𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

TWENTY| pawn shop troubles

The woman laughed, "That ain't real."

"That ain't real?"

"It can't be."

JJ paused a moment, looking back at his friends.  Eden shrugged, knowing this woman knew better than their games—she'd probably been through a lot of teenagers scavenging for some easy cash—and acted like she was holding something in her hands to mimic heaviness.

"Feel how heavy it is." JJ turned back towards the pawn woman.  The woman listened, and tried to pick up the item, failing to get it up off the counter a few times before finally picking it up, hands, a slightly shocked expression on her face.  "Mhm. Mhm. Here, let's get some light on that."

Eden watched as the woman examined it with a magnifying glass, turning on a small light to see it better before determining, "Spray-painted tungsten."

"Spray-painted tungsten. Really? Okay." the Maybank frowned.  Eden sighed, leaning against the small shelf behind JJ in case he needed help with more ideas on how to convince the woman this was indeed real gold. "Why don't you see, uh, how soft it is."

 She held up a small hammer and pick, "You mind?"

"No, go for it."

The pawnbroker chipped into the gold, placing her finger in the small dent that was left.  Amused, the blonde boy smirked, "Wow. Would you look at that."

"Hold your horses." The woman replied, "We ain't got to the acid test yet."

"Ooh! The acid test." JJ exclaimed awkwardly, looking back at his friends—who were now all watching the interaction curiously—before adding, "My favorite, guys."

The woman dropped a small amount of acid on the gold, watching as there was no reaction. She mused, "Well it ain't plated, and it ain't painted."  By the confusion and surprise in her tone, Eden supposed it had been a while since real gold was brought into her shop.

"Ma'am, I'm telling ya, this is real as the day is long." JJ reassured.

The woman commented, "It looks like somebody tried to melt it down."  

At the stare he was getting from the pawnbroker, JJ lied. "My mom."   The woman sent him another look at the Maybank continued, "She had all this jewelry lying around the house and thought it was best to—to melt it down.  To 'consolidate' it."

The pawnbroker set the nugget down on a scale, eyes wide as she looked at the weight. "Seven pounds? That's a lot of earrings."

"Okay, to be honest, ma'am...." JJ cleared his throat, and Eden could already smell the fake act he was about to put on. ".....it's really hard to see my mom fall apart with Alzheimer's."

"Mhm." the woman turned around to walk away, "Give me a minute."

"Take your time, ma'am."

The woman walked away and all of the Pogues burst into light laughter at JJ's sob story.  Eden shook her head, "Alzheimer's, really? Jewelry? Not even Sarah owns seven pounds of jewelry, J."

Sarah shakes her head. "I don't."

JJ raised his hands in defense, "She was asking about Kie's shit smelting job.  What was I supposed to tell her?"

Kiara gave an unimpressed look, "Get over my shit job. Next time, you do the smelting instead, yeah?"

"I will, thank you."

"She's coming out." Pope whispers causing everyone to fall silent, acting as if they'd been cruising around the shop rather than commenting about JJ.