A money jar sat firmly placed on top of the coffee table. It was filled with maybe 14 dollars and some silver change. I rubbed my eyes, vigorously trying to stay awake. A timer beeped and I jumped up, running to the coffee maker. This was day three of my money grubbing venture, and I was expecting a friend to come in any moment.

The doorbell rang and I carefully forfeited my coffee on the counter for the guest. A quick glance at the key hole and my friend was allowed inside.

“Glad to see you're still awake,” He greeted. Immediately, the blond went to a camera situated on top of my television, hooking in cables like mad. The TV turned black and white, showing a twenty four hour recording of myself watching reality TV or playing on my computer. He fast forwarded for the sake of time to verifyI hadn’t slept. Done with that, he promptly placed forty dollars more into the jar.

“Your turn,” I stated eagerly. My pale white hand extended greedily for a DVD. Without a glance in my direction, he popped one into the 'player. My hand dropped upon the sight and reached instead towards the device. The fast forward button was pressed as I observed my friends twenty-four hours of sleep deprivation. From my pocket, I placed another forty dollars into the money jar.

“This isnt going to cut it.” He stated with a crooked smile. I returned it with ease.

“How about we step it up from three days to a week, then?” I inquired casually. It seemed we were both ready for a challenge. We only had a hundred an' forty dollars in the jar and that meant nothing when no one had lost yet.

“Alright, but that’ll mean even more money down the drain for you, wimp.” He jibed.

It was a friendly competition for the two of us. We were both old gambling addicts and since breaking the habit years ago decided to do one last act of stupidity. A simple plan in theory: first one to fall asleep loses, and for every day both are awake the money doubles. We started out with ten bucks on the first day, twenty on the second, and then forty on the third. Each of us contributed the same amount as the jar doubled. Winner, of course, got the money. The real challenge, however, was the lack of human stimulus: no company to help keep you awake at all.

“'See you sleeping later.” I said after seeing he hadn’t fallen asleep or moved out of the camera’s eye for longer than a coffee visit or bathroom break. He nodded, and I let out an impulsive yawn involuntarily. Damn, I cursed silently.

“You’re so going to lose.” He commented smugly before running home to place his DVD in so he couldn’t get accused of cheating. Luckily we were neighbors, so it would be obvious if it took longer than five minutes to get back to the cameras in our own living rooms. I hurried to my camera and reset the DVD to overwrite yesterdays recording.

Remembering my coffee I rushed to get it, the feeling of getting hit by a car was coming in full blast again…
---$-1--4--0--

Day four came and went, my friend and I both deposited  dollars each into the jar and observed our DVDs. My brain worked about as quickly as rodent with its nose chopped off in a maze to find the cheese.

Personally I didn’t really care about the money so much as the pride. And what pride? Sure there was the fact that I’d win the last gamble we’d do, but there was also a glorious story to rub into my friends face. All in the name of ego that I knew proclaimed loudly that I was an idiot.  

It was becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes open even with the aid of my good friend Mr.Coffee. The endless bags of junkfood I had supplied around the couch were a third gone. My appetite for the munchies had become insatiable after day three.  My coffee supply, however, was thankfully endless.

---$-1-1-5---

Day five arrived. My eyes burned, and surroundings felt far more surreal than any day before it. Coffee was no longer my aid but an idol to be worshiped. The Mr. Coffee machine had been fully moved into the living room to be decorated with various flammable hats and necklaces to make its golden elixir in now. A velvet pillow which had become treacherously soft was seated under the great maker of holy nectar.  A crooked smiley face donned the white cartridge you put the coffee in.  Mr.Coffee had been upgraded to Mr.Coffee God.

I mourned the loss of feeling like I had been hit by a car. The feeling which had replaced it was now more like getting hit by a jumbo jet with some elephants in it and surviving a head on collision. Fortunately my friend was feeling the affects as I was.

He came in with blond hair covered in bits of chips, and dark circles under his eyes. I imagined I looked like that and maybe even worse. The chips however gave me an idea, a small spark that flew off and caught fire to my brain. At this stage, we were signing checks for a hundred and fifty dollars to place in the jar. He glanced at the Mr. Coffee maker and started giggling. It set me off and I began giggling as well.

“Dude,” he slurred, “what the hell’d ya do to yer coffee maker?” I shook my head, not knowing myself. A brief day dream of me singing religiously to it so it would produce life-giving  caffeine stirred to memory and faded. Had I been in a Hawaii skirt and coconut bra when I did that? Perhaps it had been a native Hawaiian caffeine-rain dance. Maybe, maybe not. I shrugged it off.
We giggled all the way through the DVD exchange,  over what we both had already forgotten pitifully. The end was only days away. Certainly one would fall to sleep!

---$--2-7-5--$--

Two days passed and it was Sunday. The last day of the week controlled by compulsive competition. It had been set as being the last day. I waited with a check covered in scribbles, doodles and question marks on the dollar amounts, ready to place in the jar. He was a few minutes late, encouraging false hopes. When he came, however, it was not the same friend I had seen only a day ago.

“Are ‘yu ‘wake?” He slurred, quietly entering the door. His face was a mix between hopeful and foreboding anticipation.

“Yeah,” I managed to mumble back. I slowly slumped to the coffee maker, pouring the very last contents into his cup. Mr. Coffee God was starting to fail me.

“Ok, let me see ‘th DVD…” He walked over to the TV and pressed fast forward. He had to watch it twice because it was so hard to focus. Then it was my turn. I turned to fast forward as well, rewatching it three times due to my wandering focus. Finally finished, I set it up to record the new day.

“Maybe we should extend it by another-“

Bash!

My head felt everything go black as I landed on the floor for a few seconds. “What the hell was that?”  I grumbled, feeling the back of head. No blood; good. Friend hitting me; bad.

“Sleep, damn it, sleep!” He yelled, voice seething with frustration.

Bash! Bash!

This time there was no logical thought. I scrambled up and faced my friend. In his hands was Mr. Coffee God. Its heavy metal base had been what had hit me thrice now. Sitting calmly through all of this was the glass and plastic coffee pot sitting on the coffee table.  I grabbed it and threw it as hard I could, taking no mercy. It shattered in his face and he cried out in agony.

While he was distracted, I started to gain some common sense.

“Dude…what are we doing? Are you okay?” I asked, not exactly sure what had just happened. He lunged at me with a shard of coffee pot, discarding the coffee machine. I slipped on Mr.Coffee God’s Hawaiian hat lying innocently on the floor as I stumbled backward and fell on the couch. His shirt suddenly became attached to my clawing hands in mid-air, bringing him with me backwards. We landed roughly on couch, side by side. For a long time, frozen in position, we sat there. He sat with his hand clasped around coffee pot shard, and me half conscious from the blows he gave me earlier.

“Hey, man,” I mumbled weakly, “you done being crazy yet?”

He nodded and everything went dark. My last vision was of him with his eyes closed, snoring slightly.

--$--1,-1-2-3--$--

News Report:

“Two men were found burnt alive in their Californian home, today- each with no reason for not leaving the house when it caught fire. According to Firemen it was caused by an electrical appliance left on or near flammable material. The good friends were burnt sitting next to each other on the living room couch feet from where the fire occurred…Police are at a loss for whether it was a suicide attempt or both were intoxicated…”