Write a story with two characters who meet for the first time — and one of them has a secret.

Posted in Short Story on Sep 6, 2024

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✍️ 83 stories

“Happier Than Ever” by Kay B

Submitted to Contest #267

Breathe in, wait… breathe out. Box breathing, which Alexandria McCall prefers to call 4x4 breathing, is the breathing exercise where you hold your breath for a four count, and then you release it with the same timing. Right now, Alexandria is box breathing in an attempt to retaliate against her anxiety. She has to overcome the feelings from her assiduous morning and ease herself into the present. The present, where she comfortably nested in a quiet, bright, and warm train booth. A stark contrast from earlier in the day. Hours ago...

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“Twin flame ” by Cami Newman

Submitted to Contest #267

Carla was super positive about herself, and super confident about the way she intended to meet her future goals. She was so grateful for the breakthrough she had received from god; the computer software job that she had worked so hard for had finally accepted her as an intern, which meant working her butt off each day to pass the first probationary period, Carla muttered to her nervous self.The business was mainly large and small offices, located on the uptown scale of the city, where the high Rollers happened to live and breathe, so what pr...

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“I met him in Istanbul” by Jude Russell

Submitted to Contest #267

So, he exists. This man I had never heard of, never imagined, exists. And he’s in Istanbul, which means that I am half Turkish. I don’t have a problem with any of this, except for the lies and deceit of course, the hiding away from me of someone important, someone of my blood. So a few minor issues. On the other hand, my step-father, who I have always thought of as father, is devastated, and when we say goodbye at the airport he weeps. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him cry: he cried when I left home to go to university, he cried at my gr...

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“You Will Be My Secret Until I Die” by Allysa Agnes

Submitted to Contest #267

I had a dream… I saw the man I have never met there. His eyes were shiny like an amber, his blond hair were reflecting the sun… And those dimples when we was smiling… Man… Cowboy hat, old, faded jeans, white T-shirt… What a view it was, ahh… But I had no idea who he was. Until I met him… Yes, the dream became the reality eventually… So, it was a sunny summer day few years ago. I met him during the party at the beach. He looked remarkably familiar to me… But he wore a grey tracksuit just like me, so we were matching (soul mates at first sight...

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“Autumn Shadows” by Anna Rajmon

Submitted to Contest #267

“Everything will come to me at the right time,” she thought to herself as she pulled the warm blanket even closer around her body. The room was cold, warmed only by the heat from the fire crackling in the fireplace; the sound of the wood snapping echoed through the room. She sat in a wooden chair, watching the raindrops slide down the glass panes of the window. Outside, the wind played with the leaves, sending them wherever it pleased. “Autumn has begun,” she whispered aloud and smiled. She loved this time of year. That moment when nature be...

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“Serendipity in SeaTac” by Race McKee

Submitted to Contest #267

It’s August, and the hottest summer on record for most of the lower forty-eight. I’m flying in from the Pacific, bound for San Diego but every California airport is socked in by the first hurricane to hit California since 1939. Global warming must be conspiring with El Nino. Our pilot addresses the passengers in typical, muffled fashion. I can barely discern two out of three words over the roar of the engines though I do catch enough to understand we’re being diverted to Seattle. Seattle is not on the way to San Dieg...

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“Two sides to every story” by Ger Morrissey

Submitted to Contest #267

Two sides to every storyIn the pitch blackness of the car boot, Bud Creed tried to wet his cracked lips with his tongue. He tasted salt and realized it was a combination of his tears and sea spray. He guessed the girl had driven them to the beach. Jesus, how could he have gotten himself into such a fix? From the way the car had bounced along he’d guessed she’d driven down to the beach. Bud hoped she’d take off once she stopped driving. After all, that’s where she said she wanted to go when he’d stopped to give her a lift. That crazy bitch h...

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“The Interview” by Auston Jenkins

Submitted to Contest #267

'It could be worse kid... But then again, it could also be a whole lot better...'He didn’t look a whole lot like me, but that still didn’t change the fact that I felt like I was looking into a mirror. His wavy brown hair, blue eyes, that nervous fidget he did with his fingers. It was a mirror image alright. One that started about twenty years ago and ended with a slap in the face after a college football game.He was the fourth person I’d interviewed that day, and truth be told, he’d probably be the last. Not because I was impressed with his ...

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“A Kid Named Kip” by Sam Clewien

Submitted to Contest #267

It was two months ago in early June, just before the rains started and the hot, muggy, sweltering air brought with it biting insects and wet socks. She had just landed a new job in a new city, scared and lonely, a little desperate but not wanting to show it; and so she had gone for a hike out in the woods down by the lake, nearby her new apartments that tilted and creaked like old buildings are wont to do in old towns like this one.She was walking, kind of jogging but not really, not wanting to tire herself out; and she was listening to an o...

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“Who Are You?” by James Barrett

Submitted to Contest #267

The Planting Fields Arboretum is in Oyster Bay, smack in the middle of what is still known as Long Island’s Gold Coast. The mansions are mostly still there but are no longer occupied by the families that built them, namely the Woolworths, Vanderbilts, Phipps, Guggenheims, Morgans, etc. After the Great Depression, FDR and the Democrats made damn sure that sort of obscene distribution of wealth would never happen again, at least not here, not on their watch.Today, the mansions are planetariums, tourist attractions, and sites for the wedding re...

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“Anything Can Happen” by Masha Kamenetskaya

Submitted to Contest #267

'Anything can happen now!' my aunt shouts on the phone, and her voice sounds hollow, distant.Well, she is distant from me. She lives far away, in the middle of the huge country. I don't know where she exactly lives, to say the truth, – we hardly met, maybe a couple of times at the family gatherings, in the deep past.Since recently she has kept calling me. She says she must take care of me. Even if from a distance. She and I are the only members of our extended family who remain alive.'Anything can happen these days!' she keeps yelling at me....

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“Life's hidden surprises.” by David Nutt

Submitted to Contest #267

Life’s hidden surprises It was a rainy, gray day with dark ominous clouds hanging over Saint Pauls. At noon my mother’s burial service was scheduled to begin. For the last two hours my father and his four children had stood in line at the entrance of the great cathedral greeting numerous mourners shaking hands and spe...

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“LAST DATE” by Alexa Intrator

Submitted to Contest #267

LAST DATE They had exchanged a number of brief WhatsApps. Sasha had said how important it was to meet a bright, bookish woman, and he told Ellie she had the perfect profile. Ellie was impatient to meet him, but held back, distracted by the dust that had settled on the front of the bookshelf holding the dictionaries. She didn’t use the dictionaries anymore. English, French, German and Spanish, as well as Italian and Latin tomes stood stolid and confident in paper dust jackets. She didn’t do translations anymore, not since well before Kennet...

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“My True Love Waits” by DJ Grohs

Submitted to Contest #267

Number ten is beautiful. When I first saw her running in the park four months ago, I knew it was time for number nine to leave. Getting them to go is never easy, and always messy – although, granted, by that time, there’s not much fight left in them. But I knew immediately; it was time. I had found my new someone, the one who would love me forever. Out with the old, in with the new. When I first spotted her from where I sat on my park bench, I was no longer much of a runner. Although I ran track in college, my sedentary job had taken its tol...

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“YOU'RE A WHAT” by Parker Benton

Submitted to Contest #267

Somchai was walking home from his night classes on guard in case something happened. Gamorah has never been a safe place but since the second trio of vigilantes showed up Somchai felt safer. He still carried a pocket knife, everyone did unless they were crazy. He started to hear footsteps coming from behind him. Not a second later, Somchai was slammed into the building, an older man in his face.“Throw your wallet on the ground and step away” The man spat out.xxxx. Somchai didn’t even have his wallet on him. He tried to explain that he didn’t...

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Write a story with two characters who meet for the first time — and one of them has a secret.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 83 stories

“Happier Than Ever” by Kay B

“Twin flame ” by Cami Newman

“I met him in Istanbul” by Jude Russell

“You Will Be My Secret Until I Die” by Allysa Agnes

“Autumn Shadows” by Anna Rajmon

“Serendipity in SeaTac” by Race McKee

“Two sides to every story” by Ger Morrissey

“The Interview” by Auston Jenkins

“A Kid Named Kip” by Sam Clewien

“Who Are You?” by James Barrett

“Anything Can Happen” by Masha Kamenetskaya

“Life's hidden surprises.” by David Nutt

“LAST DATE” by Alexa Intrator

“My True Love Waits” by DJ Grohs

“YOU'RE A WHAT” by Parker Benton

🌟 Similar prompts

Your character overhears something that changes their path.

There’s been an accident — what happens next?

Write a story set against the backdrop of a storm.

Your character wants something very badly — will they get it?

Contest #267

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

357

Contest entries

126

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: