Beautiful Tragedy ✔️

two;

"It was either this or Peter Pan and I do not look good in green spandex," he says in defense, hanging his horned head in response.

"I would've paid good money to see you in a get-up like that," Hazel teases, earning whole-hearted laughter from the rest of us. "Now come on you three. I for one would like to get wasted." She pushes past us and heads for the door.

Nerves twist my stomach as we enter the crowded room, but they slowly begin to fade as I nurse a cup of "spooky punch." Before long, the four of us are dancing together in the living-room-turned-dance-floor, grinding our hips against one another and laughing in our tipsy fun.

I'm already comfortably buzzed when Hazel elbows me lightly in the ribs and nods to a far corner of the room where a pool table stands. Three very large men dressed as lumberjacks are playing and drinking together. I squint through the lights, trying to make out their faces. They're from the hockey team, I realize, and my palms go sweaty as my thoughts line up with Hazel's. We learned our freshman year that it was easy to make an extra buck or two by hustling men at bars. Her good looks lured them in and I played the innocent girl who knows nothing about pool in order to scam them.

"It'll be fun," Hazel says, her breath tickling my ear.

"You want to hustle hockey players?" I ask with wide eyes. She can't be serious. "Hazel, their type is known to be aggressive. What's your plan when they figure it out?"

"Come on Mabel, live a little," she whines.

"What about Mia and Dom? We can't just ditch them." I search around for them to find that they've actually been the ones to ditch us. Dominic has Mia pushed up against a wall and is kissing her passionately, his fingers trailing up her exposed thigh. There goes my excuse for this one.

"What would Nichole want you to do?" she asks with feigned innocence.

She definitely wouldn't advise me to steal money from star athletes, that's for sure. I open my mouth to tell Hazel exactly that but she's already adjusting the neckline of my dress. She tugs it down with her index finger, showing off more of my cleavage.

"I think Nichole would want this type of confidence boost for you," Hazel continues. "Besides, remember last week? You owe me hun, and it's time to pay up."

"Fine." I snatch the cup in her hands and down the rest of its contents. "Let's do this quick then."

I follow as she leads me by the hand over to the pool table. Three heads snap up from the game as we arrive, and each set of eyes rakes us over from head to toe.

A guy with dark hair that hangs in his eyes cozies up next to me. He's dressed in a red flannel with black suspenders holding up his jeans. I shoot a look to Hazel and she nods back, stepping closer to us as she trails her fingers along the edge of the table.

"Do you guys mind if we play?" Hazel bats her eyelashes and the effect it has on them is obvious.

"We've been playing for money, and we wouldn't want to take money from you two gorgeous things," the dark haired one drawls.

I reach into my purse and pull out two crisp fifties and lay them on the table. "Is this enough?" I ask lightly.

One of the men across from us raises his eyebrows at the cash, his thick arms crossed tightly over his chest. He has dirty blond hair and piercing blue eyes. "You're going to bet a hundred bucks on the first go?" His eyes narrow at us. "Have you played before?"

I shrug. "It can't be that hard. You just have to aim a stick at that black one there, right?" I point to the eight ball, earning a snicker from them.