Cards Against Us All {HS}

-Chapter Eleven-

Chapter Eleven:

Billie

I've been playing poker since I was tiny. I basically came out of my mother with a deck of playing cards in my hand. So, having known Gio as a distant family friend for a few years, way before I started university, meant that I could carry it on. I would often take small weekend holidays to Cambridge by myself or with my father so we could see Gio. From that I met the boys. My best friends.

And the house we live in, yeah, that's owned by Gio. He used to live in it before he became a professor but now that he teaches he just lives in a back room at the library. Slightly pathetic if you ask me.

I care about Gio so much but my love for Clara is also very strong. I hate lying to her. There is so much stuff that she doesn't know about. The darker secrets of this fucking club that I will never be able to escape. If only I'd just stayed away. There are so many other places that I could have gone to study what I really wanted. So many other schools to study medicine, it's fucking ridiculous that I had to study here.

It was either, I study here or I don't study at all. As my father made me think of it, 'Gio can write you a great letter of recommendation to help you get in. They love him over in Cambridge!'

It kind of fucked up my whole plan when my father broke that news to me. I had the plan of getting through uni with an undergraduate degree in medicine and then train so I get to travel to places with less medical supplies and skills. I wanted to change the world.

I guess I was fortunate to be able to travel with the club but it just isn't the same. We get to be tourists but when you've been to these places over and over again it just isn't the same. This is actually my first lot of games that I'm allowed to play in. Every other time I went with Gio and the boys I had to watch and it wasn't because I didn't know how to play, it was merely because I was mostly underaged. One the plus side, I still got bought fucking drinks.

Gio still had a key to the house so technically he could come and drag our asses out of bed if we were late which did happen on the last rehearsal we had before travelling. We'd been properly partying the night before; getting high and getting drunk off our marbles so it was safe to say we slept in.

Gio wanted us at 'the spot' early. Too early.

The spot is different from the normal place where we have our sessions. It was in a rather sketchy place so I wouldn't be surprised if Clara was suspicious of what we were really doing.

Clara was the worst getting up. It made me laugh because she came out of her bedroom in sweats and a hoodie and her natural hair and sunglasses. She drank a hell of a lot, purely because she was nervous about going away with Harry as her plus one.

When she and Zayn went to go see Harry, I was honestly surprised. Don't get me wrong I love Clara but she never followed through with anything so I was taken back by her acting on something so quickly.

Harry was coming with us and sticking with Clara the whole time. That was the plan. Clara needed to be distracted by something when she wasn't at the games with us.

We all groaned as Gio ushered us out of the house at a ripe 8 am. Going to sleep at 3 am doesn't help when we are going to have to concentrate today and I have to pack myself and pack Clara's stuff. We leave in two days. I love leaving things to the last minute. It's part of the Billie package.

My outfit was matching Clara's outfit, except for the sun glasses. My hair was greasy and there was a lack of coordination in my outfit.

Everybody hauled into cars. Gio had Liam and Louis in his car and Niall drove Zayn, Clara and I. Gio tended to take a liking to Liam and Louis, the double trouble, because they have led some of the operations that Gio orchestrated previously. They'd end up talking about what we have to do in private in the car ride over to the spot. Whereas my lot in the other car, just jam out to one of Lara's playlists.