The Greatest Game

Jay was needy again, and it was only a matter of time. John slurped the cool remainders of beer from the lip of the can and avoided Jay's eyes until the latest soliloquy of woe was done. The pilot hadn't gone over, but he had spent his entire check already on the new CRV, having driven the old blazer to a rattling squeaky death. His agent had promised the show was a surefire hit, otherwise he insisted he would have saved the money.
"What about the royalties from Oak Creek? You still get those, don't you?"
Colin resented Jay's frequent beggary, since he continually worked tending bar at one place or waited tables at another to supplement his own income. He was annoyingly quick to point out that despite his steep car payments, Jay had managed to score enough of what he needed to keep him happily inebriated all the time.
"How much could you get for that quarter in your closet? Or those Klonopin?"
John remained silent, only taking his eyes away from the screen for a fleeting moment to cut them at Colin, who was no teetotaler. Then he continued to mow down enemies, thumbing the controller and sniffing disinterestedly, until the time came, when Colin had finished railing self righteously on.
"Please John. 100 bucks. I'll pay you back I swear."
John breathed out long and took a longer drink, draining the can. Then he clunked it down on the end table and said in a cold hard voice,
"Get a fucking job Jay."
"Come on dude!"
"Do you think I have money to spare? Look at how I live!"
He cranked his head in a frantic motion from side to side, indicating the broken arm chair mechanism held together with duct tape, the carpet pockmarked with cigarette burns, the lamp without a shade that had been found in the dumpster, the vise clamp which substituted for doorknob that had fallen off, the card table and chairs he'd taken from his mother's garage five years prior, the rheumy looking wall paint, veiny with cracks and piebald with scuffs, and the halogen lamp that reeked of singed insect wings whenever it was turned on.