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You know what? I quit.

Posted in Short Story on May 30, 2025

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✍️ 103 stories

The Final Game

Submitted to Contest #305

“You know what? I quit,” I said. It was Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and the ball was mine. I took off like a rocket on the inbound pass and had the jump before the defense could react. The announcer said, “Knicks answer! Oh me, oh my! And we’re all tied up. Thunder MVP, J.R. Hart with the ball… and he’s making a move.” As I crossed half court, every eye in the stadium locked on me. “Can the Thunder take back the lead, folks? If Coach Nysted wants anyone on the fast break, it’s J.R. Hart.” 2:42 on the clock. The crowd was on its feet. This was ...

36 likes 19 comments 19
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Leave to Lead

Shortlisted for Contest #305 ⭐️

Dale stood in the break room, watching his leftover salmon circle slowly inside the microwave. It steamed inside a stained Tupperware he didn’t recognize. The smell had already settled into the ceiling tiles. It was 10:04 a.m.The employee bulletin board beside him offered nothing useful. One flyer: “Q3 Wellness Push: Hydrate With Gratitude.” Above it, another: “De-Escalating Workplace Feedback With Smile-Based Language.”The microwave beeped. Dale opened the door. Steam hit his glasses. He dug in a fork, blew once.The break room door swung op...

32 likes 11 comments 11
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The Apron

Submitted to Contest #305

The sweat is pouring down from my forehead and my T-shirt is wet with it. I stand in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant in my home town, loading dirty dishes into large plastic trays and running them through an industrial dishwasher. The kitchen is already hot from the stoves and ovens, but even hotter around the steamy dishwasher which is where I am stationed for this crappy job. At 17, this type of work is among the little available for young, unskilled labor like myself. It’s not my first rodeo, I’ve had a few of these gigs before, but ...

31 likes 13 comments 13
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Chuck Throws in the Towel

Submitted to Contest #305

Chuck tugs away on his cigarette, black garters keeping his sleeves in place, looking at the mouse, looking at every flicker of his white, pleated gloves and his pointy button nose. Twenty-four drawings, twenty-four plastic cels, for one second of technicolour psychosis. Half a day for one sucker punch, for one haymaker, the flourishing of a wilting rose for the simpering Minnie. The mouse, the dog, the duck … he hated them all: their whiskers, their beaks, their ratty tails, their goofy teeth, every hammer, every drill and every waterspout....

30 likes 30 comments 30
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Rooms I Never Lived In

Shortlisted for Contest #305 ⭐️

My whole life has been about being there for others, being the good child, the good sister, the good friend, and the good employee. I have consistently put myself last in everything I have ever done because that’s what was expected of me. I bite my tongue, tamp down my frustration and anger, and smile like it’s not actively eating me alive inside. But today? Today I’m done. It starts with an email. Just one. Innocuous enough—subject line: Urgent: Need You to Cover Again. Again. I’m halfway through the sentence before I feel the familiar stin...

30 likes 18 comments 18
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Ctrl+Alt+Delete My Dreams

Submitted to Contest #305

You know what? I quit.I quit writing!I am so tired of staring at my computer, while nothing good comes out. The blank page, the ever-present, ever-ruling tyrant of my life. I keep doing all the things they say. I schedule space to write every day, and I only miss it a few days a week, but STILL.I’m done.I quit.I should be better at this by now. Years of writing little bits of this, little snippets of that. Clever one liners or interesting paragraphs that have no context or plot.It’s been decades of wanting to be a published author. I keep tr...

30 likes 33 comments 33
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The Break Room

Submitted to Contest #305

Sarah quit in front of the birthday cake. The cake was for Porter. His birthday was over the weekend, which meant they would have cake for him either on Friday or Monday. This time, it was Monday, because his birthday was on a Sunday, but there were no hard and fast rules about these kinds of things. There was a cake committee, led by Maura, and all cakes were purchased from the nearby supermarket. I have watched dozens of birthdays happen here. I’ve listened to people with badges and bad haircuts sing “Happy Birthday” off-key-- slowing down...

29 likes 7 comments 7
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Too Tired to Shine

Submitted to Contest #305

At some point, the mask always slips and the disguise comes off. The one she’s carefully crafted over decades. Flawless on the surface, tailored to every social cue, and cracks just enough to let the truth bleed through. She has been performing for so long, she could hardly notice the effort anymore. She knows when to smile, when to frown, and when to stay silent while the room erupts around her. She has worn the mask so well that she forgets it’s there. But today is different. Today, she’s slipping. Today, she wanted to quit, just for today...

22 likes 6 comments 6
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Revenge

Submitted to Contest #305

“You know what? I quit.” The words tumbled out of her mouth quicker than she had realized. Enough was enough. She took a sharp breath in and felt the weight falling off her shoulders as she breathed out. The relief set in. It was done. She focused in on her bosses’ face again and saw that there was no real reaction to her words. He was sitting behind his large, heavy wooden oak desk and leaning back in his chair, he said something about the need to sign a form before leaving and while she heard him talking in the background and gathering p...

20 likes 9 comments 9
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We're all family here

Submitted to Contest #305

Ok, one more time. Shoulders straight, chin up.I smirk and lean over the sink.“You know what? I quit!”Love it. Now do a middle finger.I show the middle finger and I depart. Oh no, too much of a twirl. Again.The door opens, and Jack walks in, heading straight to the urinal, not acknowledging me.“Alright, Jack, mate! How’s it going?”He turns over, his eyebrow raised and scuffs. “Close your zip, big man.”I look back at the mirror, and my zip is all the way down, with my shirt pushing through it like a tissue.“Heh, thanks mate. How embarrassing!...

19 likes 5 comments 5
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The Great Office Uprising: A Tale of NAP Reports, Tuna, and Triumph

Shortlisted for Contest #305 ⭐️

Chapter One: The Last Paper Clip The fluorescent lights hummed a funeral dirge over my cubicle. I stared at the mountain of "Urgent" files—neatly color-coded, alphabetized, and entirely pointless—and felt my soul crumble like a stale cookie. Across the aisle, Aaron from Accounting was muttering to his spreadsheet, still sporting the neon clown nose from yesterday’s mandatory "Wellness Wednesday." The office smelled of burnt coffee and existential dread.I picked up my stapler. Not just any stapler. The stapler. The one I’d named "Steve" durin...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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A Granola Bar

Submitted to Contest #305

Alice gripped the strap of her cross-body bag, the worn leather slick beneath her palm. Her sensible, grey shoes felt paper-thin against the cracked pavement. It rained that morning, leaving the world a weary gray. “Alright, Alice?” Officer Miller stood beside her, arms crossed. He looked like a refrigerator that had seen too much life. “Ready for the glamour of child services?”She forced a bright, useless smile.Inside, she was trembling. She’d spent the night memorizing her checklist, policy, what she was allowed to do and what she wasn’t. ...

18 likes 7 comments 7
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Showdown at El Corazón Dorado

Submitted to Contest #305

The afternoon sun blazed through the salt-stained shutters of El Corazón Dorado, casting golden bars of light across the weathered wooden tables where gold was won and lost with the turn of a card. Cal "Splitjack" Caldeaux lounged in his chair with the easy confidence of a man who'd never met odds he couldn't charm, his fingers dancing over his cards like a maestro conducting an invisible orchestra. The sea breeze carried the intoxicating scent of spirits, danger, and possibility through the cantina's open doors, mixing with the earthy dampn...

18 likes 0 comments 0
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Time to Upgrade

Submitted to Contest #305

It's a Halloween night after 2 am, and the kids in my family left a few hours ago. They came and raided my candy bowl, then went home around 10. I was glad because I need some sleep. I have to get up early for work tomorrow. My thoughts are racing. I toss and turn a couple of hours. I started having weird jerks before I can fully get into a deep sleep, so I get up to get a drink of water. I'm hoping I can get right back to sleep within an hour or less. Time is ticking away. It is then I notice a flash of light coming from my nightstand. My e...

18 likes 5 comments 5
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The Weight of Peace

Submitted to Contest #305

The night smelled of burnt earth and gunpowder when Dan Hicks said, "You know what? I quit." But that came later, after the world had torn itself apart one more time.The trenches stretched like infected wounds across the landscape, carved deep into ground that had forgotten what grass looked like. Dan pressed his back against the muddy wall, feeling the vibrations of distant artillery through his spine. Each explosion sent tremors through the earth, through his bones, through what remained of his sanity."Christ, Danny," Jamie whispered besid...

18 likes 8 comments 8
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