Haircut (Beth Harmon X Benny Watts)

Chapter 40

"What do you mean you think Townes is here?" Benny said dangerously calm.

"We found a schedule with journalists names on it. Townes was written down as well." Matt answered.

How the hell did they find a schedule?, I thought to myself. But after a few seconds, I realised that I never brought it back to my room last night. I had no clue were I put it but I was sure that it wasn't in my pockets when I walked away from Townes.

"Are you sure it's from this event?"

At first I was suprised that he stayed so calm, but when I turned to look at him, I saw that his jaw was clenched and a fire burned inside his eyes.

"Positive, look it says Las Vegas 1969." Mike took the sheet of paper out of his pocket and pointed at it.

I immediately recognized that it was mine, because I'd accidentally torn one of the corners last night. How could I have been this fucking reckless?

"But we haven't seen him yet." I murmured.

"If he's here, then he's probably hiding." Matt folded the piece of paper and put it back in his pocket. "And I think it's probably for the best."

"That guy shouldn't be working." Benny said as he scratched his moustache. "Why the fuck is he here?" He groaned.

Collin looked at us in confusion. "I still don't get what this guy did wrong?"

We all kept quiet. It was a great question. With a vague answer, because I did the same wrong thing and nobody's mad at me anymore, so why should they be mad at him?

Benny shared a couple of looks with Matt and Mike and also looked at me for a few seconds. His jaw clenched even more and he turned his head away as if he couldn't look at me any longer.

It made my stomache turn. A wave of guilt flowed through my body, so I let go of Benny's hand and started to crush the bench underneath me instead.

"Something bad, that he should have been fucking killed for. Details aren't necessary."

He was right they weren't and besides, I didn't really know any details anymore. It was all a blurr. But the fact that Benny was still so mad at him suprised name s little.

The silence returned. We were all looking down at our breakfast, but nobody except Collin was able to eat.

"Let's just all try to stay away by avoiding his spots. And if anybody sees him, tell us. We don't need this son of a bitch to ruin our time here." Benny's voice was dead serious, but after receiving nods from Matt, Mike and Collin, he relaxed a little.

He turned to me. His eyes looked angry and frightened at the same time. I quickly nodded, not wanting to upset him even more.

"Good." He smiled a little and took my hand back in his, but this time it only made me feel worse.

When I walked up to my assigned table, I groaned when I saw the person sitting at it. It was the arrogant douche from Townes interview, who thought he was better than Collin and Benny combined.

It was quite amazing actually that even his appearance was annoying.

When I arrived, hestood up straight and offered his hand. "Introductions aren't necessary, right?" He grinned.

It took a lot of effort not to wrinkle my nose up, because he had a wide gap between his front teeth and they were everything but white. I pulled my eyes away from his mouth and looked him in his eyes.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I asked.

"I said that introductions aren't necessary."

Now it was my time to smirk. Maybe if he hadn't bad-mouthed Collin and Benny, I would have forgiven him for his cockiness. But too bad for him.

"I'm sorry I have no clue who you are. What was your name again?"

The pupils of the man grew bigger and bigger, rage filling them. For a moment I thought he was going to explode. But then, he took a deep breath and  plastered a fake-smile on his face. He laughed dramatically as I had just made the best joke of the year.

"Kenneth Miller, darling."

The way he said darling made me want to puke, but I was too satisfied with his fake-smile to throw up.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Miller. Let's play." I said in the sweetest voice ever.

Already frustrated he sat down and placed his pieces so they were standing exactly in the middle of their square.

I really hoped that the Chess review would create a humor column, because the things this guy was doing were absolutely hilarious. I didn't know if he was too frustrated with me to concentrate or just bad. Maybe that was his strategy; have a big mouth so your opponents expect more and then fail miserably. It was great.

He did one move dumber that the other. After 15 moves, I could already start my endgame. And because I didn't want to spend another minute looking at this shit-hole, I attacked with force.

19 moves. It took me 19 moves to drive this man crazy. He had stormed away from the table with a face so red as a tomato. It was quite fun to push his king over myself.

After I cleaned of the board, I leaned back in my chair. A lot of people were still busy, but I couldn't see Benny anywhere. He was probably already done.

When I turned my head further, my eyes met with eyes I wasn't used to see.

Townes.

He looked way less miserable than last night, still not healthy in anyway though. Maybe he got some sleep last night?

When our eyes met, he smiled softly, what suprised me even more. But in a good way, I hadn't seen that smile in forever.

"Well done." He mouthed.

I smiled back. He obviously disliked the prick I'd just beaten as well.

A few moment later he disappeared in the crowd again, leaving me smiling at the walls.

"Beth?" A familiar voice said.

I turned around to see Benny's blond hair falling in front of his eyes. I was glad it was the same length as last year again. It just fitted him better.

"Hey, you." I said with a smile.

"Lunch." He said. He started to walk of without saying anything else. The way he walked away made me feel he was still upset.

But I didn't know if it was because of a tough game,  Townes or me. With a bad feeling in my stomache I quickly walked after him.

~A.N: I just wrote the storyboard for the last parts of the book and it's intense and I hope you'll guys will love it like I am hahah <3