Haircut (Beth Harmon X Benny Watts)

Chapter 41

"I saw him." Benny said. He was trying to hide his anger, but when it came to Townes he was awfully bad at it.

Matt and Mike stared at him in suspense. It would've been dead quiet, if Matt wasn't bouncing his leg up and down beside me.

It threw me of when Benny sat down in front of me instead of next to me. He once told me that he wanted to be able to grab my hand in any moment, just because. Maybe he was just too irritated with Townes to think about me or stupid things like holding hands.

I was missing Collin at our table. Even though I didn't know him that well, he had this way of calming me down. He just gave off a brotherly feeling. But Matt told me that he had to leave suddenly. Collin did promise that he would be back for Benny's and mine chessgame tomorrow.

"Did he say anything?" Mike asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"No, he didn't. I don't think he saw me, he was looking in another direction." He rubbed his temples. "But hell, he looked like he jumped out of a plane."

I just listened to Benny quietly. He saw him, when Townes was looking at me. I was glad that he had disappeared almost immediately, because otherwise Benny might have followed his gaze and then all hell would've broken loose.

"Do you think he's using drugs?" Matt asked.

"Can be. Couldn't look at him all that long. He did look like shit, though."

"It doesn't matter, okay? Let's just focus on the chess. He's avoiding us. Let's keep it that way." I snapped.

I had enough with Benny asking questions. Besides the point that I didn't want him to find out that I talked to Townes, he needed to calm down.

Stressing over a person who gave up trying does only make sense when you care about them. And Benny doesn't care about Townes at all.

"But Beth, what if he stops ignoring us?" Matt asked, before Benny could open his mouth. Might have been for the better, because my comment irritated him.

"Than we have two options. We ignore him untill tomorrow night when we leave and probably never see him again. Or we swallow our pride and listen to him."

Benny scoffed. "Pride? You think this is about pride? You know that guy's an asshole." His voice started to become louder every second. "And try to listen to him? I don't need to hear a fucking word he has to say."

"Well, then you'll go with option one, right?" I bit back. "Just act like he's air. What's the problem?"

"He's more like fucking pollution than air. Hard to ignore that."

I rolled my eyes, but before I could say something back, Matt laid a hand on my shoulder. And so did Mike with Benny.

"We're having this conversation so Townes doesn't break you up. Take some deep breaths and go play your last game. This isn't working right now." Matt said stern.

The way he said 'break us up' scared me. But when Benny sighed and nodded, I relaxed. Matt and Mike stood up from the booth to let us both out.

The feeling that Benny wasn't mad anymore only lasted to seconds. Because when I looked up at him with regret in my eyes, he didn't hug me. He didn't grab my hand. He didn't give me a reassuring smile.

No, he just blinked, stared at me for a few seconds and started to walk.

"Asshole." I whispered when I walked away from him to the table where I was going play my second-last game of the tournament.

It was a good game. Thean I was playing against had more skills than anyone else I had played againat here. He even had some surprising moves, that threw me off a little. But not enough to make me lose advantage.

Half way through the match I felt my shoulders relaxing, and my mind started to really get in the game. My eyes were dancing around the pieces, when I attacked one pawn at a time.

It was tough, but I wasn't scared. I knew the board and the board knew me.

I beat him in 36 moves.

It meant that I had won every game in the tournament. And so did Benny. We were going to play the last chessgame on the big stage.

I looked at the board where my nameplate was moved next to Benny's.

"Well, you did it."

Surprised by the voice I turned around to see Collin's face, also staring at the board. He had a small grin on his face.

"You know that Benny suspects that you let him, right?"

"Yeah, I should have made a dumb move earlier, but I was having to much fun with beating and confusing his ass." He laughed.

"Why did you do it anyway?"

"You guys deserved the stage." He shrugged.

"And why's that?"

"You guys been through some things I wouldn't like to be in. And besides, you guys are the king and queen here and thought it would be nice for you guys to keep that title."

"But you play so good. Don't you want to win?"I asked confused.

"Hey, I meant you could keep the title for this year. Next year, I'll beat you both. Watch my words."

I grinned. "We'll see about that Wilson."

"Sure we do." He laughed.

In the corner of my eye I saw Benny walking from table to table to look at the games.

I sighed. I wanted that the game tomorrow would be a fun time not war like. So, I straightened my back and walked to him.

"We need to talk." I said as I grabbed his hand. He still had a hint of anger in his eyes, but also some fear. I didn't know where that came from.

Not one seconds later, I felt an arm around my shoulder. Sam's young face greeted me with a smile.

"Hey Harmon." He tipped his cap at Benny. "Watts."

Benny furrowed his eyebrows. I just realized that I hadn't even told him about my he with Sam, or about Sam at all.

"Any luck with avoiding the press? I hope that the schedule I gave you helps a little. Because damn, my dad brought more people here than I thought."

Sam's smile slowly faded away, as my expression turned paler and paler. He removed his arm from my shoulder and looked at me confused.

Than he turned to look at Benny's face. And then back to me.

"I am gonna go..." He said quietly and walked of.

I stared at Benny in silence. He looked at me furiously, and even worse, he looked hurt.

"Now we really need to talk." He said with a dangerous tone.

~A.N: owh boi heheh