Chapter 12

A plan had been thought out by the time the evening rolled around. It was Tristan who suggested that Dallas should pretend to be Andor’s cousin, who was visiting from Norway.

“Bouncers don’t usually ask many questions,” Tristan said when he was explaining everything to Dallas, “You’ll probably be fine.”

“My only problem with this is that is says that I’m supposed to be like, thirty-two,” Dallas said, “Which I obviously am not.”

“Just don’t worry about it,” Andor assured him, “You have blonde hair and blue eyes. So does the dude in the ID picture. It’s passable. You’ll get in.”

When they arrived at the casino, Ara explained that they would split up into two groups. “If one group of people keep winning all the games, it’ll look a bit suspicious,” He said, “But it’ll lessen the suspicion if we split up and pretend we don’t know each other.”

 Dallas waited with Andor, Ara, and Tristan in Ara’s car while Kaitlyn and Paolo entered the casino. They waited about ten minutes after Kaitlyn told them that they were in before getting out of the car.

“So, not that anyone is going to ask,” Dallas said, “But just so we’re clear, Andor is my cousin and you two are his friends?”

“Not that anyone is going to ask,” Andor said, “But you’re also from Norway, remember? And you can’t speak English. You’re here visiting me, your cousin. My friends and I have decided to take you out to have a fun time. Let me do the talking.”

“No one should ask you any more than that,” Ara said, “Once you get in, you should be fine.”

They walked up to the entrance of the casino. Ara and Tristan got in, and waited for Dallas and Andor on the other side. Andor got in a few seconds later. He stood off to the side, just next to the bounces.

Remember, Andor said, I’ll do all the talking. You don’t know any English. I’ll tell you what to say if it comes down to it. Just don’t panic.

“ID,” The bouncer said in a bored tone as Dallas walked up.

Dallas froze. Was he supposed to understand that?

“ID,” The bouncer repeated, “Do you have any on you?”

Andor stepped next to the bouncer. “Sorry,” He said, “My cousin is visiting from Norway. He doesn’t understand much English.” He turned to Dallas, and said something to him in Norwegian that he didn’t understand. Show him the ID, Andor told him.

Dallas took the ID out of his pocket and handed it to the bouncer. Dallas tried not to appear nervous as the bouncer took the ID and studied it closely. He handed the ID back to Dallas. “Have a good time,” He said.

“Thanks,” Andor said. Dallas followed him as he went to go join Ara and Tristan.

“So,” Tristan said, “How bad was that?”

“It was terrible,” Dallas said, “I’m sweating so much. I’m surprised he didn’t turn me away.”

“Me too,” Andor said, “I mean, you don’t really look like you’re thirty two. You just look really nervous.”

“Thank you for your vote of confidence,” Dallas said, “How about we just get started so that we can get out of here sooner?”

“Sure,” Ara said, “I’ll leave you two to do whatever. Try to get as much done as you can.” He walked away, leaving Dallas standing in the foyer with Andor.

“How much do you know about casino games anyways?” Andor asked him, once Ara was out of sight.

“Not very much,” Dallas said, “I think my friend tried to teach me poker a few years ago. I didn’t really get it.”

“Oh, it’s not so hard,” Andor said, “If there’s anything that you want to try, I could probably walk you through it. Why don’t we start with something easy? Like blackjack maybe.” He walked over to one of the tables.  “You can sit out the first round if you want to.”

“Aw come on,” said a man who sat down next to Andor, “Let him play this round.”

“Yeah,” Said another man, “We don’t want there to be any cheating going on.”

“Is now a good time to mention that I have no idea how to play this game?"

“I’ll help you through it,” Andor said. He gave Dallas a sideways glance and added mentally, Keep talking about how little you know about gambling. It might make them underestimate us and raise their bets.

The dealer shuffled the deck of cards and handed two cards to each of the players. Dallas looked around, uncertain as to whether he was allowed to pick them up yet. It was only until Andor cleared his throat loudly that he realized that everyone else was holding their cards. He picked up his cards, which turned out to be a Queen of hearts and a seven of diamonds.

Don’t bet a lot this round, Andor said, I got this. Dallas took a few of his own chips and placed them out in front of him. He looked over at Andor, who was biting his lip and slouching forward with an intense frown on his face.

Do you really? Dallas asked him.

Don’t you know what bluffing is? I have an even 21.

Dallas focussed on the other player’s thoughts. The first man had a total of twelve, and the second had nineteen. He was so preoccupied that didn’t notice that the dealer asking if he wanted another card until Andor cut into his thoughts.

Seventeen is a pretty good hand, He said, You don’t want to go higher than that.

What?

Put your cards under your bet, Andor told him, You don’t want any more cards. You’re done once you go over twenty one.

Dallas slid his cards under the chips. He noticed that one of the men had a third card now, but Dallas could tell by the pained look on his face that it was no good.

A short while later, the four of them flipped their cards over. The other two men looked completely dumbfounded when they saw that Andor had scored a blackjack.

They played against the two men for a five more rounds. During that time Andor and Dallas had mutually agreed to let their opponents win at least one round to avoid suspicion. The dealer was getting ready to deal out more cards, when Andor suddenly stood up.

“It was great playing with you,” He said, “but we’re going to leave now.” He gathered up his winnings, and gestured for Dallas to follow suite.

“What was that all about?” Dallas asked once the men were out of earshot, “We could have played a little longer.”

But Andor shook his head. “Weren’t you listening to their thoughts?” He said, “One of them was starting to think that we had rigged the deck somehow.”

“He thinks we were cheating?” Dallas asked in a shocked tone.

“We technically were,” Andor said quietly.

“Well I bet getting up and leaving so suddenly will lessen their suspicions a bit,” Dallas said sarcastically. “Let’s just find Ara and he can get us out of here.”

“He said he’ll be over here in a minute,” Andor said, “We’ll meet him right here.”

Within a few minutes, Ara was walking up to them. “I’m glad you guys gave me an excuse to leave,” He said, “I haven’t exactly been having a fun time with this.”

“Neither was I,” Dallas said, “Maybe it’s time to come up with a new plan.”

“Aw, come on,” Andor said, “It was fun up until the other guys thought we were cheating.”

Ara cast Andor a nervous glance. He pulled out his phone, and glanced at the screen. “It’s ten thirty now,” He said, “Probably a good time for us to get going anyways.”

“Whoa,” Dallas said, pulling out his own phone, “There’s no way it’s ten thirty already!” He looked down at his phone. “Oh man,” He said. He bit his lip nervously.

“What is it?” Ara asked, sounding equally panicked.

“I told my mom I’d be back at nine forty-five.” He showed Ara and Andor the screen.

“Seventeen missed calls from you mom?” Andor sneered, “You’re a dead man. It was good knowing you.”

Dallas sighed. “There’s a chance that I probably won’t be able to leave my house for at least a week. You’d better get me home like right now.”

Author's Note

I wrote this a long time ago but I forgot to upload it. I usually post to my tumblr first (starfast.tumblr.com)