ADJOURNMENT || benny watts x reader

chapter seven

"What're you doing for Thanksgiving?" Benny said down the phone. It was late, too late to be up before another day of university classes, but you'd both got into the bad habit of calling in the evening.

At first, you'd thought it was stupid— you literally lived five blocks away from each other. But as time passed, you realised it was simply more convenient. You could wear your pyjamas, smoke a cigarette and write your English notes while he chatted away on the line.

"I don't celebrate Thanksgiving," You chuckled, phone held between your shoulder and cheek, writing down book notes on the floor at the same time. "Have I been here that long that you've forgotten I'm not actually American?"

"With your accent, no one could forget," He hit back. "Fine then— what are you doing for the weeks leading up to Christmas?"

"Probably drowning my sorrows in mulled wine and reading Wuthering Heights for the hundredth time,"

"Not heading home for it?" His curiosity crept down the phone. You paused, dropping your pencil as you went to grab a cigarette.

"I wasn't planning on it. Why?"

You could tell what face he was pulling as he breathed down the line. It was a face you'd become accustomed to over the past few weeks at chess club meets. The subtle arch of an eyebrow, lip quivering like he had a secret to tell— in other words, his amused smile.

"Well, Matt and I usually drive upstate to his Mom's for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we stay for Christmas and New Year's,"

"Are you inviting me on a road trip?" You said, exhaling smoke with a reserved smile.

"That depends on if you say yes or not,"

You contemplated your options— staying in your studio and watching It's A Wonderful Life on repeat in your slippers or drinking and feasting in Matt's mother's house for a month.

"It's my birthday on the 11th of December," You stated.

"All the more reason to say yes,"

"I have classes—,"

"You and I both know you've already written up your assignments early," He chuckled. "You're trying so hard to get out of this,"

"And you're trying so hard to get me to come on a boy's trip,"

"It's hardly a boy's trip when Matt's mom makes up our third party member," You stayed silent, flicking ash into an ashtray and falling back to lie on the floor, staring at the ceiling. "Are you afraid I'm finally gonna beat you at chess if we spend the holidays together?"

You huffed at his response, but he wasn't exactly wrong. The more you'd played against Benny, the more he analysed your moves and tactics. He was getting better at understanding the stories in your head, how you'd set the scene.

It was daunting, and you knew he'd said that as bait, but nevertheless—

It was his bait that you took wholeheartedly.

"If I fail all my classes, I'm holding you accountable," You said, climbing into the passenger side of Benny's Beetle, less than a week after he'd roped you into going upstate.

Matt was shoved in the back with the bags, but he didn't seem to care too much.

"Think of it as an extracurricular vacation,"

"In what world does drinking booze-infused hot chocolate and playing a hundred games of chess count as being extracurricular?"

Benny shot you a smirk. "My world."