Except Jared

Except Jared

Jared was sitting at the bar, as usual on a Thursday night. He liked this place best when there weren’t many people, not being fond of the noise nor the boasting when it was crowded. Everybody seemed to be telling their story, and they just had to get everyone near them to listen. Later, when it was just the real drinkers, conversations tended to be more interesting.

Suddenly a drunk guy at the bar challenged everyone. “Let’s tell ghost stories!” Saying the best one would get a free drink from the rest of the participants.

Jared immediately decided to leave, unfortunately, when he stood up, the guy thought he was in on it, and suddenly everyone was looking at him waiting for his story. Not wanting to be a spoil sport, he told a quick story about finding his lost shoes.

People looked at him funny, but it had a beginning and an end and when he was done, another guy stepped up and told a story about a night in an abandoned house. Three others told stories too, and when they were done, they all voted and the house story guy won, getting free drinks from everyone.

After they’d left, the first guy came over, “What kind of stupid are you?” he sneered, “You were supposed to tell a story with ghosts in it! There were no ghosts in your stupid story.”

Though Jared didn’t usually take offense, this pushy jerk hit him in the wrong direction. “There was a ghost in it,” he said.

“You must be drunker than you think Bud,” the guy said, sneering.

“Not really,” Jared answered, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The guy told a million people that story throughout his long life, unfortunately, nobody ever believed him.

Well, except Jared.