Checkmate

“Mom,” I say as I walk over to her, “I’m going to go hang with Raven now.”
She turns to face me and gives me a smile. “Have fun.”
I give her one back before I head out of the door. I can’t believe that everything is going to plan. It’s kind of weird because I’ve never really done anything like this. The worst that I’ve ever done would be yelling at that stupid girl that my parents want me to marry. Besides that, the only other thing that really comes to mind would be my grades. That isn’t really my fault though. I’m not the smartest kid in class. Plus, I do study when I know that I need to get my grades up enough to make them happy.
I feel like I should have done this a long time ago. I mean, they can destroy all of my stuff and ground me, but they can’t control me. They may be stronger than me and everyone else listens to what they say for obvious reasons, but there is always that option of leaving. I could run away if I wanted to. If I did, I almost wouldn’t want to leave because I’d love to see the look on their faces, I’d love to see how they would tell everyone that I was gone, and I’d love to see what they would do to fix everything. The elders picked me, not my sister or my brother. They can’t do this. Once you've been picked, you’re picked. The only way out of it is through your generation or by death. I doubt that they’d have someone hunt me down to kill me. That would destroy everything.
I look down at the map on my phone and hope that I’m going in the right direction. Never going out has prevented me from knowing where everything is even though I’ve lived here all my life. That’s just another thing that my parents have taken away from me. My life has been so fucked up all because of them. I don’t get why they wonder why I am the way that I am. Not every kid is going to end up like Joe and May. Not everyone is going to embrace the ways of our family. Some of us are going to be like me. Some of us are going to want to be normal.
I take a left and then a right. Eventually I find the apartment building that Mr. Gaskarth lives in. I go up to the door and look over at the machine to find his name. Where is it?
C. Clark
D. Click
A. Gaskarth
There it is. I press the button and wait for him to respond.
“Hello?” his voice says over the speaker.
“Hey, it’s Jack.”
Hey, Jack. I’ll buzz you right up.”
The sound of the door indicates that I can go in, so I do. My feet take me over to the stairs. He lives on the third floor, so I go up the flights of stairs before I reach his floor and eventually over to his apartment. I take a breath before my hand starts to come in contact with the wood. I don’t get to though because Mr. Gaskarth opens the door which causes my hand to stop mid air. He looks at it for a sec before giving me a high-five. I put my hand down slowly and enter when he moves over.
As I walk inside, I look around a bit. It’s nothing like I thought it would look. It’s very simple and doesn’t have much style. Although, I guess the fact that he has three bookcases filled with books and a chess set could count as style. I just get the feeling that he moves around a lot and only takes the stuff that he loves. I’d ask, but it isn’t any of my business. The other thing that I really notice is the fact that it’s really clean. It doesn’t even look like there is any dust in the place. I follow him into the living room area. The kitchen and living room area are open, but there is enough space to make sure that they look separate. The place looks rather nice. I glance over to the hallway. I see four rooms. One of them must be the bathroom and another must be his bedroom. That still leaves two rooms. Does he live with anyone. Knowing the situation that we are in, I decide to ask.
“Do you leave with anyone?”
He sits down on the couch. “No.”
“Well, it’s just that there are two extra rooms...”
Mr. Gaskarth shrugs. “I like having extra space. Besides, it’s always a good idea to have a guest room. You never really know if you’re going to have a friend from out of town come over. I’d prefer if they slept in a room and not on the couch. This couch isn’t that comfy. I would know from staying up reading.”
“I see.”
I finally actually look at him. It’s weird seeing him without being dressed up. Of course it’s probably like that with any teacher. I can’t help but think that he looks really hot right now. He’s wearing a grey T-shirt that clings to his flesh, and his jeans are black and very tight. They look tighter than mine. His appearance almost makes me want to drool. If this was a cartoon, I would be.
“You can have a seat if you want.”
“Oh, um, OK.”
I do as he suggests and sit down next to him. I can’t help but feel shy in this situation. My socializing skills are shit, and he is my teacher. He looks at me and gives me a smile. His teeth remind me of a chipmunk which is rather. He’s rather cute, and I find myself being jealous of his good looks. I know that i’m decent, but this man is probably the best looking guy that I’ve ever seen. It makes me even more shy around him.
“So, what do you want to do first?” he asks me. “We could jam for a bit, or I could teach you the very basics of chess. That mostly just consists of telling you what each piece is and how they move.”
“Um, I would rather play first, but it would probably be best if we did the chess part first. That has an end, but jamming doesn’t until I need to leave.”
“Good choice. I’ll grab the pieces.”
Mr. Gaskarth gets up and goes over to the chess set that looks rather fancy. He takes so many pieces off of it and then comes back over to me. He sits down again and hands me one of them. I recognize it as the one that is half of the pieces needed.
“This is the pawn,” he tells me as he looks at it as I hold it. I can see in his caramel eyes the passion that he has for the game. “The pawn moves forward one space. You can move one of them two spaces once. They can capture pieces that are diagonal to them. They are the pieces that can’t move back at all. There is something special about them, but I’ll tell you about that another time.” He hands me another piece. This one looks like a horse. “This one is the knight. It’s way of moving is very interesting. It makes an ‘L’ shape. This ‘L’ is three spaces long and two spaces wide. It can move anyway as long as it starts at one end of the ‘L’ and ends on the other.”
~
It takes me a bit in order to understand how all of the pieces move, but I eventually get it enough. I know that he might have to remind me another time, but I mostly understand. I sit and wait for him to get his two guitars. I watched him go into the room at the end of the hall. He didn’t want me to follow him because he doesn’t let anyone in that room. It seems kind of weird, but I know that he isn’t the only person like that. I don’t like it when people are in my room.
He comes back out with an acoustic guitar in each hand. He sits down next to me again and hands me one of them. It looks beautiful with it’s polished black surface. I recognize the type and realize how expensive they are. I find it hard to believe that he’s actually letting me play one of them. He hands me a pick and holds the guitar the correct way before waiting for me. It takes me a second to get out of it before I hold it the same way.
“Is there a certain song that you want to play?” Mr. Gaskarth asks me.
“Um, can we play ‘Adam’s Song’ by Blink? I don’t know if you know that one.”
“Of course I know that one. They’re a great band, one of my favorites actually.”
We start playing. I get into it. It’s nice having a guitar back in my hands. I’m one of those people that play everyday, and it’s annoying that I haven’t been able to play the last few. To think that I’m going to have to wait to come over here just to play.
I just happen to glance over at Mr. Gaskarth. He’s so into it. I never would have thought. His eyes are closed, and his head is swaying slightly to the beat. His mouth starts to open, and the most angelic voice fills my ears. I stop playing altogether. Eventually he realizes that I stopped and stops himself. He looks at me, and I swear that I see his cheeks get a little red.
“I’m sorry about that. I like singing while playing. I didn’t even realize that I was doing it.”
“It’s fine. You have an amazing voice by the way.”
“That’s what the queen told me,” he chuckles. “Um, I’m actually from England. You might not have gotten that if I didn’t tell you.”
“That’s cool. Why don’t you have an accent then?”
“I’ve been here for years.”
I can tell that he doesn’t want to talk about it, so I leave it. We end of jamming for a bit longer before I have to leave. He puts the guitars back and then tells me that I can come over next week. I thank him before walking towards his door.
“Thanks Mr. Gaskarth.” I start to walk out the door, but he stops me.
“Don’t mention it, and it’s Alex. You can call me Alex.”

Notes

Sorry this was so late. I actually wasn't going to update this week because I have some school stuff. I didn't feel well today and was able to finish my gov. project, so I went ahead and updated this. I seriously can't wait for this story's intro to end. Sadly, I still have a bit to go. I don't know how many more chapters I want in here, but I feel like I need around four more. Oh, and I definitely did not use my sister's name and mine in this. Nope. Not at all...
Anyway, I hope you liked it!