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Hazel leaves out the fact that it's a Halloween party until last minute. She's already had me squeeze into a black lace dress that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination when she produces a pair of cat ears. She places them on top of my head and fingers my dark hair to fluff it out.

"There, perfect," she says as she steps back to admire her handiwork.

"Why didn't you tell me I would have to dress up," I groan as I reach for a pair of black thigh high stockings that are laid out on my bed.

Hazel tries to bat away my hand. "Because I knew you would've found an excuse to back out." She's definitely right about that one. "Now leave those, you don't need them."

"I most certainly do," I protest. "This dress is practically see-through and it's getting cold out."

She lets out a disapproving sigh but allows me to wear the socks. She's dressed in a Super Girl costume that has more fabric in the tiny cape than anywhere else. She looks gorgeous though, and she knows it.

We head out hand in hand and take a taxi across town to where the party is being thrown. The house we end up at is huge and packed with college students. The music is so loud that I can feel the bass rattling in my chest as we near the front door. Mia and Dominic are waiting for us outside and they both shoot us wide grins as we make our appearance.

"You actually came!" Mia squeals, jumping up from the steps to throw her arms around me. I hug her back, wobbling slightly in the heels Hazel insisted I wear. "You look absolutely stunning by the way, babe. I'm loving the cat ears."

"Thanks, you look pretty great yourself," I reply, and I'm not just saying it to be nice. Mia is dressed as an angel with a tight white halter dress complete with a halo and wings. Her eyelids shimmer in the streetlight with silver sparkles.

Dominic towers behind her dressed as a devil, of course since the two of them are an item, and he wiggles his thick eyebrows at me when I take notice of the costume.

"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.

"Yeah baby, sure thing," the blond says.

"Baby?" I do everything in my power to hide the annoyance I feel from my tone.

"What else should I call you? You haven't given us your names."

"I'm Hazel and this is Mabel," Hazel answers as she flips her honey colored hair over one shoulder. "What should we call you?"

The blond winks back at her. "Anything you want, baby."

The third guy, who's been leaning back against the wall to observe, punches the blond in the shoulder as he steps forward. He's just as tall as the other two and just as built. His golden-brown hair has flicks of natural red highlights in it and the scruff that lines his chiseled jawline has the same dark auburn color mixed in.

"You'll have to excuse Lucas here. I'd say he's not used to talking to pretty girls but that would be a lie. He's honestly just a horn dog." I have to stifle a laugh behind my hand in response. Hazel is much more composed, and she tilts her head at him. "I'm Alex and that's Tyler."

I glance up at Tyler beside me to find that he's leaning closer. "So what do you say? Two against two?"

"There's three of us here, darling," Tyler says with a frown pulling down the corners of his mouth.

"It just wouldn't be fair for the three of you to outnumber us," Hazel interjects softly. "I'm sure one of you can watch. We don't mind."

Three sets of eyes widen at Hazel's innuendo, and then Tyler and Lucas both look to Alex who shrugs his shoulders once. There's a sense of authority that surrounds him and both Hazel and I take notice of it.

"Lucas it looks like you're taking the bench," Alex says with a mischievous grin.

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"Take one for the team man, come on," Tyler teases.

Lucas grumbles a response I don't catch before storming off into the crowd. I walk around the perimeter of the table to where Alex stands and reach behind him for a cue stick. I brush up against him purposefully, but I'm not expecting the way his body emits so much heat and tingles when our skin touches. Alex seems to notice it too, and his brown eyes darken.

Hazel and I lose the first game which takes an unusually long time to complete since we're pretending to know nothing about pool. We allow Tyler and Alex to lean over us and "show" us how to aim, and by the end they're about to cash out. I raise an eyebrow at Hazel, and her lips twitch.

"One more game?" she asks, staring up at Tyler as she reaches out to put a hand on his chest.

"Aw come on. It's been fun playing you two, I'll admit, but it's just not right to take any more money from you," Tyler answers, hanging his head bashfully.

Hazel pouts in response.

"Come on boys, double or nothing?" I suggest, earning myself a wary look from Alex.

"You've already lost a hundred, and now you want to lose another two?" His eyebrows shoot up towards the ceiling.

"Why not give us a chance to take back what we've lost?" Hazel murmurs, stretching up on her toes so her red lips graze Tyler's ear.

His eyes flutter closed at her words. "Mmm-hmm okay."

Our final game starts out like the first. Hazel and I diminish our skills to an amateur level, letting the two men believe they're winning, but about halfway through I hop out of my heels and bend over the table to take my turn. My sudden lack of height makes the two hockey players seem that much larger and intimidating, but it gives me the advantage I need to line the cue ball up easier.

I call the shot and flick the stick forward, sinking the ball perfectly in a far socket. I step around the table to line up my next shot. Bingo again. It goes on like that until I'm finally lining up the cue ball with the black eight. Closing my eyes, I inhale deeply and then open my eyes once again and push forward my stick, sending the white ball down the table until it rolls up to the eight ball. It hits it lightly, just enough to sink it without tumbling in after it and I let out a squeal of delight.

Hazel beams back at me and rushes over with my heels. We turn to Alex and Tyler who stand against the wall, watching us in bewilderment.

"Pay up boys," I say, holding out my hand.

They shake their heads and dig out their wallets, handing me the three hundred in cash.

"Well, it's been a pleasure," Hazel tells them as she laces her fingers through mine. "Let us know if you're ever in the mood for a rematch."

We wander back into the crowd, Hazel with my shoes and me with the money, and head for the back door.

✖️✖️✖️

"I think we just got played," I tell Tyler as we watch the two girls slide through the crowd.

"By sophomores, too," Tyler says in agreement. "At least they were hot."

He's right about that. The memory of Mabel's tight little body stretched out beneath mine flashes through my mind and I have to clear my throat before speaking. "They stole from us."

Tyler shoves a beer at me and tips his own back against his lips. "Get used to it man. That's the power of those womanly charms. Hell, I'd let that Hazel chick play me any night."

"You sound like Luke,"I groan, stretching out a hand to smack him on the back of the head. "Pull your head out of your ass, man."

I leave him by the pool table and head for the kitchen to find something stronger to drink. I just can't come to grips with the fact that we were hustled so easily. Of course I had my doubts in the beginning, but I had genuinely believed that we were winning fair and square.

I find Lucas with his back end hanging out of the fridge as he rifles through the contents in search of something to eat. He shoots up as I lean against the counter next to him, knocking his head on the door on his way up.

"Fuck. Damn that hurt." Luke rubs a hand over his forehead, wrinkling his nose in discomfort. "What's up? How much did you end up winning?" He shoves a piece of cold pizza in his mouth and I grimace at his lack of manners. It's part of his personality though, just another one of the quirks I've found he has through our years of friendship.

"Originally one hundred." Luke opens his mouth to congratulate me, but I hold up a solitary finger to quiet him. "And then they won that back, plus a hundred from our own pockets."

He lets out a loud snort, bending over as his laughter bubbles over. "Oh...my...fuck," Luke chokes out between laughs. "Aw, you guys got hustled, huh?"

"I'm quite pissed about it actually," I admit, and I am. Naturally I'm a competitive person, but I didn't join hockey just because I love the sport, it was also because it's a contact sport. I don't do well with losing, even if it's just a simple game of pool.

"C'mon don't get your panties in a bunch."

"That was two hundred dollars we lost out on. It could've gone towards rent."

"Relaaax."

I swear if he tells me to relax or let it go one more time I'm going to hit him. My hands ball into fists at my sides, my flat nails digging into my calloused palms.

Lucas takes notice and raises an eyebrow at me in amusement. "Carly has been lusting after you all week. Why don't you go spend some time with her?" He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. "It might take your mind of your incredibly fragile ego."

I let out a laugh and bring the beer to my lips again to take a drink. "Not all of us are horn dogs like you."

It's Luke's turn to laugh. "Dude, I live with you. You can't tell me you don't get action just as much as I do." He nudges my shoulder with his fist as he shakes his head. "Quit acting so moody and go get your dick wet. I promise it'll help."

And help it does. For about ten minutes anyway. It isn't like Carly's not attractive, because she really is. She's dressed as  black bunny with a tight little body suit that shows off her round ass. A set of black silk bunny ears are perched on top of her head, bouncing with her when she walks.

She rubs against me in the most delicious way possible and I grab a handful of her hair to pull her mouth to mine. This is what I'm good at. No one can beat me at this, and it's in that moment that I realize how I can get back at Mabel. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but there are few women who don't fall victim to my charm when I put in the effort, and Mabel should be no different. Sure, the girl seems to have mastered the art of deception herself, but two can play at that game.

Filled with a new sense of confidence, I take Carly by the hand and lead her into one of the empty bedrooms.

Toot toot, motherfucker.

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Mabel and Hazel playin' those boys like...

So the first few chapters are going to have BOTH Alex and Mabel's POV in case you didn't notice, but then it'll alternate every chapter for the most part.

Make sure to show this story some love and vote/comment/add this story to your reading list if you enjoy it!