150+ Best Contemporary Short Stories to Read Online for Free - Reedsy Prompts

Lost Memories

Submitted to Contest #309

It was heartbreaking. The love of my life of twenty years was a vacant vessel. I’d look in her eyes for any sign of recognition. Nada, nothing! The only response I could elicit was:“Do I know you?”Jolene had always been the belle of the ball. The sharpest mind and tongue in the room. I was smitten with her the first time we met at the university. She had that southern drawl and blonde southern look. I was ready to dismiss her as a typical empty-headed southerner looking for a husband. Coming from the east coast, I had my biases. My ego was i...

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almond butter

Samara Rastogi

Submitted to Contest #309

My jaw cracks as I yawn, and I stretch until my limbs pop and my joints creak. I blink, scratching the back of my neck, subconsciously reaching for my phone lying at my bedside, before I realize what I’m doing and silently admonish myself. I throw back the covers, the snow-white duvet landing in a heap on the heavily carpeted floor, slip on the flip-flops my grandmother has procured for me to wear specifically in the house, and pad down the (also carpeted) stairs. I enter the kitchen and pour some water for myself in an intricately decorated...

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An Old Fashioned Story

Gal Yehene

Submitted to Contest #309

Valeria never thought she would fall in love with a woman. She'd always sought out men – or did men seek her out first? Either way, she loved their rough hands, their strong backs, scruffy cheeks. You get the picture. Which is why getting her heart broken by someone who had boobs (fantastic ones, at that.) was simply – surreal. Like she stepped inside one of those Dali paintings where time stopped, and the clocks were melting. She slowly, desperately, tried to claw her way out of bed. But with each movement, the ghost of Dahlia's lips woul...

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Inked

Becca Boucher

Submitted to Contest #309

***This story has themes of infidelity and sexual situations Tay wanted to forget him. Forget how his steel gray eyes looked at her like he was staring into her very being. Forget the way his hugs enveloped her like a vice. And forget the way he made her feel with one touch. Yet here she was. Sitting in his chair again, her skin exposed, and anticipation tingled her spine. She silently watched him lay out the tools of his trade: ink, small plastic caps, and thin needles. Occasionally, he would glance over at her and flash a devilish sm...

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The Mission

Andrea Krist

Submitted to Contest #309

The clink of the metal spoon within the tall glass was a reminder that Devin stood in the kitchen and had yet to rejoin the party. He could still hear the chatter from the living room. It echoed down the hall in waves, the tone light and soothing before a raucous laugh would erupt.He twirled the spoon between his fingers then began stirring the contents in the opposite direction. The drink was already mixed, the tasteless powder dissolved. It would be unnoticeable and seamless in its final execution.Devin tried not to shutter. Even though he...

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Table Manners

Marc Wilks

Submitted to Contest #309

The smell of chicken and spices permeated the kitchen. The five cooktop burners held a pot, skillet, or saucepan. The oven racks were weighed down with sheet pans containing biscuits and a spiced apple pie. Frank Wallace stirred the mashed potatoes while simultaneously using a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the chicken sautéing in the large skillet. “Almost there,” he said to himself. He took some butter from the fridge, added a tablespoon to both dishes, and then slightly reduced the heat.Frank glanced at the clock on the m...

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As If We Never Met

Marisa Billions

Submitted to Contest #309

*This story contains adult language and situations. “Excuse me, but have we met before?” She’s standing too close to me. But she really doesn’t have a choice. The fundraiser is a “white party” for the re-election of the governor. The venue is a private members only club that I otherwise would never be in if it were not for this fundraiser. The dresses on the majority of the women cost more than my first car. The jewelry they are decked out in cost what I probably make in a year. But, I can’t complain because we are in good company- A-list ce...

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Tied to the Music

TA SzZinger

Submitted to Contest #309

The bass thrummed through her rib-cage, a low snarl that made her teeth buzz, while Isaac Brock’s voice cracked and howled like a man trying to outrun something that never quite left. The guitars tangled and staggered, wild but deliberate— just like the kind of love she used to chase. The crowd moved in loose waves, jerking and swaying, everyone a little drunk, a little feral, shouting lyrics that sounded more like confessions than choruses. Juliet felt it in her throat, in her spine, the way Modest Mouse always made you feel: like you were ...

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Evolution

John Losasso

Submitted to Contest #309

The Professor stared into his closet trying to decide which black sweater he should wear. The V-Neck sweater. No, he thought. Too new. Makes my black pants look even more faded. Maybe the crew neck Alpaca. Warm enough for this time of year. But It sheds too much. No, not that. He moved those two aside and reached for the merino with the zippered neck and brown elbow patches. Yes, this will work. She’ll approve of this look, for sure. He could not get his mind off of Kaila, the new, weekend bartender. It’s how she moves, he thought. It’s as...

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Looking for Latifa

A M Welsh

Submitted to Contest #309

Latifa By A M WelshWhen she woke, always before me, always at first light as slanting sunlight brought the touch of the day's heat in through the gaps in the wooden shutters, through the muezzin's long call to prayer as the swallows went swooping and screaming past the window down the long canyon of Rue Descartes, past Hamid the bed maker opening the steel doors of his workshop, in the first light in the still of the early morning she made tea. I would half wake and hear her in the kitchen. The metal sound of a lid taken off a tin, the shud...

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Mary's Diner

Randall L

Submitted to Contest #308

Luke woke up to one of those cloudless, windless summer days where the air was so thick and heavy that it felt like you were drinking it as much as breathing it. Birds barely flew, and every street, van, and building reflected so much radiant light that those rare pockets of shade looked like sanctuary caves scattered around the city.People here would say it’s not the heat but the humidity, but, Luke thought, when it’s still not even noon and you’re sweating through your second shirt of the day just six deliveries in, there’s plenty of blame...

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Summer in Chicago

Lapanda Mason

Submitted to Contest #308

I can feel the sweat beads running down my face before I even wake up good. The sheet on my bed is sticking to my skin like plastic. “Why can’t we have central are?” I say aloud. I look over to my sister’s side of the room, but she isn’t there. She always gets up before I do. The box fan sitting in the window is only blowing the hot air from outside in the house. The sound of it rattling, had become so normal it was like listening to the sound of rain hitting window. I get out of bed and make my way to the bathroom. “I gotta pee!” I ye...

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The Sun Rules Britannia

Henry Rogers

Submitted to Contest #308

Note: This story contains reference to deaths suffered by marginalised migrant communities. They say the sun never sets on the British Empire, but it hadn’t risen on this so far grey and tepid morning. The musicians of St Peter’s Symphony had been on the bus for hours at this point, and the sky had only just taken the trouble of brightening a feeble dawn. This normally wouldn’t command much attention - it wasn’t unusual for the group to travel long distances across the country, starting well before they’d like to be roused from their admitte...

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Undetected: A Tale of the Art Department

Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #308

Ethan’s heart thudded in his ears as the Council volunteers tugged the University-logoed plastic tarpaulin from Undetected. The pomp and ceremony associated with installation normally was of little significance to Assistant Professor Cooper. Nebraska-born, he found the labor itself – the design, the craft, the exhilarating exhaustion, the stiffness and sweat and abrasions and nicks inherent in converting Matter into Art – the true rush.But this Saturday afternoon, 92 degrees with a triple-figure index that had applied a virtual hot patch ove...

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Meeting Gina Again

Alisa Aiken

Submitted to Contest #309

When my children were young, I volunteered in their schoolrooms on my days off from nursing in the operating room. This type of volunteering involved doing whatever jobs teachers needed done; helping a student learning to read, collecting and passing out paper, mimeographing hundreds of copies of handouts and tests, even cleaning blackboards. But, when my boys got to a fifth and sixth grade combined classroom, I was asked to run a drug abuse class with Gina. I organized a visit to the hospital drug dispensary where the children were shown a...

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150+ Contemporary Short Stories to read

Contemporary Short Stories – Page 8 of 10

Lost Memories

almond butter

An Old Fashioned Story

Inked

The Mission

Table Manners

As If We Never Met

Tied to the Music

Evolution

Looking for Latifa

Mary's Diner

Summer in Chicago

The Sun Rules Britannia

Undetected: A Tale of the Art Department

Meeting Gina Again