Dropping the ball
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Happy New Year!
Roy inhaled deeply, swigged the last swallow of his beer, and reached for the remote. Watching poor Dick Clark slur his way through the annual countdown was depressing. Roy tried to remember if he'd watched it last year, but his memory was a blank. It had been that kind of party. He'd ended up alone, of course, but at least he'd been wasted and distracted instead of just lonely.
He turned off the TV and dragged himself off the couch. He turned off the living room light, threw away his empty bottle in the dark kitchen (he'd let himself have the one beer, just to ring in the new year), and checked that the front door was locked. There was laughter from outside, and he peeked through the dingy curtain. The new neighbors were in the yard, lighting sparklers with a couple of kids Roy hadn't realized lived there. The sparks shimmered in the darkness, surrounded by swirls that were either smoke or the evidence of warm breath in the cold night- Roy couldn't tell.
Turning away, Roy felt a little better. The neighbors seemed like they were having fun. Good for them, he thought to himself. He walked down the hall to the small bedroom, kicked off his jeans, and crawled into bed.
As he settled in, he tried to come up with a resolution. He usually thought they were stupid, but the new girl at work had asked him if he was making any, and he had decided to try to come up with one. After all, she was pretty cute. It came to him just as he was drifting off. In 2008, I resolve to be happy again.
When she asked him on Wednesday morning, he told her he couldn't think of any. She smiled in a disappointed way, and went back to filing invoices.
