Impossibilities

Fortune always did favor the bold.

And you are feeling real ballsy tonight.

Besides, it’s not like you had any choice.

With bills to pay and twenty five dollars left to your name, you decide to break the one vow you promised yourself when you wore your best formal wear and hit up the casino.

Go gambling.

The bright lights enchant you the moment you stepped foot, where everything looked so luxurious and joyful and so red that you could almost forget that you were teetering on going broke.

Scratch that, you are broke. And this, this was your do or die moment. Your ‘Go big or go home’.

The rational part of your mind tells you to do, in fact, go home. Find another way, get another job, maybe ask around for the more reputable loan sharks. You know those are band aid solutions, things that’ll fix your life now, fuck it up later type of deal.

And casinos are an even worse deal, knowing that they are always rigged for you to lose. The House always winning and all that. Yet you still chose this over the other options because, well, you needed cash.

Fast.

That, and at the very least you won’t get beaten for missing payments on your loans.

So here you are, turning your last Jackson and Abe into red chips, and off you go. Finding the table that you can afford to sit on for what you have on hand and got you the most money quick. Which is a laughable thought considering you already felt like losing the moment you swapped your cash in for ceramic.

You can’t even play slots since you only have chips on you, and you are guaranteeing a loss if you decide to play pool. It sucks that most of the blackjack tables were full, else you would’ve gone there. So were the baccarat tables, and poker was a sure fire way to lose all your money quick.

Which leaves you with roulette.

You sigh. Really leaving it up to chance. So you end up choosing the least populated table that you can afford and end up right next to a lady in red sipping her wine like she owned the place.

“Someone’s feeling lucky tonight,” she starts, not even bothering to look in your direction when you lean on the table.

“Tonight’s the night,” you chuckle, placing your chips down and weighing your options.

“I’ve heard that before,” she scoffs, and you almost catch the smug smile underneath the glass she’s taking sips of crimson from. “Lots of times.”

You shrug. “It’s going to happen.” You don’t know if that was your attempt of being cocky or convincing yourself that you’re going home with more money than you had. “Has to happen.”

And she laughs. “Alright, hotshot. Let’s see you play.”

You turn your head towards her, before looking at the table. Decisions laid out in front of you, and doubt starts to spread in your mind.

Too many choices—

Your fingers tap on the table.

Too little chances to try them.

The dealer’s waiting eyes stare at you.

Only one shot.

The lady in red smirks at you.

Fuck it.

“All in on twenty five red.” Your fingers push your chips forward, and the dealer stacks it right on the box you chose.

“Number or color, sir?” The dealer asks. It’s life telling you one more time that this is your last chance to take it easy. Choose the color and ride the fifty out on other tables, or choose the number and be able to pay off your debts. At least, some of them.

The words come out before your thoughts can catch up.

“Twenty five.”

“Twenty five on twenty five.”

And so, the ball rolls.

Every single tick of the wheel is grinding away at your mind, the anxiety, the anticipation, the excitement gnawing at you. Waiting for that ball to stop and land right where you need it to. You don’t even realized you’ve leaned forward, your eyes following the ball circle around, again and again and again until it stops.

And your jaw drops because how in the actual fuck did it land on—

Twenty five red.

“That is…” The woman next to you looks utterly bewildered at what she’s seeing. “Crazy.” She turns towards you, shaking her head. “You’re completely insane.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, lady.” Your laugh gives away your own surprise, watching the dealer turn your small stack into towers of chips. You don’t even know what to say, except that the adrenaline coursing through your veins isn’t going away, and you want to feel the exhilaration of winning so much so quickly once more.

Your eyes meet the woman, wanting to see that look on her face again, want to see the surprise light up in her eyes, and you really couldn’t help yourself anymore. You look back at the table and—

“Let it ride.”

The dealer looks at you, eyes darting to the right before nodding and letting the wheel spin.

“Nine hundred on twenty five.”

Your blood spikes at every tick, tick, tick—every second is an eternity, every breath you take borrowed as the ball winds down, slowly coming to a halt and slots in to a side of the wheel.

Twenty five red.

“What the fuck…” The lady stands up, taking a closer look at the wheel and sure enough, it was right on the money. She scoffs, jaw dropping at the chances of winning it twice in a row. “You are a lucky one, huh hotshot?”

“Guess I am,” you answer, not even looking at her. You’re too focused looking at the dealer hand you your chips. You didn’t even need to count how much you’ve won. With that much chips you can pay everything off and then some.

Yet something deep inside you snaps, and you let greed consume you.

“Let it ride.”

The dealer turns to the woman. “Ma’am–”