Contest Time!!

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat!”

Lisa stood there looking at Jane who had just informed her that she wasn’t going to even try in their new contest of wills. To see who was the bravest and smartest to get themselves out of situations of their own stupidity, the contest for this month was to see who could get the most drunk without passing out.  They were to meet at a bar on Friday and the chugging of the drinks would begin, they would each drink one drink each and wait for the other to finish before finishing the one they were drinking. She loved to be the winner, but drinking was not her strong point. 

“I repeat it doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat! You have to go into this with a strong will of winning and a desire in your heart to come out as a champion. You know I am not the strongest, best, drinker in this party, but at least I am going to try. I want you to promise to do the same.”

She watched as Jane nodded her head in a positive direction and she knew that she would have to practice her drinking before Friday because Jane always gave her a run for her money in these contests just for fun.  These contests had started as just plain fun and something to do in these hard times. Always trying to plan the contests they wanted to do for the week or the month, so that not a lot of people were in the same area as they were. The bar would have the biggest crowd since they started this little contest and she wasn’t too sure if she felt good about putting everyone at risk because of this stupid virus with a death count, a death wish.

Maybe she would get sick before that fatally day and no one would have to go near the bar to get sick even before the drinking started. Or she could invite the whole crew here to her apartment and have the contest here. Save money and the bathroom would be close when someone like herself got sick to vomit, whoever got sick and missed, cleans it up is going to be rule number one. No one leaves until she inspected the bathroom is going to be rule number two and she isn’t going to be in for any surprises after everyone is gone. Maybe she would bring it up to Jane before that day and maybe she could get Jane to change the contest for this week.

“It doesn’t count if you are planning your defeat,” she would start the conservation with Jane and stop dead in her tracks when she realized it wasn’t Jane planning her defeat. She was planning her own defeat because she honestly didn’t like this week’s contest. Thinking about all the times she had gotten sick, why on God’s green world would she do something that would make her sick. Going to work with an upset stomach and a throbbing headache was not her way of being focus on her job.

As the week sped by, she knew that she had let several chances pass by to talk to Jane about the upcoming contest. If she was truthful to herself, she would just say these contests were foolish and she was getting tired of taking part of them. Why she couldn’t face the truth and let everyone know she was getting tired of them was beyond her. They thought of her as being a dare devil and she did like that until something happen that she had to prove that she was a dare devil.

She was walking slowly along as people buzzed by her on their way to somewhere important that they had to get to. Her head was downward watching her feet more than looking forward and her mind was deep in thought until she heard someone yelling her name. She stopped to look around when she noticed Jane running to catch up with her. “I have been yelling your name for two blocks now. Where has your mind been?”

“I had a situation that I was thinking about. Sorry. What did you want to talk about?” Pausing as she noticed how red Jane’s face was from running to catch up with her and she felt she was going to learn something about Jane that she didn’t know before. She got the feeling that Jane was scared to tell her something, but she just had to bring it to the surface. “What is it that you wanted to talk about? I wouldn’t get mad at you if you did something. What is it? You are scaring me!”

Jane looked downward as if to avoid saying anything, so Lisa decide to make her feel more comfortable about telling her this one secret. “Jane, I have something to tell you which is going to surprise you. I think we should cancel these contest. I am getting tired of doing them for the enjoyment of our friends to see who the best is. So if you don’t mind we will just cancel them from now on. Is that fine with you? I still want to be friends with you.”

Jane looked up and smiled relief as she took in her words. Lisa knew that she had hit on the topic of this conservation and was puzzled on what was going on. “Jane, are you all right?” Tears started to flow of her soft brown eyes as she softly mouth “I am pregnant with Ted’s child.”

“What?” Letting it sink into her mind that Jane was pregnant with her sister’s boyfriend. First, she would comfort Jane and make her feel fine with what was happening. Oh my gosh, this was going to bring some nasty emotions to head and she felt sorry for Jane who probably had got sidetracked by Ted. Ted was a person that could spin the web of false lies to make himself look good. Sue had probably caught him with someone else and when dear old Ted told the story to Jane, he was the victim instead of the other way around.  She was going to kill Ted when she saw him next. “Does Ted know?”

“No, what am I going to do? Everyone will hate me and never want to speak to me.” She knew that would probably be true about her dearly sister, Sue, but she wasn’t too sure about the other people in the group since they knew how Ted was. Putting a comforting arm around Jane’s shoulder to walk on to her apartment, she had no idea how to make her feel better about the whole situation.