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Write a story where an important conversation takes place during a dance.

Posted in Short Story on Jun 7, 2024

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✍️ 73 stories

Found Family

Winner of Contest #254 🏆

I don’t really know how to tell this story. For a start, there are some logistical difficulties – I’ll get to those later – but even without those, I don’t know how to explain it all. I guess I’ll start when we saw each other at the club after four years apart. That night, my head was pounding with noise and my heart was burning with hurt, and I’d come to the club alone – a stupid move for a girl, some part of me still said, though I hadn’t looked like a girl in public for over a year. I threw myself into the sweaty, rainbow-hued crowd prepa...

84 likes 30 comments 30
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A Need to Dance

Submitted to Contest #254

“I need to dance to this with you,” you demanded, your chartreuse eyes an inextinguishable flame that bored into my soul and burnt through my defences.Need! That’s not a need. A need is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as something requisite or necessary. Dancing to “I’ll Be Around” by The Detroit Spinners is certainly not something that one requires to live…Zoe, I can’t dance.My brain spun and sputtered out all its reasons as if they were drops falling down a plastic tube. However, even it knew that it was helpless in the face of yo...

38 likes 60 comments 60
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To Have and To Hold

Submitted to Contest #254

Madam Pearl De Vere wanted me to look eye-catching on the night of the ball and provided a new gown for the occasion. Its hand-embroidered satin and plunging neckline flattered my slim waist and hips, without drawing excessive attention to my cleavage. I had no reason to advertise my wares.   “Tighter, Eliza!” I said, as she strained behind me. “Pull with all your might!”   “That’s as tight as tight can be, Miss Teresa.” By the time Eliza had secured all the laces and buttons, and powdered my tresses, it wa...

30 likes 42 comments 42
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Dancing from Winter into Spring on the Mystical Coast

Submitted to Contest #254

Part I. Dance of the Mystical Coast He would always remember the week in 1898, when his whole world changed, and he felt as if the personality of the Mystical Coast, herself, reached out and flowed through him.“SSSShhh…” The late evening breeze rustled through the Douglas Fir boughs.In the river sleek seals glided and spun in the water near the boats at the rustic wharf.The whole world was dancing from Winter into Spring on the Mystical Coast. It was like poetry coming to life.These were the thoughts of the young man sitting high on a mounta...

27 likes 28 comments 28
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Sadie Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #254

I have played this entirely wrong. Entirely wrong, Mrs. Trent. I thought if I showed up at the Sadie Hawkins Dance without a date, it wouldn’t matter, because there’d be extra girls looking for one. You know how there are always extras? I mean, I’ve never been to a Sadie Hawkins Dance before, but I know that there are always extras of just about anything, so I figured there would be extra girls standing around in case a guy wanted to go to the dance, but nobody asked him out in time for the dance, you know? Frankly, I was shocked none of the...

24 likes 16 comments 16
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Dan Helsing

Submitted to Contest #254

The neon sign strobed into the night, red like blood: ‘THE VAMPIRE NIGHTCLUB’.Dan Helsing grunted. He shook his head and pointed to the flashy thing. ‘You see that? How distasteful! There’s an actual vampire in our midst and these people are making money from the bloodsuckers’ name! The gall.’Simon frowned. ‘Um, Sir? I’ve been watching this place and it seems that they’re actually vampi—’Dan whipped his cape over his shoulders for good effect and barged through the black door. ‘Come along, Simon. We have a vampire to find. I have much to tea...

15 likes 10 comments 10
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A Nomad's Dance

Submitted to Contest #254

The gypsies played their hip-throbbing tunes on this fine evening, hired by the groom out of respect for his elders. No wedding is complete without Romani music, they thought, as the fast-paced rhythms mixed with raki cajoled the younglings into shaking their bodies with an exuberant lack of coordination—a dance best described as pulsing mini-seizures. Of course, some of the kids and men were crafty with it, synced with the notes, dancing on beat to make quite a show, drawing claps and roars from the onlookers.This idea of grandeur originate...

15 likes 3 comments 3
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Ballroom Casanova

Submitted to Contest #254

Noel Needham humbly credited women’s attraction to him to one simple fact. He always wore a suit jacket to his weekly, ballroom dancing class. His refined look outclassed other men wearing sport shirts and shorts. He believed presentation was everything. His tux was reserved for competitions. Of course, there was more to his popularity than snappy clothes. Noel was a master conversationalist. Bon mots and flattery tripped easily off his tongue as he led partners in effortless dips and turns. His physical grace and entertaining demeanor had w...

14 likes 20 comments 20
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The Dance of Spies

Submitted to Contest #254

1862 Missouri was safe for no one. It was a state divided by loyalties to both the North and South. One never knew if their neighbor was a friend or foe, and those who did, built up their own private militia's, and battled among the fields of their homes. Still, many Missourians either chose to pretend nothing was amiss, or they used their daily interactions, as a front to gain information and send it off to whichever side they deemed necessary. By all other accounts, it was a beautiful summer day, and a ball would be taking place that eveni...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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Invitation Only

Submitted to Contest #254

The invitation stipulated the attire. John was never a fan of formal dress. Comfortable anywhere other than a suit and the places where a suit gained entry. To John, a suit was armour and he was a lover, not a fighter. He aimed at loving pursuits, not that it got him anywhere. He consoled himself with the avoidance of the fight. Even the prospect of conflict left him cold. Sometimes, he wondered whether he was a coward. He didn’t feel any cowardice trembling in his blood, but then people became desensitised to their sins, telling themselves ...

13 likes 16 comments 16
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A Dangerous Dance

Submitted to Contest #254

The big decorated doors in front of us creaked and groaned as they opened inwards. The crowd I was with shuffled and murmured uneasily. The smell of fear, excitement and nervousness permeated the air around me. I loved it. It was all I could do to not take a deep breathe in and smile. One by one the fidgeting turned to walking as the 100 people all started slowly walking inside the great hall. Long elegant dresses swished against the floor, and the clacking of heels was sharp against the still silent crowd. Everyone knew why they were here, ...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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The Viper in the Emerald Gown

Submitted to Contest #254

The Viper in the Emerald Gown “So, you were sent to kill me, right?” he asked, moments after his hand caught her waist and the tips of his fingers met hers. “Is it that obvious?” She blinked at him with big brown eyes, delicately swaying to the music. Her golden hair fell over bare shoulders as the prince spun her with an outstretched arm. The satin of her dark green dress swirled and slithered around the pristine ballroom floors, snake-like. And above, the chandelier put the whole room into a dazzling haze. “Mm, deliciously so,” h...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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I Cross My Heart

Submitted to Contest #254

Author's note: This story contains the lyrics to one of George Strait's most heartfelt and recognizable love songs. I don't own any rights to the song, although that would be really great for my bank account. (And despite what one character says out of anger, I really do love the song — cross my heart.)**** He never wanted to slow dance. In all my time spent with Mickey, I could never convince him to get out on the dance floor with me. He'd race out there for all the regular wedding bangers like 'Takin' Care of Business' and always put on qu...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Rumor Has It

Submitted to Contest #254

Dust rises behind George Pentland’s carriage as he arrives at his nephew’s manor in Wiltshire. The date is August 8, 1889, the significance being it is his nephew’s eighteenth birthday. Lord Joseph Pentland of Wiltshire, to be exact. George has been Joseph’s legal guardian and overseer since Joseph gained the title at the tender age of eleven, when both his parents died in a horrible accident.  George, a tall, good-looking gentleman in his early sixties with a large, well-maintained grey mustache, is met at the door by th...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Never Let Her Go

Submitted to Contest #254

Sequel to the last story, Let This Last Forever. Her hands play mindlessly with her pink ruffled dress. She wraps her fingers around the end of the pink silk bow attached to her hip as her eyes constantly scan the room for him. As she looks around the big gym floor the soft smile on her face seems to slowly downward at the feeling that coming tonight was a mistake. Kenzie can see all of her classmates being twirled and swung around, their laughter and giggles echo repeatedly in her head as if they are purposely mocking her. She wonders if ...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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