Game night

I stood before him, I hated him with every fiber of my being but he had something that I wanted so I had to comply.

    “So you decided to come it seems, and for this?” He was speaking in that goddamn condescending tone that I hated whilst waving a box with his right hand. 

    “You know this only ends one way, and you only have two options! Hand over the box now and nobody gets hurt or we fight and you end up 6 feet under.” I yelled at him pointing my finger at him.

    “Looks like you’re gonna have to play a game then because I’m not giving it up that easily.”

    “As if, you’re just gonna run off if you lose, I’m not playing these stupid games.”

    “How about we play black jack, war, and if its still tied… we’ll decide it with a coin flip.” Those last words he said in a calm yet bone chilling voice, not only that but his eyes pierced my heart as if he knew he’d win if we played. He then snapped his fingers and we were suddenly sitting across from each other at a poker table. 

    “What th-“ 

    “Ok we’re starting with black jack, first to 3 wins is the winner of the game and comes one step closer to the grand prize of!” He spoke as if he were speaking to a crowd, but only I was there. 

While I was busy trying to figure out who he was putting the show on for, a giant podium rose from the ground carrying the box that felt like my lifeline. 

Realizing that I would have to play along with his games I sighed, took in a deep breath and cut off his little monologue.

“And as you can see we will be playing with a robotic dealer so no cheating will-“

    “Shut up, I’ll play your little games so just be quiet and let's start so I can win back what was already mine.” 

    “Getting feisty are we? Okay I guess we’ll have to start before the baby cries to mommy.” With those words we were given our first starting hand of the game.

    “You’re kidding me right? 4 and 2, how do you even start with such a low number?” I thought to myself after looking down at my cards, and apparently my face showed it all as he gave a snicker from across the table.

    “Someone got unlucky.” He sang in a cheerful voice.

    I just glared at him and it seemed I pierced him deep with it as he just gave an awkward laugh and looked down at his cards.

    “Hit me I said,” then the shuffler spit a card from its mouth and I picked it up seeing it was a queen and slid it silently into my hand.

    “Hmmm, I’ll pass.”

    “What but he only has two cards surely he didn’t get something worth passing on.” I thought to myself, “shit if he’s not bluffing then I’d already be down a win, guess I have to hit.”

    “Hit me!” I shouted, a bit louder than I had expected. The robot seemed mad, it had thrown the card at me at the speed of sound and it grazed my pinky leaving a small cut on the bottom of my pinky. I winced at the pain and picked up my card and my heart dropped, “a king now!” I wanted to scream and started fidgeting in my seat but managed to keep it together.

    “Pass” 

    “I’ll pass too,” I said with a shaky voice.

    We both flipped our cards and I was shocked to see he only had a 4 and a 7 in his hand. I had made a complete fool of myself and I realized just what kind of game he was trying to play. As much as blackjack seemed to be a game of luck, he managed to make it a game of poker, and when it came to poker he had always been the king of it, I wasn’t even in the same dimension as him. 

    After seeing the cards I could feel my eyes burning with rage, but he simply clapped and started the next round before I could say anything. The cards evaporated into the air and we were both sitting back down in our seats.

    “And now it's time for the start of round number 2,” he declared, pointing his finger to the sky and putting his foot on the table. 

    *30 minutes later*

    I managed to get the score tied 2-2 after getting two 21s back to back, however I was far from confident I was going to win the last round. He had been monologuing between and during each round which made me a bit hotheaded. “I just want to finish these childish games of his and claim my prize,” I thought to myself staring at the box on the podium.

    “Time for the final round of black jack to commence!”

    Cards shot out of the robotic dealer and I picked them up and was pleasantly surprised with what I was seeing. 

    “Ace and 7!”I thought to myself. For any other round I would’ve stayed at 18, but he was hiding his face and he was being oddly quiet too which got my brain moving, “he could be trying to trick me into thinking he has a higher number than me but he could have a much lower number again and wants me to bust or the other way around.” The thoughts were overwhelming my mind and I was about to speak but quickly stopped myself.

    “I’ll pass,” I said. After hearing those words he lifted his head and I saw that I had in fact made a critical error in my judgment. 

    “I’ll pass too” he spoke with such arrogance and his eyes looked to be glowing a bloody red. “Game Over!” He shouted, flipping his cards over showing a jack of hearts and queen of hearts.

    I guess I had lost, I hung my head low feeling devastated. The chance of winning back to back games of luck was 25%, far from ideal, but then it hit me, what if I mixed my cards during war. This devious stunt tore away at my morality, but It couldn’t be helped, at this point it was the only way to assure that I could guarantee a 50-50 chance at winning.

    War is a game where you’re either gonna win or lose with your starting hand making cheating extremely difficult, however it is ultimately possible with enough sleight of hand. I may not be able to win a game of poker against him but when it comes to sleight of hand I’m far better giving me an immoral but clear advantage in this game. He could count cards but would he really think to do that in a game with 52 cards? Too many questions were clouding my mind and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to snap back to reality.

    “It is now time for the game of WAR! Is everybody ready!”

    “…”

    “Ahem, I said, is everybody ready!” 

    “Just start the damn game!” I yelled.

    “Aw come on we can have a little fun, it’s not often we get to play games like this anymore.” He was pleading awfully hard and even I almost felt bad for him, key word is almost.

    *sigh* “Just start the game.”

    The robotic dealer split the new deck that had appeared and was currently floating down to the table. We received our cards and then put our stacks face down in front of us. 

    “And now let th-“ he stopped mid sentence after seeing me glaring at him and clearly getting the message, he flipped his first card over.

*45 minutes later*

    Neither of us had said a word since the start of the game and I had yet to use my “secret technique” but the game was already close to over and he looked scared. Thinking about it a bit he was likely scared of me, I hadn’t seen him look like that in a long time and you could feel the fear in the air and almost smell it. He wouldn’t look me in the eyes anymore when each round was over and would just take the cards when he won.

    “You already won this game so let's just move onto the coin flip already” he spoke staring at the ground.

    “What happened to all the enthusiasm you had just a moment ago,” I said in a mocking tone, but secretly I was ecstatic.

    “Game threeeee start!” Apparently he was just sick of waiting around because his eyes were sparkling brighter than the sun when he said those words, there were physical rays coming from his eyes that burned parts of the table that they hit. 

    “Fucker,” I whispered trying to hide my smile. 

    “Looks like the winner of the prize will be decided by the last game of the day, drumroll please.” 

    *thud thud thud thud thud* 

    I looked around and sure enough drums were floating in the air and it looked like they were being beaten by an invisible force. By this point I no longer questioned the logic of the room we were in anymore and just looked at him.

    “Well looks like it’s come down to this, the winner of the prize will be decided by a simple coin flip, are you feeling lucky today?” He gave me a stern look as he asked that last question.

    “I’ve never lost a coin flip you know this, how could I not feel lucky.” 

    “I hate that fact but today is the day that I come out on top,” he pointed at me as if challenging me to a duel, but I just looked back at him and handed him the quarter that had appeared in my hand.

    “Flip it and then we’ll find out if today is the day.” I said with a smile on my face.

    “Let the third and final game… Begin!” With that he flipped the quarter in the air.

    “Heads” I said with absolute confidence.

    The quarter spun in the air for what felt like an eternity, until gravity finally caught up with it and it began to descend back to the earth. The quarter hit the ground with a loud *clink* and bounced twice before finally settling on heads.

    “YEAHHHHHHH!” I screamed in excitement rushing over to claim my prize, “In your face! I told you I’d win!” I grabbed my prize from the podium and opened it excited for what awaited me.

    I opened the box and inside was a single chocolate donut with sprinkles on it. I could feel my eyes sparkling with excitement, however when I looked over at him and saw him with his head down. I looked down at the donut and sighed, ripping it in half, it didn’t quite rip perfectly. 

    “Tsk” I walked over to him and handed him the bigger of the two pieces, his eyes immediately lit up as he snatched it from my hand.

    “Thank you” he chirped, sounding happier than at any other point of the day.

    “You are my brother after all, even if you did all this”

    “Well we don’t really hang out as much as we used to, so I figured I needed to motivate you a bit”

    “You’re such an idiot.”

    “Not my fault it runs in the family.”

    After our little game night I headed home with a memory that I would likely never forget, a full stomach and a smile on my face. I guess I really was the lucky one for having an idiot for a brother.