Winning at life

This is my first Trifecta entry.  Please, oh please, be kind and gentle.  I'm a fragile soul.  *wink*

LUCKY (adjective)

1: having good luck
2: happening by chance : fortuitous
3: producing or resulting in good by chance : favorable

333 words.  Exactly.  Booyah!





The lure of fast, easy money was too tempting.  Millions of dollars in my pocket, no effort required.  Ignoring the odds--170,000,000:1--I bought a ticket.  That ten dollar investment was going to bring me $350 million, I just knew it.  I went to bed that night dreaming of all the ways I’d spend my loot.  A huge house, fancy cars, European vacations, and a wardrobe to die for were just a few of the ways I was going to spoil myself.

The next morning, I eagerly turned on the news to see if I had won the jackpot.  Imagine my surprise when the announcer said the winning ticket had been sold in the exact store from which I’d bought my ticket!  I started to tingle in anticipation.  I sat down with my laptop, my hands shaking as I typed in the address of the lottery website.  “This is it!”, I thought excitedly.  “All of my dreams are coming true!”

I didn’t have one correct number.

Later that day, my phone rang.  It was my best friend, and she was shouting with glee.

“I won!  I won!  I had all the right numbers!”, she crowed.

Shocked, I stuttered, “I’m…s-s-so…h-h-happy…for you.”  I can’t even tell you how the rest of the conversation went; I had tuned out after her announcement and was wallowing in misery at the thought of someone else winning.

I wouldn’t be building a huge house.  I wouldn’t be buying fancy cars or taking incredible European vacations while wearing designer clothes.  She would.

She had stolen my dream.  That lucky bitch.

Three months later, I got a call from a mutual friend, who told me that our lottery-winning friend had been found, dead, in her penthouse.  Her new home, the one with amazing city views.  Brutally murdered, at the hands of her handsome new boyfriend, who ran off to Brazil with all of her money after convincing her to put everything in a joint account.

I guess I’m the lucky one after all.