Maybe is a Loser's word ~ Benny Watts Fanfic

Chapter 4 ~ 1955 ~ Green eyed envy

I lay tucked in bed, looking up at my pristine white ceiling and feeling nothing but pure happiness. I replayed the moment in my head of her lips touching mine over and over again. "I shouldn't be thinking about her this much, I'm getting distracted, I have chess games to play...." I think to myself. My mind jolts between Martha and chess but continues to settle on Martha each time. She dances through my head, I'm unable to stop myself from smiling at the thought of her. I drift off to sleep dreaming about my green eyed girl.

I wake up the next morning, buzzing with excitement. Today I'm playing 4 games and if I win them all I play in the final and could potentially become one of the youngest US open champions ever. That wasn't the only thing I was excited about though, I get to see the girl of my dreams again. I jump out of bed, ready to start the day. I rush down the hotels carpeted stairs, almost tripping and falling as I did so. I run over to the registration desk and get the briefing on who I'm playing. The tall man in glasses starts to speak "Watts, to start of with you are playing white at table 3 against Jeffreys" I nod and walk over eager to start playing. I sit down and shake hands with the 60 year old grandmaster sitting before me. "start your clocks" yells a voice from the registration table. My opponent reaches out and pushes the button on my clock to start the play. I push my kings pawn forward to E3 and he reflects my move. We play another 6 moves each and he already has my bishop and two of my pawns. I only have one of his pawns and I'm struggling now.

I watch as the game plays out. I make a huge comeback half away through the game stealing his queen after he had stolen mine. I still have a chance at winning. Endgame comes pretty quickly after the loss of our queens. "Here's my chance" I thought while reaching out to pick up the pawn that I could move to my opponents side. I exchange my lonely pawn for a queen, making my opponent wince. Soon after I had the game under my control. Jeffreys had no way of winning or making a comeback. He had no choice but to resign the game. He stuck out is hand and resigned. I watch the elderly man rise to his feet and place a firm hand on my shoulder "tough game kid, good job..." he grumbled in his raspy voice. I looked up and nodded at him as he walked away.

The next 3 games were as hard as the the first. I won all three by the skin of my teeth and tomorrow morning I will be playing Grandmaster Jeremy Evans.

I walk through the lobby, feeling the confidence inside of me as I strut past all of my competitors. "Imagine a 14 year year old beating you....how embarrassing" I say smirking as I watch all of their beady eyes upon me. I shove my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket and walk into the restaurant to find Martha sitting alone, obviously waiting for me. I walk up behind her and place my hands on the back of her chair and  lean over the top of her so our faces were less than than a few inches apart. "Oh my gosh Benny! You scared me, I wasn't expecting you..." she exclaims. I stand up straight and say "who were you waiting for then?" slightly taken a back by her cold tone. "oh..." she mumbles "I was just waiting for...Carol! Yes Carol....she must be taking her time at the ladies room" she says with a convincing smile. I nod, unsure what to make of her weird mood. "So aren't you going to congratulate me" I ask with a grin. "For what?" she asks obviously confused, I look at her and say "for getting into the final". I'm confused by her somethings off and I can't quite place my finger on it.

She looks at me dead in the eyes and and tilts her head. "I know what winners deserve..." she says with a sly smile. She stands up and shifts her eyes to my lips before clasping my face with one of her hands and putting her lips to mine, kissing me slowly, a lot longer than yesterdays kiss. She leaves me standing in the restaurant and I turn to watch her glide up the stairs. That kiss was weird, it felt guilty. She's hiding something and I want to know what it is.