It was already 7 p.m. on New Year's Eve, and everyone was going along with their own plans, heading to parties and whatnot.
Meanwhile, Mordecai was laying down on the couch, internally sick as a dog. He groaned some more as he rubbed his stomach.
Man, what was in that chinese food?
"Hey Mordecai, lookin' good!" Rigby joked as he came in the front door, chuckling to himself.
"Whatever, man. You wouldn't be saying that if you were me right now."
"You're right, I wouldn't be! I'd be running to the bathroom every 5 minutes."
Mordecai groaned and hugged a pillow to his stomach. "Don't remind me."
"Don't worry, dude, this'll take your mind off of it, BAM!" He pulled out a paper that was advertising a New Year's Eve party going on at the city community center.
"Whoa, free food and drinks all night?"
"Hecks yeah!" Rigby excitedly replied. "Everyone who's anyone is gonna be there! Muscle Man, Fives, Pops, Skips, Margaret-"
Mordecai perked up. "What? Margaret's going?"
Rigby crossed his arms. "It was the only thing she'd talk about."
Mordecai pounded his fists into the couch. "Ugh! It's the perfect night to be able to talk to her and I have to be alone here at home like a loser.."
"I know, it does suck.." He awkwardly looks at his random watch. "Whoa, the party's starting in 20 minutes! I gotta go!" He grabbed a tie and wrapped it around his neck.
"But dude, you sure you wanna go? You can hang with me if you want, we can watch the ball drop or something. Bro time, you know?"
"I would but..." Rigby felt some guilt. "I gotta go, dude! This could be the best night of my life!"
"But I-"
"Later!" Rigby ran out and closed the door, leaving Mordecai to frown and stare at the TV.
If only I had the energy to chase him down and smack him..
"Tired already, huh?"
Mordecai looked up and saw Benson standing beside him.
"Benson? I thought you had the night off?"
He leaned against the couch. "Had to do a bunch of damage reports from the other day when those kids were using the fountain as a jungle gym."
Mordecai was about to respond, but instead he groaned more, clutching his stomach.
Benson looked concerned. "Is everything alright?"
He rubbed his head a little. "I wish. See, I picked up chinese food last night after Rigby ate this whole pizza I brought home, and ever since this morning I've been feeling like crap."
Benson couldn't help but feel bad for his employee, but, at the same time, he felt like he was in an awkward situation. He started walking to the door. "Well, I hope you feel better soon. I uh, better get going before the crazies get on the road-"
"Wait Benson!"
"What is it?"
"Well, I uh.." He didn't know how to word it, he didn't wanna make him mad. "Did you have any plans tonight?"
"Not really, I was gonna go home and rest, why?"
"Ah what?" Mordecai sat up a bit. "You're not going to that big city party?"
Benson chuckled a bit. "I'm not really into those kinds of things."
"Well, you could chill here with me if you want. I won't cause any trouble either, I promise."
Benson was blank in thought for a second. "I don't know, I'm just too tired, I gotta get some sleep. Feel better though, alright?" with that, he closed the door behind him, leaving Mordecai all alone in that huge house.
Luckily for him, he didn't have time to feel sad and lonely as he made yet another quick run to the bathroom.
Thanks, Rigby! Thanks A LOT!
About 2 hours later, Mordecai was still fast asleep on the couch while the New Year's pre-show played on the TV. The loud cheers coming from the TV didn't seem to affect Mordecai one bit, but when the front door closed, Mordecai was quick to wake up.
"Whu-uh, who's there?" He looked to the front door and saw Benson there. "Huh? I thought you-"
"I told you I had to get some rest." He brought the things he was carrying over to the coffee table. "After that, I decided I'd get a pizza and some Fizzy De-Lites to enhance the celebration."
"Dude, you're awesome!" Mordecai couldn't help but smile. "I thought you wouldn't come back."
He sat down next to Mordecai and shrugged, grinning. "It's a holiday, so I decided I'd be nice to you."
"You should be nice all the time, you're an awesome guy." Mordecai said, grinning as well. They soon awkwardly smiled at each other and started to eat, watching a rock band play on the stage during the New Year's Eve special.
Time seemed to fly by fast, and it was now about 11:20. The two were barely listening to the TV hosts talk about pointless jibber-jabber. Instead, they were having much more interesting conversations.
"What?"
"I know, dude!" Mordecai replied. "Every time I try to ask her, I either get too nervous or she pulls up her current boyfriend to my face like it was out of spite." He sighed. "I just don't understand it.."
Benson surprisingly remained optimistic. "I understand your situation fully, Mordecai. Everyone always has that one thing they want but can never get it, no matter what. It's just one of life's many flaws and harsh truths."
"Tell me about it."
"But hey, maybe she'll come around! You're a nice, good lookin' guy, so maybe she'll start to notice that in the new year." He stopped when he noticed the blue bird giggling.
"What, what'd I say?"
He grinned, trying his best to hold back the chuckles. "You said I was...'good lookin'." He chuckled a bit sensually. There wasn't any telling if he was joking or not.
When Benson realized this, he started to blush and get red from embarassment at the same time. He facepalmed himself. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that I-"
"Dude, it's okay, I understand." Mordecai patted his boss's back. "It's hard to resist my awesome charm."
Benson rolled his eyes, smiling with defeat. "You're gonna always hold that one over my head, aren't you?"
"I can keep it a secret. I mean, we're almost in a new year anyway, so it's no big deal."
"Oh." Benson nodded. "So you mean 'what happened there stays there' or something along those lines?"
"Yeah yeah, exactly, just doing anything with no regrets."
"Wow." Benson rested his back on the couch, thinking of all the possibilities. "There's so many things I would do." He looked at the countdown clock on the TV. "Too bad there's only 15 minutes left."
"I have an idea." Mordecai spoke up. "How about we just let our confessions out? We can go back and forth."
Benson glanced away a bit. "Mine are kinda embarassing."
"So are mine, but it doesn't matter. You gotta let things off your chest sometimes, that way you can go into the new year with a clean conscience."
Benson sighed. "You're right. You start."
"Okay. Well, uh..I wet the bed sometimes."
"I uh..I went through a loner phase in high school."
"There's times when I'm actually jealous of Rigby."
"I like watching soap operas."
"I pick my nose in public a lot."
"If I'm hungry and there's no food around, I'll eat one of my gumballs."
"I've always wanted to get to know you better."
"I used to-" Benson stopped and looked at Mordecai. "You what?"
Mordecai nodded. "It's true. I guess I just see past the whole 'mad and stressed boss' part of you and I see that awesome side of you that can play the drums and has a wicked sense of humor."
Benson blushed a bit, and smiled. "You probably think I'm 'good lookin' too, right?"
"Well uh-" He was about to shyly answer until he saw the countdown out of the corner of his eye. "Whoa dude, 2 minutes 'til midnight!"
They both started to stare at the ball high above the thousands of citizens that was about to drop. The camera switched to a host with a bright, shiny smile.
Grab your noisemakers and prepare yourselves, folks! There's only about a minute and a half left in this year! Maybe now's the time to do things you've always wanted to do but were always afraid to do! Better do 'em now while you still can!
Mordecai and Benson looked at each other and nervously chuckled.
"Dude," Mordecai started. "It's getting close."
He smiled. "W-we should uh, you know, do something."
"Like what?"
Let's begin the countdown, ladies and gentlemen! 30, 29, 28..
Benson quickly took Mordecai's hands, still blushing. "N-n-no regrets, right?"
Mordecai shook his head. "Yeah yeah, definitely."
25, 24...
They got closer to each other.
23, 22, 21, 20..
Benson was getting excited. He started to shake Mordecai's hands. "We're almost there, Mordecai!"
"I know right?"
15, 14, 13..
They got close to each others' faces, shyly looking away from each other.
10, 9, 8..
They closed their eyes and inched closer.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
The confetti and loud cheers started to fill up the TV screen, and the camera showed many couples passionately kissing.
And who would've thought Mordecai and Benson would be holding each other's hands and doing the same thing?
They continued to gently kiss, no tongue, just a clean, enjoyable kiss. About 5 minutes later, they opened their eyes and broke apart, both of them avoiding the other's glance for a few seconds.
Things were silent for a few moments until Mordecai giggled.
Benson rolled his eyes. "What now?"
He grinned at Benson. "Nothing, dude, but you totally enjoyed that."
Benson grinned back. "Oh, and you didn't?"
He shrugged and smiled. "Well, maybe I did."
They continued to watch TV.
"You know what my new year's resolution's gonna be?"
"What?" Benson asked.
He smiled. "To try and make every day of the new year a holiday."
Benson chuckled. "I'd like to see that, I really would."
"What about you, Benson?"
"My resolution?" He looked up and smiled.
"I don't think I can pick just one."
"What's the one you want the most?"
"All of them." He smiled at Mordecai. "Because they all include you."
They said nothing else and gently held each others' hands, continuing to watch the TV, and hoping no one would come home too early just yet..