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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of gay short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

740+ Gay Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From cozy romances to coming-out stories and more, love wins in our collection of gay short stories.

Gay Short Stories – Page 12 of 50

A Poor Beginning to a Summer Journey

Submitted to Contest #214

DING! DONG! The silence of the summer air was suddenly broken by the chiming of a bell. Silence returned when the bell fell silent. It was broken for a second time when mobs of robed figures started streaming from the inside of the buildings. Some of them immediately passed through the wrought iron gates and onto the road, heading in the hazy direction of the city in the distance. Most, however, instead chose to congregate in the courtyard, gathering in small groups to chatter and bask in the flowery aromas of the gardens in the afternoon s...

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One For The Other

Submitted to Contest #213

“We’re all killers. We’ve all killed parts of ourselves to survive—we’ve all got blood on our hands. Something, somewhere had to die so we could stay alive.” -M.A.W., If Memories Could Bleed, If Dreams Could Scream Clothes are protection. A protection Simon has been using as a crutch for a long, long time. There were good reasons for him to protect himself as much as he did, make no room for doubt in your mind. His past was something he was not ashamed of, but something that greatly affected the present in a way that could only enable b...

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There was a Roach In the Peach Tree

Submitted to Contest #213

Trigger Warning: Death, Grief, and ColorismThe milky white mucus that would leak from her eyes had left lines carved into her face. A face I would only ever describe as hypnotically gorgeous was now contorted into a strange expression. My dull brain can’t come up with a fitting explanation for this. The only thing that comes to mind is that it was from an infection. Or perhaps the anguish of taking her final breaths. All that pain made the moisture in her body turn into an indistinguishable whiteness. It was like the clouds of her eventual r...

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Promise

Submitted to Contest #213

Sean Pedalton sat in his multi million dollar mansion. He threw one leg over the side of his perfectly clean white chairs. He scanned the room and scowled at it. He thought it looked more like a movie set than a home. At this moment he couldn’t remember why he had let his agent and everyone else talk him into buying a house in LA. He had to admit the view was beautiful but he much preferred living under the cloudy skies of Portland or Seattle.  Sean grabbed a piece of paper off the ground that he had thrown there moments earlier with s...

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Stormed In

Submitted to Contest #211

“What the…? Ugh, where are they?!” The young woman pulled out the heavy drawer and set it on the desk. The flashlight on her phone cast stark shadows upon its contents. After rummaging around some more, she let out another groan and dumped the drawer out onto the desktop. “Any luck?” Another young woman around the same age walked up behind her, peering over her shoulder. She had a heavy wool blanket wrapped around her and she began wrapping a second blanket around the first woman. The second blanket smelled old and dusty: a quilt left ove...

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Seven Unwanted Apologies: An Autobiography

Submitted to Contest #210

There was a study done in the mid 2000s that reported the average person apologizes around 3,000 times a year. I was ten when the data was gathered so my input wasn't included, but I know it would have drastically skewed the results. Even then it felt like my life was a cluster of "I'm sorry" and "Forgive me" with a person somewhere in the middle. As if my existence was such an inconceivable mistake I had to constantly atone for. But you probably want to hear about the aliens, don't you? It's honestly pretty boring. They invaded twenty...

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The Strangest of Nights

Submitted to Contest #210

Charles Mooncalf emerged from his cabin at nine in the evening on the dot, same as he did every evening, ready for his shift of walking the perimeter, and found himself lifting his hand to his eyes to shield them from a celestial brightness. Charles blinked twice and saw two moons sitting just above the line of evergreens that surrounded his tiny cabin. He was fairly certain that there had never been two moons before. His natural instinct was to try to get rid of the second moon (though he wasn’t sure he would be able to say which was t...

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Occasional Signs

Submitted to Contest #209

CASSODAY 40 MILES EL DORADO 60 MILES WICHITA 90 MILES They had been in the car for over an hour already and, besides Jeff asking Adrian if he was ready to go after they stopped for gas on their way out of town, they hadn’t spoken the whole ride. With each passing mile marker, with each destination sign, taunting him with how close they were nearing home, Jeff felt his heartbeat increasing, his palms growing sweaty, his stomach churning. Even his neck was hurting for all the times he had turned to glance at Adrian, waiting for either Adri...

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Small Packages

Submitted to Contest #209

Twelve-year-old Curtis Warren drives across a barren road at dawn. He needs a booster seat to reach the pedals. On the radio is an interview between him and a vapid journalist. 'Curtis Warren stars in the endearing family sitcom `'Small Packages' as the adorable Timmy. It's a delightful sitcom about a same-sex couple trying to raise a child, who is actually a 42-year-old Member of Parliament, in a conservative neighborhood. Now he's taking a dramatic turn with his new film `'Looking for Iceberg'. Now, I understand, Mr. Warren, that `Lookin...

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Trapped

Submitted to Contest #209

TRAPPED We had barely moved in thirty minutes. I realized, of course, that I would be in the same frustrating circumstance if I did not have a passenger, but there she was. Like me, Barbara was on the board of the Community Center which met once a month. Barbara was a single (divorced) woman about my age, with two grown daughters away at college. She worked as an administrative assistant in a real estate company.  I approached these meetings like I do my teeth cleanings, necessary but kind of a drag and a time suck. But being ...

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chase after belief

Submitted to Contest #207

 To whoever believes love to be foolish. I believed in many things. My friends as much as my family said that it was my best trait, that that is what one would call an optimist. I did not think I was. I did not believe in God, though I thought I would have actually been able to call myself an optimist if I had. I believed people could change and I believed I could not. The only thing changing was that rotten shell I was living in, the thing that peeled and twisted depending on which person I was with. I did not believe in God and ...

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STAGECRAFT

Submitted to Contest #207

STAGECRAFT“Cut! That’s a wrap, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much”.Applause broke out in the studio at this announcement. Even those actors, major and minor players in this movie, and not even on the final day’s call sheet had all turned up to be witness to this last day of filming. For the majority, this would be the pinnacle of their artistic careers; to appear in a movie that starred the great Dirk Hogart. It was a tale that they could recount to their grandchildren long after they had left the glitzy glamo...

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Her Greatest Fear, Herself

Submitted to Contest #206

Katherine shivers as she gets out of her car and immediately feels a gust of cold wind. She only stopped her car because of the human shaped ball of bright blue fire that she noticed travelling in her rearview mirror, seemingly consuming the entire road behind her in its wake. It was fire, it had to be. It makes absolutely no sense, but it’s the only explanation. She doesn’t know why she’s getting out of her car – everything in her body is screaming at her that it’s a terrible idea, she’s alone, a person on fire has been chasing her for seve...

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The Horse Moon

Submitted to Contest #205

Filka is staring at the beautiful full moon when her apprentice calls for her, “Horsemaster Filka! The ceremony is starting!” She turns to the boy, Jak. He’s only been here for a few days, but Filka thinks he has a promising career. The horses like him and he has a firm but kind touch on the young princess’ ponies. Filka walks into the royal dance hall and ruffles Jak’s hair. “Thank you Jak, you lead. We’re next to the blacksmiths this year.” She pushes him ahead of her. “Do you remember Trisha? We’ll be next to her.” Jak takes the lead, qu...

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The Beginning

Submitted to Contest #205

“Come on, Aine! We’re gonna be late! Mother won’t be pleased!” The wind carries Maeve’s admonishment through the trees, where I follow just a few paces behind. Ignoring the comment, I continue through the forest, focused on reaching the clearing some ways ahead. Just enough moonlight filters through the canopy of leaves above to enable our journey. We are indeed running a little late. Considering this is supposed to be the most important night of my life thus far, I may have spent just a little too much time getting ready and put us a littl...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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