Cards Against Us All {HS}

-Chapter Fifty One-

"It's not my fault that Harry's weak. He couldn't even figure out who his father was let alone where his girlfriend was." Gio was smirking and it was pissing me off. I pushed forward so I was standing next to Zayn.

"Get his name out of your mouth. You don't get to talk about him like he's an idiot." I snapped at Gio and suddenly the tension in the room increased. I winced when I realised how I had spoken to him.

Gio stood up from his seat and I backed down a little. Gio was a tall man and he had intimidating features so the fact that he was standing from his seat and walking towards me ominously was quite terrifying. However, I wouldn't let him see that I was scared because that wasn't who I was. I gritted my teeth as he hovered over me for a few seconds, then he just walked away to stand on the opposite side of the poker table.

My mouth parted because I was confused. I didn't understand what he was trying to do. Did he just file away my protest and leave it for another time? Everyone around me moved around the table like a bunch of robots in command. I followed them, slotting myself in between Niall and Zayn.

Gio took the spot of the dealer, except he wasn't going to be the dealer, he was going to give us pointers. I still didn't really understand the art of poker besides the fact that it's a game of luck and you could cheat or just count the cards as you go. The technique that I liked to go with was seduction because it was the easiest for me.

All it was was a pop of the chest or working your fingers in a certain way to distract the other players. Middle aged men were always distracted by the subtle lip bite or the flash of the inner thigh. You couldn't buy a way into winning, you had to use your assets to your advantage. Seduction was my asset. Except whenever I played with the group, I couldn't use seduction to my advantage because they had grown numb to it so I had to actually be good at the game. A good poker face was the key to everything.

I snatched the deck of cards in the middle of the table and I moved my fingers so that they shuffled. The cards flipped over one another and eventually dropped into one pile of shuffled cards. I dealt them out so that everyone had seven cards each. Since nobody in particular was the dealer, we couldn't play blackjack or Texas hold 'em. I dropped the deck of cards into the middle of the table and we had to try and get a full hand.

I let Niall take the first card from the deck as I rearranged my cards. I had a shitty hand so I had no hopes of winning this. I relaxed into my chair and I waited for everyone to either pick up a card or return it back to the new pile. As there were quite a few of us, we got through the deck quite quickly meaning that I had to shuffle it.

It was my turn to pick up a new card and I lowered my cards faced down onto the table as I picked up a card from the top of the pile. It was a six of clubs. I sighed because it was no use. I didn't need it and I wasn't anywhere closer to winning.

"This is useless. I can't win this." I looked up and I was greeted by a grinning Louis. I wanted to smack the smug look off his face because there was nothing to be smug about. He was probably bluffing.

"You could fold and quit the game if you wanted." He said, toying with the poker chips in front of him. I hadn't bet that much when we started because I knew that I wasn't going to win. There was something about the day that I just didn't enjoy.

"No chance in god's green earth am I quitting." I smirked, rearranging my cards once again as Niall picked up a new card. I waited for my turn to come again and I was able to pick up a card that finally fit my hand.

I was rolling with two consecutive cards from the queen's suit and I was able to add another one. As for my four other cards, I had two that matched so I only had to get two more but it was a long shot to win. Whenever you play gin rummy you have to hope that you get dealt a good hand and this was one time that I wasn't dealt well.