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Center your story around an unexpected summer fling.

Posted in Summer on Aug 2, 2024

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✍️ 53 stories

Under the Mediterranean sun

Shortlisted for Contest #262 ⭐️

Please regard this as my full confession. I do not wish to die with a heavy heart. I wish you were able to see him just now. He is preparing to land the final blow, and I know I will be dead within seconds; yet, even when he harbors murder in his eyes, I have never seen a more attractive, more enticing - more, more, more - beautiful human than him. Please do not take offense to this, I am sure you are quite tantalizing yourself; I probably would have stalked and hurt you too, as many times as I did him, if we had had the pleasure to meet bef...

39 likes 48 comments 48
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An Affair

Submitted to Contest #262

“I’ll have half a pound prosciutto, extra thin, please.” “I’ll have half a pound prosciutto, thin, please.” That echo comes from my right. I glance at the man next to me, he pronounced it proshute, as if he knows what he’s talking about. His skin is sun-kissed, I think that’s the term. With well-styled, dark brown curly hair, sinfully long lashes framing brown eyes, a roman nose and full lips, he reminds me of a long-ago movie star. Can’t remember who. It’s not important. Are you Italian? I ask. He shrugs eloquently.  No, he answers,...

27 likes 39 comments 39
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hush, said the wind to the sea

Submitted to Contest #262

I decided to go through my old chats, looking for my architect cousin’s contact information. He must know how much it’s worth, mom had said to me earlier, give me his whatsapp. I didn’t find his number, but I found you. Your name popped up. Fer left the chat, it said. The date was mid May, it was that one group chat with your hostel buddies and I. We hadn’t talked for months, so I found it odd that you decided to randomly exit this inactive group chat. I frowned, trying to recall if I had done something out of the ordinary, like texting you ...

19 likes 6 comments 6
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Triple Shot

Submitted to Contest #262

Alan's high end custom sneakers slap on the floor of Allegra's cafe, a hole in the wall with counter to one side and two high top tables with uncomfortable wooden stools to the other. The decor is dark, almost boho, it suits this-coffee-is-better clientele, who reject chain store sugar filled concoctions as a matter of course. He steps to the counter; Sandy the barista and saviour, maker of the best coffee in town, is there and ready to take his order, she already knows it. She raises her dark eyes to meet his. "The usual, coming up," s...

18 likes 16 comments 16
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The Twinkle

Submitted to Contest #262

Summer 1955Malibu, CAAna, Age 10 Dear Diary, My name is Ana, I am 10, I have red hair and freckles that I hate. My favorite color is pink, even though Grandma says it makes my freckles stand out. My birthday is February 2nd, and it’s always too cold to have a party. I have a party for my half birthday instead, August 2nd, at Grandma’s summer cottage in California. Usually the party is just my parents and grandparents and brother Nate and sister Karen, but it’s still fun because I get to pick a cake and I get presents and am allowed to swim i...

16 likes 20 comments 20
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A Summer Escape

Submitted to Contest #262

My hip joints ached as though each leg had been ripped off and crudely reattached by Doctor Frankenstein. I peeled myself out of the driver's seat of the old 1992 Dodge minivan and ventured out into the blistering heat of New Mexico. I was fairly certain Albuquerque should be coming up soon, but my need to stretch outweighed my curiosity. New Mexico had always made me uneasy, with their elaborate, pretentious highway art, polished exteriors, and rundown, grungy insides. The whole package felt intentionally deceptive, like a gingerbread house...

14 likes 27 comments 27
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The Golden Chorus

Submitted to Contest #262

To a field of juneberry and hawthorn bushes, between a dense forest and the beaches of the great water humans call Superior, the goldfinches return. They fly in groups, settling on the scrub bushes, taking in the home they’ve missed while wintering in warmer climes.As each flock trickles in, they join a rising chorus, one great song only paused for sunset. Let’s listen:Home home home!Home to love, to cool and safetyHome to seeds so tough yet tastyHome to song as day beginsHome to nests and warmth thereinEach arriving group brings their own m...

13 likes 9 comments 9
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Long may the sun keep Shining

Submitted to Contest #262

A family caravan park in Salthill in County Galway, Ireland was our parent’s choice of holiday destination for a lot of my childhood. It’s probably where I developed my love for the sea, always calming and soothing to me. The smells, the sights, the ice-creams, and of course the many friends won and lost on the beach, won and lost over and over on some days. The best days where when the sun was splitting the trees and we all got to show our knees.I’m remembering one holiday when I was eleven, all excited about meeting my friends again, not c...

12 likes 12 comments 12
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Eternal Recurrence

Submitted to Contest #262

I have this theory that every person has a sort of essential act they’re doomed to repeat until they die. A single deed that serves as a metaphor for everything they are. Like Sisyphus eternally pushing a boulder up a hill but, in my version, that act holds some intrinsic part of Sisyphus himself. Even if he could extricate himself from the myth, if he left the boulder at the bottom of the hill and just kept walking until he couldn’t see it anymore, the truest part of him would still be pushing a boulder up a hill in everything he did. He co...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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Formosa: Hot-Head Summer

Submitted to Contest #262

(This story contains physical violence and foul language.)I'm sitting in a makeshift jail cell, feeling miserable. I believe this is just some random room in which the security guards sometimes take their breaks. The room is bare besides some cabinets, a counter space, and a table with some chairs. The air conditioning is weak, and there are no windows.With my arms crossed, I let out a huge sigh. This is so unfair. What I want to do is to be inside the arena, like I planned to do, and scream my head off supporting the badminton duo who are f...

11 likes 14 comments 14
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Heat Hazy Days

Submitted to Contest #262

There was once a life within which I existed. Encased in a fantastical ecosystem designed to cocoon me from the pain of reality. Then it was over. A breeze-block in the face. I didn’t see it coming. The impact of the ending sent shockwaves of negative energy into batteries hidden deep within my body such that every time I thought I might have some respite from the pain of my sudden, shattering loss, those batteries fired up and fried my nervous system, leaving me reverberating with a sickness that I could not comprehend, let alone deal with....

10 likes 9 comments 9
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Linda

Submitted to Contest #262

(sexual references)I was nineteen, going on twelve in terms of relational nous.It’s not that I was unwilling to enter into a relationship – in fact, it was my wildest dream – but from an early age, I’d been chronically shy. Put a goose in front of me and the very last thing I’d have said to it would have been boo. I’m better now, but that doesn’t negate the frustrated yearning I went through as a teenager.This shyness didn’t extend to male relationships, however; I made friends easily at school, in the football team, and at the summer holida...

10 likes 12 comments 12
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Of Fiery Embers and Sea Green

Submitted to Contest #262

His eyes were those of burning embers as the setting sun reflected in their deep hues as if drawing me in and drowning me in the sea of their color, and all I could do was be drawn to them, no matter what I did.The warmth of the afternoon day still clung to the air as we swayed to the beat of the distant music, my arms wrapped around his shoulders and his hands on my hips, and I could feel the thump of my heart pounding against my ribcage at how close we were.I had never been this bold in my life, to be honest … Having always stayed within t...

7 likes 12 comments 12
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The Beach

Submitted to Contest #262

I hurled the damp pillow across the bed, too heated and keyed up to get some sleep. It was the hottest week of the summer so far, 81 degrees at 2:20 am, so I scooted underneath the ceiling fan for some relief. The house was fine, lovely really, but I hate heat of any kind, except to warm myself in the depth of winter. Fall is my favorite season, and I had at least six more weeks of discomfort, and less than half of that for this much-needed vacation. My friend and agent Elena had arranged for my stay here in sunny tropical south Florida...

7 likes 5 comments 5
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Light Amidst the Dark

Submitted to Contest #262

The sun’s rays threw spears of fire down on her, or so it felt. Sophia sat on the stone bench, grateful for the shade of the trees overhead, giving her a welcome break from the smoldering heat. She tipped her head up, resting against her hands as she stretched her legs out luxuriously in front of her. She relished the stretch of her muscles and the smell of the grass after being stuck behind her desk for most of the day. The wind played with her hair as it blew between the trees, teasing the ends as it lifted the short strands to blow agains...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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