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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of teens & young adult short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

5330+ Teens & young adult Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking for the best short stories for teens? Our collection of funny, suspenseful, and relatable young adult short stories will meet your needs.

Teens & young adult Short Stories – Page 2 of 356

Midnight Beauty

Submitted to Contest #297

It’s been about…three and a half hours since I became lost here. The trees have far past begun to seem more like my foes and less like my friends. Who knew I’d get lost in a forest? Oh yeah, my grandmother did. She told me not to come out here this late at night, but when else was I supposed to travel to pick up the blue rose? The most magical rose of all. It only blooms at midnight on a full moon and it only stays alive for an hour. After that, you have to wait a month. I’m impatient, though. I was not about to sit there and wait for my fat...

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Unconscious Awakening

Submitted to Contest #297

*TW-Mild mentions of mental health and substance abuse* What does it take to put the color back into a world where it seems to have been drained? How do you put vitality into a seemingly bleak life? What it takes is an epiphany - a breakthrough to shift one's perception and realize that it wasn't always this way, and it doesn't have to be. All it takes is an awakening. Not only of the individual, but the depths of consciousness itself.“Ralphie, wake up! "Rafael!” She called and called again, but to no avail. There's no point in getting up ot...

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Midnight Talk

Submitted to Contest #297

Self-reflection is necessary for growth, when you lose yourself to fear. It might not seem that way, but every day we experience something that changes the way we see ourselves, it doesn’t matter how small it is, if we think it isn't good, it will always affect us in ways we do not enjoy.“Why couldn’t you handle this like them”?“Why didn’t you act like them”?Those are recurring thoughts I have at the end of my day. I don't want them, but this is what I desire from myself, so that’s what keeps rolling around my head every time I go to sleep.“...

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Space Cowboy

Submitted to Contest #297

Contains themes of inexplicit gore, substance abuse, and mentions of self-harm. Contract Day; the day that most people looked forward to. An interruption to my mundane life, living on this half-dead rock, hurtling through space. I huffed a deep breath through my nose trying to calm my climbing nerves.Our whole lives lead up to this moment. From birth we were accompanied by an Observer. It was their job to research us; analyzing our intelligence, interests, physical and technical abilities. With the data they collected, Contracts could be cre...

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11:11

Submitted to Contest #297

Liliana knew it was stupid. She did. Really. Still, every time the clock stroke 11:11, she couldn’t help closing her eyes and wishing to whichever greater force took pity on her that for once she would experience the love she so craved. Every dandelion, eyelash, birthday candle and penny had been wasted on the dream of a love that had overlooked her. And every 11:11 she would wish again. Maybe it was immaturity. Stubborn as ever, she refused to give up hope. Holding on to the childhood fantasy that her first love was a meet cute away. He cou...

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Five

Submitted to Contest #297

Numbers swirl around me. My vision is clouded by symbols and faded images. Paper flaps and crumbles by my ear. Wind races around, pulling my hair and throwing the numbers into even more chaos. No matter where I turn, the chaos follows. Escape. Where is the escape? “Please!” I cry into the wind. My words only anger the force playing with me. The wind picks up, throwing me off my feet and destroying my senses. Soon, all the numbers and symbols disappear, but in their place, another takes form.Five. Five. Five. Nothing, but five. This goes on ...

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Lies We Tell Ourselves

Submitted to Contest #297

“How did I get here?”The question echoed in my mind, a frantic whisper lost in the thunder’s roar. The stone beneath me was cold, rough, and slick with a dampness that wasn’t just rain.Before me, Aurelia Astraea, my Ember-mother, was bound to a coarse surface of the table. Her pale skin and hair stark against the dark. Torches, jammed into the corners of the vast chamber, flickered wildly, like trapped fireflies battling a suffocating darkness.The air hung thick and heavy, a cloying mix of the coppery tang of blood, the metallic chill of fea...

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Dinner for Five

Submitted to Contest #297

The steaming kettle whistled on the stovetop and Mallory shuttered, jumping at the sudden sound breaking the noise barrier in her kitchen.Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.The large wall clock clanged back and forth amongst the silence in her apartment, the anxiety in her chest beating with each sounding. It felt as if the ticks and tocks were inside of her heart. However, what was truly in her heart was something much deeper. A secret.Mallory was pregnant.She didn't understand: how could something that so many people find exciting become her own trage...

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Sat. 11 am: Willow Point Park- SINGLE DADS CLUB

Submitted to Contest #297

Sat. 11 am- Willow Point ParkSINGLE DADS CLUB4:26 amHe cleaned the dishes. If I were to be kind about it, it only took him a year. I’m too drained to be petty. Hell, I’m too tired to continue even thinking about it. The throbbing hum quieted once I stepped into our apartment, kicking off the orthopedics that fused to my soles within the past 20 hours (but who’s counting? My paystub better be). I wind up my good shoulder, and chunk my trusty-Tired.Excuse me? I look past the kitchen and squint, hissing, try beloved-A cough seemed to come from ...

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555-6543

Submitted to Contest #297

Grandma was a woman with a trifecta of quirks: Quirk number one. Her well-worn, olive-green reclining chair had to be positioned directly under the skylight even though it continued to fade. I slid the chair closer to the TV once and she totally freaked out.Quirk number two. The drinking straws on the counter were divided into groups of specific colors, and each color was in its own clear, glass flower vase. Mother made sure to ask her which color she wanted before setting a mug of coffee in front of her.Quirk number three. There were three ...

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The Midnight Scythed

Submitted to Contest #297

Most teenagers in Whitwood avoided the church at the northern edge of the town. Rose Kerrell was fairly certain she must be the only one who liked to spend time there, although she knew Rue Graves and their friends had been messing around inside a month ago. She’d assumed they were smoking or something like that, not trying to solve a murder, which was always going to be a fair assumption. Murder investigations weren’t the best way to make friends. At least as far as she knew — she’d never gotten involved in anything like it before. Of cours...

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A New Dance

Submitted to Contest #297

It was suddenly 7PM. Marnie steeled her nerves as she left her mattress and began sifting through her coat hangers in search of a different sweatshirt. “Everything alright?” Her roommate asked, sitting up in her bed which was placed on the opposing side of the room. Marnie’s first week at boarding school had, at least so far, been enjoyable despite her initial dread upon arriving. Her new dread lay in confronting her parents after not returning their calls throughout the week. Unfortunately she too started to believe that boarding school co...

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I’ll Remember April

Submitted to Contest #297

Summer, 1995Who ever thought my first love affair would occur in what we called the jazz shack—a once-proud open air chapel in the middle of the forest that Boy Scouts had repurposed with makeshift plywood walls? I also never imagined it would be with a piece of music, but that is truth. It's possible to fall head over heels in love with a melody. For me, it was I’ll Remember April, that ballad made famous by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and countless jazz legends.The wind blew right through that chapel's gaps, carrying with it an assortm...

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The Art of Falling Forward

Submitted to Contest #296

Katie released a big sigh. “I’m entirely bored with life.” I paused Love Island: All Stars. The reality show’s latest bombshell, Ekin-Su, was mid-sob after the “Snog, Marry, Pie” challenge, tears, mascara, and whipped cream frozen all over her face. I had a feeling my girlfriend’s face would soon resemble Ekin-Su’s, so I wrapped my arm around her, giving her shoulder a light shake. “What makes you say that?” I asked. “It’s just the same old thing every day,” she replied, nestling into my shoulder. “Commute. Work. Commute. Gym. Eat. Sleep. I ...

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Mine, Always...

Submitted to Contest #296

The gardens of House Caelyn were vast—easy to hide in, intentionally or not. The hedges were high, the flowers always in bloom, and the air carried the careful touch of the estate gardeners.Avelwen sat beneath an old willow, its sweeping branches shielding her from the world. Her crimson braids shifted in the breeze like silk ribbons. A pale dress lay folded beneath her, the fabric brushing the grass. She tilted her face toward the sky, letting the sun warm her dark, glossy skin, which shimmered with golden undertones.A faint smile played on...

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