Breathing Blue | OBX | Sarah Cameron

𝖙 𝖜 𝖊 𝖓 𝖙 𝖞

"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope said as I sat down on the log next to Kiara.

JB did finger guns at JJ telling him to tell us what was going on. "Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed," JJ said forcing John B to tell us.

"You ready for this." He looked around us all.

"Yeah," Kie said finally.

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant." He started.

"Oh, my God. Here we go again with this." Pope interrupted but JJ backed him up.

"No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?"

"It's been here the whole time." He paused. "It's on the island."

"Are you serious?" Kie questioned.

"Oh, my God." I continued.

"I'd like to voice my scepticism." Pope started again.

"I'm sure you would, Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?"JB continued.

"Proceed."

"All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny."

"Who the hell's that?" Kie questioned.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck." He explained. "Check this out." He pulled out the copy of the letter and we passed it around. "Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is..." We all started drumming on our legs. "Tannyhill Plantation." He finished.

"Tannyhill?" Kiara checked.

"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. 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 said.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water. Except... there's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out." He pointed at the symbol at the bottom of the letter. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."

Kie laughed in joy. "Holy shit," Pope said analysing the letter.

"All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold."

"Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true," Pope admitted.

"I am a genius. Hey, whoa!" JJ picked him up like a proud dad. "Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

"I'm so proud of you right now." I smiled at him.

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you." He said, half sarcastically and I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?" Pope looked between me, JJ and John B.

"Good question. Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map-" So that's why he was with her, I thought.

"Hold on." Kie started. "Sarah? Wh-why Sarah?" I looked at the floor which I knew she noticed.

"Uhm..."

"This is gonna be good," JJ mumbled.

"Sarah, um, she-"

"She got us into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday," I explained. I didn't want JB to take the fall for all of it, and JJ looked at me knowingly. I could feel the guilt about not telling Kie and didn't look up.

"And that's where I got the letter." He finished.

"You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?" She questioned and I finally met her gaze.

"Yeah, um-"

"He's mackin' on her," JJ said.

"He's what?" I looked straight at him and he didn't look at me.

"I'm not macking-"

"You're totally macking Sarah Cameron."

"I'm not macking on her, okay? I was using her for access." He tried to defend himself. Before I heard him say anything else I walked off in the direction of the beach, pissed off with both John B and JJ. And also Sarah, if he had been macking her which I was pretty sure about.

I sat down on the shore looking out to the sea, thinking about Sarah and how she'd become distant, though I didn't get much time to myself at all as Kie sat down beside me. She didn't say anything at first, we just listened to the waves crash on the rocks. Eventually, she opened her mouth and then paused for a moment. "Hey. Can I ask you something?" She looked at me and I looked back at her.

"Yeah go for it," I said, slightly worried about what was going to come out of her mouth.

"I know you like Sarah. And you're friends. But when you walked off you seemed angry. Is it because John B likes her and you're worried about her getting with him and forgetting about you?" She asked.

I could tell by her voice that that wasn't what she thought, but I just looked down at the floor. "I don't know," I said simply. I wasn't going to tell her about our kiss. That would be stupid. I could also tell that she wasn't very happy about me bringing Sarah back into her life, considering it was technically my fault, so I felt it best to not bring it up for the time being.

"Okay well," She didn't pry anymore, "John B wants us to go to the Hawk's nets to meet her for the plat map. And I can't say I'm thrilled about it but she already knows and there's no getting out of it. So let's go." She stood up and reached out her hand to help me up. The boys were waiting in the Twinkie at the top of the beach. "You want shotgun?" Kie asked since the passenger side was still empty, but I just ignored her offer and got in the back with JJ and Pope. I didn't really want to sit next to him at that moment, and while I'm sure Kie didn't either, I got in the back first. JJ smiled at me and mouthed "I'm sorry." Before the engine started and we set off.