Don’t Download a Boyfriend From The Dark Web at 3 A.M.

Alexandra NaughtonJuly 25, 2023

There are no real life meet cutes anymore. You either flip through endless options on dating apps, get lonely enough to take a chance on one of your orbiters, o...

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Breakup Sketch

Ross McMeekinJuly 18, 2023

Attorney Meredith Browning’s husband of five years, Drew Baxter, an emerging star in stand-up and sketch comedy, now on the second season of the eponymous sitco...

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High and Dry at the Honeypot Club

William M. McIntoshJuly 14, 2023

You can tell by the sound of Atomic by Blondie pumping through the ailing sound system that Brandy is into her third dance. By the time Black Dog by Led Zeppeli...

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Songs that sound like sex

Kirsti MacKenzieJuly 12, 2023

Let’s get this out of the way, I say. It’s time.   Time, he says.   Neither of us are smokers but we’re on the curb, coated in the smell. ...

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Welcome to McDespair

Josh DaleJuly 10, 2023

*A car pulls up to the McDespair drive-thru* Hello? *eerie white noise exudes from the speaker* Yooo! Anyone there? Welcome to McDespair, spill you...

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Pastoralia

Spencer K.M. BrownJuly 6, 2023

They were hitting. The two boys along the streambank, angry as Cain and Abel and oblivious of paradise vanishing, and just by the water’s edge, they were hittin...

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The Imposter

Amy DeBellisJuly 4, 2023

The first time I see the robot inside my husband, I think I must be imagining it. The alarm fractures my dreams, propels me into a hot cave of blankets, a ha...

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Erykah Badu Started a Live Video

Dave McNamaraJuly 2, 2023

Josh clicked the pop-up alert and a live Instagram video started. He saw her, squinting at her screen, as if trying to read something. He’d watched several of h...

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Container

Derek FisherJune 28, 2023

You will ease into the leather. Drive your slim frame into the car’s black cushion. You treat it like a dream pillow. Your eyes blink in slow motion, when you l...

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Have You Visited the Place Below Echo Park

Victoria VictoriaJune 27, 2023

Duran will be here any minute. I’m in a parking garage, where he said he’d pick me up for our date. I look into the shard of glass I keep in my purse. People...

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Who Do You Think You Are?

Jon DoyleJune 26, 2023

The man at the door knocked three times. Joseph could see him through the net curtain. A smudged outline, unmoving. Just a shadowed shoulders and head.  I’ll...

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A list of fun things to try at work when you’re quiet quitting

Suzanne HicksJune 25, 2023

Keep a cardigan matted with your cat’s hair in your cubicle to wear to all meetings scheduled at 4:00 PM. Sit next to Bernadine. She uses a lint roller more...

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Water Parks

Travis DahlkeJune 22, 2023

Beaver Tooth Baptism - This ride recreates that September afternoon when the air hit a hundred degrees and you watched Courtney balance across the fallen tree t...

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Reflections after Googling ‘How to be less anxious about my writing career’ and finding the same bullshit I tell my composition students

Lucas FlattJune 22, 2023

Of course, with the students, they’re mostly not dumb enough to think they’ll have writing careers, or else they’ve self-published fifteen sci-fi novels since t...

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MEXICAN VR (THE WAY THAT GNARLS YOU)

Joshua RodriguezJune 21, 2023

Grey hoodie pulled tight over her head. Concrete grey San Diego sky on a cool, restorative autumn morning. Staring out at it. Entranced. Eyes as glassy as the s...

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New Year’s Drive

Taleen V.June 16, 2023

I dreamt I fucked your husband. Except we didn’t, not technically, there was no penetration, and he came early while we were still rolling around. Told me he ha...

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The Dreams

Ian Crutcher CastilloJune 14, 2023

I upend my life. I don’t have much, but I pawn all that’s worth something. I sell a Patek Philippe watch I stole from my uncle’s office when I was eight years o...

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Murder, Everyday

Alexandra KesslerJune 7, 2023

The bartender was studying for his Real Estate exam, in preparation for which he secretly bought Donald Trump’s book on Amazon. He was enjoying it. Trump wrote:...

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On the Fourth Anniversary of the Attack of the Spiderbees

Rick WhiteJune 5, 2023

We meet in this petrified amber pub. Barely noon, I elbow past the skulking loafers — hulking sentinels stationed along the bar and squeeze into an unwelcoming ...

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Now We’re a Family

Tim FrankMay 29, 2023

Stacey was shopping in a supermarket for a big family party. She pushed a bottle of wine wrapped in a pillowcase, nestling in a shopping trolley, and she was co...

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I am JoJo Siwa’s favorite bow

Carly AlaimoMay 25, 2023

so wake up, wake up, I need you. JoJo took me out of old box for cameras, left me stuck on bow wall by Superbowl Bow. Now is my shot to get to new box before Jo...

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Brad Pitt in the Multiverse

Amber BurkeMay 18, 2023

There is a universe in which Brad Pitt cannot catch a break.   There is a universe in which movies were never invented, and Brad Pitt wanders aimless...

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Sexuality Is A Performance And The Audience Is Booing At Me

Naana Eyikuma HutchfulMay 17, 2023

Whats-her-face was a god the first time I saw her, perched on the top step in the dim morning light. I loved her immediately. She was not like anyone I had ever...

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Maps

Rupert TaylorApril 30, 2023

Have you ever tried Queen of Sheba soul cake? It’s a rich chocolate cake with rich chocolate sauce, and its named after the Queen of Sheba (obviously) who was a...

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When You Receive the Notice to Policyholders Regarding the Liquidation of Your Insurance Company

Colleen RothmanApril 26, 2023

Do not panic. Acknowledge your privilege in having insurance to lose. Your decision to buy a home shielded you as rents rose faster than sea levels. You could d...

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They Played Enya at the Monster Truck Rally

Brendan GillenApril 24, 2023

I’m not even kidding. In retrospect, it makes some kind of demented sense, but at the time, me and Kara broke our protracted silence and looked at one another. ...

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Reptiles

Wilson KoewingApril 24, 2023

Delancey and Price decided to visit the WNC Nature Center on a muggy Sunday afternoon in mid-August. Fluffy clouds hung low over the Blue Ridge Mountains and re...

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The Screenwriter or, The Flowers Are Blooming in Chernobyl

Jack MoodyApril 23, 2023

It’s a small audience: The director, the screenwriter, and a group of handpicked critics given the opportunity to witness the first cut. The director is a sh...

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99% Emptiness

Amy DeBellisApril 16, 2023

The forks and knives in the restaurant clatter like the beats of my shrinking, metallic heart. Across the table from me, Eric smiles. The familiar crinkle of hi...

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Twitch

Austin GilmoreApril 16, 2023

To all of us, to his friends, to the bullies who thought of the nickname, to everyone besides our parents and his teachers, he will always be Twitch. Whenever w...

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