Sighing Selena walked over to the table. She didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere for everyone else. Selena said, "Know what, I don't want to play, so if Nicki and I win, we will head out, but if we lose, we will stay and play some more."

Casey agreed, and to split the teams up more evenly, Selena’s schoolmate Michele joined Selena’s team.

One of the guys rolled the cue ball to Selena’s side of the table.

Michele chalked her cue a little before breaking. Sinking a solid with the break she went on to try and get the yellow solid but her shot was slightly off.

It was Casey's shot, which Selena was pretty sure she had never taken before. She tried to set up as Michele had except instead of hitting the center of the cue ball her cue slid to the side sending the cue ball askew sideways.

Nicki sunk her ball clean. She was pretty good at pool. She and her siblings would play for the worst chores sometimes. Selena appreciated the creative way to decide who does what chore because Nicki sunk two balls before the cue ball went down with a fourth.

The first guy was also a devastatingly good player.

Selena had the cue stick passed off to her from Nicki, and one the guy’s turn was finished so she set herself up. She didn’t have as much experience with pool, but she managed to hit a ball into a pocket. Her second shot was too hard and she sunk the ball she had intended to, as well as the cue ball.

Michele congratulated Selena as she passed off the cue. Selena automatically thanked her but was confused. “Did Michele not see the shot?”, Selena wondered to herself.

The game continued, and Nicki and the boys kept it close. It came to Selena’s turn and there were two balls left until the final black ball of doom.

Selena sunk the easiest one and then tried to pass off the cue to Michele.

"It's still your shot," she refused.

Nicki then came up to them," Don't miss it on purpose just because you do not like the eight either."

Selena breathed deep and stepped back to the table.

"Have a nice chat?", She heard Casey sneer as she set up.

"I really would have thought that you'd be less of an ass in front of other people", Selena replied.

Selena’s eyes met her target and she tuned out the rest of Casey’s remarks. She drew back and the ball fell into the pocket.

Selena never enjoyed ending up with the eight ball, normally she wouldn't get the chance to shoot it in.

She looked to Nicki for advice who pointed at the center-left hole.

"What's your call?", The guy Selena had dubbed Tangles asked.

"Eight ball center-left", I replied automatically, trying to figure out the shot.

Casey snorted in disbelief.

"I wonder why people don't just use your pig noises to find you.", Nicki smirked.

Their bickering kept going and Selena started to imagine Casey's face on the eight ball.

Slamming the cue ball, it bounced off the wall and it propelled Casey’s face into a pit of darkness.

Selena had won. She was still shocked as Nicki grinned at her giving her a hug.

"Told ya you didn't need to miss," Nicki whispered into her ear.

"That was great", Michele agreed.

"Thanks, but it was Nicki who chose the pocket," Selena responded.

"You took the shot."

"Yeah, I guess."

Nicki shook her head, " You guess?? You did it and you won the game for us.”

Selena looked at the guys, they hadn't spoken much to anyone, except each other. They stood at the other end of the table talking to each other and occasionally looked over at the girls.

The door slammed making Selena jump.

"Well, there goes Casey, Michelle remarked, " actually I should head out too, the drive back is brutal at night."

While saying goodbye Selena double-checked that Michele hadn’t been drinking and Michele confirmed she hadn’t before she slid out of the door.

Selena wondered if it was just her that felt it was awkward now that was just her, Nicki, and the guys. The boys hadn’t tried to talk with them but were constantly looking over at her and Nicki while talking amongst themselves.

" So, are you ready to go?", Selena asked Nicki.

"You sound naggy Sel. If you want to go, let’s go." Nicki was losing her patience with Selena.

Selena felt as if eyes were staring at her and she tentatively asked, " Um Nicki is someone looking at me or something?"

She looked around the room, “yeah one of those weird dudes why?"

"Is it a creepy look?"

"I don't know... why?"

" It’s giving me a weird feeling"

"You can check for yourself, he's still starring. Maybe your pool skills attracted him."

Selena shrugged and looked over at them. Her eyes met with the one that was staring at her. It wasn’t a look of attraction to her. It was a look that made her spine crawl, that made her want to leave the room that much more.