COMPETITION AND BEAUTY | Benny Watts ♛

Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Benny wanted to punch someone or something- in concept. Yes, he carried around a knife, but that was for "protection" or whatever the fuck that meant. He wasn't a violent guy!

He had been back in New York for at least a week, without even King (Thea's cat), to keep him company. When he unlocked the door of his basement of a home, the first thing he searched for was King, roaming free somewhere in the crevices in the dark apartment.

But the cat was gone, and he didn't know how, but somehow she had gotten him back.

He looked for the black leather jacket, neither hoping it was there nor hoping it was gone, but it was untouched. The closet door was opened, a door he remembered that he did not open himself, but the jacket remained standing in his closet.

You can imagine how much he obsessed over the fact that she didn't take it, whatever it meant. Maybe she didn't wanna be reminded of him.

And now he had to deal with the reminders.

Things felt empty, more than they were before she was there. He didn't need her though, and he would learn to live on without her. He missed finding her wearing his t-shirt without asking him, eating his terrible food, and the insanely stupid bubble-kitchen fights.

What the blond needed more than anything was to be angry at her, to push her out of his mind, to be reminded of every way she used and wronged him. All for what? Benny didn't even know. He needed to focus on chess, his openings, his knight plays, and bishop forks.

He just wanted her for sex. He didn't have feelings for her.

Yeah, right.

Anyone can get through anything if they tried, even if that thing he needed to get over would be the most difficult in his life.

And he's played Borgov!

Benny Watts was working on his Albin Counter Gambit, an uncommon defense strategy played around eighty years ago by Mattia Cavallotti. D4, D5, C4 and-

A knock at the door.

-

Thea had been staying in motels and trailers- anywhere where they'd take cheap cash and not ask questions.

Kentucky compared to New York City was understandably a little bland. Compared to the colored neon lights, bustling energy, loud honks of taxis, diverse people, there were a few tumbleweeds and wide-open land.

It was boring, but she had gotten used to it.

The only thing interesting she could not stop hearing about was Muhammad Ali going to a heavyweight championship fight which he was expected to win, and it turns out he did. He was a hero everywhere, and Thea didn't mind the locals talking to her all about him.

She tried to keep chess out of her mind, so she replaced it with boxing.

On her way back home through the small town of Winchester, she decided to walk into the corner store. It was something of a pharmacy filled with drugs, candy, and magazines with Benny's face seemingly printed everywhere, equally enough with Beth's face.

She missed Beth.

Thea turned to the cashier and threw up her hands, "Don't you think there are enough chess magazines in here? Since when is everyone so fucking interested in chess?" She said, almost shouting.