ATOMIC, benny watts

four- complications

Beth Harmon was not satisfied that she had beaten all of us at Speed Chess and immediately said "Let's do it again."

No one dared say anything, and the chess boards were rearranged and set up precisely, while Cleo and Bob scurried around, going to fill their glasses up again. This time, peeking into the other plastic bag.

This time, Beth defeated Arthur first, knocking his own King down, before moving onto Hilton.

The more I watched her play, the more in awe I was of her. She was brilliantly scary and her moves were wicked sharp, sending chills down my spine when she moved over to me.

Clearly. I had let myself go in terms of chess.

Although, Hilton didn't last long.

He was next to be knocked out of the game. It seemed that she had lured him under false pretenses with her Rook and then gone on to completely obliterate him from there.

Then there were two.

Technically three.

My brain couldn't really keep up with the game, so I had no idea how I was still alive and pushing forward on the board. Hell, everyone else in the room might've agreed with me. As Benny lost before I did.

Something that shocked me as it seemed that the two were close when it came to playing chess, well, when it came to intellectual beings and all that nonsense.

I felt a slight pat on the back, whipping around, I see it's Arthur a slight grin on his face as if he was saying "I knew it."

Either way, I flipped back to my game, knowing it was my turn, and push my piece forwards, taking one of Beth's remaining bishops, that had been holding a hefty card in our game.

I could feel the tension rising as the seconds past, each piece moved, eyes burning holes into the back of our heads, till finally, Beth had knocked over my King.

A cocky, yet restless grin strewn across her face before turning to Benny as she watched him rummage through his wallet, pulling out the $40.

I felt bad, seeing as I was $10 of it and pull out my own wallet and hand my portion over to Beth.

Benny looks bewildered "I can handle this one Bernard." He says, pushing my hand away from Beth's

"That's stupid. Let the woman pay for herself." Cleo slurs slightly, looking over from her new seat at the table.

"Yeah. What she said. Fucking Feminism man." Bob yells as he proceeds to pound his fist onto the table.

"Calm down buddy. You're in my place." Benny says distastefully before turning around. "Jesus. Hopefully he's not too bad when he's sober, otherwise, the music is ruined for me."

This causes a few snickers.

"He's usually alright. I wouldn't stay with him if he wasn't." I chime in.

"You two a thing?" He asks curiously

I quickly shake my head no and then say "God no. Wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole."

"Hey! I wouldn't say that for you, so that's not very nice." Bob whines, complaining.

Beth, however seems to have grown distant from the conversation, as she sighs, having picked up a chess piece from one of the boards and examines it gently.

"Again?" She says firmly, but still partially phrasing it as a question.

So on we went.