"Stop wincing, it's not that bad," I said, patting at the wound on his arm and setting aside the pad of gauze.
Hmm, maybe I felt a slight deja vu for when I did the same thing with Pope. Yeah, now that I was seeing him in pain it was kinda amusing.
"What'd you do to piss off that guy?" I broke the silence, finally looking up to meet Rafe, who was already staring straight down at me. A strand of his slicked back hair had come undone, hanging off to the side and lying against his eyebrow.
"None of your business, Khali."
"Noted." I shut up, not wanting to get him all fired up again and pressing down a little harder than I had meant to when I spread the ointment across his arm.
"Fuck," he whispered heavily, sucking in a deep breath and gripping his hand around the seat of his chair.
"Sorry," I said quickly, pulling back my hand and he waved me off.
"It's whatever, you done yet?"
"Yeah," I got up, brushing my pants and gathering the first aid kit together to put it back. A pair of cloth scissors fell out of the kit, "Shit!"
Just before I picked it off the floor, Rafe's hand flew down and grabbed it. "Here," he avoided eye contact, handing it towards me and I hesitantly took it. In a flash, his hand was on my arm, catching me by surprise and I tried to pull away before I felt his hold tighten slightly, although not enough to hurt me.
"Thanks, K." He mumbled, looking at me in the eye, before getting up and walking away nonchalantly.
—
Had I been with the Pogues during their scavenger hunt? Nah, not really.
But randomly, like clockwork, I had been roped right back into somehow helping with this absolutely idiotic plan.
Where was I? Oh, just sitting in the Cameron's house, pretending to be Sarah. JJ negotiated a 7% cut and a dinner at Milligan's, so why would I pass?
Aurora
U free??
Me
Nah, at Kook nation lol
Aurora
lol, what does that mean?
I sent a quick picture, standing beside a gymnastics trophy that Sarah had perched on her dresser. I'd admit, she definitely was talented more than she tended to show. Plaques for spelling bees, dancing, and even swimming were hung everywhere.
She must be the golden child, huh.
"Get up, Rafe." A voice said sternly, booming through the vent within Sarah's room. Intrigued, I bent down, placing my cheek against the floor and listening intently.
"Where're we going, dad?" my eyebrows lifted, surprised at just how different he had sounded in the absence of others.
"Did I stutter? Get your coat and get in the damn car."
Seconds passed, and the sound of shuffling scattered throughout the house.
"Rafe, now."
Footsteps stomped against the panels of the floor, scaring me into hiding behind the door in case anyone decided to pop in for a quick visit.
After a few moments, the air went still, leaving me to slowly creep out of my previous hiding space and pull out my phone. I brushed my hair out of the way, using my free hand to unlock my phone and check my messages.
JJ
How's it goin?
Me
Uh, think it's an empty
house rn
JJ
good, wanna meet on
Maple? Got news.
Me
Ya, b there soon
—
"What's the good news?"
The twinkie was parked, humming softly and I could hear the sounds of cheers coming from within the car.
"Here's to being a Kook," John B's voice emerged over all the others, and he stuck his hand out the window to wave me over. His appearance was unkempt to say the least, and I hesitated to ask for context on why he looked like that.
"You covered in shit, JB?" I laughed, coming around the other side of the van, slapping the door to signal the others to let me in.
Kie slid the door open, allowing me to enter and I saw Pope smiling, holding a blunt in his hand. Huh, why the hell were they all so happy?
I guess the world was ending, because I had never thought i'd see the day where Pope would willingly smoke his lungs to tar.
John B said nothing in response to my joke, turning slightly and holding a yellow object to face in my direction.
Holy shit.
They actually found the gold.
"We did it, baby!" JJ hyped him up, easing the build up of silence and playfully slapping his shoulder.
Soon, we were driving all over Kildare and singing songs together. It was a night of celebration, and though I'd hate to admit it, they were right about the royal merchant and the treasure.
—
The next day, the crew invited me to go out scavenging for a pawn shop to sell the bars at.
How were they going to melt it down? Hell, if I knew but I just wanted to see what it was worth.
Conveniently, it was my day off, so when JB asked me to go for a day of surfing and swimming in riches off our profit from the gold, I just couldn't deny. So, thirty minutes later, I stood outside, covering my eyes from the sun and with my free hand I held up my surfboard, letting the light hit the surface of my board.
The Twinkie swirled onto my street, and I waved out to capture their attention. The van came to a halt, and the music was turned down, before John B's head leaned out, "Hey, K."
"We going surfing after?" I asked, pointing to my board and everyone nodded in unison.
"Brought the goods," Kie said, opening her bag and showing off snacks.
JJ spoke next, "me too," he pulled a ziploc bag of blunts from the car's glovebox.
I rolled my eyes, laughing before pulling at the van door and setting my board against the floor of the van. "Ready, captain," I slapped the heated leather of the seats in the back, signaling John B that we would be okay to start our ride.
"So, how much you think it's worth?" Kie asked, sitting across from me at a short distance and flipping the melted pile of gold in her hands. I observed it, noticing just how big it was and imagining everything i'd do once I got my cut.
I'd pay for school, maybe get an apartment out of the cut, have better clothes and a shower with good water pressure. I'd use my money to stabilize myself, and I really admired that about myself.
"At least 124,000 dollars, according to...." JJ tapped through his phone for a brief second, furrowing his eyebrows every so often, "Wikipedia?"
"Holy shit, that's only a part of it too." I said aloud, earning a nod of agreement from everyone in the back of the car.
When we pulled into the pawn shop, it honestly didn't look the best but it was the only one in Kildare that had a sign saying, "We Buy Gold!"
Honestly, I tried to reason with the crew that it was sketchy but nonetheless, JJ led us into the shop with confidence that reflected nothing from the rest of us. "Afternoon, ma'am," JJ greeted the older lady, who stood behind the register and she nodded her head in acknowledgment.
"I see you buy gold."
"That's what the sign says, don't it?" her smirk let us know that she likely wasn't going to take a group of hippie looking pogues seriously, and I folded my arms together, standing behind JJ.
"Well, I sure you buy a whole lot of it, because," JJ trailed off, taking his backpack off and unzipping it to reveal the poorly melted bar, "I'm about to blow your mind."
"That ain't real," she chuckled, going back to whatever she had been doing previously and turning her back on us.
JJ looked at us, unsure of what to do and I snatched the gold out of his hand, "Why don't you go ahead and test it?" I set the gold down roughly on the counter, furrowing my eyebrows.
"All right," she tested it, and it passed every one of her half-assed tests. Sarah, Kie, Pope and JJ were having their own conversations, probably in a whole different world. What was I doing? Staring this woman down and waiting for her to pull something sketchy.
"It looks like," she breathed in, eyeing it suspiciously, "someone tried to melt the damn thing down." She flattened her lips, raising her eyebrows and waiting for my response.
"Yeah," JJ's voice suddenly reappeared, as he stood over my should and reach over my arm to point at it, "My mom, she had all this jewerly laying around and she thought it'd be best to just melt it all."
She definitely was not buying it and JJ, for some reason, took that as a a sign to continue. "You know, to be honest, it's been really hard seeing my mom fall apart with alzheimer's." A sniffle sounded from behind, as I bit my lip to hide my smile.
"Give me a minute," the lady grabbed the gold, going to the back and speaking to someone else, but I could barely pick up the conversation.
"You mean seven ounces?" I heard that, letting my lips part as I came to recognize that voice. Who was that?
After the lady walked out, me and her had a back and forth debate on the pricing before finally settling 70k.
Only problem was that she wanted us to go to some warehouse to pick it up, so that's what our Saturday morning looked like.
"So, they keep money for a pawn shop at a warehouse?" I asked in suspicion, following the crew back into the van where JB had started it up and began following the lady's directions. "Not to be a, uh, debby downer, but this is sketch as hell."
"Yeah," Kie agreed, who had spoke very little in the time that we had been out today. "I've never even heard of Resurrection Drive."
"Yeah, guys, there's nothing but weeds and emptiness out here," I pointed out, causing everyone in the car to turn their heads over in the direction of the fields passing by.
Suddenly, started to flash behind the car and everyone released a groan in unison. "Fuck."
"Why're we getting pulled over? Stash your shit, JJ." JJ followed my orders quickly, hiding the blunts in the glovebox and placing his sunglasses onto his face.
"I hate cops," Kie began, sighing as she face palmed, "Did you bring your gun, JJ?"
He still carried the gun? Even after everything that happened at the boneyard.
I clicked my tongue, glaring at JJ who seemed confused by the sudden negative attention. "No, okay? Everyone told me to leave it back at the place."
With that news, everyone seemed to be a bit more relieved as we waited for the officer to come up to the window. The only sounds were the drumming of JB's fingers against the wheel, and the momentary whispers between Pope and JJ.
A figure approached the car, "Why don't I go ahead and see them hands in the air?" A gun cocked, causing John B to unbuckle his seat belt and surrender his hands above his head.
"All y'all," the gun was now being pointed towards the back of the car, "hands up in the air, right now!"
I shared a look of fear with JJ, who for once was not smiling or joking. This was real.
"Out of the car! Let's go!"
I slid the door open, avoiding eye contact while leaving my hands raised in front of me. "There you go, pretty girl."
The heat of Kildare was intense, and it didn't help that I was nervously sweating my ass off. I adjusted my bikini top, breathing in a harsh breath of air and refusing to look at the others.
"We're broke," Kie began, receiving an angered look from the masked person.
The guy pointed his gun again, "Shut the hell up!"
"It's a setup guys," JJ said, as the guy walked away and I stood in unusual silence because I had come to the realization that I had definitely heard that voice before.
In a swift moment, JB had managed to sneak to the car and struggled with the guy, who had finally let his mask slip.
Barry.
"You son of a bitch!" Barry yelled out, clawing his hands at JB's hold against his neck.
"I know this piece of shit!" JJ said, curling his lip and flaring his nose. "He sells coke to my dad."
JB managed to knock barry out, and I kept quiet about my recognition of him, watching as everyone grouped together to run back to the van.
"Let's go see where this son of a bitch lives," JJ said, ignoring the looks of concern that came from both me and Kie.
Huh, since when was Kie this concerned?