Not Adults

Benny looked down calculatingly the sweat beginning its trek down their face. They didn’t think they’d ever go back to their childhood hobby. What almost drinking aged adults would willingly play a card game targeted toward children. 

“Your turn.” They muttered after placing their cards down knowing they had this round in their hands if their opponent would truly make a move as idiotic as earlier. 

“I know this is just a game and all. But I thought you said you’d never come back to this Benny?” Benny’s opponent stated before shuffling through their discard pile disturbed. 

Benny huffed as they placed the cards in their hand down watching their opponent closely. They wondered if they should answer the question but quickly dismissed that doubt with a small clear of the throat. 

“I figured I should actually keep up with my resolutions this year. I feel like I created resolutions just for the hell of it ever since I became an adult.” 

“Your resolution was to return and play a game of Pokemon?” Benny’s opponent seemed to repress laughter before once again making another haphazard move costing them the game. 

Benny knew that it sounded odd to someone who wasn’t himself. But it truly wasn’t that funny. Last year’s resolution was truly the funny one. Benny believed he’d have enough resolve to earn enough for his own place. God and the years before that they wanted to make those around them happy. That didn’t even last an entire day into the new year. Too much effort required for such complex beasts. 

“You shouldn’t be so surprised. You know I missed you guys,” Benny exhaled from his nose and collected his cards glad to have another win, “Feel like each year we all distance ourselves even further from each other.” 

Benny’s opponent laughed, “I’d drink to that if I actually had the guts too.” They pretended to be in thought as they reshuffled their deck rapidly, “I bet if we snuck some drinks in all the other guys would probably show up.” 

Benny concentrated on the sleeved cards sifting through their opponent’s hand. He had almost forgotten about their friends. Their friends had basically abandoned them for true adult life. Though these friends acted more like prepubescent boys than drinking aged adults. The more Benny thought about it the more he wondered if that was just some continuous cycle. Those were among the people he failed to make happy the years before. Had his prepubescent minded friends made any dumb resolutions in their past. 

“New sleeves or new deck Benny?” Benny’s opponent sliced through Benny’s concentration easily like a hot knife through butter, it was a talent of theirs. 

“New deck. Created it just in case you remembered my play style.”

“How could I remember your play style from two years ago? I can hardly remember my own deck.” Benny’s opponent starting setting up for the next round, “And I play with the same one almost constantly. Have you gotten paranoid in those two years?” 

“Only more aware.” Benny retorted shortly gathering his coin for the flip. 

A silence built around them, besides the sound of sleeved cards passing through each player’s hands. It wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable silence, just one of deep concentration. Sweat built on each person’s forehead and journeyed down their faces. 

“Was it just your resolution that brought you here? You just want to play a couple rounds of a card game with me?” Benny’s opponent stated cutting the concentration and the silence. 

Now it was a completely comfortless silence around them both. They looked to each other, gazes matched and eyes locking, like a staring contest no one requested. Benny blinked first placing the cards in his hand down. 

“Silvio you’ll probably mock me if I say the complete reasoning behind my choices here, but yes. Technically.” 

“Technically? Was it the trama of our previous friends leaving to go get dumb levels of drunk and hang out with others more their age? Don’t act as if I wasn’t there with you. I’m not just your opponent.” 

Benny looked away from Silvio and up at the ceiling, “Remember when I told you about my resolutions a couple years back. It’s about that.” He huffed collecting all of his cards into a neat stack as he leaned back in the chair. 

“Resolutions are so pointless. Of course, I don’t remember. You never follow them.” 

“Because they’re always long term commitments. I have learned as the adult me that many long term things never work out.” 

They both grumbled, but neither seemed to disagree with the other. Benny thought back to the resolution of getting his own place. Not that Benny just bailed on it, more like everything else around them just didn’t desire it. Like the protagonists of most stories, they have to get dragged around in the mud for a while before anything beneficial would happen. They slaved away at his grocery store job trying to motivate themself. At least they didn’t earn minimum wage. Freshly-achieved-twenty-year-olds deserve an alcoholic drink too. They were just tired of being dragged around by his job then throw in a bully of a roommate. It almost made Benny gleeful that they hadn’t decided to stick to the whole make everyone happy resolution. 

“Tragic,” Silvio muttered resting his head on the table the cheap playmat rested on. 



“You can say that again,” Benny stated lackluster in tone phasing in and out of thought.

Silvio exhaled fiercely as if starting up for a remarkable speech but instead lingered in silence. Thought driven silence. Reflection and assessment rolled back and forth between the two. No words needed to be exchanged. Silvio had never really paid attention to how meaningful making resolutions was to Benny, but he decided that wasn’t really important. They lifted their head slowly eyes focusing on the sweat dripping from Benny’s chin. 

Benny hadn’t noticed Silvio’s shift in attention. They reached for their deck packing it up neatly so it would be damaged in his haphazardly packed bag. They couldn’t believe how well this resolution worked out. They had no choice but to keep it going now, even when they were drinking aged adults. 

Benny grinned to Silvio. Silvio reciprocated. 

“I’ll see you again next week. Gotta keep up my trivial resolutions this year.”



“You better. I’ll wreck your new deck if you wait another two years.”