Chapter 10 SWINDLED

Dove loved to drink.

Before the Honorable arrived, she was already very tipsy, and he was owing the club well over fifteen thousand for the drinks Dove and Sobrina took in his absence; but money was nothing to the Honorable.

"Where are you staying?", Dove questioned Sobrina, as they sat in the V. I. P with the Honorable.

"I was hoping to go directly back to school in the morning",

"Why don't you come over to my place and stay for a while, why travel so soon?". She gave Sobrina her contact address, they agreed she would come to her place in the morning.

A gentlemen asked Sobrina to dance, and she was swept away from the group.

After some hours, the gentleman took Sobrina to his hotel room. They were accompanied by six other people - three young men and the ladies they had picked from the club.

In the hotel room, he opened a new bottle of Johnny Walker, the girls began to dilute it with canned soda and ice, as the party continued.

Sobrina's soda was frozen, and in the spirit of trying to prepare for the job ahead, she began to pour the liquor in the frozen can. She would shake and then sip directly from the can. It was delicious, and she kept refilling and sipping from the frozen can.

The others left for their rooms few minutes later, she was finally left alone with the gentleman. They showered romantically together - or as close as romantic as Sobrina could pretend. And lay naked on the bed, cuddling, when he began to snore, suddenly fast asleep.

Sobrina arose immediately, went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, came out and dressed up. She gathered all his belongings including three expensive cell phones, two bottles of perfume, a tube of body lotion and all the money she found in his wallet. She had long discovered it was more profitable and less painful to steal than to have sex with the strange men who fell into her trap, from time to time. She left quickly before the liquor's effects could set in.

She was new to alcohol, and understood she had taken too much. Nobody stopped her at the hotel's reception, they were all asleep. The security at the gate didn't suspect anything either, and he just let her go.

She took a motorcycle straight to the Polytechnic where Dove had told her she resided. She stopped in front of an uncompleted house, went in, as the liquor's effect began to set in. She later began to roll on the sand, stifling her cries so she doesn't attract attention and lose the things she had stolen. She felt like she was going to die, she was twisting back and fort, rolling on the floor, gripping her stomach, and eventually passed out after what looked like an hour.

A male voice woke her up in the morning, sending her away thinking she was mad. It happened that people lived within the uncompleted house.

She got up, very dirty, found the plastic bag with which she had loaded the things she had stolen and left the compound.

By the road, she called the number Dove had given her.

"Where are you?", Dove questioned.

"I'm in front of your school"

"Alright wait there, I'm about returning, I'll pick you up when I get there".

When Dove saw Sobrina, she was alarmed. Sobrina explained what had happened to her, but without telling her about what she had done. Dove had a roommate and the three ladies began to live together.

Sobrina never went back to that club for the few weeks she spent at Dove's. Dove told her to give her the money she had made at the club for safe keeping, and she complied. She also gave her two from the cell phones she had stolen. Dove had convinced Sobrina that thieves could break into the house at any time, therefore they had a Safe, where they kept their valuables.

Sobrina met a man few days later, at the Polytechnic's community and they started dating. She was out for some days with him one weekend, when Dove called her and asked her to return as quickly as possible. From the sound of her voice, she was crying.

Sobrina inquired as to what had happened, but Dove wouldn't say a thing.

When Sobrina returned, Dove's roommate left the room and locked them within. Dove began to question her about the night they had met at the club, and the things she had stolen. She claimed the gentleman confronted her at the club last night because they had been seen together that night. When Sobrina asked to get back her belongings, Dove began to beat her up claiming she had been beaten like a thief at the club, and eventually sent her away.

Sobrina lost the money and the cell phones she had given to Dove, but she had hidden the most expensive of the three cell phones she had stolen with her new boyfriend. She left empty handed from Dove's apartment, and returned to her new boyfriend in tears, took the last of the cell phones and traveled back empty handed to the University of Science.

But Sobrina never left her relationship with Dove, they spoke from time to time over the phone.