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Write about a date you went on that took an unexpected turn.

Posted in Nonfiction on Nov 8, 2024

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✍️ 34 stories

Slightly Charred

Submitted to Contest #276

To the broke, unmotivated and hopeless college kid with no job, something like cooking your own meal can be trivial. On a good week, you’d get anywhere between 30 and 50 bucks that you’d need to stretch for the whole month. You could spend that on chicken, fresh veggies and pasta. Of course, Taco Bell is right down the street and a box of ramen is a buck fifty - which means you can buy a few cases of beer on the weekends if you need to. This was my life at Kent State University in gloomy Kent, Ohio, and aside from studying journalism and wri...

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So Far Away

Submitted to Contest #276

So Far Away             Five decades ago I was completing my senior year at college. As was customary back in those days, I lived in the dormitory for the duration of the four years while I was seeking my Bachelor’s Degree, at what is now called Kean University, in Union, New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed the college experience. The classes and professors were intellectually stimulating, as was the era when I attended, being the late sixties and early seventies.   &nbs...

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A Little Evil

Submitted to Contest #276

Trigger warning: Substance abuse and vulgarity.Names have been changed. “Who is angry at an arcade?”  Fiancee asked looking at the old image on the screen. I found a disk of photos from the early 2000s, and I was starting to regret looking at the pictures. There I was, in full makeup with lipstick, glaring at a pinball machine in a black leather jacket and jeans. I don’t wear makeup or leather anymore.  I don’t do a lot of things anymore. “It was supposed to be dinner and a movie,” I replied chuckling at the memory. “What’s so funn...

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An Antique Scar

Submitted to Contest #276

Content Warning: Mentions of disordered eating, body monitoring, and violence against trans women.We met at the start of lockdown in New Jersey.I remember being sick. Sick and tired. Sick and starving. Sick and self-assured I could get away with murder, or at least a good masquerade. Quarantine was barely a word yet, but Spring Break was edging into something unnaturally long. Twenty was a terrible age to be home alone. Fresh off my first heartbreak with none of the caloric intake to keep me sane, I was hysterical. The early morning quiet of...

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Stalking Over Grinds

Submitted to Contest #276

The Escape:  Later  I yearn to be in my townhouse with my striped cat, Raskolnikov, entwined securely around my torso, his paws protectively grasping my arm; instead, I drive to the Target off of 611 to hide among the many crowded aisles of suspiciously too jolly and gluttonous Saint Nicks juxtaposed with eerie elf animatronics coming to life with a slight tussle, their green eyes peering at the eager shoppers.  It is early November, and the moon is shaded by Nimbostratus clouds fortelling rain.  I glance at the time–8:4...

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We Were Supposed To

Submitted to Contest #276

In college, my boyfriend and I broke up at one point because we thought we were supposed to. It felt like life was pulling us in different directions. We came from families that would never be able to merge cohesively. We were raised with different values and core beliefs. While reason told me we were better apart, I couldn’t shake my feelings for him.  We used to take drives at night to escape the town that kept reminding us we weren’t compatible. He would drive, and I would exist happily beside him in the passenger seat. Sometimes we...

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Starbucks Apple

Submitted to Contest #276

 You know how a song can relive a memory:yes, a vivid memory of me and her. I guess you could say it was our first date. We had met in church during my time farming with my aunt and uncle. It was the summer of 2006, and I had just graduated from community college—yes, I know, quite an accomplishment. My aunt and uncle come up from Hopkinsville, Kentucky to the upper peninsula of Michigan for a family reunion. Their visit was brief as usual: ten hour drive for a brief hour or two visit and a brief ten hour drive home. Yes, they took me c...

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Oh, my god. I hate this guy.

Submitted to Contest #276

His name was Tom. He was the first guy I dated after my relationship with The Evil One ended. The worst thing about The Evil One was that I was doing that moron a favor by dating him. I wish I were kidding when I tell you what I witnessed the morning after our first overnight together. He woke early (The Evil One, not Tom), showered and shaved, while I dozed in his bed--which had a superior mattress compared to mine. It's possible I stayed with him longer than necessary because of the bed. I heard him puttering around in his closet, and wh...

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Chaos Among Calm Waters

Submitted to Contest #276

My fiancée and I had been planning this trip for months. Nothing was going to stop me from going, not even getting fired two days beforehand (that's a different story). We checked, double checked, and checked again that we had everything and then some of what we would need on a week long vacation to the Outer Banks on the East coast of North Carolina. We had been watching the weather closely and determined Hurricane Helene would make land fall after we landed, so the trip was a go. Kristy had never flown before, and I had never flown as an a...

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The worst date ever, that was indeed unexpected

Submitted to Contest #276

I stumbled upon him in the vast realm of the internet about two months before our eagerly awaited in-person meeting. From that moment, I felt an electric connection as we engaged in daily conversations, sometimes even twice daily, deepening our bond. Our talks became a comforting ritual, rich with laughter and vulnerability, allowing us to peel back the layers of our lives and aspirations. Our relationship embarked on a slow yet thrilling journey, igniting a sense of excitement within me. Both of us were acutely aware, drawing from our datin...

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The Bermuda Triangle of California

Submitted to Contest #276

The Grapevine is the Bermuda Triangle of California. My memory of that expanse of Highway 5 is desolation, dust and depression. Current crazy-ass boyfriend Simon and I were about to experience this marvel of soul-sucking spirits firsthand. We had been celebrating Simon’s 24th birthday in the coffee shop I worked at by day, Ground Zero. The café was closed, and the turnout was sad: just his sister and best friend, my best friend and her tweaky little brother. We drank chilled Stoli, fortified with cigarettes and methamphetamine. Best friend F...

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Be Bold

S Q

Submitted to Contest #276

[references casual sex, and surviving car accident] Once, in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm leaving work on a Friday night. That day being at a dungeon where I've had a notably fun session with a client. Kinda in the mood, I have this yearning for excitement and satisfaction—but figure I should just get to bed: I have six hours of physically demanding art modeling poses the next day starting 9am, and then plans for a date with a woman whom I've promised playtime with. So I bike to the nearest subway thinking, let it go....

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That night, I caught Two!

Submitted to Contest #276

The date was 9 October, 1965 and, I had just caught two! I was in need of a further plan. You realize that was just over fifty-nine years ago today.A couple of weeks earlier, I had returned home from Wyoming just in time to receive the call to meet in the parking lot across from Guion Hall with the rest of my fish buddies; twenty more guys in the exact same boat I was in—starting college and being a member of the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University. I still wasn’t sure this was the path right for me. I was making good money—more than...

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Weird Date

Submitted to Contest #276

The cafe buzzed with the low murmur of conversation, the clinking of cups, and the hiss of the espresso machine. Sunlight streamed through the large windows, casting a warm glow on the mismatched furniture and scattered patrons. I nervously tapped my foot against the leg of my wrought iron chair, my eyes darting towards the entrance every time the bell above the door jingled.This was it. My first foray back into the dating world after my divorce, and I was already feeling the familiar flutter of nerves. I adjusted my scarf, hoping I looked...

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BLIND DATE

Submitted to Contest #276

      BLIND DATEWhen you say the words ‘Blind date’ to anyone; well, anyone of a certain age anyway they’ll probably think of the Cilla Black show. However, I am one person for whom a blind date resulted in a very successful, long and happy marriage. Way back when I was a mere twenty years of age, I was beginning my rotation on theatres as part of my nurse training, when I met Anne who worked there as a permanent member of their staff. After a few weeks, she suggested that she knew the perfect man for me and tha...

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