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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

“Ode to Arlene” by Victoria MacDonald

Submitted to Contest #202

I met Arlene in 1963 on the first day of school. She was in my ninth-grade class. At first, I hated her. On the third day of the first week, we were herded into the dressing room adjacent to the pool and told to change into our bathing suits. As I undressed, I struggled to conceal my flat chest with a towel. Unlike the other girls, I didn’t wear a bra. Arlene snickered at my contortions. At home, my older brother loved taunting me in front of his friends. “Flat as a board and never been nailed!” A bossy school nurse ordered us to li...

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“Against All Odds” by Aijah Foster

Submitted to Contest #202

It was a cool summer night and throughout the park, all that could be heard was laughter as the two young’s girls sat in the sand pit building sandcastles. They had been there all day swinging on the monkey bars and playing tag eventually they knew they’d have to go home but they didn’t want their fun to end. As they were sitting currently building a very tall princess castle the little girl with long unruly brown hair and pink overalls tumbled over holding her stomach as if she were in deep pain only it was because she had accidentally blow...

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“Table Six” by Erin Barker

Submitted to Contest #202

The champagne glittered in the light from the chandelier. Ellie gripped the microphone and glanced over at Nick. He winked at her and reached for the hand of his new bride next to him. Ellie glowered at him. She was not supposed to be giving this speech. This was for the best man, but at the last minute, she’d been handed a mic and told it was her turn. She cleared her throat and looked out at the room full of faces. There was Nick’s mom, smiling at her. There was Bri’s dad, looking proudly at his daughter in white. She knew everyone in the ...

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“A Love Affair In Reality” by Vincent Powers

Submitted to Contest #202

One day while walking home from work, Peter Campbell met a man who looked exactly like him. He even walked like him, moved like him, held his head like him. At first, he thought it must be just a coincidence, but then somehow he realized that the man was indeed himself. There are two of me! He stood there, dumbstruck, and after a few moments of silence, the other Peter spoke up. "I know this is hard to believe, but I'm you, from a different reality." Peter was stunned, but he couldn't deny the resemblance, and the feeling of recognition...

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“Where you least expect nothing” by David Drake

Submitted to Contest #202

“Where is he?!?” “Why would you want him here at all? The cops will be the least of our worries if he shows up before we’re done!” “Of course I don’t want him here to bust up our little soiree! Not when we’re having fun! I mean he’s usually here 5 minutes after the silent alarm is tripped. So something is amiss.” “Maybe Joey Barlone finally killed him. He swore vengeance on the Red Raven when he locked up his mother for money laundering.” “Alleged….money laundering. I’m with Joey, I think the Raven set up him and his family. Beats me how...

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“Through The Eyes of a Child” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #202

Discussions of Hell. “Hell doesn’t exist, right?” “Why do you ask?” “I need to know.” With that my idyllic afternoon was shot, done for. Kaput. Young Francis, my nephew was in a state. Or more correctly we were now in a state. Of something. It isn’t normal for people to ask questions that just hang there, like an unanswered cell phone or the insistent ringing of a microwave. I’m done or I’m beginning, do something, these things say to us. Worse than Amazon Alexa talking for no reason, was how this question sounded. I stopped on the path we...

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“MISSED OPPORTUNITY” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #202

MISSED OPPORTUNITY In September, 1913, at the age of eighteen, I left home to study art in Vienna. Ah, Vienna! Looking back now, decades later, it’s almost impossible to describe just how joyous a city it was in those days and I thrilled to be a part of it though my very meagre budget made it difficult to enjoy much of the delights on offer. I had enrolled at Akademie Schulz and, initially, I was intimidated, believing that my work inferior to my fellow classmates but, during intervals, I was able to sneak glances at their works and disc...

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“Ziggy's Mystery Plant” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #202

My sister called, asking, “Can you help me identify a mystery plant?” This was an unusual question because she'd never shown an interest in plants.“Sure, Jen!” I was a bit full of myself having recently graduated from the Master Gardener course and thought either I or my friend Shirley would know. "Can you bring me a leaf or take a photo?"“Not really. I see it from my office window since they moved us up to the third floor. The people who live near there have a billion kids, and with all the 'stranger danger' talk lately.”“Fair enough. When ...

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“Trigger” by Sherri Moorer

Submitted to Contest #202

This is how it ends. In silence. Senara roamed up the empty street, the shotgun slung over her shoulder. Would she be able to use it when the time came? Would it matter? Was there enough of her left to do what must be done? A hot wind blew through the street, spreading dust across the broken pavement. At least they weren’t littered with bodies this time. She still didn’t know how she survived that awful, rotting stench four years ago. I’ve never been so sorry to be right. They thought they had come so far. The brave survivors of the 2...

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“Friends of the Time/Light Continuum” by Johanna Parry

Submitted to Contest #202

Kaden calmly plucked his ukelele. Each reverberating note started sounding all around them - suddenly - ZAP! An electric snap hit the air and another fly dropped out of the room. The sound of giant bowling balls rolling across the sky shook the windows. “Jack loves thunder.” He thought to himself. What he wasn’t thinking is how stunned Jack would be to witness him killing bugs with just the sound of his ukelele.Lightning flashed outside the window like burning plasma in space. Too bright to comprehend. A loud pounding on the ...

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“Boundaries” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #202

The wind howled and the storm crept its way across the sky, thunder cracking as it neared. I staggered away from it as fast as I could, clutching my bloodied side. The tall pines surrounding me rocked back and forth in the rough wind. It was dangerous to be caught outside during a summer storm, especially in this region of Dunamis where the cold mountain winds mixed with the convective valley heat, creating super storms that have been said could toss a delivery wagon off its wheels. I hadn’t personally seen this happen, but this was a myster...

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“Best Of Fiends” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #202

There was only ever the two of them. There were others of course, but they were all too… Too old mostly. Too removed. Too aloof. Too different. They had no one else, and without each other they would have been odd in every sense imaginable. Loneliness and the desire for companionship brought them together. There was a thrill of excitement that they shared upon discovering each other. Suddenly the games they played opened up into something far bigger than they had ever managed in the bubble of their solitude. Play, and the game...

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“For Better or Worse” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #202

Master Meow lives in a lovely comfortable apartment in Toyko with his human companion, Mr. Sato. Mr. Sato is retired and lives on a small pension, but as he has never married, he has enough to keep himself and Master Meow comfortable and well-fed. Master Meow is a white and light brown cat, part Persian and part Angora. He is very fluffy indeed. He spends his day lying on a satin pillow in the window, purring contently. He loves it here because his food dish is always full of fresh red salmon, his water bowl is changed t...

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“Me and Scarlet” by Shannon C.

Submitted to Contest #202

The bouncin on the bed was getting faster and louder as Momma stood there washin up the dishes from lunch. I watched Momma turn her head pullin her soapy hands out of the water without even lookin down at me. Grabbin the dish towel, she started marchin down the trailer hallway towards her and Daddy’s bedroom.“You had better stop that jumpin on that bed young lady! I have told you several times not to do that, and if your father catches you, you’ll get a whoopin!” I watched Momma walk down the hall and went back to playin with toys I had stru...

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“A Song of Friends and Lovers” by William Richards

Submitted to Contest #202

Our friendship was so special to me, I thought of it like a song. My favourite song. We kept it on repeat. I glance around. We're all waiting to board the flight and we all know it should have started ten minutes ago. There's no reason offered for the delay. It gives me time to read the email I wrote again. It gives me time to decide whether to send it or not. It was one of those beautiful songs, that was true, touching and eternal. Written by mother earth herself. A sound the earth makes, that water makes, that the wind makes in the tre...

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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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