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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#157: The Green-Eyed Monster

Reality TV is a big guilty pleasure of mine, and the guiltiest of all those pleasures is probably Love Island. I've spent the last few weeks glued to my screen each night, chatting about it to anybody who's willing to listen — and a good few people who aren't.

One recurring theme of the show is jealousy; contestants break up and make up endlessly, and jealousy often has a hand in the drama that plays out between them. Of course, jealousy isn't always of the romantic variety, and envy over what we don't have can infiltrate our lives in strange and unexpected ways.

This week's prompts tackle the green-eyed monster, and how it can lead us astray — plus a tiny nod to Love Island. I couldn't resist.

This week's prompts

Write about a relationship, either romantic or platonic, that is being affected by jealousy.

Romance – 71 stories

Write about someone deliberately trying to make somebody else envious.

Dark – 25 stories

Write about a character who discovers the grass isn't actually greener on the other side.

Middle School – 44 stories

Write about two characters who both want what the other has, without knowing the feeling is mutual.

Adults – 27 stories

Write about somebody looking for love on a reality TV show.

Romance – 18 stories

Stories

“The Job Search” by Marie White

Submitted to Contest #157

Nannette answered the door with a smile Kathie wanted to slap off her face. She probably had good news, but not for Kathie; it never was. Rather, Nannette would tell her that she’d gotten a raise, that she’d planned another vacation at a posh resort in the Bahamas or Hawaii, that she’d managed to snag one of the now-sold-out new iPhones, or any of the other infinite number of perks of her unearned station. Kathie would have to sit there as she gushed, simmering with a heat all too familiar, and that became more caustic each time it struck. &...

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“Burden of Prey” by Ashley Writes

Submitted to Contest #157

“I think we should head back, Percy!” Jim shouted over the loud thunderstorm around them at his older brother, trying to shield his face in the crook of his elbow, all but his eyes, so that he could still see where his horse was going.“We would’ve been there by now if it weren’t for your dawdling!”“Didn’t stop you from letting me come on the job, did it?”“What job? Can't see shit in these conditions. Gonna stop up at this town ahead here, it’s just up ahead.”He hated bringing his little brother along on jobs, but everyone else he’d worked wi...

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“Eighteenth Street Intimacy” by Dave Bede

Submitted to Contest #157

It was August, and the slow-dance gang was over by then. That probably had something to do with why I finally asked Rachel out, though I'm really not sure. Everyone else at the student house still called us 'the slow-dance gang' with as much sneering as ever. But Rachel had said the slow-dance gang was over. No one else knew just why, but it was her apartment and her CDs, and so we never questioned it, or at least I didn't. I was still hopelessly in love with Arlene and had no desire to watch from the couch as she waltzed about in Leo’s ar...

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“Cute Bike” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #157

“Your bike is so cute!” To Maya, everything was ‘cute.’ Kat thought, ‘It’s like she knows seven words and four of them are ‘cute.’’ “Maya, is there anything that isn’t cute? Bugs are cute. Babies are cute. Puppies are cute. Dimples. Shoes. Band-Aids. Rats. Anything?” Kat knew Maya had mastered the back-handed compliment. Calling something ‘cute’ didn’t mean she valued it. Maya’s use of ‘cute’ was nuanced. Maya assessed Kat’s response. She had deflected from the ‘cute bike’ to the use of ‘cute’ itself. She parried. “What I mean Kat, it’s ...

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“Green Eyes” by Margo Harris

Submitted to Contest #157

Most of my friends are guys. Alex and I have known each other practically since birth. Sam and I met in the third grade. Cory and I became friends in middle school. I met West just this year. When West showed up in my history class at 8:05am on Tuesday, March 23rd at Adams High School, I didn’t notice. I didn’t notice the Beach Boys t-shirt he was wearing, or the cuffed blue jeans, or his bright green eyes, or the girl on his arm. Addison Dargen, the coolest girl in school, and not in the cheerleader/class president kind of way. She not on...

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“Jupiter's Journal” by Saturn Schaan

Submitted to Contest #157

[Warning: this book contains talk of suicide, briefly alcoholism, very brief domestic violence, as well as arguing] It was April 12th the day of the first incident. I was polyamorous, and was in a polycule of 6 people, and we loved each other to death. Arlo Rosendale, my first love. Every day in the beginning we’d text, or call, or see each other in our classes. Though I was fifteen, my parents were overseas, so I lived alone. They sent me money for food and bills, so I wasn’t starving. Slowly, e...

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“The Coveting ” by Mark Baxter

Submitted to Contest #157

The Coveting I am a covetous thing; a ravenous thing. Right now, I am without form or substance, composed purely of need. I hunger for all that you are. I must become you. For creatures of such allure and beauty, you are so very fragile. For all that I am, at present, nothing more than a puff of cold, slightly colder than this winter night, even I remember the roaring vastness from whence I came. I know the universe to be a much darker, much larger place than that which you envision. I embrace the concept that you, for all your warmth, a...

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“Thoughts and Prayers, it's a Travesty Ain't It?” by Amelie R.

Submitted to Contest #157

The marquee of the Georgia Theater in Athens was slightly dimmed in contrast to the glaring sun during the swelling summer of 1962. The weather had been unkind towards Georgia’s inhabitants. Blades of grass stood unmoving in the gradually condensing air, the ends slowly altering their colors until the fields looked tan. No longer was the dust carried by wind after being kicked by unbeknownst children, for when they played, it was almost as if it perched near their mouths before settling to the ground. Moira thought it was imperti...

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“Erectile Delusions ” by D.P. Bryant

Submitted to Contest #157

ERECTILE DELUSIONSBY:D.P. BRYANTMy wife, Stella, would like to invite another man into our bed for a night of pleasure—her pleasure. At first, I thought she was joking. But now I’m not so sure. Reading those Fifty Shades of Grey books must have sparked some twenty-year-old erotic fantasy she never got to fulfill with me. Which I think I can understand. You see, Stella and I were high school sweethearts. It’s always been her and me in and out of the bedroom. We were each other‘s first and last. She was mine, and I was hers. That’s how it...

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“Am I Dreaming?” by Prince Vang

Submitted to Contest #157

Am I dreaming? I’m sitting up in my bed with my constellation-themed blanket wrapped tightly around my body. The sunlight streams in through the cracks of the window blinds, and expose the messiness of my room. There is a small stack of library books, that I need to return, in the corner of my room, right next to a pile of clothes that won’t fit in my overflowing laundry basket. The content of my backpack lays strewn across my desk and last night’s spaghetti is still on the floor next to me. What draws my attention is my large wall mirror r...

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“I Choose You” by Elizabeth Woods

Submitted to Contest #157

“He’s using you.” “What do you care?” He gulped, slightly, if I hadn’t had known him so long I wouldn’t have had picked up on it, but it was a little thing. Like how his eyes were looking anywhere else in the room, but me. How his index finger was drumming against his side repeatedly. How his breath had shallowed. “I care. Of course, I care Hales.” It came out as a hiss. Four years. Four years and he hadn’t sent a care in my direction, four years since it happened. Four years since the day it all went to shit. Four years, Three mont...

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“A Nod” by Scott Dutkus

Submitted to Contest #157

Tara stood, breathing heavily over her ‘friend’, trying to understand why she got so angry and lashed out, channeling so much power in her magic to strike the woman crumbled on the ground. Paige was, Tara guessed, a friend, sort of, but absolutely a colleague and someone Tara thought she could trust. But over the last two months, Tara’s attitude towards Paige changed drastically, and the gnarled fingers emanating green crackling light, crunched eyebrows and a tight scowl were a direct result of that change, and a drastic manifestat...

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“Lackadaisical Monk” by Jim Firth

Submitted to Contest #157

Pandi struggled to fall asleep. The mosquito net his parents had given him when they packed him off to the monastery was riddled with holes. A mosquito landed on his arm; he lifted the net and shooed the insect away. After surviving a month in the monastery, he felt other things calling him. It was time to leave. Pandi left his quarters quietly and walked down the trail to where he had hidden his lay clothes. After changing out of his saffron kasaya robes into jeans and a t-shirt, he began winding his way down the mountain trail. It was...

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“ONE MONSTER DOWN, MANY MORE TO GO” by Brandi Yetzer

Submitted to Contest #157

Ali paces back and forth, tapping small black heals against a solid wood floor, second-guessing this decision. Meanwhile, her hands are doing this bizarre thing where they're freezing cold but sweating all at once."Hi, Ali. Come on in," a silky voice breathes into the room. Ali's shoulder begins to relax, but her skepticism doesn't abate. The woman standing in front of her is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist, recommended by a friend to tame her unrelenting jealousy of everyone around her.So, for her 30th birthday, this is what Ali bought her...

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“Green 18794 - 068” by Erriel Roberson

Submitted to Contest #157

Seven years. We’ve been married seven years. Did I not know before we were married that my then fiancé was an attention whore? He’s always yapping and looking for opportunities to insert himself into conversations. And I am left with the pressure of his overbearing presence and his inevitable foot in the mouth moments. It happens when you talk as much as he does. My name is Carol and I am obviously married. My husband is Devin. The very thing that attracted me to him now grate...

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$250

Prize money

185

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 05, 2022 EST

Won by Zack Powell 🏆

Title: Wish You Were Here

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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