Anyone else but Ten woulda racked ‘em hard, woulda slammed those balls on
the table, eish. But Ten, Ten went the other way. Just by how careful he was.
Precise ‘n clipped like an assembly line. So you could see.
Boyfriend wasn’t used to losing, especially not to Special-K. I mean, the girl
held her own ‘gainst most of us, but Ten could wax us all six-love baby.
Boyfriend carried his own cue, in a special case. Kif shit it was. Lycratanium,
separate pieces that clicked into each other, assembled slick ‘n cold and
casual-like, like he was a soldier in a war movie snapping a sniper rifle
together. But Kendra grinning now, said, “No, my bra. I’m out”, set her cue
down on the empty table next to us.
“Oh ja, like Ten’s gonna let this hook slide. ” Rob snorted into his drink.
“Best of three.” Tendeka said and smiled loose and easy. Like it didn’t matter
and chalked his cue.
Girl hesitated and shrugged then. Picked up the cue. Tendeka flicked the
triangle off the table, flip-rolling it between his fingers lightly. “Your break.”
Kendra chalked-up, spun the white ball out to catch it at the line. Edged it
then sideways so’s it would take the pyramid out off-centre. Girl leaned over
the table. Slid the tip of the cue over her knuckles once, taking aim, pulled
back and cut loose, smooth as sugar. Crack! Balls twisting out across the table.
Sunk four solids straight-up. Black in the middle and not a single stripe down.
Rob whistled. “Shit. You been practising, K?”
Kendra didn’t even look up. Took out another two solids and lined up a
third in the corner pocket. Girl’s lips twitched, but she didn’t smile, no, didn’t
look at Ten, who was still sayin’ nothin’ like. He chalked his cue again, like he
hadn’t done it already, and stepped up. The freeze was so tight I couldn’t take
it. Anyway. I knew what was coming. So, off by the bar I was, but nears
enough so I was still in on the action like. Ten lined ‘em up and took out two
stripes at the same time, rocketing ‘em into different pockets. Bounced the
white off the pillow and took another, edged out the solid K had all lined up.