Page 7 of Fire
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Biology class couldn’t have gone any slower. The only reprieve I got from Mr. Sanders's lecture on micro-organisms was when he got called to the principal’s office. I wasn’t sure of the reason, but at least I didn’t have to listen to him. As I looked around the room, I saw that I wasn’t the only student glad that he got called away. Everyone around me was closing their biology books, aware of the time and that there were only ten minutes left before class was over. No instructions were left for the next assignment that Sanders would generally end the class with, and with the class almost over, there was no chance we would get one before the bell rang. Today, we would all be free of Sanders’s stupid assignments.
Like every other school day, when the end of the class bell rang, I took Mac’s books and carried them for her. Our lockers were on different ends of the hallway, so I always made sure to follow Mac to her locker before hitting mine.
Shoving her books in her locker, Mac turned the dial on her lock and faced me. “You know you don’t have to carry my books for me. I’m more than capable of carrying them myself.”
“I know I don’t have to, but I want to.” It was the truth. Other than telling her the truth about how I felt for her, wanting to carry her books was the only thing I had been honest about.
When we finally exited through the front doors of the high school. I wasn’t surprised to find bunches of students congregating outside, in their own little groups, probably making plans for the long weekend. I would love nothing more than to spend the weekend with Mac alone, just her and me, instead of attending an illegal poker game. Hopefully, after tomorrow night, I could do just that and be a normal teenager.
Walking across the school’s parking lot, I envied the newer car models lined up like dominoes. My battered Jeep, which I had parked between a shiny silver Camero and a black Ford truck with a lift kit, stuck out like a sore thumb. It had more dents than a stock car. Sure, I could have bought a new car with the money I’d won gambling, but instead, I reinvested it back into the game. It was a stupid decision. I should have quit the game while I was ahead. Hell, I should have stopped a long time ago when I had my first big win. But the high of winning was like nothing else. I was hooked.
When we made it to my Jeep, I pulled the keys from my front pocket and stuck the key in the passenger door. My Jeep was so old that key fobs hadn’t been thought of yet. As I pulled the door open for Mac, I was reminded just how old the Jeep was when the door started to creak, making an ungodly noise.
“You should really think about getting a new car,” Mac said with a smile. “Aren’t your parents worried that you will be left stranded in this rust bucket?”
“My parents aren’t as rich as yours. Besides, after tomorrow night, I’ll be able to buy one on my own.”
“What is tomorrow night?” Mac asked, making me more aware of my plans to involve her.
I knew that before I got to my house, Mac would question me again about tomorrow night. I placed the key in the ignition and allowed it to rest there while I spilled my plans to her. When I turned to face her, her eyes were on me, watching my every move. “The favor I told you about, I need you to help me tomorrow night.” I could have left it there until we got to my house, but I didn’t. “I’m in a jam, Mac, and I need your help.”
Mac's hand fell on my lap, and a deep concern for me stretched across her face. “What’s going on, Levi? You know I would do anything for you.”
“I’ve got into some pretty bad trouble. I owe this guy a lot of money, fifty grand, to be exact. I need you to help me pay him back.”
“I don’t have that kind of money.” Mac pulled her hand away and rested it on her lap. “How am I supposed to come up with fifty thousand dollars?”
Having Mac ruffled was not how I wanted this conversation to go. I was already in too deep and had no other option but to tell Mac everything. “I don’t need you to come up with the money. All I need is for you to use your counting cards talent to win the money.”
As I drove, I explained everything to Mac about my situation and how I came to owe Dice fifty grand. Sharing everything with Mac made me realize what a dumbass I was. I should have listened to my dad and never gotten involved with Dice in the first place. With my dad losing his job and the small unemployment check he got, I had to do something so Dad wouldn’t lose the house. I promised my dad that once I won enough money to keep us going until he could get another job, I would quit. The job never came, and the amount of money I won wasn’t enough. But then my luck changed. Every game I played, I won. I was invincible. Or so I thought until that all changed. Once I started losing, I should have quit. But I couldn’t. I thought for sure my losing streak would end, just like it did before, and I would win again. Fifty grand in the red, I finally woke up.
When I pulled up to my house, Dad’s car wasn’t parked in the driveway, which made me wonder where he went. He always made sure to be around when I got home from school. I parked the Jeep in front of the garage door on my side of the driveway.
“Looks like we might have the house to ourselves,” I smirked jokingly. Dad could come home any minute, and getting caught having sex with Mac wouldn’t be good for either of us.
Mac rolled her eyes and opened the passenger door. She knew me enough to know that sex was always on my mind. It was true. Sex with Mac was that good.
We headed to my room when we entered the house, but not before looking around to see if Dad might have left a note.No note.
Tomorrow night had to be perfect if I wanted to get out of debt. I needed to make sure that Kenzi could count cards, as she said. While Mac took a seat on the bed, I walked over to my closet, where I kept a couple of decks of cards. I found the decks of cards right where I left them, still in the box and unopened.
“We need to make sure you will be ready for tomorrow night,” I said as I took a seat beside Mac. I broke the two boxes' seal, pulled the cards out, and handed Mac a deck. “Start shuffling the cards.”
Mac removed the jokers and shuffled the deck of cards like a pro. Maybe the doubt I had in her was undeserved. It was evident that she had been around cards more than once. Mac handed the deck back to me when the cards were shuffled well enough.
After taking the deck from her, I dealt out five blackjack hands; one for Mac, three for the imaginary players, and one for the dealer, which was me. I had to make the practice run for what would likely take place as authentic as possible. From what I had seen in the past, there were only four players per blackjack table. I dealt Mac the ten of spades and seven of hearts, giving her seventeen. After looking at my own faced-down card, which was an ace, I looked at the other three hands to see what the imaginary players had. One hand had a jack and a seven, with another hand having two tens, and the last a deuce and a queen. The rule of thumb was to stay on twelve and hit on anything lower. I, for one, never followed that rule. As the dealer, I stood where I was since I had a total of seventeen. The only two players still left in play were Mac and the imaginary player with the deuce and queen.
Mac pointed to her cards which indicated that she wanted another card. She drew a three, which put her at twenty. “I’ll stand,” Mac said, doing a fist pump.
It was a push, but I was glad that she didn’t bust. She still had a lot to learn. “Mac, when you don’t want another card, you have to wave your hand, with your palm down, across your cards.”
“What is wrong with just telling you?”
“These are just the rules, Mac. If we don’t want to draw attention, we have to play by Dice’s rules.”
“Fine.” Mac waved her hand over her cards, while rolling her eyes with annoyance.
