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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#202: A Friend Indeed

We often assume the great loves of our lives will be romantic ones. But how true is that really? Some of our most valuable, enduring, and complex relationships are right in front of us — and they're entirely platonic, in the form of the friends who've stuck with us through thick and thin.

June 8th happened to be Best Friends Day, and so this week’s prompts take a moment to reflect on the importance of friendship, in its many forms — whether your characters are besties, frenemies, or somewhere in between.

This week's prompts

Write a story about lifelong best friends.

Character – 60 stories

Write about two friends who were once inseparable, but now find themselves growing apart — or even friends turned enemies.

Dramatic – 79 stories

Set your story at a wedding reception, where a group of high school friends are meeting for the first time in years.

High School – 16 stories

Write a story about two friends who find themselves competing for something: a job, a prize, a love interest, etc.

Funny – 16 stories

Write about two people striking up an unlikely friendship.

Character – 95 stories

Stories

“Gone” by Ashley Sawh

Submitted to Contest #202

Most people find their true friends once they start high school, but me and Sage’s started years ago. Our parents set us up on a playdate a week after the first day of the first grade. Since then, she’s seen me through it all; cheating boyfriends, breakups, annoying friends, dumb classes and teachers, even the rage when it came to certain things that I couldn’t even control. That had to be one of the best ones yet, but there was one thing that she’s seen me get annoyed by for years. The popular kids. The annoying, suck-up popular kids. The...

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“The Happy Equation” by Gianluca Angelucci

Submitted to Contest #202

-We are glad to welcome… Simon Gaile!- the presenter calls, over the excited cheers of the crowd.Leaping and jumping, a man comes in from the backstage, well dressed and with a gleaming smile.-Tank you Rachel to have me here! And thank you, viewers, for bearing with me!- The woman reciprocates the smile from her comfy armchair, welcoming the man to sit to her right on stage, leaving the left couch empty.-We have here what Forbes defined as, and I quote, “the most successful man in human history”. You won a Nobel price, for what is now k...

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“Best Friends For-Never” by Amber Lang

Submitted to Contest #202

It was the first day of middle school. My Papi and Nana always say that nothing in the middle is good. But I think I’ll handle just fine. That’s because I have my best friend, Shandra. Shandra and I are complete opposites. I’m shy, smart, and quiet, while Shandra has great ideas and is not afraid to share them. But opposites attract, right? Shandra does have great ideas, but the best that she shares with crowds are the ideas that I give to her. I don’t mind, though, it’s like I’m the brain and she’s the mouth. She does the talking for me. An...

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“Tick. Tick. Tick. ” by Renee Elizabeth

Submitted to Contest #202

I sat in my room, watching the clock move. The sound of the hand moving reverberated through my mind.Tick. Tick. TickI squeezed my eyes shut, drowning it out.Tick. Tick. Tick.She would call me soon. I knew she would. We had just talked yesterday. We had just confirmed these plans yesterday. We’d been planning this for months. I checked my phone again.Nothing.Tick. Tick. Tick.I put it down again before picking it up quickly. My lock screen mocked me. It was a picture of us at homecoming, corsages we had bought each other on our wrists. I open...

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“ When he tuned out the last voice” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #202

He brings the steaming cup of coffee to his mouth and stares at Greta across the tiny black sea. Though this is the first time they've been in the same room in ten years, they’ve never been more distant. Not that she shows any indication of this. She’s acting, in a way that he can’t, like everything’s fine. “—And you knew how we had always wanted to adopt—” She alternates telling him stories, some he’s heard, some he hasn’t, with taking bites from her croissant. Each nibble is a performance—she pauses, takes the croissant in ...

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“Latte and Bones” by Bre Brix

Submitted to Contest #202

***Trigger Warnings for physical violence and suicide.*** Four years, two months, and three days ago. “This place has good bones, don’t you think?” You examined the red bricked walls of the coffee shop before walking across the entrance to stop in front of me. With your crop top and cut off shorts, you looked like a poster child for the seventies. All except your hair which you dyed purple. Standing on one leg, you popped your flip flop against your foot. “Buildings don’t have bones.” I didn’t understand why you struck up a conver...

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“From One Leader to Another” by Lauren Kawamoto

Submitted to Contest #202

FROM ONE LEADER TO ANOTHER Alina Stewart stood over her best friend's crumpled body as the clock behind her ticked quietly. Her hands were outstretched in front of her as if trying to grab something in the distance. A drop of blood rolled off of her finger, hitting the floor with a splash. Despite footsteps down the hallway, she didn't flinch, fighting the rising hysterical chuckle bubbling in her throat. She’d done it. The laugh escaped her until she was a mad woman laughing in the dark. TWO MONTHS AGO “You look wrung o...

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“Wishbone” by Lottie Waldeaux

Submitted to Contest #202

“June is too early to start packing for college.” I’d declared this the second week of summer, after the zeal of summertime had worn off and I was ready to start being productive again. And I stood by that mantra the entire summer, until August 12th, when I realized I was down to 13 days before I left for Princeton and had narrowed down a grand total of 0 items that would be making the trip with me. I began by rummaging through my jumbled desk drawer’s lifetime of papers. Spanish final, highlighters, ACT practice workbook, ca...

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“The Great Walk-Out of 01” by Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #202

The ink reservoir dropped. Straight out of the holes in the ceiling tiles and onto my desk, branding my nose on its way. I wouldn’t say I was waiting for the moment, but the seat in which it happened to be dangling above for the past two months, was known to be mine. I’d spent hours absently staring up at the ceiling in History class, just waiting for something to happen. Brendan Marshals and Scotty Parnell laughed. ‘Shut the fuck up,’ I said Mr Andrews spun around from the whiteboard, dragging the marker with him and crossing out ...

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“A wedding and a love affair” by Dao Huy Kien

Submitted to Contest #202

I was invited to five weddings that month. But this wedding was not similar to others. It was my first love’s wedding. When I knew she would get married, I felt nothing. It made me surprise and be a little harassed. She used to be my whole world. We had a lot of memories together. I thought I would be so sad if she marries someone else but the reality was different. Perhaps, time blurred my feelings of her. I received her invitation on Facebook and clicked “Join” indifferently. But when I put my feet on the hotel lobby, I began regretting. I...

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“The Golden Girls” by Miller George

Submitted to Contest #202

That was not the plan. That was the first thought Jenna had as soon as she saw that wedding invitation in her mail pile. She put the invitation at the bottom of the pile and threw it on her dinner table. She didn’t need another reminder of her failure in life. I need a drink. She went to her fridge and grabbed a bottle of Zinfandel that was almost empty. Of course , she thought. She grabbed the bottle anyways and headed towards her couch as her cat, Ginger ran towards it as well as if it was a race. If anyone was...

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“The Misfit Toys' Reunion” by Jæmi Listo

Submitted to Contest #202

Allan Richards sat in the driver’s seat of his parked rundown sedan as he checked the copy of the invitation he had printed out earlier that morning, verifying that "Community First United Church of Christ" was indeed the appointed location. For a long moment, he considered hitting the key in the ignition and coming up with some kind of explanation of why he couldn't make it, but eventually he instead removed it from the console and, with a heavy sigh, swung the door open. He walked toward the front of the venue, catching sight of signs de...

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“The Doll Collector” by Gigi Gibson

Submitted to Contest #202

The Doll Collector Roselyn ambled up the cement steps of the 1890's brick building and lifted the knocker on the thick, wood door. Tap, tap, tap, echoed through the halls of the interior, once a judgement place for the guilty, and their innocent victims, now a grand home. “Hello, you must be Roselyn. I'm Maggie. Come in... come in!” Maggie pushed the door shut with a loud thud. Roselyn looked up at the high ceilings, mouth agape. “I know, it's quite imposing isn't it? And yet, it is very homey once you get a feel for it. You'll see. I'...

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“The Whole Wide Whirl Writer's Guild” by Webb Johnson

Submitted to Contest #202

The Whole Wide Whirl Writer’s Guild The Whole Wide Whirl Writer’s Guild began when Libby Devlin placed an announcement on gather2gether dot com: “Are you like me? Do you dream of becoming an author of praiseworthy literature? If you would like to be part of a small group that meets to discuss our writing with that dream in mind, please sign on. I’m thinking of calling our group The Whole Wide Whirl Writer’s Guild, but once we Gather2Gether we can decide on a better name if you please. Libby did not place any requisites to join. Sh...

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“Alterum Dimidium: A Mirrorline Story” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #202

“Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” The words scrawled upon the transom, raining white dust upon the floor.“Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” Identical words scrawled down the astragal on the left, the white dust collecting at its base. “Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” The process duplicated a third and final time down the astragal to the right.Gilead Coine exhaled a captive breath and regarded the three leavings of chalkdust. He knelt and placed his left index finger into the dust, tracing a trail from left to right to complete the incantation...

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$250

Prize money

266

Contest entries

129

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 16, 2023 EST

Won by Victoria Macleod 🏆

Title: Emma

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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