Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story that includes (or subverts) the enemies-to-lovers trope.

Posted in Romance on Jan 28, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 25 stories

There are No Saints Here

Submitted to Contest #131

Cordelia had yet to figure out when she realised she first hated Joseph. Perhaps it was because of her fierce competitiveness, her need to win. And unlike others, Joseph would never yield, constantly grabbing the title of the best dancer. Or perhaps it was because he bullied her, calling her talentless and useless. As he had proved multiple times, he did not believe her worthy of being a dancer.  While she only truly despised him for his callous attitude towards her and his immaculate dance technique, Cordelia could not decipher what sh...

81 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

Apricots and Superman

Submitted to Contest #131

Mara was having the absolute worst night of her life. Prom was supposed to be the highlight of her high school experience. It was supposed to be the night that she would look back on when she was old and gray and feeling nostalgic about her teenage years.Instead it had become a night that she wanted to forget. After coming back from the bathroom she had spotted her boyfriend, James, locking lips with a sophomore girl in the middle of the dance floor. What had followed could only be described as the most public and humiliating break up that h...

39 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

A love letter for the woman who hates me.

Submitted to Contest #131

I know what you’re thinking, my love. You’re most likely shaking your head as your small, frail fingers hold this letter and those large, round eyes are wide in confusion. You’ll be wondering why I couldn’t have come up to you and spoke these words out loud. And to be honest, I’m wondering the same thing myself. But as my pen connects with this piece of paper and the ink flows out like water off a waterfall, I can’t stop myself. My thoughts must be written down and you must read them. I’m writing to remind you about us, about our love fo...

31 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

The Pulitzer Couple

Shortlisted for Contest #131 ⭐️

The dead man lies on the beach, and no one is excited about it. I take out my new notebook and begin writing. This will probably be my first article with the credit, by Brandon Resnik, for the newspaper. Those around continue on with their lives. It is the middle of the afternoon. The temperature is high. Nearly unbearable. Three nights ago, I went on a date with her. She is a journalist. It's unfortunate she left after a mere 10 minutes, but things like that happen. It could be worse. Now I hate journalists and I want to become one mys...

24 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

The Class Project

Submitted to Contest #131

Jade cringed as she walked to the library to meet Marcus. On days like today, everything seemed to make her more irritable. The normal traffic to school and the line at the café made her irritable. The crunching of the dead leaves beneath her feet and the chill of the autumn air made her irritable. Marcus made her more irritable than all these things put together. She slid through the doors of the library like a snake, weaving through other students as they talked about their plans for papers and final projects. Some drank their third coffee...

20 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

Paramour

Submitted to Contest #131

This all started as a joke. Alice sat at the foot of my bed, the same place she sat every time she had visited for the past 6 years, and she had said. “What do you even use that thing for anyway, just to look cool?” I remember glancing at my telescope, laughing at her impromptu accusation. “It was a gift from Dad. I told him once that I liked the stars… I meant in magazines, of course, but he always overdoes it.”  She stood up suddenly. She stopped laughing, but her face was still wide in a smile, her hair flowing wildly behind her as...

19 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Longest Five Minutes

Submitted to Contest #131

The itch is there, I imagine it almost before it becomes a reality and I know that soon it will spread deeper. Not wider or further around my thigh, but deeper, moving in towards my groin begging to be rubbed, scraped, excoriated until it has been completely erased. Apart from the scratching sound of pencil on paper the room is quiet and unbearably warm, all heaters turn towards me, as you’d expect, seeing as I am the only one with no clothes on.   Six pairs of eyes look at me, well not really at me just parts of me.&nbs...

18 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Cosmic Ball

Submitted to Contest #131

For once, the Moon outshined the Sun, and it made the Sun furious. Twinkling instruments echoed through the infinite ballroom. The Moon twirled amongst the Stars, switching partners without missing a beat. The Sun stood in the center, yet all kept their distance from him. He beamed at a Star as they shot past him, causing them to stop in their tracks in awe. Having lured in his target, the warm look on his face switched to a blazing scowl. “Why aren’t you all admiring me? What is so entrancing about the Moon?” The Star’s light dimmed ner...

18 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Learning

Submitted to Contest #131

Quincy’s volcano will win. Because his is made with tempera paint powder and tonic water; the new kid Eric’s just has regular water and food coloring. Quincy’s volcano will be bubblier and redder and it’ll win.He’s sure of that as he watches the sixth grade science fair judges enter the gym with their arms full of ribbons and certificates.And they walk to Eric’s poster board and pass him the gold medal. His parents pat him on the back and smile for the camera.Then the judges make their way towards Quincy and drop the silver medal over his ne...

17 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

When Enemies Attract

Submitted to Contest #131

Amelie Brekhart's nose wrinkled, disgusted with the rickety staging ramp leading up to the pipe's 4 foot wide black hole."I knew the Starfleet 679 airships were ghetto, but this is ridiculous." She said to herself.The 679 looked like a giant ocean cruise ship with wings. The top levels still had windows for cabins but doubled in a collision reduction frame. That way the ship could handle the pressures of outer space. She was in dock at the Centra space station for minor repairs and maintenance. From the cabin levels to the machinery rooms, a...

16 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

To My Esteemed Rival

Submitted to Contest #131

May 12/ 2021Dear Pinky,     Earlier today I saw that you left your wallet on the bus, so I’m bringing returning it. I also borrowed some cash, consider it payment for my good deeds. You're welcome.                                                      &...

16 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Upperclasswoman's Privilege

Submitted to Contest #131

The first time I saw Jen, she was coming down the path from Loorsey Hall just after second bell. She was laughing at something another girl said when they were passing, and her joyful smile and bouncing dark curls caught my attention. I smiled back as I approached her. When we made eye-contact, she recoiled and stepped off the path to give me a wide berth. I was used to the older girls looking at me like that because I was a freshman and a scholarship kid, and I knew just how to handle it. “Good morning,” I said, not losing the smile. “D...

14 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Secret History

Submitted to Contest #131

This wind was howling for a quiet night.Vivianna and Count Antonin Belisari were sitting at the fireplace, facing one another. Vivianna couldn't understand the man she had come to spend a year with, after her shooting, would try to kill her.Vivianna wanted to understand Antonin so much. The haunted, bloody look in Antonin's icy blues that came with being... One of them. Antonin always had trouble saying the word.Vampire.Such a modern word for an antiquated Byzantine to utter.Antonin watched Vivianna watching him. He could hear her thoughts. ...

13 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Drye Room

Submitted to Contest #131

I recall that thrilling day when we pulled up into the drive of our new house and piled out joking and laughing as we raced each other to the door and the promise of a brand new life. It was going to be a big change for us all-the girls especially and they were heartbroken to be pulled out of school and away from their friends but, shoot, that’s life and it just keeps on rollin’ on and it’s no good chewing on old meat, as my Grandpa used to say.   Joe, well he was never one to worry about stuff too much-not upfront, anyway. I ...

12 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

To Hate Bernard Hastings

Submitted to Contest #131

For the life of her, Eleanor could not think of a single thing she hated more than Bernard Hastings.  There had to be something.  Slow walkers, people who chew with their mouth open, or the person who always stands a bit too close to you at the grocery store. A close runner up may be the movie “The Bridge to Terabithia” which she blames for the reason she is such a pessimist and is still single in her late twenties. It was deeply rooted in her heart, at the young age of ten, that there is no such thing as happy endings.  &...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about two characters whose first impressions of one another are wildly inaccurate.

Fluff – 54 stories

Start your story with the arrival of a new person in a town full of gossips.

Adults – 41 stories

Write a story about a group of sisters, or a group of brothers.

Vampire – 34 stories

Set your story in a drawing room.

Fiction – 29 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel