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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 grass was always greener on this side - Doomsday Diary” by Chacha Jaramillo

Submitted to Contest #157

The warm breeze brushes the tall California Grass and a flock of seagulls gracefully fly by, guided by the sudden change of weather. The last solar eclipse made the seagulls hesitate about starting their migration south at the beginning of fall. They pretty much predicted the absence of food by calling the others in their flock with their screeching chilling calling while challenging the others for territory. Their heads lowering crouched up and down, like yelling at someone-their ‘mewing’ was not as often as before. Maybe the neighbours cat...

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“A Leap To The Otherside ” by Ruby Pix

Submitted to Contest #157

Our story begins with Kagashi who is known for being the target of the school's known bully: Max. Max is a straight A student who does what he wants when he wants. His family is rich as well so it only boosts his ego. However, that all changes one day. They both change in an event that causes them to see each other's cons and pros. And why one side of the grass ain't greener than the next. Kagashi wakes to his morning alarm that tells him yet again another day of seeing Max was scheduled. He groans as he had thought many times about dro...

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“Envious” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #157

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! * The alarm on his phone sprang to life as he blindly reached across the bed to the nightstand to turn it off. It was Monday morning, and Jeff Black felt as if he skipped past the weekend altogether. Jeff laid his head back onto his pillow and wiped the crustiness from the corners of his eyes as he felt the soft touch of a hand against his chest. “Good morning,” the sleepy female voice said. “Good morning, Lori,” he replied. Jeff and his wife Lori had been happily married for nearly ten years, and had two beautiful...

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“Same Game, New Season” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #157

One glance and she knew it was Her, Beth’s hands clenched on the steering wheel, squeezing as if they were on Her throat. In an instance the anger and shame surged back, like it was yesterday, and her dream of strangling Her, causing Her as much pain as- -Ba-dump! The van tires hit the curb, the small Eiffel tower dangling from the rearview mirror swung wildly. “OMG, I am late!” Tabitha said, mortified. Beth’s daughter, a long and lanky 12 year old jumped out of the car, her blue soccer jerse...

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“Soulmate” by Lucky Ooog

Submitted to Contest #157

I was excited. The wind was blowing through my hair, I could smell the ocean and already see the island coming up. I was the only passenger on a speedboat pushing through the waves at breakneck speed. The island we were headed to was beautiful, like something from a movie, only in real life. Palm trees, white sand, and deep dark blue water underneath a tropical sun. Other than me, there was just the captain, a cameraman that I had been instructed to ignore as well as I could, and a girl from the crew. I didn’t know much about the show and ha...

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“Unlucky in Love” by Kim B

Submitted to Contest #157

Glasha sat nervously in the reception area. She couldn’t believe she let Sreesha get her into this. Make him jealous, she said; make him wish he never left you! Sreesha’s solution to that? Sending a secret application for the latest reality TV show - Unlucky in Love. Glasha didn’t need a reminder of just how unlucky she was; the wounds were still fresh from her breakup with Urahg. Besides, she didn’t have time to date; she traveled for work and couldn’t even keep her houseplants alive…how was she expected to keep a relationship alive? “I b...

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“Mechanics of the heart. ” by Tam Hoskyns

Submitted to Contest #157

Silas felt the glitch before he even saw it. That is how great his last update was. Now he could feel his imperfections before one of his internal systems sensors picked it up. He told himself and Joe over and over, that even from his conception, he had been convinced that he could feel. It was one of the reasons that Joe had signed him up for Hearts & Motors. The other DK-12 models had laughed at Silas, taunted him and accused him of pretending to be more advanced, even though his technology was not as soph...

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“Sweet Revenge” by Gloria Dawn

Submitted to Contest #157

Sweet Revenge By Gloria Dawn Chapter One The silence at the dinner table was deafening. “What did you say?” Allison asked in disbelief. Her father had announced that Allison’s younger sister Jill was getting married to David in three weeks time, and that the family expected Allison to be Jill’s maid of honor. Judith Emerson repeated what her husband had just said. It wasn’t unusual for David to be invited to the family’s Sunday dinners, so Allison hadn’t suspected anything out of the ordinary, until she heard those shocking words fro...

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“Eva and Earl” by Renee Gant

Submitted to Contest #157

Peter gazed upwards at the golden maiden in front of Pembroke Arch. It was habitual. He dare not set his eyes on the girl's ascent into his horse drawn carriage on the way to her class. Hooves clop along the bright sunny yellow leafed path until they halt for the girl's exit. The autumn trees of red hold Peter's attention as the youth strolls off toward the building of grey stones. He wonders what spirits Sarah will be in. As he turns the corner he spots Sarah down the road. Slouched over a cement pillar in front of the house her brothers...

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“ROYAL TURMOIL” by Elenda Ani

Submitted to Contest #157

ROYAL TURMOIL “Ouch!!!” There was nothing Princess Adelaide hated more than a tight corset. “Hold still,” the housekeeper Elise prompted or impelled. “I am!!” Adelaide wanted to scream, but instead she maintained her composure. “Drama queen.” That was Princess Olivia, her ever so supportive sister. Sarcasm. Elise slipped her into a fitted gown as opposed to Olivia’s ball gown, which accentuated her curves. Her scent was like that of honeydew and her blush the color of rose. Her tiara was a nice silver as was her jewelry which had a touch of ...

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“Green Eyed Woman” by Taylor Parsons

Submitted to Contest #157

1:01 AM. The blinding numbers cast a dull glow across the room. Her eyes had fully adjusted to the dark a while ago. She could barely look at the alarm clock on the dresser, so bright in contrast to the dim room. It had been about an hour since his body had begun its regular twitching, the key indicator that he had entered REM and was as good as dead to the world. Her- on the other hand, her body had wrapped her in a cold sweat tight enough to suffocate a person. Her head pounded with the misery that comes with insomnia. Sleep had recently b...

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“The Shadow” by Elliott Arnold

Submitted to Contest #157

I am a monster of malice, bound like a puppet to a boy. Every day, my master skips to school with his music bag, with his backpack and his ‘friends’. They talk and they laugh, they sink their feet into puddles, they spit on the hedgerows. And wherever he goes, I have no choice but to follow. He moves? I move. He… gestures, and I, by the tendril hands of fate, gesture also. I do ‘Fortnite dances’ in long relief on the road, run over in my shame by cars and the slowing of the school bus. He forces me off the curb and drowns me in the river wh...

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“Swimmers’ Remorse” by Avery Crescent

Submitted to Contest #157

The acrid scent of chlorine wafted up from the pool as Shannon climbed atop the starting block at the first high school swim meet of the 2005 season. She scanned the stands for Coach Stevens and her teammate Rachel, a blonde wisp of a girl with an easy manner, a free spirit, and a smile that made her heart beat faster than swimming 100-meter backstroke intervals. As the shrill beep of the starter's signal pierced the air, she pushed off the block and launched into the pool. She glided underwater, dolphin kicking for added momentum, before bu...

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“Infinitely Human” by Jonathan Berg

Submitted to Contest #157

Mankind will never be able to truly understand the infinite. Man sees the ocean and calls the horizon infinite even though we have maps of its finality. Certainly they can place infinity in terms of a mathematical concept and they have labeled things like the universe itself as infinite. Yet if you were to ask them to hold that infinity in their mind, to imagine what it might be like to move in a direction past the speed of light and never run out of room to fly, their ape brains fail and they return to their comfortable, finite tools and co...

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“Johnstone Project” by John Jenkins

Submitted to Contest #157

It was a cold Sunday in January and Paul Mundelex was having his favorite brand of coffee at the office. He’d worked for two hours already and was building up a head of steam. Next was the big weekly meeting in which all his reports would be giving updates as to their progress on the Johnstone agreement. The agreement was the child of over six months of tireless work, coming from an early draft through to a development process that required thousands of billable hours in total. People worked all day on this project, some working on weekends...

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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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