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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about two neighbors who cannot stand each other.

Posted in Sad on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 44 stories

“Two Stubborn Women” by S.K. Wulf

The night is thick and heavy with clouds when I paint the front of The House yellow. I paint quickly and quietly. I don’t want to wake my neighbor up. The brush goes shhh shhh against the wall and even that is loud.  My feet crunch on gravel as I finish up and slip into my home.  My neighbor’s cursing wakes me up in the morning. I hear fuck! and shit! I split the blinds with two fingers. The sun shines very bright and I squint to see my other neighbors file outside. They see the yellow paint and shake the...

125 comments 125 WINNER 🏆
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“No Class Room” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

“You’re sharing a classroom with Mister Galanis,” Principal Twomey says, heavyset and out of breath from climbing up the stairs to the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor is the inner sanctum of the English Department. We don’t appreciate visitors here, especially ones from administration. Rarely do they bring good news. And notification of sharing a classroom? There isn’t any worse news to be had.“I am not sharing my classroom,” I say, capping my red pen. As a rebuttal, I motion around the room—from the busts of stately literary masters on t...

48 comments 48
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“The Storm of the Decade” by Zack Powell

Content warning: Swearing, mentions of deathThe worst part of the divorce a year ago wasn't losing half my stuff. Back then, I could only watch as Linda descended upon our possessions like royalty, simply pointed to the couch and the blender and my favorite bottle of shampoo, and the lawyer made it so. If we had a baby, I'm sure she would've King Solomoned that too. And I was fine with it, had come to expect that much. It was a small price to pay for my peace of mind.The worst part—what I hadn't expecte...

71 comments 71 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“A Perfect Lie” by Beth Jackson

She’s there. She’s always bloody there. In the driveway, with her white hotpants and pink oversized tee sloping off one shoulder at a jaunty angle.I slow to a jog and wipe my forehead. My face is hot. Probably red. And blotchy. Running doesn’t agree with me.I avoid eye contact as I turn into my driveway. She’s standing by the roses, secateurs primed, deciding which beauty she’ll castrate from the bush.Their garden is all straight edges and manicured lawns. Roses and dainty flowers jost...

57 comments 57
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“Sinatra on the Lawn” by Kevin Broccoli

Maureen, she’s done it again. I looked outside this morning and he’s missing. Frank is missing. This is the third time this month. Every day I live in fear of that woman stealing an innocent lawn statue just to get back at me, because I told her I didn’t like her peach cobbler. Francine has lived across the street from me for thirty years and we’ve never had a problem until she invited me ...

25 comments 25
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“1869 Gehenna Street, Hades” by Kevin Marlow

The heat erupted from the very rocks themselves. With no sun, orange light emitted from the glowing stalactites that jutted from the roof of the massive cave like giant flaming lances. Pools of sulfuric acid smoked and gurgled, belching fumes that burned the nostrils; fumaroles were burping dragons releasing acrid gases. This was 1869 Gehenna Street, Hades, just up the way from the Abyss. The apartments were carved into solid rock by wayward souls that had yet to earn a chance to hurl themselves into the eternal fire and be erased from th...

9 comments 9
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“Apartment 618” by Greg Gillis

           For the last eighteen months, we have lived in the same two-bedroom apartment. We moved here when my wife and I found out we were having a baby, and that one-bedroom death trap we were in was not going to cut it.            The apartment building is in a decent area with several young families in the neighborhood, and all the amenities within a short drive when needed. W...

2 comments 2
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“I can't stand you anymore” by Chayma Chouchen

It will be no exaggeration to say that the neighbor is nearer than God. In other words, the neighbor helps the man when he is in difficulty, shares the joys and the sorrows, and takes active interest in the household affairs and is also prepared to help whenever it is needed. Neighbors can make life hell, or heaven by their actions. That is why the old adage says that one should select the neighbor first and then the house. A bad neighbor might be a source of continual trouble, this is the life of Logan and Faye.Here is ...

16 comments 16
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“Not Exactly Hallmark” by Robin Owens

It could have ended like a Hallmark movie—you know, if I were into those—but it didn’t. It would have been too obvious and convenient anyway: the boy, the girl in the neighboring apartment, both single, eye-flirting from their patios until one of them finally breaks the ice with a killer line. Picture a guy and a girl; I’ll call them Greg and Sarah. Greg’s walking his dog Lulu. Sarah is tryi...

7 comments 7
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“The Death of Appearances” by Cindy Calder

“We have plenty of time,” Zelda said, reaching across the space betwixt her and her fiancé. She lovingly caressed his forearm in an attempt to assure that his despondency was due to nothing more than the gloomy weather that filled the streets of Paris this rainy day. “We have plenty of time to go all the places and see all the things your heart desires, Jacques. In a month we’ll be married and living ...

6 comments 6
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“Shipwrecked” by Scott Skinner

When the shabby elevator’s doors closed, Mike forgot how to be normal, and as he noticed the whine of the machine’s old parts, he saw his Tinder date grip her clutch closer to her body. It was not the look he had hoped to cultivate. He wanted to face her - he thought it would make things more comfortable - but he didn’t dare. Instead, he stood at her side like a New York bell hop until, through no action of his own, his arms swung back and forth automatically like a desktop drinking bird. Things were not working out for him, and even afte...

8 comments 8
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“The Good Book” by Murray Burns

The Good Book(Perhaps a tad crude in places.)“Love your neighbor as yourself.”                                   &nb...

2 comments 2
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“Banned Practice” by Graham Kinross

TW: SwearingMichael glared across the bar at Diana. This was his night, the big gig. She wasn’t going to ruin it for him.            “That the one who keeps calling the cops on you?” Asked Dennis, the guitarist in the band. Dennis flicked away the black, curly locks that made him look like a glam rock throwback. “She’s hot.” He sipped a beer, two fingers and a thumb on the neck of the bottle as if he was a prim and proper gentleman sipping tea from fine p...

4 comments 4
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“All's Fair in Love and War” by Shelby B

**some explicit language and mature themes/situations**Bang. Bang. Bang.Boom. Boom. Boom.I pause my movie and wait for the incessant noise coming from the apartment next to mine to stop. This is a nightly occurrence and it really puts a damper on my regularly scheduled Netflix marathons. I've tried and tried to be nice about it, but he's left me no choice tonight. I'm over it and today has already been a complete shit show, so honestly, being nice is no longer my forte at ...

0 comments 0
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“Rock And Roll Through Paper Walls” by Mya Moberley-Patterson

Sleep has never come easy to me. Insomnia is a gentle demon who whispers cruel nothings in my absent ears. When I close my eyes when the lights are off and there is no sunlight left in the sky to seep through my apartment window and remind me of how alone I am. Those are the times when my gentle demon invites his friend's anxiety and distraction to keep me and sleep far apart. Anxiety tickles my feet and releases spiders onto my body that crawl into my ears and swim through my veins. Anxiety reminds me of everything I spent every waking ...

2 comments 2
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Contest #148

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: The Lease I Can Do

$250

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Contest entries

94

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 03, 2022 EST

Won by S.K. Wulf 🏆

Title: Two Stubborn Women

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