Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

You made a promise to yourself you'd finally do it on the first day of spring. Today was the day.

Posted in Spring on Oct 26, 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?

✍️ 145 stories

Lion Bark Garden

Shortlisted for Contest #35 ⭐️

The dogwood trees bent gracefully, their flat layers of bursting fat blossoms arrayed as far as the sky climbed. Lined along the gravel path were the crabapple and pear trees with their juicy green leaves showing off around the apples and pears. Following the path were half-eaten and broken fruits, leathered and wormholed and dripping with juice. The air was cold but the kites didn’t care. They danced high along the tops of the redbud trees, knocking the thick pink flowers to the ground. Chill breezes spun and laughed and swept the paper and...

52 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Caution

Submitted to Contest #35

In twilight my hair was blacker, my skin more olive and my eyes larger. I drew the shawl around her, clasping it tight to my collar bone to ward off the nascent chill. The garish colours of the market had been toned down as if washed gently in a quarry water, everything that little bit more grey. It was better than flying the helicopter but the thrill of being in constant action punctured into my veins like an antidote to depression. However then there was the constant fashion sense of wearing khaki full body, but to live outside the eye of ...

38 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Walk I Had

Submitted to Contest #35

The Walk I HadI was gazing complacently at the vivid blue sky with small pieces of cushion like clouds floating over the horizon with glee and bliss. The lush green trees fluttering soothingly along with the mild, solacing breezes seemed as if they were chortling out and proclaiming with utmost happiness that spring has arrived. The snug temperature outside was just endeavouring to attract every soul sealed in their abodes towards itself. I have always had an imaginative mind- creating things that are not anywhere near veracity and reality, ...

29 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

Relativity

Submitted to Contest #35

 I never thought that I could dread the greetings of the birds in the morning. I have waited too long to hear them again and now that they are finally here all I could think about was crawling back under my covers and wish for winter to return. Wish for the clock to turn back to the dry and the cold, to a day other than this one.“Ems, are you awake?” Ethan asks as he knocks on my door, “Can I come in?”I take a moment considering whether to say no, but he and dad are the only ones who still have patience for me. I open the door hoping th...

26 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Girl Promises Can Go Well

Submitted to Contest #35

I woke up at 8 am to start my day. I first checked my phone, where a notification had appeared, labeled "Abby Promise." Oh no, I thought to myself. Today was the day, and I'm really starting to regret making that promise to myself. My younger sister knocks on my door."Hey, I need a ride to school! Hurry up!" she shouts to me."Coming!" I shout back with an equal amount of ferocity. My phone starts to buzz on the bed. I look down at it, and my heart skips a beat. "Abby wants to FaceTime" was what the screen displayed. I answer the call and st...

24 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

New Life, Old Habits

Submitted to Contest #35

My feet and legs are screaming as each step hits the mossy forest floor, "how much longer can I do this?" I worried. I leap over fallen trees and branches as my adrenaline courses through my veins, my lungs burning more and more in the harsh, cold, nighttime air. I hear heavy boots and labored breathing behind me. A loud bang echoes in the emptiness of the forest around me. "Please let him miss me, please let him miss me, please let him miss me" I begged God as I pleaded the sky with my eyes, I keep running faster and faster, I can no longer...

21 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

The Girlfriend Paradox

Submitted to Contest #35

“It’s the first day of spring,” Murray said, standing at my doorstep, smelling like baloney. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”“You sure that’s official?” I griped, wanting any way to wriggle my way out of this. “It’s still cold as fuck outside.”“It’s New York, dumbass. It’s always cold.” My mind wrestled with reality, trying to concoct a believable rouse. Instead, my sullen eyes fell down to the Tiki Lounge ticket on the table. It’s mere presence depressed me even more.“You remember what you told me?” Murray said.Of course, I remembered. It w...

18 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

A Better Me

Submitted to Contest #35

         Rushing through me was a bank of emotions I had held in for a couple of months. I had finally decided to pick the happy book. This is a story of a promise I made to myself. You know how you stand over a catalogue for a long time thinking of which book to pick. That was me. My name is Melanie James, a sophomore in College of Pharmacy. I'm on spring break and I'm spending it at my Aunt's place with her family. There is this book I've been neglecting for a while now titled "BE HAPPY". But I ...

16 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

The First Day of Spring

Shortlisted for Contest #35 ⭐️

I wake up to the grating buzz of Craig’s alarm. He rolls over and silences it with a heavy hand before letting sleep reclaim him. Any other morning I would have rolled back over with him and tried to steal an extra ten minutes of shut-eye before the alarm pierced the quiet again, but today I am wide awake. It’s the first day of spring. I marked the date in my calendar with shaking hands during the dead grey of November, when the crisp chill of fall had passed through and robbed the world of colour before fading into the dreary...

16 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

"The Task" by Christopher Valle

Submitted to Contest #35

Today's the day. They day I finally do it. I’d made a promise to myself that on the first day of spring I would do it. And so today I’m going to do it.  “It’s not that hard just do it,” I told myself steeling my nerves for what's ahead. I rolled out of bed with the knowledge of today I would do it. No backing out today I would finally do it.  I grabbed my jacket and a banana and headed out the door to get the stuff I needed. The whole way there I had my headphones in and was in the deepest mood of my life. I had made my decision an...

15 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

So Small and So Beautiful

Submitted to Contest #35

I’m holding her in my arms, and she is so small and so beautiful. Her pudgy pink fists grasp air, clenching and opening uncertainly. Her closed eyes are wrinkled and worried like a newborn kitten’s, and I trail my fingertips over her soft cheeks, wondering if this is her first dream. Her eyelashes flutter at my touch, and she leans slightly into my hand, her pudgy face warm against my palm. I love her. But it is March 20. The first day of spring. I hate March 20. I promised myself I would do it on March 26, but she came 6 days early, so I ha...

15 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Wailing Sirens

Submitted to Contest #35

A couple of mornings ago, I woke up with an idea. It was they type of idea that only lasts for a second—the kind that you wave from your brain almost immediately, but not before it leaves spores on your thoughts, spreading its impression. The thought reappears on a walk, or making groceries. Sometimes its an hour later, maybe days; every time it shows up it stays around just a little longer. Eventually the idea I woke up with became that kind of thought which keeps showing up again—the kind of thought Mom used to call “peeking desires” Its t...

14 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Brushstrokes

Submitted to Contest #35

Charlotte couldn’t believe it, but why should today be any different than every day of her married life?Bob, her husband of six (was it only six?) interminable years had left his miserable coffee cup in the sink for her to wash.Washing it was no big deal. It took only a moment to rinse. But why did she have to do it? And why this beat-up old cup? There were so many dents she was surprised it held coffee anymore. The enamel had chipped off in places exposing the toxic metallic wonders beneath.But it was Bob’s cup. It was a memento of some cam...

14 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Day

Submitted to Contest #35

Ethan Hemsworth is the cutest guy alive. He is also the biggest dork. But I am in love with him. I adore him. He is my friend and he means the world to me. There is only one problem. He doesn’t know any of this. To him, I’m just the colleague who tries way too hard to make him smile. But now, now he is leaving. He got offered his dream job up in the big city and will be leaving at the end of next month. My heart is already broken. Ethan is my perfect guy. He’s intelligent, funny, easygoing, and loved by all. His blue eyes are as bright as th...

14 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

My date.

Submitted to Contest #35

I heard people says that time runs fast, but I never believed it. Because it's been only two months after Jack left me, but it looks like it's been several years. He was a good guy, who always cared for me before his own self. And maybe that's the reason he left me without taking care of himself.He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and when we found, he was on last stage. We were so happy and never thought something like this would occur, and turned our lives upside down. Last few months were difficult for both of us but we tried to be h...

14 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Before bed, you put your clock ahead one hour for daylight saving time. When you wake up, you realize you've gone forward a lot more than one hour.

Fantasy – 81 stories

Write a story that takes place at a spring dance.

Spring – 89 stories

Write a story about someone who finds something interesting peeking out from a melting snowbank.

Winter – 88 stories

Write a story about someone walking through a park on a spring evening, told only through internal monologue.

Character – 140 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