SMOKE SIGNALS / OUTERBANKS
ੈ✩‧₊˚ written by catie . . . © vqnillascented
chapter eleven ━━ ' the cracks in the glass '
"WHY DO I HAVE TO be the one the pawn this piece of shit off anyway?" JJ is waving the bar of gold in the air like it's a neuscense.
"Because you're the best liar." Pope retorts, earning an eye roll from JJ, before the blond boy steps to the side and pushes open the door to the pawn shop.
The bell hanging over the door jingles loudly as the whole group enters, Alex at the back of the line. She waits by the shelf near the entrance, pretending to look through the tall stacks of vintage and rare CDs while JJ goes up to the counter.
"Afternoon, ma'am." He slips his backpack off of his shoulders. "I see you buy gold."
"That's what the sign say, don't it?" The older woman behind the counter look him up and down, referencing the large CA$H FOR GOLD sign hanging high on the wall.
"Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it, because I'm about to blow your mind." JJ unzips his back and when he reveals the hunk of gold, the woman just laughs at him.
"That ain't real." She shakes her head.
"Oh, really?" JJ challenges. "Feel how heavy it is." He drops it into her hands and she falters, like she didn't expect that kind of weight to hit her palms.
She grabs a light and a magnifying glass from beside her on the counter and starts to inspect the gold, now that it's in her hands. The longer that she looks, the wider her eyes get.
"Look at that." JJ says. "It looks pretty real to me."
"Now hold your horses." She lifts her brows at him. "We haven't gotten to the acid test yet."
"Ooh, the acid test!" JJ nods enthusiastically. "My favorite, guys." He glances around at his friends, as they watch nervously from around the shop.
The broker turns around and returns with a small dropper full of liquid, and after dropping some onto the gold, she starts to mutter to herself, "Well, that ain't plated."
"Ma'am, I'm telling ya, this is as real as the day is long." JJ urges.
"It looks like somebody tried to melt it down." The woman squints closer at the shiny stack.
Alex swallows hard to stop herself from gasping, flipping through CDs faster as her heart races. How is JJ gonna talk his way out of this one?
JJ's face goes solemn and he slouches slightly, "My mom." He tells the woman. "She had all this jewelry laying around the house and she thought it was best to...to melt it down. To 'consolidate' it." He does air quotes.
The woman drops the gold into the scale, and the meter snaps to the opposite side. "Seven pounds?" She says in disbelief. "That's a lot of earrings."
"Okay, to be honest, ma'am." JJ drops his head. "It's really hard to see my mom fall apart with Alzheimer's."
The woman looks him up and down one more time, then resigns, "Give me a minute."
She disappears into a room behind the counter, and when JJ answers, his voice shakes convincingly, "Take your time ma'am."
Alex leans forward until her forehead is against the wooden bookcase, hoping that her smile is hidden by her hair. He's incredible.
It's only a few moments of silence and holding in laughter before the woman returns. "So, I talked to my boss."
"And?" JJ asks, leaning on the counter.
"This is what I can do." She tells him, and everybody else in the room perks up their ears while simultaneously pretending to be busy with the different displays around the room.
The woman places a slip of paper onto the desk, and JJ scans it before looking back up and narrowing his eyes at her, "Fifty-thousand? Really? You think I walked in here not knowing the spot price? Ma'am, I know for a fact that this is worth one-forty at least." He taps the counter with his pointer finger for emphasis.
"Well, sweetie, you're in a pawn shop." She smiles sarcastically. "This ain't Zurich. Do I look Swiss to you?"
JJ pinches the bridge of his nose, thinking for a second before he says, "Ninety, or I walk."
"Seventy." She counters. "Half price, and I don't ask questions about where you got this."
Alex turns away from the CDs to inspect the poster on the wall beside her, her pulse thrumming in her ears.
JJ pouts as he thinks, shooting secret glances to the others in the room, before nodding sharply. "I'm gonna need that in large denominations, please."
The broker shifts uncomfortably. "Here's the snag. I don't have that much denominated, not here anyway. I can write you a cashier's check."
"No, ma'am." JJ shakes his head. "I want the cold hard. That's what that sign says. Cash for gold. That's what I expect."
"Well, I'll have to send you to the warehouse." The woman looks just about done with him. "I have the money there. Is that alright?"
JJ squints at her, and lowers his voice, "Where's this warehouse?"
-
"I've never even heard of Resurrection Drive." Sarah comments as the Twinkie bounces along the gravel roads, headed towards the address that the broker gave them.
"That's because you're rich." JJ says.
"You hadn't heard of it either." Alex counters, shooting him a look from the other side of the van, where she's sitting on the ground, leaning against the door.
"Exactly." Kiara nods to Alex.
Pope looks out the window, "There's nothing but trees out here. I don't see a warehouse."
"We're probably not even close yet, we've been driving for-" The sound of whooping sirens cut Alex off, and the energy in the car falls flat.
"Cops? Out here?" Kiara turns around in her seat to look out the back windshield and the blue lights flashing after them.
"Are you kidding me?" JJ starts to look for a place to hide the gold.
"What did we even do?" Sarah's eyebrows are furrowed.
John B pulls the Twinkie over and shuts down the engine, quickly turning around to whisper-shout at JJ, "Hide the gold."
"I'm trying." JJ continues to look for a good enough hiding spot, and Alex crawls over to help him. Finally, with both of their hands scrambling, they settle on shoving it to the bottom of JJ's backpack, which Aldx shoves under Sarah's seat.
John B rolls down the window as they all try to calm down, footsteps crunching against the road as the cop approaches.
Only, it's not a cop at all.
This becomes glaringly clear when the barrel of a shotgun is shoved in the window, aimed right at John B's throat.
The man cocks the gun, his face half covered with a skull mask, and he shoves the gun a little closer to John B. "Why do I go ahead and see them hands in the air?"
Everyone glances around at one another, stunned into stillness and silence.
"All of your hands in the air, right now!" The perpetrator bellows, and at this, all of their arms shoot up, breaths catching and heartbeats racing.
"Out of the car, right now, let's go." He steps back, allowing John B to slowly open the door and step outside.
Alex pressed her back against the middle console, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to convince herself this is all a bad dream. But when she is being shoved out of the door, landing hard on the rough ground, she knows that there's no waking up from this nightmare.
"Lay down in the ditch!" Is the next set of orders that the man is barking out. "On your goddamn hands and knees! Down!"
Alex, already face down in the dirt, starts to army crawl her way over to the others, forcing back the whimpers of terror that rise up in her throat.
She bites back a scream when she feel the cold metal of the gun touch the back of her skull.
"Keep it moving, princess, that's it." The man growls, forcing Alex forward with the barrel of his weapon.
Only when Alex is in the line of her friends, next to JJ, her nose pressed hard into the grass does the gun get pulled away from her.
She can feel her whole body trembling, but knows that any sudden movement could set the man off, so she uses all of her energy to keep still. Hot tears roll down her face from the effort and the terror, and she's unable to erase the feeling of the gun against her head from her mind.
"Don't let me see y'all look up!" The man commands. "That's all y'all gotta do." He's moving away from them, closer to the Twinkie.
He climbs into the vehicle, and even with her ears covered by her hands, Alex can hear him rummaging through all their stuff inside.
"It's a setup, guys." Kiara's voice is muffled by the earth, but her frustration is still palpable.
"That old bat shanked us." JJ agrees, pulling back his arm to slam is fist into the ground a couple of times. "Fuck!"
Alex winces at his commotion, wishing that she could just disappear into the ground.
"John B," she hears Pope saying. "Don't be a hero man."
She dares to lift her head ever so slightly, and she feels all the air rush out of her lungs when she sees John B slowly getting to his feet.
Sarah is reaching out for him, trying to drag him back down, but he's not stopping. Alex hides her face again when he starts to head for the man's car, unable to watch any longer.
After only a second longer, the man slides out of the car, and Alex catches a glimpse of the blue rag that she and JJ had wrapped the gold up with in his grasp. "Y'all stay just like that," he points at them, eyes wild. "Don't move a goddamn inch, okay?"
After making sure that they're obeying him, he turns and runs for his car, throwing the doors open and jumping inside. Alex can barely hear anything over her own heartbeat, and her stomach pitches when she remembers that John B is over there too.
She feels JJ move from beside her, and when she looks over at him, she sees that he and Pope are getting to their feet, their eyes glued onto the man's car. She follows their gaze to see what the fuss is about, and that's when she sees John B and the masked man wrestling around inside the car, throwing punches at each other.
"Holy shit," Alex breathes, and JJ, now on his feet, looks down at her.
"We gotta help him, come on." He holds out his hand to her and for some reason, she takes it, letting him drag her up.
Kiara and Sarah are already halfway to the scene, and Alex struggles to follow the others on her wobbly legs.
JJ gets there first, throwing a wild punch at the man as he rolls out of the car, but he misses and the force knocks him down. Kiara lands a solid punch to his ribs but he shoves her off with a grunt.
John B, who managed to get his hands on the gun, slams the body into the man's back, which finally knocks him to the ground. He falls right in front of Sarah, who screams when he tries to grab her.
Pope jumps into the car and gets the gold back in their possession, as Sarah slams the car door repeatedly into the man, and he takes each blow with a cry. "You son of a bitch!" She yells, hitting him one last time for good measure.
With shaking hands, Alex grabs a stick from the edge of the woods, and holds it up like a baseball bat. And just like she had attempted to do to Mrs. Crain, she swings full force at his shoulder.
Unlike the night in the house, the blow lands, and there's a cracking sound upon impact, which Alex can't tell if it's from the stick or his shoulder. The force of the attack spins him around, and he closes the door with his body weight, slumping against the blue exterior once he finishes spinning around.
"Badass." JJ whispers, and Alex barely catches it over the sound of her own panting, but she does.
John B hits his knees in front of the man, yanking his mask off his face.
"I know this piece of shit!" JJ yells, getting back on his feet and stepping closer. "He's a basehead."
"Probably knows my brother," Sarah pushes her hair off of her sweaty forehead, and Alex feels her stomach drop at the mention of Rafe.
"He sells coke to my dad." JJ murmurs, bending down to grab the gun from the ground.
"Listen, I could've hurt any single one of y'all-" the man starts to beg, but JJ cuts him off by slamming the blunt end of the gun into his stomach, and he folds over with a groan.
"Hey, chill out, man." John B puts his hand on JJ's chest, preventing the seething boy from striking again.
JJ shrugs his best friend off, letting the gun clatter to the floor. He bends down and grabs something out of the man's pocket as he wheezes on the ground. He starts rummaging through it, and that's when Alex sees that he's got the guy's wallet.
"We got one last stop." JJ's eyes scan over the man's driver's license before he pockets it. He shoves past the others, heading back towards the Twinkie. "Let's go see where this son of a bitch lives."
Hesitantly, the others start to follow JJ, as he jumps into the driver's seat and starts to engine. The winded man clambers onto his hands and knees, screaming at them as they go, "I will remember this shit! You can't hide from me! I know exactly who y'all are!"
"Welcome to Crackhead Wasteland." Sarah's voice narrated their arrival at Barry's place.
Alex stared out the window, taking in all the trash strewn across the lawn, the messy, unkempt landscaping, all of which surrounded a small, rusty trailer.
The Twinkie screeched to a halt and JJ climbed out of the driver's seat, not saying a word to anybody else as he walked right for the trailer.
"Where are you going?" John B rolled down the passenger side window to call after him.
"Yo soy justicia." JJ replied nonchalantly, flinging open the barely-attached screen door and entering the home.
"You know somebody should probably..." Kiara suggested as everyone just watched him go.
"I got it." John B sighed, stepping out of the van and crossing the yard.
"Should we be worried?" Alex adjusted in her seat, uncomfortable with the nerves swirling in her stomach. This whole situation was sketchy, and all she wanted was to go home and take a shower, to wash this dirty feeling away.
"JJ is always reckless." Kiara shrugged, but it was clear that she was worried as well.
The second that the porch door swung open again, Pope yanked the sliding door ajar and they all climbed out to meet JJ and John B halfway.
JJ held up a black bag like it was a prize that he had won. "All right," he announced. "We're looking at five grand each for reparations for putting us through that bullshit."
He went around to everyone and placed a wad of cash in their hands. When it was Alex's turn, she reached out for the money, letting her hands land on top of his, making him linger for a moment.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked, keeping her voice down, so only the two of them could hear it.
There was a shift in his expression, the muscles in his forehead going a bit more slack, and his eyes traveled over Alex's face, like he was trying to read her.
But, eventually he stepped away without answering, turning to shove a stack of money at Kiara, but she took a step away from him.
"So that's what we're doing now?" She scowled at him. "Robbing drug dealers?"
"This Barry guy is going to find out." Sarah nodded in agreement. "And he's going to come after us."
"Yes he will." Pope said, stepping up to look JJ in the face. "This is not the time to start wilin' out."
"How did you guys like having a gun pulled on you?" JJ argued.
Alex's stomach dropped at the memory, her heart rate increasing like she was right back there.
"Relax." John B held his arms up, signaling everyone to calm down.
"He had it right here on you bro." JJ pressed his hand against John B's forehead, his pointer and middle finger creating a barrel shape.
"Look, we've gotta go get the gold, okay?" John B shoved his hand out of his face. "Just give me that shit."
When he tried to take the bag of remaining money from JJ's grasp, the blonde got fistfuls of his shirt and forced him up against the van, John B's back colliding with the side with a hard crash.
"Do you feel like a tough guy?" John B was breathing heavy, but he showed no signs of fear. "Huh? What are you gonna do when he comes for us?"
Without missing a beat, JJ replies, "We punch him in the throat."
"Yeah, good fucking idea, JJ." John B spat.
JJ took a long breath before shaking his head, "I'm not putting it back." He let go of John B's shirt and moved away from him, sliding into his seat in the back of the van.
Nobody else dared to move.
"You guys getting in or what?" JJ called, holding his back of stolen cash close to his chest.
After a few more moments of silence, not even a step forward from anybody else, JJ huffed and climbed out of the van. Standing in front of the others, he put his hands on his hip's defiantly. "What?"
"We're sick of your shit." John B answered.
"Oh, my shit?" JJ guffawed.
"Yes." Kiara said. "Your pulling guns on people shit."
Pope "You acting like a maniac ━━ "
"Okay, Pope, I took the fall for you, man!" JJ exploded, his voice trembling. "Do you know how much money I owe because of you?"
"I'm going to pay you back, and I didn't ask you to do that!" Pope countered.
"I just did!" JJ yelled. After taking a few, shaky breaths he spoke again, his voice softer this time. "Pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself."
Pope didn't say anything, and this made JJ scoff.
"You know what?" He reached into the van, snatching up the black bag. "That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself."
He slung the bag over his shoulder and marched off, going back the way they came.
Pope started after him. "JJ..."
John B reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. "Don't, man. Just let him go."
The five remaining teens just stood there, the air around them thick and constricted, watching JJ walk off. The tense silence made Alex's mind start to wander, and she wondered why it was that she had almost gone after him herself.
catie speaks!
hey y'all! i haven't updated in over a month lol so i thought i better get my act together. i hope you enjoyed this chapter, writing the ABSOLUTE SLOW BURN of jjalex is the thrill of my life hahaha
hopefully more frequent updates coming soon, but who knows, it is me after all 😉
virtual hugs,
catie :)