Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

reedsymarketplace

Assemble a team of professionals

reedsystudio

The writing app for authors

reedsylearning

Writing courses, events and memberships

reedsydiscovery

Get your book reviewed

reedsyprompts

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Featured stories

Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

150+ Contemporary Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. All the newest modern day stories to thrill and inspire, all in one place.

Contemporary Short Stories – Page 10 of 10

April's Fool

Weekly Contest #350

I just received my tax bill. Are you serious-a penalty? A late filing fee? Excuse me. For what? Everybody knows there's no April 31, and April 1 doesn't count. Why? Because it's a federal holiday! Why does our government feel so entitled as to break the rules and laws? Everybody knows ALL bills get a fifteen-day grace period. Do the math. That means May 1 is the real income tax filing deadline. So how is filing my taxes on May 01 considered late? How come our government, with all its great intentions and flaws, can not calculate...

1 like

Read story

A Coconut Matcha Latte with Oat Milk

Weekly Contest #350

Detective Inspector Yost and Sergeant Detective Cambridge arrived to the scene late due to a traffic jam caused by a derailment of interest in the maroon sedan at the head of the specialty coffee drive-thru line. Yost deduced from the body language of the (presumably) male, Caucasian, late 30’s, mild gambling addiction, and the (presumably) female, Caucasian, mid 30’s, distant as of late, that she ordered a coconut matcha latte with oat milk and when the drink arrived a tad too hot, because of her tropical fruit sensitivity from her recent t...

2 likes

Read story

Double Rent

Weekly Contest #350

"Do you remember when we used to live in this city?" "Of course, I miss that time and the cat we adopted, who then ate our internet cable." "Yes, I still can't believe she did that. We were without internet for a whole week. I miss that time too." Now Lisa and I were back in the city, visiting a friend. It was dark outside, close to midnight. We were just passing over a bridge where the lights were glowing, making the street so yellow and timeless, and at the same time making you feel like the present is all that matters. Well, that...

6 likes

Read story

Tasseomancer

Jean Burnett

Weekly Contest #350

Tasseomancer Dee decided to do something positive in her old age: she bought a burial plot in the local cemetery. “I’ve always had a horror of being burned,” she told the cemetery official. The woman gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Most people prefer cremation these days, it’s cheaper.” In the following minutes silence Dee heard, “silly woman! Cremation is the modern way-no fuss.” She parted with a large amount of money and was shown an anonymous plot on a hill. At least it was a grave with a view. The sun was shining and t...

5 likes

Read story

A Potpourri of Freaks

Weekly Contest #350

Potpourri of Freaks was the name I suggested for our band. It’s what kids at school whispered about our trio of misfits as we walked past in the corridors. When I mentioned it to Taylor and Otis during our Thursday band practice, Taylor glared at me with pinched eyebrows, hands planted on slender hips, while Otis stifled a chuckle behind his drum set. Brushing my dark fringe out of my eyes, I tried to explain what I meant. “We’d be reclaiming the narrative, you know, like in the Scarl—” “Abby,” Taylor interjected, her voice sharp. “You’re no...

10 likes

Read story

Two Cups.

Robert Lent

Weekly Contest #350

(Sensitive Content Warning - My story contains the following themes: dying, and 'end of life' care). The whistle of Khia’s kettle had barely started before she lifted it from the base. She scanned the counter before her and, upon discovering a scattered line of ants, frowned. That's the second time this week I’ve left the window open overnight, she thought. Come on. Pull it together, Kay.She closed the window.Two cups, she thought. Just as she had every other morning. She poured the water into both cups—filling one to the top; the other, aro...

3 likes

Read story

The Shepherdess

Weekly Contest #350

The Budweiser girl on the vintage clock smiled down on her flock. Like any shepherdess, she was on the lookout for danger. Her faded skin suggested she might have been lovely once but now seemed tired and slow after years of vigilance, awaiting the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Pete Thornton could relate.He too felt tired and spent. He gave the shepherdess a nod, as he did every night.It was 7:40 PM and time for a ballgame.Although he didn’t know it yet, Pete too was being watched. His actions recorded and his demeanor scrutinized. “Anothe...

2 likes

Read story

Decisions

Weekly Contest #350

Evie Greyson yawned and stretched her arms high over head as she took in the morning view from her balcony, overlooking the still, turquoise waters of Airlie Bay.‘Beautiful one day, perfect the next. Isn’t that what they say?’ Even her best attempt at an Australian accent was heavily coloured by her own, still strong after all this time spent in Northern Queensland, 15000 miles from her home in the south of England.The sulphur-crested cockatoo, perched proudly on the balcony railing, tilted its head in reply.‘Of course, that was some time ag...

2 likes

Read story

Too Much Love

J Mira

Weekly Contest #350

By the time Laura Scheinbaum arrived, Walter Schmidt, known on that stretch of the street as Fix-It Walt, had already identified three things that needed correcting. Mrs. Rothchild’s geraniums needed to be moved twelve inches to the left to catch the morning sun. He had seen that the moment he rose from his cardboard bed on the upper landing of Number 6. The second was one he had been timing for days: the crossing signal changed two seconds too soon for Mrs. Schultz, in her eighties, to get across safely with her trolley. He found the third ...

14 likes

Read story

A kiss from death

Weekly Contest #350

trigger warning: talk of death On the eve of his 90th birthday, the old man sits in his recliner by the door. The television illuminates his small living space as he flicks on his favorite show, and the scent of pot roast drifts in from the kitchen. He lets out a loud sigh as he nestles himself into a more comfortable position in his chair, a permanent indent now formed in his shape on the padding. Despite the voices on the TV filling the room, the old man can’t quite remember the last time he heard laughter and happiness echoing amon...

2 likes

Read story

Vino, Verdad, y Vergüenza - Wine, Truth, and Shame

Kevin Lind

Weekly Contest #350

The trouble began with the second bottle of Rioja. The four were seated at a wrought-iron table on the rooftop terrace. The air smelled of orange blossoms and jasmine. Below them, the old city of Córdoba spread out in a warm, amber sprawl, and the floodlit walls of the Mezquita rose above the rooflines like a lantern someone had left burning for a thousand years. Dr. Elias Larson was forty-one, a tenured professor at Sofia University where he taught Medieval Islamic History. He was the only man at the table, the only American, the only one ...

9 likes

Read story

The Jesters Who Became Kings

Matheus Mariani

Weekly Contest #350

Two men enter a bar, sit by the balcony, where the bartender, a smiley fellow with a funny mustache, is washing a glass. One of the men looks tired, and the other yawns.One of them was tall and skinny, looked like a crane, wore a jacket and jeans pants whilst the other had sideburns and a distinctive buzz cut, he wore important clothes, almost looking like a colonel, but having the disadvantage of not being taller than five feet.The bartender recognizes the two patrons:“Why, who do we meet here?” he laughs. “You guys sure had a party.”“Too m...

0 likes

Read story

Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major

Weekly Contest #350

Note: This story intentionally uses outmoded language in a humorous context. The trigger warning shown is intended as an integral satirical part of the overall story and should be read as such. Trigger warning. The following content contains words and expressions that will offend almost everyone nowadays and are so far beyond their sell-by date they are practically fossilised. You can almost hear dinosaurs chomping their way through outmoded verbiage. Don’t say you were not warned! ...

4 likes

Read story

The comically six worst online dates I've ever been on

Virginia Albert

Weekly Contest #350

#350 Comic Relief – Virginia Albert – 4//10/2026This week’s prompt: Write a story with the goal of making your reader laughThe comically six worst online dates I’ve ever been on In 2026 and years preceding, every single person with access to a Smartphone or even a computer felt the weight, the gravity, the nagging tug, the loneliness, the candy flipper, the seductress, the home of my future husband? – all in the form of dating apps. When you go on the App Store, there are more dating apps than in any other category, it seems. Apps from inter...

1 like

Read story

Unwitting

Just Me

Weekly Contest #350

If I had known, I would never have done it.I mean, who really believes they'll be arrested for something so small? I had no idea that rescuing a cat from a tree—and then having it follow you home like some fuzzy, judgmental shadow—would get a person arrested for catnapping. I mean, really. A cat.The old woman who owned said cat was standing in her doorway the entire time, watching me struggle like I was performing some kind of community theater version of “Man vs. Nature: The Arbor Edition.” She didn’t say a word. Not one. No helpful “Oh, th...

1 like

Read story