Valley of the Dolls

(xi) What About The Fall?

          "Yeah. So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him," John B continued. She tried to neaten the words in her mind. "So on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell and, in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

          "Where?" Kie whispered like a nervous child.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water," he recited by memory. "Except . . . there's no wheat. See, wheat is code for gold. Check this out. Recognize this, Blair?"

          The blonde stood and snatched the old letter from between his calloused fingertips. A symbol was engraved at the bottom, one she knew all too well. "British gold!"

          He chuckled, smiling proudly. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."

          "Holy shit," Kie breathed out.

          "All we need is an original survey map of the property," John B mused, placing his hand over Blair's shoulder with an eager smile, "and we've found the gold."

          "Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true," Pope's voice was slow as he blinked in shock, still not believing that John B actually found a lead that could actually bring them to the gold.

          "Motherfucker, John," Blair cursed. She was a little tipsy and he was grinning widely.

          "Dude," JJ exclaimed, "it's like King Tut."

          "I am a genius," John B moved away from Blair with a satisfied smirk. He counted four seconds before he was hoisted off the ground, JJ's arms tightly wrapped around him as the flames reflected against their skin. "Hey, whoa! Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

          "I'm so proud of you right now," the boy moved away, cupping his best friend's cheeks with warm hands.

          "Thank you," John B seemed as touched as could be, returning the smile as the blonde moved away from him. "That's really sweet of you."

          "Okay, so, guys, what's the plan?" Pope wondered.

          John B grimaced slightly at the boy's concerns. "Good question. Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map─"

"Hold on," Kiara interrupted him, blood suddenly boiling with anger. "Sarah? Why Sarah?"

          "Why is my sister in on this, John B?" Blair frowned.

JJ smirked amusedly as John B struggled to find the words. "This is gonna be good."

"Sarah, uh, she─she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday," he explained, leaving out blatantly key details. "And that's where I got the letter."

"You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?" Kiara gapped, anger eating her up.

"Yeah─"

"He was mackin' on her," JJ interrupted.

John B shot him a pointed sneer. "I wasn't macking."

"You were totally macking Sarah Cameron," the blonde teasingly repeated, yearning for a rise from his best friend. Blair crossed her arms over her chest, shooting him a knowing look.

"I wasn't macking on her, okay?" he kept denying, looking out at the distance in hopes of them not discovering his stupid white lies. "I was using her for access."