Let's Play A Game

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"I'm a player, I'm a hater, but I swear you would never know. Cause I got a smile on I'm an ex-con that just got off parole." -Victoria Justice/Here's 2 Us

"Bluff." I smirk cockily as my opponent raises his bet to $123,456. He looks me straight in the eye hoping that I'd drop my hand and he'd win the $650,768 we piled in the center of the playing table.

"You sure about that princess?" He raises an eyebrow, but I know from years of experience that even the smallest nervous gestures can give someone away. His fingers tap the table the slightest bit and a small bead of sweat begins to form on his forehead.

"Yeah, you're bluffing." After another minute of staring at me he growls and throws his cards down on the table. My older brother Donovan holds up my duffel bag as I shove the money into it. "Pleasure doing business with you Arian, but I'm just unbeatable." Then with one final salute we run out of the apartment complex and into Donny's red and black Lamborghini.

"Great job Devin, that's my girl. Undefeated since you were ten years old, I raised you well." I smile triumphantly knowing that my brother is proud of me. Playing poker has been pretty much my whole life. Donny was the only person that I've ever known personally and the only one I love. This isn't sappy, this is life. He taught me the rules and skills and once I turned 10 I played unofficial poker agains younger people who didn't know better. When I turned 13 I looked old enough to play illegally; but nobody needs to know that. Now I'm 16 and I'm living off of fake IDs and money we get from games.

"So there's a surprise special event at a club out in Chicago." I announce as we park in front of our apartment building. "What is it called? Oh 31. Stupid name, but everyone's talking about it." Donovan seems to be debating the suggestion but grins widely.

"Alright Dev. We'll leave at 7:30 so we can be there at about 8:15, now go start getting ready." He pushes me through the door and I glance at the clock to see how much time we have. 6:50, that gives me about thirty five minutes to get ready (I give myself 5 extra minutes). Quickly, I walk into my room and open my closet. The setting sun sends orange rays of light dancing around my light blue room and into my open wardrobe causing something to catch my eye. A dress that's tighter at the top colored light blue with Aztec prints and more flowing and navy blue towards the bottom. Snatching the dress off the hanger, I run into my bathroom and put it on. After a minute of putting on mascara and a light pink lipstick I re-enter my room and look for shoes. My last options are black heels, a pair of white high tops and blue flats.

"Go with the white ones, you'd run better in them if you needed to." I hear my brother from behind me so I turn around to find him leaning against the door frame. He's referring to this one person I won against who happened to be a really sore loser... Yeah, a lot of running for 1 night. Taking his advice I grab the shoes and walk past him into the living room where the tv is blaring out the Goofy Goober song from SpongeBob. Donny comes and sits next to me singing along to the song while I'm tying my shoes. "Okay, off to the club!" He declares once the song is over. "And while you were getting ready I looked up the club and there's supposed to be a serious poker game. You know what that means?"

I smirk knowing exactly what he's thinking. He may be 32 but I know him like I know cards. "Go beat everyone there then once we win the money, celebrate with drinks." We smile widely at each other before grabbing our jackets (mine is a black leather jacket and his is black too, with a red heart on it) racing to the door and down two flights of stairs. "Let's do this." And then we're off down the street weaving between cars; my anticipation growing to the max.

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The game flys by and it's only me and some boy named Aidan who doesn't play easy. He sits across me with a confident smirk he puts out $160 worth of chips but I hold my face in a stone expression and place $765 in. Aidan raises his eyebrows and looks concerned blowing a puff of air from his mouth. Then after a moment of pondering his situation he does something in not expecting, he raises his bet as Donovan places another card on the table (he's the dealer). The current bet is $1,200 and I smirk, knowing I have more than enough money to raise mine. I know this is risky but I have too. Picking out my chips I push $3,000 worth of them to the center of the playing table and the crowd around us murmurs in surprise.

Aidan raises his eyebrows but quickly settles down. His hands are shaking slightly as he examines his cards and sighs. Finally, folding his cards and causing an enormous smirk to grow on my face as I place down my final cards: a royal flush. I slowly stand from the table and extend my hand to shake his.

"Pleasure doing business with you Aidan. You definitely don't play easy." Then I load our winnings ($889,365 exactly) into the red and black duffle bag.

"Let's get a quick drink then we'll head home...I have a surprise for you." I nod and we head over to the bar and sit at the high stools ordering the lightest drinks the had. "You good to go?" Donny asks finishing off his drink.

"Yeah but hold on a second." I stand from the stool and walk to my opponent. "Again, good game and no hard feelings." I lean in and whisper while slipping a $50 bill from his pocket. Yeah, I pick-pocket here and there for fun. After pulling away I put the money in my jacket pocket, and strut towards by brother who's waiting patiently in the drivers seat. "So, what's the big surprise?"

"Well, I figured...how do I say this?" Donny runs his hands through his dark brown hair then starts the car. "I'm putting you into school."

"Haha, good one bro. That's really funny." I grin looking out the window. After a minute of laughter, I realize that  Don isn't laughing with me. "Wait...are you serious?"

"Yes Dev, I'm serious. You need to go to a real school. I can't teach you everything and I've been thinking, thinking about how selfish I've been." He sighs looking at me grimly.

"How have you been selfish, you've taken care of me my whole life and you've been the best brother ever." I argue but he shakes his head.

"No, I've been so worried that you'd end up like mom and dad. I've kept you from a normal life and instead replaced it with card games and thievery." The anger and venom behind his words make me lean back further into the leather seat.

"I thought that we agreed to never bring them up again." I whisper trying to hold back tears.

"Damn it Devin we can't keep ignoring the situation like it never happened! I get it they killed her and they deserved to die in prison but you need to be able to live your life like a normal teenager." He snaps and a tear rolls down my face.

"No, you don't understand! You have no idea what it's like to have a fight with mom and dad, then wake up in the middle of the night to a deafening scream. You don't know what it's like to run down the stars and find a knife lodged into someone in your living room. And you most definitely don't, can't and will never understand how it feels to realize that it's not just someone lying on the floor, but it was my own twin sister!" I shout taking a deep breath. I didn't even realize I've been crying so much until I feel how damp my dress is and how many tears have stained my cheeks. "Donny, you barely knew her, we were seven and you were almost done with college. She was my best friend, and they took her from me. Delaney didn't deserve to die, and the worst part, is that it was all my fault, I had to get what I wanted and she stuck up for me."

"Dev, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that-" I cut him add with my own cracking voice.

"I'll go to school, I'll have a normal life, but don't you ever say that you understand what it feels like to be the reason that our sister is dead." he parks the car outside the apartment building and with one last glare at Donovan, I storm into the building to think about what's happening.

When did a night where I win $889,365, turn into a night where I end up crying myself to sleep?