Harley and JJ sat at the back of the Twinkie whispering among themselves, meanwhile the others discussed how they were going to sell the gold Kiara had tried her best to melt down.
"So, I was thinking about everything with your dad." Harley glanced over at JJ to gauge his reaction.
"Mmm."
"I don't think you should stay at home. I get sad thinking about you being there. And, then my heart hurts at the thought of your dad hitting you."
"You don't have to worry about that."
"But, I do."
JJ sighed. He wasn't annoyed at Harley, he knew how caring she could be. He simply didn't want her to pity him or look at him differently, let alone worry about the situation. "This is why I didn't tell you. I don't want you to worry or feel sorry for me."
"I don't feel sorry for you. I just want you to be safe and not go through that alone."
"I'm fine. My dad hasn't bothered me in ages and I'm always with you guys."
"But, what if we ask W-"
"Harls."
"But, we-"
"Harls. I'm okay. Please, don't stress about it." JJ looked like he wanted to kiss Harley, but refrained. "Let's worry about how we're going to improve your lying skills in ten seconds so you can back me up in the pawn shop."
"Back you up?" Harley spluttered. The Twinkie eased to a stop outside a run down building with wooden boards over the windows. "I suck at lying."
"And that, H.R, is why you'll be following my lead."
All of the teens hopped out of the van. JJ had been handed the clump of melted gold and ushered to the front of the group.
"I still don't get why I've been put in charge of trying to sell this mess of gold." JJ looked in Kie's direction and began to tease her. "Like who melted this crap down? They did a crap job. Proper cowboy work here."
"Oh shut up, JJ."
Harley and JJ strolled in first, the rest of the Pogues and Sarah scattered around the shop. An older woman stood behind the counter of the store, eyeing the teens as they filtered in. She looked stern and like she took no nonsense, so Harley was a little worried about how they were going to spin a story about the gold.
"Afternoon ma'am, you're looking spiffy on this fine day," JJ's confident voice filled the store and made Harley smile. JJ was so attractive. "I see you buy gold."
The lady didn't react to JJ's compliment as her eyes went to the big wooden sign by the door.
CASH FOR GOLD.
"That's what the sign says, don't it." She sounded bored and indifferent to their presence. She probably thought they were there to mess her around.
"Great! Well, I sure hope you guys have a lot of it, because I'm about to blow your mind."
"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it."
JJ dropped his bag on the counter and cockily dropped the melted mess of gold in front of the lady. JJ's smirk grew when he saw Harley fighting a grin.
"How do ya like them apples?"
"That ain't real." The lady laughed. "It can't be."
"It is," Harley disagreed. "Feel how heavy it is."
The second the lady weighed it her amused smile dropped a little, prompting JJ to hand over her magnifying glass for the next test.
"Yeah. Let's get some light on that."
The gold shone beautifully beneath the light, yet the lady refuted their claims. She tried to say they had sprayed cheap metal, but that would be stupid. JJ urged her to check the softness of the gold mass and even urged her to carry out the acid test she mentioned.
"Ma'am I'm telling you, this is as real as the day is long."
"How did you two get a hold of this?"
This was the part Harley dreaded. She didn't have answers to these questions.
"My girlfriend here. She comes from a well to do family. It was a gift."
Harley's eyes bulged but luckily the lady hadn't looked her way yet. She had time to plaster a soft smile on her face.
"It looks like somebody tried to melt it down."
Harley's eyes went to JJ but the lady was looking at her for an answer.
"Um. Yeah. My brother gave it to me after he was done melting it for fun."
"You know what Kooks are like. They do dumb shit when they're bored because they can."
Harley nodded. "He got access to his trust fund and safety deposit box."
The lady side eyed the pair but went to measure the whole clump. "Seven pounds here. That's a lot of rolexes, chains."
"Look ma'am." JJ slipped his hand into Harley's and pulled her close. "The only reason her brother gave it to us is because we're trying to elope."
Harley choked on her spit, but JJ played it off by wrapping her in his arms as if she were trying not to cry.
He couldn't cover for the small crash behind them where John B had smacked into a shelf in shock whilst the others stifled snickers.
"Her family don't like that I'm from the Cut. But we love each other so we're trying to get the funds to just run for the horizon. Right, baby?"
"Yeah." Harley cleared her throat and gave her most innocent, love struck eyes. No thoughts, just hearts. "We just want to be together, somewhere my dad can't tear us apart."
"Give me a minute." The lady disappeared behind a blue curtain toward the back.
Harley turned to JJ bewildered. "The best you could come up with was eloping?"
JJ's cheeky grin grew wider as he shrugged. "It worked."
Chuckles grew behind the eloping couple. Harley glanced back to see Pope dying and Kiara trying her best to not fall over at John B's expression.
"Alright. I can offer you $70,000."
"That's half of its worth," JJ shook his head.
"Seventy- thousand dollars, and I don't ask anymore questions."
Harley reached for the gold. "That's ridiculous. We'll go elsewhere, we're not that desperate."
As Harley started to pull the gold away she was stopped. "Wait. Fine. $100,000. Final offer."
Harley and JJ peered back at their friends getting nods of confirmation.
"We have a deal." JJ said.
The lady was quick to explain that the cash they wanted wasn't at the store. The group had to go to some warehouse, on some street no one had heard of.
They sat squabbling about driving in the middle of nowhere. Mammoth trees loomed on each side of the wide road, adorned with large leaves and surrounded by bushes and overgrowth. They hadn't passed a single building or home for some miles.
A wailing siren startled the teens. They all looked back to see a cop car flagging them down.
"Shit. Hide all my contraband," JJ exclaimed.
Everyone in the back scrambled to hide JJ's tiny bags of weed and paraphernalia, along with their clump of gold.
"Did you bring the gun?" Kia asked.
John B had pulled over now.
"No. Everyone kept telling me not to."
"Thank God."
The sharp knock on the driver side window scared the group, but what truly frightened them was the greasy looking man who had a shotgun pointed at John B's head. Even though he had a bandanna obscuring half his face, Harley still recognised him. It was Barry. Shivers ran down her spine as he stared shouting.
"Get out of the car! Hurry up. Get the fuck outta the car and open the door for them."
Their hands shot up, the same time their stomachs dropped.
John B slid out if the van and rounded the front to open up the back door.
"All of y'all out the car. There we go. There we go pretty girl."
Harley wondered if Sarah could recognise Barry too, or if she had ever seen him before.
The shotgun held tight in Barry's clasp and a warning shot was enough to get the group silent and on the floor. They lay flat on their stomachs in the dirt, foreheads to the floor. The earthy scent was not enough to keep the teens grounded. And an unforgiving wave of familiarity had knocked Harley for six. Swamped strokes of fantasy smeared over reality. Her emotions amplified as though she were experiencing everything twice at once.
Harley trembled between Kiara and JJ; she had her fingers interlocked with Kiara's hoping to alleviate both of their panic.
"You're okay, Harley. We're okay." JJ whispered.
Harley shook her head vehemently. "That's Rafe's friend. Their eyes went to the gun wielding psycho rummaging through the Twinkie. "I recognise his voice and his eyes."
"Hey! Shut up out there. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to pop a bullet in one of you little Pogues.
"He's not gonna do anything," JJ bit out while trying to reassure Harley. JJ may have been right, the chances of Barry actually shooting at one of them was slim, because the chances of the cops finding out it was him was extremely high. He'd have to kill Harley at the very least, and kill them all at most.
That unsettled Harley further. Tides of déjà vu made Harley nauseous.
"I feel sick." Her hands pushed her up to her hands and knees despite Kiara's pleads not to move.
JJ was up on his knees immediately. His silvery blue eyes ran over Harley in worry. "Take deep breaths. Forget what's happening."
Harley attempted to block out Barry and focus on how JJ's fingertips traced patterns on the exposed skin of her back. Though it proved hard with Barry's grunts, groans and yells.
"Yo." Harley leapt out of her skin as Barry barked at the couple. He sounded closer now. "What did I say? No fucking talking."
"Harley."
"Let her go you psychopath."
"All of you little kids shut your mouths."
Barry pinched Harley's skin in a tight hold as he hauled her away from her friends. Bile rose in the teens throat.
"Barry, please stop. Just take the gold and leave us alone." The Pogues had more anyway. What use was $140,000, when you had $400million stashed away.
"That's what I wanna do, but your little friends keep running they mouths, H."
Measured eyes studied the entangled pair. Pope caught on first, catching the nickname a lot of the Kooks used for Harley instead of castaway.
"You know each other?"
In this instance, lying didn't seem difficult. She barely had a measure on any feeling other than fear, so guilt would be able to slip by under the radar. Lying would stop any unwanted lines of questioning that stemmed from how they knew each other. Harley didn't want them to know that she knew this low life criminal well or that they had hung out on several occasions because of Rafe. She most definitely did not want them to know that she'd done hard drugs.
However, lying was bad. It had gotten her into trouble countless times, and it implied she didn't trust the Pogues, which was far from true. Harley loved the Pogues, they were awesome, and they were her people. She didn't want to lie to them anymore.
"Yes."
"Me and this one go way back." You could hear the grin in Barry's voice. And Harley hated that.
"Stop," she hissed.
"What? You don't want your buddies to know we're best buds."
No, she didn't. She felt less than as their wide eyes took in the situation. They were going to think less of her and that hurt because there wasn't much to think of her to begin with.
"We aren't best buds," she mocked his tone in frustration.
"Come on. We were definitely friends when you and Rafe were snorting my coke."
Harley blanched. Her heart plunged. Her muscles stiffened. The knocking in her head increased at the tightness wound in her jaw. She couldn't look at her friends. Her eyes strayed the furthest from John B. He practically knew everything that went on with Rafe because he had been the only one to get over the relationship.
"You've had your fun. Let her go and fuck off"
"I don't like your tone." Barry waved the gun in JJ's direction. "So, now I'm really gonna have fun with y'all. Why don't we show 'em how to start a party, H."
A packet of cocaine was pulled from Barry's pocket and a card. Harley knew what Barry wanted her to do, but she wouldn't do it. Fuck all the shitty people that kept coming into her life and forcing bad decisions down her throat.
Harley acted brashly when she stomped down on Barry's left foot. He howled in pain and loosened his grip. Harley spun and kicked his shin. He retaliated by smacking her hard. She stumbled, but blinded by anger and survival instinct she went at Barry like a feral cat. She scratched at his face, tearing his bandana off, then lurched at the shot gun. The weapon went flying when she got Barry to the floor.
Behind her she heard JJ shout something an then the rest of the Pogues were on Barry. Pope latched onto the gun and aimed at Barry. John B had swiped Barry's car keys. JJ engulfed Harley and tugged her back from the groaning man. She felt better, safer being in JJ's arms. Kiara and Sarah sent one last kick to his ribs.
"I know this asshat. He's a basehead. He sells coke to my dad," JJ accused with predatory eyes.
"I bet he knows my brother," Sarah added.
Once JJ had subtly checked Harley over, he stomped over to the pathetic man lying in a foetus position on the floor. Kiara wrapped reached for Harley's hand.
JJ rummaged through the older boy's pockets and grabbed his wallet.
"Are we mugging him?" Harley asked.
"We're not mugging him." John B stated hoping the words got through mostly to JJ. The blonde seemed like he was planning something as he flipped through the wallet he found.
John B's words fell on deaf ears. "Just taking back what's ours."
"Let's go. I found an address for this loser." JJ headed for Twinkie.
The rest of the group shared cautious glances but ended up following their unruly kleptomaniac. John B launched Barry's keys into the overgrowth.
"Go fetch."
JJ had sped the Twinkie to Barry's home. He jumped out of the van as if he were on a mission and disappeared into the lonely home without so much as a word.
"What is he doing?" Harley queried.
They all had a good idea about what JJ intended to do, it was JJ after all. He was pissed someone like Barry tricked them and he was livid a shotgun was so freely pointed in their faces. It was obvious he wanted to get back at the guy, but stealing from him didn't feel like it would have the best outcome.
John B had followed JJ inside, but whatever he had said to JJ didn't do much. JJ all but skipped outside with a bag pulling out wads of cash as if he were Santa.
"All right, so we're looking at four and a bit grand each, for reparations for putting us through that bullshit. Sorry about that y'all."
Nobody made a move for the money JJ proudly handled.
"Is this what we're doing now?" Kiara frowned. "We're robbing drug dealers?"
Sarah was not happy either. No one was. "This Barry guy's gonna find out. And he's gonna come after us. He knows who we are. He knows Harley."
JJ was already shaking his head. He didn't want to hear the voices of reason. His jaw clenched in frustration and all Harley could do was bite her lip in anticipation of JJ blowing up on them if they kept telling him he was acting out and being stupid.
Too much was happening, and it felt like Harley had a migraine coming on. The adrenaline from attacking Barry hadn't fully dissipated, nor had the stomach-turning vagary of her mind. She hadn't felt as relaxed as she had when she was wrapped in JJ's arms.
"How'd you guys like having a gun pulled on you?" JJ's eyes flickered to Harley then John B. "He had a gun right in your face. He could have blown your sister's head off. Is that cool with you? Cause you don't seem to give a shit"
John B didn't take kindly to the accusation thrown his way. He backed JJ up against the Twinkie. "Relax." Harley had stepped closer in case something happened. "I'm fine. You're fine. We need to get Harley some ice and she'll be fine. Everyone is okay, JJ. Dude, we've got to go get the gold, okay? Just give me that shit."
JJ reacted and reversed the boys' positions. He held JJ against the Twinkie by the collar of his shirt. The group gasped. Harley rushed forward and tugged at JJ's shoulder with disapproving eyes. He pushed on John B before letting go.
"What are you gonna do if he comes for us? Huh?"
"Punch him in the throat."
"You can't be serious," Harley muttered. "Barry had guns. He knows people. Too many people."
"I'm not putting it back." JJ slipped through the open door of the Twinkie and got comfortable in the back. His demeanour was offhand-Ish as if all of this was normal and okay, but Harley could tell that it was getting to him. "Are you guys getting gin or what?"
No one flinched.
"What?" JJ got out to face the group.
"We're sick of your shit," John B answered.
Harley winced.
Kiara spoke up, "You're pulling guns on people shit."
"You acting like a maniac –"
JJ cut Pope off. "I took the fall for you, man! You know how much money I owe because of you."
Harley's mind drew back to the money Harley had been gifted from Rose to give to JJ. Back then he had been so mad at her that her refused to take the cash, particularly because it came from a Kook, the Cameron's no less. She had given the money back, but now she realised she should have kept it and lied about getting it from somewhere lese instead. Still he would have seen through her lie. He had gotten better at reading Harley.
"I'm gonna pay you back, and I didn't ask you to do that!"
"I just did. I just did pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself." JJ's eyes trailed over the silent group, his eyes always finding Harley's. "You know what. That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself." The bag of money slipped over his shoulder as he turned his back on his friends, the same way he felt they had done to him.
Pope tried to follow but the group stopped him. Their words weren't enough to stop Harley. Her heart ached to follow the blonde boy, so that's what she did. She raced after him.
"JJ!" She called. He didn't stop. "JJ. Please, stop. If you make me sprint after you, I think I'm going to pass out."
JJ's footsteps slowed, until he came to a stop and kicked at the dirt pathway whilst Harley caught up.
"What do you want?"
"To make sure you're okay."
"Oh, so you care."
Harley was taken aback a little bit. Throughout the entire time they had known each other she had always showed that she cared about him, even when she was Rafe it was always evident on her face an in her eyes that she cared about the Pogues and everything they thought.
"Of course, I care." Sure, she hadn't spoken up in his defence before, however she didn't agree with his actions. "I just think that we shouldn't be taking Barry's money. John B was right. Everyone is okay, so there's no reason to retaliate."
"Everyone is okay?" Harley nodded. "Harley, he had a gun shoved in your face. He hit you."
Harley softened a bit, as JJ caressed her cheek and trailed his thumb over the reddened mark.
"I'm fine. He hits like a girl." He really didn't. The burst of pain that came straight after the hit was similar to JJ's dad. The tsunami of adrenaline was what had numbed the pain.
JJ shook his head. "You don't get it. Why should we be fine with people doing shit like that to us? Treating us like we're nothing. I'm sick and tired of that shit. And with this," JJ held up the bag of stolen money. "I can make my dad proud of me. I can show him that I dealt with a situation I caused. I'm capable of fixing shit. I'm not useless."
There was no way JJ could believe he was useless; he was so important to each and every one of the Pogues.
"You are not useless. And you do not need to prove anything to anyone. You're you and that's perfect to me." Harley adored JJ. She refused to let him go on any longer believing the horrible words of his father. "Even with all your weird, crazy, borderline criminal shit, you're still perfect. The others think so too, they're just scared of Barry... so am I."
"I'm not scared of him. He needs to know he can't do that shit again and he needs to know he can't mess with you anymore. I'm not a bitch like Rafe."
"JJ," Harley sighed. Why couldn't he understand. Stealing Barry's money wasn't going to prove his point. Harley knew the man and he would come after all of them the second he noticed his money missing. "We all proved a point when we all attacked him. We don't need to take his money. Let's just go back to the others."
"I'm not going back."
"JJ, please."
"I need to show this to my dad."
Harley could tell JJ wouldn't back down. He had that stubborn glint in his eyes and she could tell that making his dad proud was important to him, no matter how much of an abusive asshole he was.
"Fine," she sighed. She didn't like it, but she wanted to support JJ. She wanted him to be happy and if earning his dad's respect could do that then she'd relent her argument. "Go show your dad what I already know. That you're amazing and honourable. You just have to promise to meet back at the Chateau afterwards."
It was obvious he didn't want to be around the Pogues as of right now, she just hoped by not mentioning the others he would agree. She even gave him her puppy dog eyes no one could resist.
"I promise."
"If you're not there by dark, I'm going to come looking for you."
"Don't do that."
Harley stepped forward and threw her arms over his shoulders. "Then be there." She kisses him quickly then shooed him off. The quicker he left her, the quicker he would come back to her.
A/N
Are these chapters too long or short?
And what do you think of the overall pace of the story? Too slow?