The Arts

20 - You've Got to Know When To Hold 'Em...

ANDI

Thank God Kiara had asked Andi to come along with her to Marty's game night. The thought of playing a bunch of card games with popular upperclassmen terrified her, but it also gave her the perfect opportunity to talk to Henry. If she could get any intel on him, it'd be that much easier to keep him and Robbie as far away from each other as possible.

          She wanted to trust Robbie to keep his word and not say anything to him. But the larger, more guilty, more paranoid part of her decided it best to just make sure the two of them never interacted.

          Andi and Kiara were welcomed into the dorm, which was much larger than the regular freshman rooms, by Marty. Henry, Jacob, and three others were already at the table.

          "Alright. So you guys probably remember my brothers, Henry and Jacob. This is Greg, and his partner Kit, and this is Axel," Marty gestured to each person as he introduced them. "Everyone, this is Kiara and Andi."

          One of the seats next to Henry was open, and Andi wasted no time taking it before Kiara had the chance. Kiara noticed and a knowing smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth. Andi nearly groaned, but quickly decided, fine. If pretending to like Henry makes the lie more believable, then so be it.

          She seriously wanted to strangle Kiara for ever lying about Andi's musical skills in the first place.

          "Hey," Henry smiled when he saw her.

"Hey," Andi said, and she felt her face flush. The guilt was so obvious. She may as well have tattooed "THIEVING LIAR" across her forehead.

Marty suddenly leaned over the table behind Andi, lighter in hand, to tend to a scented candle. In response to her space being encroached on, Andi hunched her shoulders, trying to shrink herself, and suddenly the entire room smelled like pumpkin and spiced cider.

Next, the lights were turned off. Andi immediately froze. She looked to Kiara, who unfortunately looked just as confused. Then she turned again to face Henry, who had literally zero problem with sitting around a table in the dark with a bunch of older teens. Andi was too afraid to ask anyone what was going on.

"Don't worry," Henry had leaned closer to Andi and was whispering to her. "It's just a game."

"What kind of game is this?" Andi questioned in the same hushed tones.

"Mafia," answered Henry. He picked up a card from the stack that was being passed around and handed the others off to Andi. "Pick one, but don't look at the rest. Give them to the next person. And don't let anyone see your card. It's your secret identity."

Andi did as she was told, but was thoroughly uncomfortable. Once everyone at the table had a card, Marty sat down in the empty seat next to Kiara and rested his arm on the back of her chair. Even with the room enveloped in near darkness, Andi could see her best friend beaming, ecstatic out of her mind that her crush was so physically close to her. Andi was both happy for and admittedly jealous of Kiara. What's it like to have a crush that actually likes you back?, she wanted to ask, but didn't for obvious reasons. There was no time to be bitter. She was on an intel mission.

"Most of you know the drill, but for the newcomers, here's what your card means: Aces are mafia. Queen is the doctor. King is the sheriff. Anything else is a civilian." Andi looked at her card as Marty talked. Ace of Diamonds. Crap. She was really hoping to be able to just sit back and do virtually nothing for the first round.