Challenge: Pick one of these three: the main character has one great character trait but now it cannot do them any favors, the main character has one character trait that causes all your problems but today it’s their saving grace or both AND the story has to be 567 words long.
As you can see, I went for option number 2.
“Hey, Ben, we’re heading out for drinks tonight.” A cockatiel shrieked in the background. “Shut up, Marge.” The cockatiel’s shouting continued. “Just a sec.”
“Take your time, Meredith.” Ben rolled his eyes. He already knew where this was going.
After some shuffling and more cockatiel noises, Meredith continued, “So yeah, you wanna come with?”
“No thanks. Even a glass of water is too expensive, you know.”
A snort. “Of course. Overly stingy as always…” A sigh. “Well, it was worth a shot. I’ll see you at Svensson’s lecture on Monday then.”
Ben chuckled. “Don’t be there in a hangover.”
“I’ll try. Bye!”
“Bye.”
Click.
Ben sighed and logged on to the online bank service to take look at the balance on his account. 253.66. Just enough to cover the next month’s rent and get him something cheap to eat. If he got lucky, he would get his pay before it ran out and he — the one whose stinginess was called “good financial management” (which it wasn’t) — would not have to borrow money from his friends.
Honestly, this was one of those days when he would rather starve than suffer through the jesting he would face.
Little did he know, that was the last time he spoke with Meredith or any of his other drinker friends.
WindySilver 
I’m very concerned about what happens to the cockatiel here!!! I wouldn’t call it stinginess with a bank account that low, haha, that’s just called being poor. Being poor has saved me from many a bad situation TBH XD
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I’m sure the cockatiel is and will be fine :) Haha, yeah, Ben isn’t at the point of stinginess anymore. I tried to go for showing that he’s been super stingy before (which definitely affects his relationships to his friends) and now it saves him from using too much money without admitting he’s too poor to go out and have a drink. Killing his drinker friends was an afterthought that I decided to add to underline how much good that trait did him this time since Meredith didn’t even try to insist on him going along (which saved him from any kind of survivor’s guilt).
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