Autumn (GirlxGirl) | #FREETHESKITTLES

four

        AUTUMN'S hand brushed off of mine as she took her cue stick again and stood right in front of me.

        The imbalance of the stick still felt weird. She asked me to move over a little bit to watch her. Holding the stick on its bottom half, she pointed over at the triangular shape she made with the balls.

        "Okay, first, you gotta know how to rack them."

        Dropping the narrow end in the middle of the table, she pointed at the solid yellow ball and continued, "there's rules for it. The 8-ball must always be in the middle— that is, if you're playing 8-ball."

        Autumn then slid the narrow end towards the left. "Look at the ball at the far corner. That's a striped ball," she explained. Sliding it the other way, she continued, "that one there is a solid ball. One through eight are solids, nine through fifteen are stripes. Notice the numbers in the middle?"

        I nodded in response to her question. She smiled softly.

        "Those are the numbers of each of the balls."

        Raising an eyebrow, I turned to her. "Must you hit them according to the number?" I asked.

        "No no, not for 8-ball. For 9-ball, you gotta," she stated with a chuckle.

        "I'm so confused," I mumbled under my breath.

        "Don't worry. It's easy to pick up once you know the rules," she said. Plopping the blunt end of her stick onto the ground, she gazed at me with a slow, teasing smile, "Just watch me for now like you always do."

        My cheeks flared at her words. Of course, she had to call me out on that.

        "Anyways," she started, seemingly determined to give me the rundown, "when breaking, you're pretty much just creating an opportunity to shoot. Get something in, lucky you. If not, no biggie." Approaching the table with her stick, she leaned over and gave me a quick glimpse. "I'll break. Watch me," she said with a wink.

        The sharp crack of the balls smacking together was an oddly satisfying sound. The balls scattered everywhere on the table, bouncing off of the edges and each other. One of them went in on the far right corner pocket— as to which ball it was, I had no idea.

        Autumn stood up and smiled back at me. Leaning her stick back against the wall, she came around to my side. "The black ball and the white ball are the two balls you don't want going into the pockets. If you get the black ball in, you lose."

        "What about the white ball?" I hummed back, scanning the table for the black ball. It was right in the middle between two striped balls. Yeah, let's not get that one in.

        "The white ball is the cue ball, which is the only ball you can hit with your stick. If you get that in, you lose your turn."

        I nodded and surveyed the table again. The cue ball was by the edge between the middle and far left corner pockets, but nearer to the middle. "Sounds complicated," I mumbled. She chuckled in response and squeezed my arm, slightly urging me to move to her side.

        "Come on," she spoke, dragging me over to the side where the white ball was. "You're a rightie, right?"

        Way to be normal, unlike you. I kind of like it though. I hummed in agreement.

        "Okay, this one would be an easy hit. See that blue ball near the corner pocket?" Autumn asked as she pointed at it with her finger. I nodded. "That's a solid ball. Now to hit it, you want to align your stick where you want to hit the cue ball from. Make sure the position is stable."