The Players:
8 people were sitting in my house. They weren’t the only ones I invited but as luck would have it this group decided to show up. My younger brother “Shane” sat directly across from me (for the sake of animosity I’ve take some liberty with names). On his left was my best friend “Ron.” On Ron’s left sat the girl he likes (coincidentally she is Shane’s ex) “Susan.” On the other side of Susan was “Abby” (the girl Shane likes). She sat next to me and to my left was (the guy who is hopelessly in love with her) “James.” Across the table Susan only has eyes for James, and as if this love pentagram wasn’t complicated enough, the next three people have their own triangle going on. In order sat; my sister’s boyfriend “Jon,” my sister “Anna” (they are of course in the middle of a fight), and finally a friend of mine who is blindly infatuated with her, “Sawyer”.
This normally wouldn’t be comical except for the fact that I am the only one who completely understands every situation therefore every action I took that night had to be a lie to someone. The subtle code I had to talk in was annoying, but the infinite possibility of inside jokes I got to drop more then made up for it. Sitting in that group was so absurd that I was forced into fits of silent laughter while everyone else stared at each other with animosity.
The Game:
What could make this night more interesting? How about a drinking game, How about a drinking game without alcohol? When you take a game that is based entirely on one person’s power to make other people do whatever they want, and take away the alcohol. It turns into a cutthroat game of humor used to cover up real anger (for everyone but me). I love it.
The first round started without a winner and the game progressed fairly silent. There were a few chuckles, some pointless filler conversation, and a few unintentionally awkward comments. Including Susan telling Ron “uh, no not interested.” But finally it comes to a close with Ron being the victor (and here comes the real beauty of this situation). The winner of each round gets to make up a rule. This rule can be anything, absolutely anything. Ron decided that no one can use another player’s first name or they get skipped.
This of course immediately upped the difficulty as well as the humor. Before everyone had played his or her first card four names were spoken, and four people were skipped. This time the game progressed with more purpose. Clear strategies came into focus; every male (except for me) tried their best to secretly help the girl they liked. This made all three girls at the table inexplicable perfect at the game and completely changed the different player’s power.
This hand Susan won, and her rule was no talking at all. This turned out to be useless for everyone else but a huge amount of comedy for me. As soon as the cards were dealt talking ceased and every phone opened. Text messages however are hard to decipher for deeper meaning and for the twenty minutes of that round I was forwarded every message that passed from a female to her suitor; for some reason they thought I could decipher female texts.
-should I play three 5s this early or wait till I can go out? I need ur advice-
-whats going on with anna? she flirting with sawyer? whats jon think?-
-what are you doing tomorrow? I need to go run some errands but I don’t wanna drive by myself all day-
Seriously! looking at their faces as they sent me those texts was priceless. The round came to a close with Ron winning again. In the time it takes for the cards to be dealt the winner has unlimited power. He made Shane (Susan’s Ex, my brother) go get everyone drinks. He returned from the kitchen with several cups, only two were anything but hot water. He gave the two girls he wasn’t related to these cups (Susan his ex, and Abby the girl he likes).
The rest of the round passed with sparing hilarity caused by the fact that you weren’t allowed to look anyone in the eye. Even without eye contact the anger, flowing around the table full of alpha males verbally sparring in a strange code over the three females, was overbearingly evident. Shane won this round and made a rule that skipped his two rivals (Ron [likes his Ex] and James [likes the girl he likes]) every time anyone else was skipped. Of course this caused them to be the last two left in the game and they battled it out for last place, the honor of which went to James.
After four more rounds of ironic comments, awkward laughing, and rude acts based on hidden agendas, most people decided to go home. I had never held in that kind of laughter that long. As soon as the door closed it came out. Heavy room shaking, can’t stand up, literally rolling on the floor, laughter poured out as my angry siblings went to their rooms. The best part about the entire night was that despite all the tension despite the fact that I am the only one who found it funny we all agreed were playing again at the next available date.