letters from Rachael” by Kristine Bone

Submitted to Contest #153

Letters From Rachael “Granny, you have a letter!” squealed six-year-old Kylie. “You never get letters!” The wide eyed, youngest great grandchild of Adeline Helm handed a small, white, wrinkled envelope to her great grandmother as she sat in her recliner. Adeline smiled, the wrinkles in her face creasing deeply, as she took the letter from her excited grandchild. Kylie got excited easily and for some reason today she thought this was a major life happening that her great granny was getting mail. Well, Adeline thought to hersel...

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$250

Prize money

213

Contest entries

103

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 08, 2022 EST

Won by L. E. Scott 🏆

Title: Broken

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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