"Pogues, baby!" He yells, watching JB run up the beach to them all.
"Mission accomplished, sir." JJ says, doing a fake salute to him. He lets go of Melia, letting her walk over to her brother.
John B takes one look at her and rage floods into his body, his eyes flicker up to JJ and he mouths the word 'Rafe'. John B sighed, pulling her into a hug.
She laughed softly in his arms, she didn't even know what the fuck she was feeling. She needed this to be over.
And she knew her brother had a plan, so maybe it would be over?
///////////////////////////
They were all sat around a fire, cicadas chirping in the background. Melia had barely spoken a word, she wasn't sure how to feel. She wasn't sure how to feel about Rafe, about her Dad, about the gold, about her brother and Sarah FUCKING Cameron. It was all becoming too much.
Fuck- she hadn't had a panic attack in forever, that encounter with Rafe was nothing like any of the others, it was weak. So why did it freak her out SO much?
"Hey, guys. So my dad, like, he's already gonna kill me.. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope asks, sighing.
The others had picked up on Melia's mood, but they know not to ask when she was feeling like that. At least most of them knew.
"Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed." JJ says, looking at John B.
Melia was sat between JJ and her brother, both clearly monitoring how she was. She didn't want to be babied. She hated the feeling. But she was WAY too tired to speak up on it, so she let them do what they wanted.
"You guys ready for this?" John B asked, looking between the Pogues.
Kie looked at him with a look of disgust on her face. "Yeah, obviously? Why else would we be here." She rolls her eyes.
Yeah she was definitely tired as well.
"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant." JB begins, looking around at everybody's confused faces.
Minus JJ and Melia of course, they knew everything.
"Oh my god, here we go again with this." Pope mutters under his breath, shaking his head.
"No. Wait, all right? Hear him out." JJ says, resting his arm on Melia's shoulder.
She flinched slightly at the touch, clearly on edge, but she relaxed immediately after making eye contact with him.
"It's been here the whole time." John B says, laughing quietly.
Everybody went silent, looking at him with curiosity.
"It's on the island."
"Are you serious..?" Kiara asks, furrowing her eyebrows at the three.
"Oh my god.." She mumbles.
"I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope adds, crossing his arms and looking at them.
"I'm sure you would, Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" John B asks, standing up from where he was sat. He walked over to Pope.
"Proceed."
"All right. So, in Emi's backpack, I've got a letter from Denmark Tanny." John B opens the bag, pulling out the letter.
"You took my bag, again?" She mumbles, leaning onto JJ's shoulder.
"Shut up, you have more room in yours." He says, rolling his eyes playfully. He didn't wanna treat her differently just cause of whatever had happened.
"Okay so, who the hell's that?" Kie asks, cutting off the siblings.
"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck." JB explains, opening up the letter and handing to the two Pogues.
"Check this out."
Kie grabs the letter, showing it to Pope as she read.
"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my Dad? He found the complete manifest."
"That was his big discovery."
Pope looked at him, waiting for him to say more.
"So, Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom." JB whistles. "After that, he bought his farm."
"Drumroll please, because that farm is..."
Everybody looks at him in expectancy, slapping their knees jokingly.
"Tannyhill Plantation."
"Tannyhill?" Kie asks, furrowing her eyebrows.
"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."
"Bird? Nobody cares about the minor details, just get to the point." Melia sighs, running her hand through her hair. JJ rubs her shoulder gently, she was minutes away from snapping.
"And then- they decided to lynch him." He finishes, ignoring his sister.
Pope and Kiara look up at him, unsure on what he was saying.
"So - on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell." He gestures to the letter in Kie's hands.
"And in the last line of that letter? He left a coded message about where to find the gold."
Kiara grins, looking between them all. "Where?"
"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water." Melia says, looking down at the fire.
"Except... There's no wheat."
"You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out." John B says, pointing at the symbol at the bottom of the letter.
"All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold!" JB laughs, sitting back down beside his sister.
"Okay, so this might have a small chance of actually being true.." Pope says, a smile growing on his face.
"I am a genius!" John B claims, Kiara walks over and hugs him with a laugh.
JJ squeezes Melia softly, earning a small smile and laugh from her. She looks up at him with a warm look in her eye, which he offered right back.
"Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?" Pope asks.
Melia lets out a small sigh, she knew Kie was gonna blow up.
"Good question. So, Sarah Cameron's coming tonight." He says quickly, avoiding Kiara's glare. Melia frowns at the mention of the Cameron's name.
"She's gonna bring an original survey map-"
"Hold on." Kiara looks up at him in shock.
"Sarah. Wh-why Sarah?" She asks, disgust painted on her face. "You know what she did to me. To your sister? Do you remember who her brother is?!"
"Leave me out of this." Melia mumbles, she wasn't in the mood for a group argument.
Kiara looks at her sympathetically, sighing and shaking her head.
"Well, this is gonna be good!" JJ says, clapping his hands together.
"Sarah, uhm, she- she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday, and that's where I got the letter." John B explains.
Melia shakes her head, closing her eyes on JJ's shoulder. She was so tired.
"You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?" Kiara yells, standing up.
"He was macking on her." Melia adds, not opening her eyes. JJ laughs slightly, running his hand up and down her arm.
"I wasn't macking." He says, looking down at the ground.
"You were totally macking Sarah Cameron." JJ says, pursing his lips.
"I wasn't macking on her, okay?! I was using her for access." John B yells, kicking a rock on the ground.
Yeah, he wasn't 'using her for access.' Using her for access to her TONGUE maybe.
"Did you tell her about the treasure?" Kiara asks in disbelief.
"I was trying to get into the archives!" He defends, raising his hands into the air.
"Is that a yes?"
"I- I left out key details!-" He runs a hand through his hair.
"Yo - what? You let a Kook in on our secret?" She yells. "What about 'Pogue Lyfe', huh?"
"What about the T-shirt company, bro?"
"I was- I was just using her for information!"
"Why don't I believe you..?" Kiara sighs.
"I'm trying to make us filthy rich here!"
"How long do you think this is gonna go on for..?" Melia asks JJ, trying not to fall asleep on his shoulder.
"Yeah I'm not gonna lie, Lia. We both know this is gonna go on for a few days." He sighs, pushing the parts of her hair that were out of her messy bun behind her ears.
"We could send Pope off to autopsy school to study dead bodies! We could pay off a boat! Look, you guys know me! Do I look like the type of person to fall for Sarah Cameron?" JB asks frantically, trying to convince everybody wrong. He was practically going off on a tangent.
"Yes." Melia whispers, earning a glare from her brother.
"Look, you don't know her yet! I do! Melia does! We know her family!" Kiara warns, resting her head in her hands.
"You can't trust her!"
Melia nods. "She got me fired, Bird. What are you doing..?"
"Her brother did hit me in the back with a golf club, for gods sake he's done something to Melia today cause she's gone all weird and silent like before!" Pope says, gesturing to Melia.
JJ glares at him, running his hand gently over the slap mark on Melia's face.
"She said she wanted to be left out of this, bro." He mumbles, shaking his head.
"Rafe and Sarah are two different human beings!" John B says, he was clearly stressed about this.
"What did she even do to you, exactly?" JB asks. "I know she dragged you away from Emi, but seriously, what did she do to you?"
"She's- She's like a- Like a spitting cobra!" Kie says, gesturing with her hands. "First, she- she blinds you and then-"
"This is a bad analogy." Pope cuts her off.
"Listen to me!" She begs, rubbing her face.
"Whatever we get, she's gonna try to take." Kie finishes.
—————————————————
They were all hauled into the Twinkie, pulling up to the 'Hawks Nest'.
JB parked the van and slid open the door.
"So uh, I think I'm gonna do this one by myself." John B says, looking nervously back at the rest.
"Tonight." He says.
Thunder rumbles in the distance and Melia sighs shakily. Could this night really get any worse?
"Seriously?" JJ asked, shaking his head.
"What?"
"Nothin.." He sighs, playing with the hem of Melia's shirt.
"I don't wanna spook Sarah with the whole peanut gallery. And I don't trust Kie and Melia around her." He shrugs.
"I just don't understand why we're involving her at all!" Kie frustratedly asks.
"Kie! We're not involving her, okay?" He explains, looking at her in annoynace. "It's just like a- like a business meeting!"
JJ pretends to deep-throat his lighter, making gulping noises. Melia and Pope laugh quietly.
She was too tired to be angry at her brother.
"Look, once we get what we need, we cut her loose, all right? Plus, we need the map."
"Normally I'd say that that's fucked up, but I'm not even mad that you're doing that to Sarah Cameron." Melia mumbles with a sigh.
"Promise me nothing's happening between you two." Kie demands.
"Nothing is happening, Kie." John B says, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"I'm being serious!"
"Okay!" He says defensively.
"This isn't about you, and this isn't about us. This is about her. This is about me and Mills."
"God, can anybody go 5 minutes without bringing me up..? I know you're all obsessed with me but fucks sake." Melia groans, swapping positions to be now lying in JJ's lap.
"Dude, she's gonna get inside your head." Kie warns.
"Just promise me nothing's happening between you guys."
"I promise." JB sighs.
Thunder rolls in the background, JJ and Pope stared at him with pursed lips.
"That was really believable."
"A hundred percent believable." The two boys comment sarcastically.
"Anyways! I'm gonna take care of business." John says, hopping out of the Twinkie door.
"You're gonna take care of that business so good." JJ laughs quietly.
"We'll just sit here, waiting." Pope says.
"Yeah."
"In the hot ass car." He adds.
"Can you try to not kill yourself?" Melia asks sarcastically, her eyes closed in JJ's lap. Another crash of lightning can be heard throughout the car and she jumps slightly.
John B closes the door to the Twinkie and walks away.
"I don't have a good feeling about this." Kiara mumbles, shaking her head.
Melia sighs, laying on her side with her head in JJ's lap, she had taken her messy bun out and he was playing with her blonde hair.
—————————————————
"Kiara, Melia. Holding onto your grudges is like drinking poison and thinking Sarah will die." Pope says, looking at the two girls.
"Yeah well my 'grudge' is a little bit more than just a fucking grudge Pope." Melia snaps with a sarcastic smile. She was so done with the Cameron's.
Kiara furrows her eyebrows, "So mine is just a grudge?" She asks.
"Don't you fucking start, I can't be bothered." Melia yells, resting her arm on her forehead.
JJ sighs, thinking back about todays events. He wasn't surprised she was acting the way she was, he couldn't even imagine what must've been brought back to her today.
Well, in all honesty, he could imagine. But it was different for her, he grew up with it.
"Okay, what is up with you? You're normally a bitch, but you're somewhat worse today." Kie asks pettily.
"Kie, stop." JJ demands, shaking his head.
"No, seriously. Yes, she may have had a worse experience with the Cameron's than me, but why does that make her any more valid than me?!" Kiara questions angrily.
"Oh my god! What do you think happened to get me and JJ kicked out of midsummers, you ignorant fuck!" Melia yells, sitting up from JJ's lap.
JJ and Pope exchange nervous looks.
"I don't know, I just assumed you were messing around or something!"
"Yeah, you 'just assumed' wrong." Melia scoffs. "Rafe trapped me in the girls bathroom. He was-" She tries to explain, sighing frustratedly. She dragged her knees up to her chest.
"He was about to... do shit, but I screamed and JJ came in..!" She says uneasily, rubbing her forehead.
Kiara looks at her guiltily, her face changing from an angry look to a sympathetic look.
"Shit- I'm so sorry Mills-"
"It's fine." She spits, laying her head back down into JJ's lap.
Kiara frowns, looking at the girl sadly. Pope looks at JJ with wide eyes, who just nods in response.
"So I apologise if I'm being a bit of a bitch but-"
A feminine scream in the distance cut her off.
//////////////////////////
NOTE FROM EMI: erm, hey!
so uh yeah!!!! little bit angsty in the last two chapters! sorry abt that 🥰🥰
next chapter could be worse!! ate!!
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALMOST 5.5K READS???? i reread the start of my fic earlier back when i only had a hundred tears (my writing at the start of this is SO bad i apologise sm omg) and i never thought i'd come this far
tysm to all my active readers who read the chapter i uploaded yesterday!! it means a lot considering the chapter before that was uploaded in FEBRUARY?!?! i'll be writing way more often now i promise! i'm gonna start the next chapter immediately after uploading this
i'm treating u all ik ik 😝😝
PLEASE COMMENT UR THIUGHTS AND OPINIONS OR EVEN JUST SAY HEY! ID LOVE TO TALK TO YOU ALL💕💕
once again... SEE U IN THE NEXT CHAP😈