A Constant Reminder

I grabbed my keys and took one last glance in the mirror before heading for the door. Abi was getting impatient and tapping her long, bright, red nails on the door frame. “Come on girlie, you look amazing. Your sexy ass boots will rope in the boys and make us some money tonight. Now, let’s go!” She yelled. I applied one more coat of shimmering gloss on my lips and rushed towards my extremely impatient roommate. “Don’t give me that look. Beauty is a process.” I said giving her my best annoyed face and eye roll.

Abi and I have been roommates since our freshman year at college. We lived in the dorms together and then the summer before our sophomore year we got an apartment together off-campus. Fortunately, Abi comes from a very supportive family and her grandmother paid for most of our rent, which was a lot cheaper than living in the dorms, plus we had a lucrative weekend business to make some extra money on the side.

My twin brother Lucas taught me how to play pool when we were kids. Since then I have been able to make some extra money hustling at the local bars. My brother and I both had fake ID’s, thanks to my ex-boyfriend, Jude, and his criminal-in-the-making expertise; therefore we spent a lot of time in bars playing in amateur pool leagues.

Jude and I started dating when I was sixteen; Jude was a year older but in the same grade, since his parents decided to hold him back. He already had a juvenile record and been kicked out of three previous schools for fighting by the time he and my brother became friends. I was instantly attracted to him. He had that “bad boy” look going for him. My parents were not too enthused about their friendship or my interest in him, but they eventually got over it and accepted him with open arms. Jude’s parents could care less if he came home or not, so he stayed over just about every night. Eventually, having him at the dining room table for supper was just another normal routine.

Finally, we were on our way down the street to one of our favorite Friday night locales; Joe’s Bar. Abi was vibrating with excitement. She was in need of a little spending money and ready to hustle the pants off some naive college boys. They would get sloppy drunk and willingly hand over their parent’s hard earned cash.
As soon as we stepped foot into the bar, I scanned the crowd looking for our next paychecks. There were cute campus boys everywhere. Abi was grinning like a Cheshire cat. We walked up to Joe, handed him our jackets to stash behind the bar and ordered some beers; a Corona for me and a Heineken for Abi.

Joe’s only had four pool tables and currently they were all in use. Abi was never intimidated by anyone, especially men, so she walked right over to the tables and threw down some money. The guy was just about to break when he looked up and saw her. No guy could resist Abi, or her assets. She was tall and slender, had legs that went on for miles, long blonde hair, and ominous dark brown eyes. But her most amazing feature was her personality. She could charm the pants off anyone, but she also had a wicked silver tongue that had no trouble lashing out if necessary. Abi came from a good family with strong morals, however, growing up with four brothers made her tough and very blunt.

I walked past her and scooted onto the nearest stool. She approached me a few minutes later with a big ear-to-ear grin and said, “We will be making some money tonight Liv. These guys are extremely competitive and more than willing to forfeit their trust funds!” I knew we would have no trouble pulling in a couple hundred bucks, if not more by the end of the night.

Abi and I started playing pool shortly after we met. We would always hang out in the student union and play on the weekends. Lucas was a great teacher and because of his excellent tutelage, I was the best on the student union pool league, so good in fact; I had never lost a game. After months of constantly playing, Abi was getting really good too. We started getting cocky and began making bets for money against other students. We started out small, betting $5 here and $10 there, but eventually word got out and no one would play with us. During thanksgiving break, I had Jude make Abi a fake ID so we could take our tricks to the bars and make some real money. Eventually, Abi and I were pulling in enough money on the weekends to get an apartment off-campus and we didn’t even need a part-time job. We were living quite comfortably for being average college students.

Joe’s was a good place to go on Friday nights here in California, since they had more pool tables than a lot of the other local bars. Joe, the owner, was pretty easy going. We never had to worry about getting in trouble for hustling.

After a few hours, four beers, and about $300 ahead, Abi and I were about ready to call it a night when I noticed two guys sitting at the bar scoping us out. They most certainly didn’t look like cops, but they weren’t stupid and knew exactly what games we were playing.