Paradise on Earth

Chapter Ten

(Next Day - top outfit)

The wind ruffled my hair as Kie, JJ and I tried to melt down the golden bars John B had taken. My stomach was filled with happy butterflies, finally relieved that we had gone through almost everything to get this gold. Now, all we needed to do was to pawn this off and split the money evenly. 

Shouldn't be too hard, right? I held the blow torch, letting the purple and blue flame melt the bars. After many seconds of waiting, the gold eventually melted together; creating a gold glob of some sort.

We waited a bit until it was fully cooled down. JJ picked it up and covered it with a towel before stuffing it into my backpack. He kissed me on the cheek as we made our way over to the Twinkie. It didn't take long for the six of us to drive over to the pawn shop downtown. I opened the side door of the Twinkie, hopping out with my purse hanging from my shoulder. "Hell of a job Dr. Frankenstein," JJ said, looking at me as me as I stepped out of the car.

"Like you could've done better," I responded with rolling my eyes at the end. "I could have done much better, I took a welding class," JJ said. My eyes narrowed at him, nodding my head; entertained that I had ticked him off. John B set a hand on JJ's shoulder. I took the glob out of my backpack and handed it to JJ who winked at me. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has a pawn this piece of shit off," he said and held up the gold that was covered by the towel. 

"How did I get this job anyway?" JJ asked.

The rest of us began walking over to the entrance of the pawn shop. "Cause you're the best liar," Pope answered from beside me. Kiara, Pope and I walked to one area of the shop while John B and Sarah were on the other side. JJ politely greeted the women at the front desk and set the gold onto the counter. She narrowed her eyes, watching as he uncovered the gold. Kiara and I walked beside one another while we looked at the expensive items aligning the shelves.

"So I heard the boys stayed over at your house the other night," Kie said.

"Yeah, what about it?" I replied, admiring an emerald green bracelet. She walked over to stand beside me and gazing at the same bracelet. "Anything happen between you and JJ?" Kiara asked. The two of us stopped at a glass case that held a variety of different bedazzled glass animals. I glanced away from the items to see her looking at me with raised brows. I sighed and finally gave in. "I'm only telling you this because you and JB kissed," I stated, "JJ and I had a conversation, and then it led to something else."

Her face was priceless. Kiara has known about my crush for awhile, but I never really jumped on it until know. We walked over to where everyone else was as JJ continued to converse with the woman. I could tell that the women was hard to work with. She scanned her eyes over the piece of gold, looking at it with a small magnifying glass. "Spray-painted Tungsten," the woman said.

She rolled her eyes at JJ's anxious antics. The women turned around and grabbed a vial of acid that would determine if the gold was true or not. I guess it was common for people to come in with fake gold. The pawnbroker poured some of the acid onto the gold, seeing if it would react but it just sat there. She put the top back onto the vial and set it into the leather case. "Well, it ain't plated, and it ain't painted," the woman said.

She leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. JJ stood his ground and continued to convince the women that the gold was in fact real. "It looks like someone tried to melt it down," the woman said. I scratched the back of my neck and looked around the items, ignoring the quick look sent my way by my boyfriend. "My mom, she had all this jewelry lying around the house and she thought it was best to melt it down," JJ lied, "To 'consolidate' it."

He put air quotation marks around the word 'consolidate'. The women looked up at him with brows raised then set the gold onto the safe beside the register. She set a hand on her hip as she watched the numbers go up and down, waiting for it to settle on a digit. "Seven pounds," she read, "That's a lot of earrings." JJ cleared his throat and uncrossed his arms.