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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#40: You've Got a Friend in Me

In the last few months, we've had the same request pop up a number of times from Reedsy Prompts members: "I'd like the ability to 'follow' other writers." We heard you, and we're always looking for ways to foster a sense of community on our site. And with that in mind, we have a few exciting updates to unveil:

You can now follow other writers and keep track of their latest publications on your Activity page.
You can keep tabs on who you’re following and who’s following you from your profile.
You can also view all the stories you’ve liked by going to your profile, and then selecting 'Library.'

In the spirit of community, this week's prompts are all about friendship. And here's a song to get you started.

P.S. — We're hosting another LIVE Write-In on YouTube on May 1st at 3pm Eastern Time! Once again, our hosts Shaelin and Jenn will guide you through a series of 20-minute writing sprints. During the breaks, you can share your progress and ask our hosts any questions you may have. To join, tune in to our YouTube channel at 3pm EST. We hope to see you there!

🥇 Winner

“Love” by Fredrikke Barth

🏆 Winner of Contest #40

They fall in love in the slow way of people who are unconcerned with bodies. Some weekends they go away together and stay in hotels, they travel on buses through mountain passes, one of them watching the world through the window and listening to music, the other asleep on her shoulder. At some of the hotels, they share a bed, and at others, they don’t, it makes no difference to them. They choose different restaurants every night, because despite their constant companionship they live by the mantra of variety being the most important aspect o...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Stickers” by A.R. Eakle

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #40

Timothy Morrison is standing in a room on a chair with a light bulb in his hand. It’s just past ten o’clock at night, and the light bulb is still warm through the faded yellow bandana. A bandana with nostalgic bloodstains on it from the time he was ten and stole it from the top drawer of his mother’s dresser. The blood is from a time he was on the river bank; a river bank his mother told him to stay away from countless times. Find me a ten-year-old that listens and I’ll find you the next Dalai Lama. He was standing there watching for t...

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“7 Reasons Why I'm Glad We're Not Friends Anymore” by Najwa Zandlo

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #40

#1. You had the worst personal hygiene and cleaning habits of anyone I’ve ever met. You rarely showered, I never once saw you brush your teeth, and you thought spraying air freshener on your shirts made them “clean” again. Do you remember the day I snuck into your apartment and spent four hours cleaning it top-to-bottom, doing all your laundry, and throwing away the moldy food in your fridge? I told you I was trying to do something thoughtful for a friend, but, truthfully, I only did it to make myself more comfortable - the smell was startin...

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“The Dead Tree” by Heather Laaman

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #40

I decided it was time to visit Laura when I saw the dead tree. I was hiking with Ryan, and didn’t initially see it, hunched in the shadow of the living one. When we got closer, I noticed how the roots of the two trees were tangled together in such a way that one tree was forced out of the ground by the growth of the other. Ryan turned back to see me standing in the center of the trail. “Are you looking at those trees?” he asked. “Pretty crazy.” I didn’t trust my voice enough to respond. The next day I filled out all the paperwork to visit La...

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This week's prompts

Write a story about two people who meet and become instant friends.

Kids – 107 stories

Write a story about friends who wind up on a misadventure.

Adventure – 99 stories

Write a story about one event from the different perspectives of multiple friends.

Character – 122 stories

Write a story inspired by this quote from Ally Condie: "Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that."

Sad – 161 stories

Write a story about someone turning to a friend in a time of need.

Fiction – 133 stories

Stories

“Molly's Box” by Ai Jiang

Submitted to Contest #40

It had never happened before, but today, my mother called me by a different name. It was my tenth birthday and my mother was busy taking photos of everything that was going on during my birthday party. I was hovering around the cake with a few of my friends because we were too impatient to wait for my mother to come light the candles and cut the cake. "Everybody smile," my mom yelled. &nbsp...

102 comments 102

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“Love” by Fredrikke Barth

🏆 Winner of Contest #40

They fall in love in the slow way of people who are unconcerned with bodies. Some weekends they go away together and stay in hotels, they travel on buses through mountain passes, one of them watching the world through the window and listening to music, the other asleep on her shoulder. At some of the hotels, they share a bed, and at others, they don’t, it makes no difference to them. They choose different restaurants every night, because despite their constant companionship they live by the mantra of variety being the most important aspect o...

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“Lajoen Mūreid Jua” by 🆇🅰🆅🅸🅴🆁 🅶.🆂. 🅵🅴🆁🅶🆄🆂🅾🅽

Submitted to Contest #40

Lajoen Mūreid JuaBy Xávier G. S. FergusonFar west of the mountains, past the armies of Nolim, and the barachs of Ovainia, lied the greatest forest in Pethusia: Kirthōrn. Very few ever dared to venture into its borders, and those who braved, seldom left; therefore leaving the contents of this forest a mystery to many. Now, to the many inhabitants of Pethusia, who had never voyaged past its shores, The trees were greater that any in existence, at least, that was all that the outsiders saw. Those wise, and fortunate enough to be invited ...

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“GRIEF” by Vishwajeet Ramagiri

Submitted to Contest #40

The church walls reek the stale stench of summer heat. The only sounds which break the eeire silence are those of chirping crickets and buzzing dragonflies.The dull humidity of the church air holds secrets near and dear to every family, which slowly is implanted onto the old whitewash of the poorly painted concrete of the high rise dome of the church, but like all pallbearers it too fallls down. As peeling paint.And the what is the special occasion you ask. Its your funeral!You start look too confused for this, but also a little scared....

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“Stalemate Shootout” by A. Y. R

Submitted to Contest #40

Stalemate. One eye staring deep into the barrel of your rifle, the bayonet scratching away at my eyebrow. The other eye on the nozzle of my own weapon, pointed dead at your chest, aiming at the heart of my enemy. Did I say enemy? I averted my gaze from my gun to you for a split second, and you did the same. I scanned the depths your eyes and you pierced back into mine. Yet neither one of us could find any trace of their enemy. Only the expressions of scared and confused boys seeking refuge amidst the chaos; given gun...

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“Pallas” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted to Contest #40

Iras“Darling,” I say sweetly, stroking her hair, “Darling, sweetie, are you really going to let that slide?”My girl doesn’t answer. She doesn’t even look at me. Just picks an olive leaf off the tree and flicks it at a shrilling wheatear standing on an arching olive root. I take strands of her long hair, the color of ripe apricots, and begin threading them through my fingers, knotting, braiding, tying, until half her hair is trapped to my fingers in a lovely five-strand braid.“Darling,” I say again, then stop. I won’t allow the whine to enter...

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“Harriet Olson stellar pixie part 2” by C.J Dunstall

Submitted to Contest #40

The story so farThe stellar pixie Harriet Olson, and her elf friend Takeshi Trescothik, are running from the troll king and his army. After badly hurting her ankle Harriet ran away with Takeshi into the dark wood in search of a cave in which they can hideout. Chapter 3Harriet awoke the next morning; the sun was shining brightly above her. She was still wrapped in Takeshi’s arms, everything was perfectly fine, except for the fact that she was now a wanted criminal, and her ankle hurt worse than ever. She closed her eyes, thinking of what...

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“Stickers” by A.R. Eakle

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #40

Timothy Morrison is standing in a room on a chair with a light bulb in his hand. It’s just past ten o’clock at night, and the light bulb is still warm through the faded yellow bandana. A bandana with nostalgic bloodstains on it from the time he was ten and stole it from the top drawer of his mother’s dresser. The blood is from a time he was on the river bank; a river bank his mother told him to stay away from countless times. Find me a ten-year-old that listens and I’ll find you the next Dalai Lama. He was standing there watching for t...

Read story

“Roots” by BRoOkE HAs A COwBoY HAt

Submitted to Contest #40

We started off as close as you could get. Sharing a house, a family, pets, and everything else. For years we lived like this; 11 to be exact. We annoyed each other nonstop, but it was fun. We got yelled at constantly at night to go to sleep by Mom or Dad when we stayed up to read. It's funny to think that instead of playing video games or watching TV when we were supposed to be sleeping, we read. Do you remember?Our eleventh birthday is when it happened. Well, at least around our eleventh birthday. Possibly a couple of days after. We both we...

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“For Better or Worse” by Emily Nghiem

Submitted to Contest #40

Pressed against the passenger seat, I grappled with my safety belt, held hostage in a truck racing ninety miles an hour down the blackest road I’d ever seen. For two hours from Austin to Houston, a raging drunk screamed in my ear how this was all my fault. Wallace had obviously lied to me about not drinking earlier that night. We were only at the festival to catch a friend’s band, and planned to leave after saying hello. After I caught him with a beer, he insisted his 300-pound body would absorb it, if he waited an hour before driving. He ne...

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“The Crane Machine” by Maggie Deese

Submitted to Contest #40

Students file in one by one, each followed by their specifically chosen bus buddies. Their laughter echoes through the bus as they plop down with hefty backpacks full of useless things their parents insisted they not bring for a two-day field trip. The last student to file in quietly is Margret Greene, squeezing her own backpack so tightly that the zippers threaten to bust. She takes the only seat left in the very front of the bus, no specifically chosen friend to take the place beside her. She tucks a stray lock of hair behind her left ear ...

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“A Dead Giveaway” by Mark Jackson

Submitted to Contest #40

The real trouble started as soon as I opened the front door. There, under my porch, stood the six-six monster who had been stalking my girlfriend for over a year. The individual hairs of his buzz cut stood on end while fat droplets of rain oozed along the blade of his nose. His jacket collar was turned up and I knew by the expression on his face that opening the door had been my mistake.I tried to formulate some sort of defence, something I could say to warn him off, but nothing came to mind. He was the first to speak.‘Nice weather this even...

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“A good friend ” by Yoomi Ari

Submitted to Contest #40

“This isn't stealing, it's borrowing and never giving back. No one will know and besides, I'm desperate.” I think inside my brain that navigates me back to the alley. The stars shine bright tonight; maybe tomorrow will be a better day. I slunk under the moonless sky, thankful for the charcoal cloud that brought a more complete blackness. This was not a night to be seen, not at all. Along the road a lamppost flickered eerily on the pavement and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It's orange glow only made it...

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“Dinner at Susan's” by Jubilee Forbess

Submitted to Contest #40

The doorbell rang twice, and each time a different person was let into the house. The first time it was the plumber. He was a man by the name of Gabbani, and he had only just started plumbing, but he was grateful for the things he had and was never one to complain a lot. The second time the doorbell rang, there was the pizza man, standing like a delivery angel complete with a steaming box of pepperoni pie and a bottle of root beer. He had also just started working as a pizza man. It was his first job, seeing as he was a very young fell...

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“Forest People” by BRoOkE HAs A COwBoY HAt

Submitted to Contest #40

Deep breath in, deep breath out, deep breath in, deep breath out. If I didn't make a sound it wouldn't move. I pulled the string back and let the arrow loose. In case more were going to come, I stood there for a moment. None came, so I went and got the deer I shot. A good hundred pounds of meat."What are you going to do with that?" I turned around to see Jackson, my best friend. His little brother, Caleb, was behind him, picking berries."Eat it, of course. What else? Hang it even though it's already dead? That's something you would do,"I sco...

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$50

Prize money

622

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 08, 2020 EST

Won by Fredrikke Barth 🏆

Title: Love

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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