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Write a story with the line “This isn’t what I signed up for,” “This is all my fault,” or “That’s not what I meant.”

Posted in Dialogue on Jan 2, 2026

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✍️ 74 stories

Close Enough

Ana Di

Submitted to Contest #336

I wake up with anxiety in the pit of my stomach and immediately check my phone. Ash was online at 5 AM. Just like I suspected since our brief conversation yesterday, he’s had another one of those days — or, rather, nights.I type a short message, just one sentence: “I’m coming over.” He sees it and starts typing, but I don’t wait for a reply. I already know what he’s going to say, and he already knows I won’t agree. We might as well skip the arguing. Or at least delay it until I actually see him.It’s raining, but I don’t bother to take an umb...

21 likes

Get Outta My Shop

Submitted to Contest #336

Content warning. Contains strong language. The bell above the till rings every few minutes, as if wired directly into Rhea’s spine. The phone competes for her attention with a persistent whine. Someone near the books is coughing and spluttering like they’re trying to rid themselves of a lung, and someone else has come in, absolutely stinking the place out. Freda, panicking, charges out from behind the till with the air freshener and goes full pelt with it, setting off someone’s asthma – and the fire alarm. “OPEN THAT ******g DOOR. And Neil...

20 likes

The League of Nine. Well, Actually Only Eight

Submitted to Contest #336

“When you don’t have a plan, you’re frozen, and when you’re frozen, you’re useless,” Bob said. “Well, I don’t have a plan, does that make me useless?” There are times when Bob’s words of wisdom are plum annoying. “If the robe fits, wear it.” “Can you use normal words like yes or no?” “Having the ability and having the desire are two different things.” “I’ll take that as a yes.” Bob means well, but I need more than wise sayings to thwart the traitors’ plans. I need a plan. Unfortunately, I’m horrible at planning. And if that weren’t bad enoug...

18 likes

Static Between Signals

Ryan Malm

Submitted to Contest #336

The forest noticed him before he arrived. Not as a thought, not as a warning—just a disturbance entering its margins. Something upright. Warm. Temporary. The canopy adjusted in advance, fibers tightening where light would soon be interrupted. Spores loosened from their rests, preparing to sample what did not belong. At the boundary, the disturbance hesitated. The delay mattered. The forest shaped the ground beneath the hovering weight—not to welcome it, but to measure. Mass. Balance. Intent expressed through motion. The thing above the soil...

17 likes

A Frosty Tangle

Submitted to Contest #336

Jack’s eyes opened to sunlight and curtains dancing in the warm summer breeze. He was alone, but the sheets showed a crease where his wife had slumbered beside him. It was the first time in weeks he’d slept through the night and it felt magnificent. By the end of today, the weight of the previous year would be a thing of the past. The aroma of eggs whirled through the small gap in the bedroom door, the soft hum of Lotte’s sweet voice downstairs in the kitchen. He was so happy to be here. Summer mornings in Maine were Jack’s absolute fav...

14 likes

Flagged

Willis Rice

Submitted to Contest #336

The results came in at 11:28 a.m.On the left side of the screen was a yellow border with A.I. in red letters. A sentence to the right said:We are highly confident this text was AI generated.Lower on the page was a dropdown section titled Probability Breakdown.There was a list of three categories running vertically:0% Human0% Mixed100% AIEach value was matched with the same yellow ring. In every case, the circle was complete.The report took up most of the screen. The story was still visible in the pane beneath it.The student’s name was at the...

11 likes

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, But It’s What I Do

Alek Pouliopoulos

Submitted to Contest #336

There’s a clarity that comes from being kicked in the mouth; an alertness and awakening that not even the strongest stimulant can rival.As her foot connected with my jaw, it’s like time slowed down and I gained the ability to look back at all of my choices and wonder how exactly I ended up here. This isn’t what I signed up for.I signed up to put out fires. I became a fireman to crawl through the heat and the darkness of a burning building, not to change smoke detector batteries at 3 a.m.I signed up to save lives. I became a paramedic to rest...

10 likes

Inverted Jenny

Mindy Reed

Submitted to Contest #336

The 1999 Cadillac DeVille pulled up to the receiving doors. A silvered-hair woman, several inches under five feet, exited the car. She steadied herself on the car as Jennifer approached. Jennifer found the latch and popped the trunk open. It was filled with woolen suits, dressed shirts, starched and folded from the cleaners, polished loafers, and a wooden tie hanger with striped ties. Her coworker wasn’t feeling well and had left early, so Jennifer was on her own at the back of thrift store. She dragged a couple of large plastic t...

10 likes

Checkmate

Alla Holt

Submitted to Contest #336

"That's not what I meant." The computer blinked, long and slow. I wondered who taught it that—not who programmed it in (if it wasn’t me, it was Carli), but who taught it the timing. The blink had the smug patience of a cartoon wink, like Bugs Bunny playing slower than he is. Carli slept on the couch. Of the two of us, she was the one who would’ve fed it cartoons. "No, I meant two spaces back, then up. It's like you're not even listening to me anymore, I swear." Another slow, refracted blink. The peacock-colored orbs of RGB light gleamed acro...

10 likes

Citrus & State Lines

Asia W

Submitted to Contest #336

Six and a half hours into the trip, I pull the four wheel drive into a highway-side truckstop and we eat mandarin segments leaning against the sun-warmed bonnet. The fruit is shitty; dry, pithy pieces which taste only a memory of flavour. The bleached-red metal burns dully against my exposed thighs, denim shorts riding uncomfortably up my crotch. Mary spits a grey seed into the dirt and lets out a huff, kicking up dirt with the rubber tips of her canvas shoes. I know she would’ve rather pulled out her top row of teeth, one-by-one, than willi...

10 likes

Start Differently

Submitted to Contest #336

Akshita found the line in the notebook three days after the accident.The notebook had survived everything. The spill of coffee in February. The rainstorm in April when she’d run for the bus and slipped, scraping her knee and her pride. Even the move, when it had been tossed into a box labeled “MISC — DO NOT LOSE” and then promptly ignored for two weeks.The notebook was blue, soft at the corners, warped in a way that suggested loyalty. She opened it expecting lists. Groceries. Call Mom. Finish draft. What she found instead was a sentence writ...

10 likes

"The Woman Behind Sylvia Rockwell"

Submitted to Contest #336

Maryna Williams squints toward the horizon as she turns onto the suburban street. The rising sun shone over the red and brown oaks, a few green pines, and the roofs of colonial homes. The early Saturday morning drive from Western Massachusetts to Northern Vermont started getting to her. She let out a massive yawn and took a final sip of her gas-station coffee. Though Maryna probably didn’t need it. She was already jittery as if she had ten shots of espresso. Maryna was always like this when researching somethin...

9 likes

The Path

Submitted to Contest #336

The Path I raced home from class, pretending the traffic lights mattered more than the house waiting for me. Five points for green. Minus ten for red. The train was a guaranteed loss. I kept a running tally in my head, the numbers clicking forward like a slot machine that might pay out calm if I won.If I focused hard enough on the math, I didn’t have to think about what came next.The game started months ago, sometime after I moved in. Back when I still believed that if I kept things organized—emotionally, spatially, internally—I could preven...

9 likes

What a Witch!

Submitted to Contest #336

When Rochelle was a child, she had seen ghosts as a child. She had tried to tell her mother that her grandmother was at Rochelle's side, waving her hand. Unfortunately for Rochelle, her mother was not responding, and told her to stop talking rubbish. "And we'll say no more about that!"Well, some women have mothers, some do not. Rochelle put her visions to one side in her teenage years, and kept going, most days going strong, and feeling blessed by the best. In one year at high school, Rochelle used to skip classes and sit in the surrounding...

9 likes

Cure.exe

Nathan Chandler

Submitted to Contest #336

San Francisco April 1st, 2075 At that moment, the unit denominated Monitor, powered on and began running the day’s diagnostics as visual sensors powered on and displayed imaging data. The temperature rose slightly as light beams ignited. There was the light, again. A familiar cavernous room appeared, settled on a large silvery black floor and enveloped in a 360-degree wrap of silvery gray walls. Several computer consoles ringed a large steel table which contained hardware pieces and sensors. The equipment on the table appeared configured for...

9 likes

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