egotistical | benny watts

cowboy

I stop and think about his question for a moment.

Should I tell him I play? It's no secret but I'm not exactly here for the competition, I'm here for Beth.

Facing the man, "Yeah." I nod.

The man creeps a smile on his face, "Come here, tell us, what's the move, girl." He spats at me.

I look at the man for a moment pursing my lips together and taking a deep breath, I take a few steps forward to get a closer conception of the chess board.

I can't believe I'm wasting my time doing this.

I glance at the blonde cowboy who has a smirk creeping on his face.

I look back down at the board and in an instant I say, "Take the knight,"

glancing back up to the various group of men

noticing some of their eyes widen a smidge, "If you take his knight then you double his pawns." I finish.

The blonde boy looks down and adjusts how he is sitting, taking a deep breath in, breaking the silence, "Well, like I said, It's all pawns and no hope." The blonde boy says, trying to avoid the situation at hand.

I tilt my head slightly in fascination with this boy.

"Let me show you how to win with black," He continues, moving the pieces, "What does white do here?" He asks, already knowing of the answer.

"Queen takes pawn." I and the man with glasses blurt in sync, both glancing at one another while it happens.

The blonde boy nods, "Rook to king eight, check." He says moving the pieces.

I continue standing there, watching with curiosity.

Should I leave?

"Queen falls." The cowboy continues, moving the pieces.

The man with the glasses pauses, "That's Mieses-Reshevsky, from the thirties."

"Yeah, very good. Margate 1935." The blonde boy responds.

"White played rook to queen one." The man with glasses says, catching on.

"What else has he got?" The blonde boy nods, leaning back in the chair he sits in.

There's a long pause, I'm still contemplating whether I leave or not, this would be very awkward if I continued to stand here hovering over the large group of men.

"Alright, well I gotta go." The blonde cowboy says standing up from his chair, sweeping the chess pieces into his duffle bag.

That's my queue.

As I turn my body, swiftly attempting to escape as all the men start sitting up from their position, packing up to leave, right before i think i could pull off a swift escape the blonde chess player hollers at me, "Hey, wait a minute." He says walking towards me, his bag in hand.

I turn slowly to face him.

"What?" I ask, in confusion.

What could this weird cowboy want from me, he's already wasted my time enough.

Taking a few steps closer to me, he pauses, taking a deep breath, "I'm Benny Watts, U.S. champion." He grins, reaching his arm out expecting it to meet with mine.

Seriously?

I look at him up and down and let out a small giggle, refusing to take his hand, "You really had to add your current chess title at the end of your name."

"How else would I do it?" Benny says grinning.

"You're that entitled to yourself?" I judge.

"Maybe I am." Benny replies firmly.

This man itched some irritation in me at first, but wow, he really is this ignorant.

I don't reply, with no expression on my face.

Benny opens his mouth, maintaining deep eye contact.

How intimidating.

"You ever gonna tell me your name, or are you just going to stand there and wine." Benny scoffs.

This arrogant fucking cowboy.

I pause, already wanting to be finished with this unnecessary conversation.

"See you around, Benny." I say walking away smiling, completely avoiding his question.

I turn my head to see him still glancing in my direction in slight awe. I turn my head back forward and continue to walk to my hotel room, where I was supposed to be what felt like centuries ago.

I keep my eye on the doors, searching for my hotel number.

208..

209..

210.

I pause, getting a grip of the hotel key, attempting to unlock the door.

I flip the key lock, turning the knob. I walk into the clean hotel room. Turning to the right, noticing the two beds parallel from one another. I walked in and shut the door closed behind me, keeping it unlocked. Noticing our bags in the corner I picked up one of mine, the lightest one in the pile. I drag my bag over the a bed on the left, closest to the large opened windows. I settle my bag onto the bed, taking a seat on the right side of the bed, staring out the windows into the distance.

An uncontrollable grin creeps on my lips. He was addicting, but incredibly irritating. Slight chills travel throughout my body like the speed of light.

I hope to see him again.